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Cornell University Library 
 KF 354.T4C14 
 
 Sketches of the bench and bar of Tenness 
 
 3 1924 018 800 262 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924018800262 
 
HUGH L. WHITE. 
 
SKETCHES 
 
 The Bench and Bar 
 
 OF 
 
 TENNESSEE. 
 
 BY JOSHUA W. CALDWELL, 
 Author of the Constitutional History of Tennessee. 
 
 (CCIOXVILLE, TENN.: 
 
 Ogden Brothers & Co., Printers. 
 
TO 
 
 THE FRIEND OF MY BOYHOOD AND 
 
 OF MY MANHOOD, 
 
 HUGH L. McCLUNG, Esq., 
 
 OF THE KNOXVILLB BAB, 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS 
 
 BOOK. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 CHIS book is intended to be a contribution to the 
 history of Tennessee. It is also, in some meas- 
 ure, the outcome of professional pride. Its literary 
 quality is not high. Many of the articles are of 
 the kind to be found in encyclopedias — bare recitals 
 of dates and facts. The labor devoted to the collec- 
 tion of material has been much greater than the 
 Sketches indicate. It required six months to find 
 when and where one of our g-reatest orators was 
 born. 
 
 Repetition of facts and monotony of phrase could 
 not be avoided. Above everything', accuracy has 
 been soug-ht, but after all, it is in respect of dates 
 that the book is likely to prove most defective. The 
 serious trouble encountered on this point will be 
 shown by the statement that three different docu- 
 ments relating to one judge give each a different 
 date for his death, and it is impossible to find which 
 is right. 
 
 It was intended at first to include accounts of some 
 of the prominent living lawyers, and several Sketches 
 of that class had been prepared, but upon considera- 
 
tion they are omitted. They may serve for a second 
 edition, and as they are all appreciative, they might, 
 in emergency, with slight additions of laudatory 
 adjectives, serve as obituaries. 
 
 No doubt the choice of subjects for the Sketches 
 will be criticised. There have been scores of law- 
 yers in the State, in addition to those included, who 
 should properly appear in such a book, but it 
 has been impossible to secure the necessary mate- 
 rial. The writer is much indebted to the Knox- 
 ville Tribune and the Nashville American for pub- 
 lishing many of these Sketches, and has pleasure 
 in connecting with the book the names of W. C. 
 Tatom, W. G. Ewing and Robert L. Burch. 
 
SKETCHES OF THE 
 
 BENCH AND BAR OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Watauga Court — John Carter — Luke Bowyer — 
 The Cumberland Notables — Early Washington County 
 Courts— The Franklin Judges — The Territorial Judges — 
 Joseph Anderson — John McNairy — David Campbell — 
 Early Knox County Courts — The Superior Court and 
 Its Judges — Howell Tatum — P. W. Humphreys — 
 Samuel Powell — Andrew Jackson — Archibald Roane — 
 William Cocke — John Cocke — Thomas H. Benton — 
 Willie Blount — John Dickinson. 
 
 The beginnings of the Bench and of the Bar of 
 Tennessee are found in the history of the Watauga 
 Association. 
 
 The government of Watauga was intrusted to a com- 
 mittee of thirteen persons, who presumably held the 
 power of legislation, while the executive and judi- 
 cial functions were lodged in five commissioners 
 or judges, chosen by the thirteen from their own 
 number. It is not certain, but is probable, that the 
 powers were so apportioned. 
 
 This commission of five was the first cotirt, so far 
 as we know, that ever met upon the soil of Tennessee. 
 John Carter was at the head of the govern- 
 ment. He was chief of the thirteen as well as of the 
 
2 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 commission or court of five. He is thus in a sense 
 entitled to be called the first Tennessee judge. An 
 earnest effort has been made to trace the lineage of 
 John Carter, but without satisfactory results. There 
 seems to be no doubt that he was of the family of 
 "King" Carter, of Virginia, though the chain of de- 
 scent is not yet completely discoverfed. His son, who 
 was one of the pioneers of Tennessee, and a man of 
 distinction in early State history, bore the name 
 Landon, which belonged to the "King" Carter family. 
 John Carter was a Colonel in the North Carolina militia 
 at a later time. It is to be inferred that he owed his 
 prominence to superior education and to the social 
 position of his family. This family was prominent 
 throughout the early history of the State. Landon 
 Carter held several high offices. William B. Carter, 
 of the next generation, was president of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1834, and was for two terms a 
 member of Congress, while a second William B.Carter, 
 nephew of the first, was in the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of 1870. 
 
 In 1776 the Watauga people united in a petition 
 to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina for an- 
 nexation to the State. In the list of signers is "Lew 
 Bowyer, attorney." It is presumed that he was the 
 same person mentioned below as Luke Bowyer. 
 
 Mr. Bowyer was State's Attorney for the Watauga 
 Association in 1776, and probably before that time. 
 
 It is recorded that he was of a turbulent disposition, 
 and was litigious in his own behalf. He followed the 
 advance of population westward into Greene County, 
 thence into Jefferson and Knox Counties, and then 
 disappeared from our annals. It is lamentable but 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 3 
 
 true that on one occasion, at least, he was forced 
 to endure the indignity of confinement in the stocks 
 for profane swearing and contempt of court, to both 
 of which he seems to have been somewhat addicted. 
 Ephraim Dunlap, Esq., also appeared before the Wa- 
 tauga Court, and afterwards, in 1778, succeeded Bow- 
 yer as prosecuting attorney. Dunlap seems to have 
 become prosecuting attorney before he had secured 
 a law license. 
 
 The Watauga Court was the efficient administrator 
 of prompt, though somewhat informal justice for about 
 six years. Ramsey describes the government as patri- 
 archal and simple, and there is no doubt that the pro- 
 cedure was in large measure free from the formalities 
 and delays that ordinarily characterize the administra- 
 tion of justice. The Court exercised extraordinary ju- 
 risdiction at times, being compelled and fully justified 
 by existing conditions. It assumed control of the 
 property of Tories, and did not fear to assert jurisdic- 
 tion in family affairs. It was especially severe upon 
 horse thieves, a class of felons always held in extreme 
 detestation in frontier communities. 
 
 The Anglo Saxon, including the Scotch-Irishman, 
 or Covenanter, is always the friend of law and order, 
 but not always of the lawyer. One of the alleged 
 causes of the Tryon rebellion, in North Carolina, was 
 discontent with the conduct of the lawyers. It is 
 natural that the hard working people of the frontier 
 should regard with disapproval a class exempt from 
 the manual labor by which their neighbors subsist. In 
 addition to this we must remember that conditions 
 in Watauga were not, at first, such as to attract lawyers 
 of eminence. The frontier lawyer is likely to be of 
 
4 liENCH AND BAR 
 
 moderate fortune and capacity, and strenuous!}' favor- 
 able to the increase of litigation. 
 
 Whatever the causes, it is a fact that the early set- 
 tlers of Tennessee were not favorably disposed toward 
 lawyers. This sentiment of disapproval was mani- 
 fested in many ways. 
 
 The second important event in the history of Ten- 
 nessee is the formation of the Cumberland Compact 
 by the people of Nashborough, now Nashville, and a 
 few neighboring settlements, in the year 1780. The 
 leading spirit of these Cumberland settlements was 
 James Robertson, who was not a lawyer, but the com- 
 pact itself was manifestly drafted by a clerkly man, 
 presumably a lawyer. 
 
 Under this compact the government was vested in 
 twelve "Notables" chosen from the several settlements 
 in fair proportion. There was no division of power 
 as probably there had been in Watauga, but this one 
 committee exercised all the functions of administra- 
 tion. Its head was James Robertson, who thus be- 
 came a judge without being a lawyer. The "Notables," 
 as a court, were invested with a general and ample 
 jurisdiction, and their lecords which are preserved 
 show that they tried many suits involving property 
 rights. In 1783 the Cumberland settlement was made 
 a county and called after the patriotic general, David- 
 son. In 1785 the Legislature of North Carolina pro- 
 vided for the election of a judge to hold a Superior 
 Court of Law and Equity in the county of Davidson. 
 
 The first lawyers in Middle Tennessee were Edward 
 Douglas and Thomas Molloy, who went to Nashville 
 in 1786. At least this is Phelan's statement, but Prof. 
 Clayton, in his history of Davidson County, has James 
 Grubbins admitted to the bar in 1785. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 5 
 
 At the |first term of the Superior Court, which was 
 held in 1789 by Judge McNairy, Andrew Jackson 
 appeared as attorney for the State. 
 
 The third great event in our history is the formation 
 of the State of FranV:Hn in 1784. By this time the 
 population had increased to about 25,000, white and 
 black. Social conditions had changed much with the 
 increase of population. The East Tennessee counties, 
 feeling themselves deserted and aggrieved by the 
 course of North Carolina in ceding the territory of 
 Tennessee to the Confederation, conceived the plan of 
 erecting another government of their own. They 
 v/ere not content with the rough and ready methods of 
 Watauga, but entered upon an elaborate constitution 
 making. The extraordinary and interesting docu- 
 ment known as the Frankland Constitution, which was 
 not adopted, was framed by school teachers and 
 preachers. It is an instrument of pronounced morality 
 and piety, and is of great historical importance as a 
 proof of the state of public opinion at that time. It 
 provided for a Legislature of a single house of repre- 
 sentatives, and excluded therefrom all attorneys at 
 law, as well as physicians and clergymen. No one will 
 doubt that the lawyers opposed its adoption. Their 
 influence, however, was not absolute, because the con- 
 stitution was rejected by a very small majority. The 
 lawyers had by this tim.e become much more numerous 
 than in 1772. That portion of the present State of 
 Tennessee which belonged to North Carolina, had 
 been made into Washington District by the Legisla- 
 ture of that State in the Spring of 1777,and into Wash- 
 ington County in November of that year. It was part 
 of the Salisbury judicial district. 
 
6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was 
 held in February, 1778. John Carter was chairman, 
 and John Sevier clerk. Allison relates that the first 
 act of the Court was to fine John Sevier, Jr., for con- 
 tempt. It is said, however, that the oflense was not a 
 serious one. It would appear from Mr. Allison's 
 account that the Court had a much higher conception 
 of its dignity than did the spectators and attorneys. 
 
 A Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol 
 Delivery was ordered for Washington and Sullivan 
 Counties in 1782, the first session of which began 
 August 15 of that year. 
 
 With the courts came lawyers. In October, 1779, 
 the county of Sullivan was formed, and in April, 
 
 1783, the county of Greene, making more courts and 
 creating greater need for lawyers. 
 
 While the State of Franklin had its beginning in 
 
 1784, it was not until December, 1785, that its Consti- 
 tution, which was, in essentials, identical with that of 
 North Carolina, was adopted. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the State government, with 
 John Sevier at its head, had been in active operation 
 under the Constitution of North Carolina, provisionally 
 retained. 
 
 The Legislature met in the Spring of 1785, andamong 
 other things, established a judiciary system borrowed 
 from North Carolina. David Campbell was elected 
 Judge of the Superior Court, and Joshua Gist and John 
 Anderson, "assistant judges." 
 
 Throughout the history of Franklin, the most prom- 
 inent figure after John Sevier was William Cocke, the 
 first lawyer of distinction in the annals of Tennessee, a 
 sketch of whom is given in this chapter. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 7 
 
 It is well known that the career of Franklin was short 
 and unfortunate. The repeal of the Cession Act of 
 1784, by North Carolina, occurred before the new 
 State had been fully organized, and immediately de- 
 fection began. In a little while there were rival courts 
 in all the old counties, and while there was no blood- 
 shed on this account, there were many undignified 
 proceedings. The Franklin officers would invade the 
 Carolina court house, expel the court and remove the 
 records; soon aftei^ward the Carolina officers would in- 
 flict a like indignity upon the Franklin court. Records 
 thus seized were sometimes lost, to the serious detri- 
 ment of the public. Before the downfall of Franklin, 
 its chief justice, David Campbell, accepted a judgeship 
 under North Carolina. 
 
 The fact should be stated that the dislike of 
 lawyers was manifest in a provision of the rejected 
 Frankland Constitution. The 37th section of that 
 instrument provided a scheme of arbitration, which 
 clearly was destined to obviate the need for law- 
 yers. So far, however, as the profession was 
 concerned it was a positive misfortune that this 
 plan was not adopted. Unquestionably it would have 
 been a most efficient promoter of litigation. This 
 opposition to lawyers was continually displayed in our 
 early history, and in fact, it has never entirely sub- 
 sided. In the Constitutional Convention of 1834, Mr. 
 Hodges, who represented Jefferson County, introduced 
 a resolution in the following words: "That lawyers do 
 the business of the justices of the different counties, 
 gratis, as they are more capable to do this business. 
 The fee of lawyers, as it is, is plenty high to dO' all 
 those duties." The resolution was not adopted, and 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 one is led to infer tliat Mr. Hodges had been engaged 
 in litigation, with unfortunate results. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1790, North Carolina, by 
 formal deed, conveyed that pail of the territory of Ten- 
 nessee which belonged to her to the United States. 
 On April 2, Congress accepted the deed, and in the 
 May following an Act was passed creating the "Ter- 
 ritory of the United States South of the River Ohio,"' 
 and providing a government for it. The provisions of 
 the Act for the government of the Northwest Territory 
 were extended to the new Territory, except the provi- 
 sion against slavery. One of the conditions of the 
 deed was that this should not apply. A governor and 
 three judges were appointed. The governor was 
 William Blount, and associated with him as judges 
 were David Campbell, Joseph Anderson and John 
 McNairy. It may be well to recall the fact that under 
 the Act of Congress, the governor and the judges were 
 invested with all the powers of government until there 
 should be five thousand voters in the Territory. For 
 some cause unknown to the writer. Judge McNairy 
 appears to have taken no part in the executive afifairs, 
 and to have fallen so completely out of view for awhile 
 as not to be mentioned as one of the judges by some of 
 our historians. The first seat of this unique govern- 
 ment was the house of William Cobb, in the fork of the 
 Holston and Watauga rivers. There Blount estab- 
 lished himself on October 10, 1790. 
 
 Joseph Anderson, one of the Judges of the Su- 
 perior Court of the Territory, was born near Philadel- 
 phia, Pa., November 5, 1757. His father was of Ger- 
 man descent, but the family had been in America since 
 1656. Six of his sons, including Joseph, were officers 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 9 
 
 in the Continental army. Joseph received a good edu- 
 cation and went through a course of law study. In 1775 
 he was appointed ensign in the New Jersey line of the 
 Continental army. He was made First Lieutenant 
 in November, 1776; Captain in October, 1777, and was 
 regimental paymaster from that time till the end of the 
 war. He was at Monmouth, Valley Forge and York- 
 town, and retired at the end of the war with the rr.nk 
 of Brevet Major. For seven years he practiced law 
 in DelaAvare. Mr. Doak says that he was appointed 
 Chief Justice of our Territorial Court. This fact is 
 not foynd elsewhere. It is certain that he was one of 
 the Judges throughout the existence of the Territory. 
 He was one of the trustees of Blount College and of 
 Washington College. In the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of 1796 he was a delegate from Jefiferson County. 
 He was a candidate before the first Legislature for the 
 United States Senate, but failed of election, as he did 
 also for a judgeship of the Superior Court. When the 
 Legislature, in April, 1796, prematurely chose four 
 jji-esidential electors he was one of the number. vVhen 
 William Blount was expelled from the Senate, July 8, 
 1797, Judge Anderson was elected in his stead, and 
 served continuously unlir 1815. In February, 1809, 
 the Legislature not being in session, he was appointed 
 by Gov. Sevier to fill the vacancy that would follow 
 the expiration of his term, March 4, 1809. His right 
 to the seat was not questioned, but at a later date, 
 when a similar question was presented, the Senate 
 declined to regard his case as a precedent. In April, 
 1809, he was formally elected by the Legislature, de- 
 feating Sevier by a vote of 23 to 16. Upon his retire- 
 ment from the Senate, in 1815, he was appointed, by 
 
lO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 President Madison, Comptroller of the United States 
 Treasury, and served in that capacity till 1836. He 
 died in 1837. Anderson County, in East Tennessee, 
 is named for him. 
 
 A letter written by Gov. William Blount to James 
 Robertson, Septembers, 1791, contains the following-: 
 "Judge Anderson will be at your Court. I am highly 
 pleased with him, both as a man and as a Judge; he 
 has been a Major in the Continental service, continued 
 to the end of the war, has supported since the charac- 
 ter of a good citizen, is a gentleman and a learned 
 judge, and a very agreeable and open companion^." 
 
 The phrase, "open companion," is somewhat indefi- 
 nite, but there can be no doubt that it was intended to 
 be complimentary. 
 
 Judge Anderson was the father of Alexander Ander- 
 son, who was a Senator of the United States from 
 Tennessee, and grandfather of David D. Anderson, of 
 Knox County, who by virtue of descent from him is 
 a member of the Order of the Cincinnati. 
 
 It is related by one of his descendants that at the 
 end of his senatorial career he was offered a place in 
 the Cabinet, but asked instead to be made Comptroller 
 of the Treasury, as, according to the usages of that 
 time, the position was practically held for life. 
 
 He is remembered as a devout man, of the most 
 sincere but unostentatious piety. His sister, Margaret 
 Anderson, married David Deaderick, and thus became 
 the mother of the late Chief Justice, James W. Dead- 
 erick. 
 
 Diligent search has been made for the facts of Judge 
 McNairy's life, but with the most unsatisfactory 
 results. He was admitted to the bar of the Superior 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I I 
 
 Court of Washington District at Jonesboro, at the May 
 term, 1788. He was Hcensed in North Carohna a 
 short time previous to that date. In the same year he 
 was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of North 
 Carohna for the District of Mero. 
 
 He continued to be judge of the district until the 
 Territory South of the River Ohio was formed, when 
 he was appointed by President Washington to be one 
 of the three territorial judges. Strangely enough 
 there has been much doubt about this last fact in the 
 minds of students of Tennessee history. Ramsey, Hay- 
 wood and Phelan do not mention him as one of the 
 Territorial judges, but on page 268 of Vol. 1, Number 3, 
 of the American Historical Magazine (July, 1896) 
 will be found the reproduction of an account 
 sworn to on April 2, 1792, by Brigadier-General 
 James Robertson before Judge McNairy, "one of the 
 judges of the ceded Territory South of the River 
 Ohio." The fact that the entire administration of the 
 Territory seems to have fallen upon Governor Blount 
 and Judges Campbell and Anderson cannot be ex- 
 plained except upon the theory that Nashville was so 
 remote from the seat of government at Knoxville that 
 it was inconvenient for Judge McNairy to perform any 
 other than purely judicial functions. Under the Act 
 of Congress the governor and judges, or a majority of 
 them, were authorized to adopt and publish in the Ter- 
 ritory such laws as were necessary, and the territorial 
 Acts were not in any instance signed by Judge 
 McNairy, but always by the Governor and by Judges 
 Anderson and Campbell. 
 
 In the Constitutional Convention of 1796, McNairy 
 represented Davidson County. On February 20, 
 
12 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 1797, he was appointed United States District Judge 
 for Tennessee. The Act making the State a judicial 
 district was passed by the Fifth Congress, January 31, 
 1797. 
 
 The first session of the Court was held at Nashville, 
 beginning on July 3, 1797, on which day Judge 
 McNairy produced his commission and was sworn in 
 by Archibald Roane, Judge of the Superior Court of 
 Tennessee. Thomas Gray qualified as United States 
 Attorney and appointed Henry Brazeale his deputy. 
 
 Judge McNairy continued in office until 1834, when 
 he retired. He died in 1837, having been a judge for 
 forty-six years. He had very little to do with politics, 
 and his office naturally prevented an active participa- 
 tion in affairs; so that his life was dignified and useful 
 rather than conspicuous. He was one of the trustees 
 of Davidson Academy, and the minutes of the Board 
 prove that he was actively interested in that institution. 
 He became a trustee by the consolidation of Davidson 
 Academy and the Federal Seminary, a rival school. 
 On February 25, 180], he was one of the com- 
 mittee "to rent lands, complete contracts and sell 
 rails." That he was not above attending to small 
 affairs further appears from the following, which is 
 taken from Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee: 
 "Mr. William T. Lewis had been associated with 
 Judge McNairy in the Federal Seminary movement. 
 As there was a matter of a little delicacy between the 
 old board and Mr. Lewis about the 'east field,' the 
 matter of settlement was committed to the Hon. John 
 McNairy, Judge of the United States Court, and he 
 obtained the corn and pumpkins." 
 
 Judge McNairy resigned this trusteeship in 1804. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 3 
 
 In the year 1708 he was engaged in an unpleasant 
 controversy with General Jackson. It seems that 
 !McNairy had favored the removal of James Robertson 
 from the Chickasaw Indian Agency, which involved 
 the loss of a clerkship to one of Jackson's friends. 
 Jackson became enraged and expressed himself in a 
 way that made a permanent breach between himself 
 and IMcXairy. 
 
 No record of the birth of Judge David Campbell 
 has been found. He was the Chief Justice of the State 
 of Franklin, and was one of the Commissioners sent 
 by Sevier to the Governor of North Carolina seeking 
 an adjustment between the two States. Some time 
 before Sevier was willing to submit to the restored 
 authority of North Carolina, Campbell accepted the 
 judgeship of the Superior Court of that State for Wash- 
 ington District, and held Court at Jonesboro in Feb- 
 ruary, 1788, but when called upon to issue a bench 
 warrant for the arrest of Sevier, he refused, and the 
 warrant was issued by Judge Samuel Spencer. He 
 was a judge of the Territorial Court so long as that 
 Court existed, and a judge of the Superior Court of 
 Tennessee from October, 11, 1797, until 1807. He 
 was impeached in 1803, while Superior Judge, upon 
 the charge of receiving a bribe from a litigant, but was 
 acquitted by the Senate by a vote of nine to three. 
 The specific charge was that he had received a bribe 
 of fifty dollars for which he had agreed to secure a 
 favorable decision of a lawsuit. He was prosecuted by 
 Jenkin Whiteside, on behalf of the House of Represent- 
 atives, and was defended by Edward Scott, John Wil- 
 liams and Robert Whyte. 
 
 Phelan intimates that the acquittal was procured by 
 
14 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 the friends of Jackson, for fear that a conviction might 
 be favorable to Sevier and injurious to Jackson. This 
 occurred during the bitter contest of 1803 between 
 these two leaders. Tlie account given in Goodspeed's 
 History of Tennessee is not altogether favora.ble to 
 Judge Campbell. Phelan states in a foot-note that 
 Campbell never recovered from this affair, and that 
 when, in 1809, he and James Trimble were candidates 
 for the judgeship of the Second Circuit, Trimble was 
 unanimously nominated on the first ballot. In 1810 
 or 1811, Campbell was appointed by the President 
 one of the Judges for the Mississippi Territory, and 
 died there in 1812. No data have been found for an 
 opinion as to his guilt or innocence of the charge on 
 which he was impeached. There seems to be no doubt 
 that he lost popular favor and, it may be, confidence, 
 but upon the other hand he was acquitted and was 
 afterwards appointed to a place of honor and trust. 
 The weight of the evidence seems to be in his favor. 
 
 When the Territory South of the River Ohio was 
 established, all East Tennessee was the Washington 
 District, and the Middle Tennessee counties, to-wit: 
 Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee, were the Mero 
 District. 
 
 In 1792 the Governor transferred the seat of govern- 
 ment to White's Fort, now Knoxville. 
 
 The population of Knoxville was at this time about 
 250. The first session of the Court of Pleas and Quar- 
 ter Sessions for Knox County was held July 16, 1792. 
 
 It was composed of five justices, James White being 
 the chairman. The following lawyers were admitted 
 to practice: Luke (Lew?) Bowyer, Alexander Outlaw, 
 Joseph Hamilton, Archibald Roane, Hopkins Lacy, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 15 
 
 John Rhea and James Reese. An event of this term 
 was the protest of the Sheriff, Robert Houston, against 
 the county jail. Commissioners were appointed to 
 contract for the building of a new jail. ''Its dimen- 
 sions were to be sixteen feet square; the logs to be 
 one foot square, the lower floor to be laid of logs of that 
 size to be laid double and cross-wise; the loft to be laid 
 also of logs, and covered cross-wise with oak plank 
 one and a half inches thick and well spiked down." 
 The same commission was to contract for a court- 
 house, which was afterwards built in the same style of 
 architecture, but with less massive material. 
 
 The John Rhea here mentioned, was afterwards 
 prominent in public affairs. He was the oldest son 
 of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister, and was born 
 in Ireland. The family came to America in 1769, 
 and to East Tennessee in 1778. John Rhea probably 
 graduated at Princeton in 1780. His descendants have 
 claimed this, and the records of the College show that 
 a John Rhea graduated at the date here given. There 
 is some doubt whether or not he was the person named, 
 because he was certainly at the battle of King's Moun- 
 tain in October, 1780. He was a delegate from Sulli- 
 van County to the Constitutional Convention of 179G, 
 and was one of the committee that drafted the Con- 
 stitution. After Tennessee was admitted to the 
 Union, he was for eighteen years a member of Con- 
 gress, and was the intermediary between General 
 Jackson and the President in the memorable corres- 
 pondence preceding the war in Florida. He was the 
 grand-uncle of Cornelius E. Lucky, who is now one of 
 the prominent lawyers at the bar of East Tennessee. 
 He was a man of ability and of high character. 
 
l6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 North Carolina gave to Tennessee the Superior 
 Court, which was one of general law and equity juris- 
 diction, and of final resort. The following is a list of 
 the judges who served before 1815 on this Court, one 
 for each district; the Hamilton District, composed at 
 first of Knox ^nd Jefferson Counties, having been 
 created in 1793 by the territorial government. 
 
 Under the Act of April, 1796, establishing the 
 Superior Court, John McNairy, Archibald Roane and 
 Willie Blount were elected judges. Blount declined, 
 and W. C. C. Claiborne was appointed in his stead 
 September 3, 1796. McNairy resigned to accept the 
 Federal Judgeship, and Howell Tatum was appointed 
 in May, 1797, to succeed him. 
 
 David Campbell served from October, 1797 to 1807; 
 Andrew Jackson, from September, 1798 to 1804; Sam- 
 uel Powell, from October, 1807 to 1809 ; John Over- 
 ton, from 1804 to 1809; Parry W. Humphreys, from 
 October, 1807 to 1809; Hugh L. White, from Septem- 
 ber, 1801 to 1807; Thomas Emmerson, from 1807 to 
 1809. Of some of these judges almost nothing has 
 been found. 
 
 Howell Tatum was from North Carolina. His 
 name appears sometimes as Tatom, and it is presumed 
 that it is the same as Tatham. Howell Tatum is men- 
 tioned as an Ensign in the First North Carolina Regi- 
 ment of the Continental line in 1775. 
 
 He was Attorney General for the Mero District 
 from 1796 to 1797, when he went upon the bench of 
 the Superior Court. From 1794 to 1796 he had been 
 Treasurer of the Mero District. He also held the 
 office of Conimissioner of Land Claims. 
 
 Thomas Emmerson, in addition to serving on'the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 7 
 
 Superior bench from 1807 to 1S()9, was a judge of the 
 Supreme Court from 1819 to 1S2"?, and judge of the 
 First Circuit from 18 Ki to 1819. He was the first 
 flavor of Knoxville. From 183'3 to 1837 he edited, at 
 Jonesboro, the "Washington Republican and Farmer's 
 Journal," an anti-Jackson paper. For the first three 
 years the late S. J. W. Luckey was his associate in 
 this enterprise. 
 
 Parry W. Humphreys, who served on the Superior 
 Court from 18(J7 to 1S(.I9, was judge of the Fifth 
 Circuit fromlSO!) tol813,and again fromlSlB to 18:1G; 
 was a member of Congress from 181 :i to 181"i ; was one 
 of the pioneers of ]\Iiddle Tennessee, and resided in 
 Montgomery County. In 1S17 he was a candidate 
 for the United States Senate, and was defeated by 
 John H. Eaton by a majority of two»votes. In ISijG he 
 removed from Tennessee to Xorthern Mississippi in 
 search of health, and at the time of his death, January 
 1!». 18:ji), was president of the Bank of Hernando. He 
 was the father -of Judge West H. Humphreys. 
 
 Samuel Powell, of Rogersville, was on the Superior 
 Court from 1807 to 1809; was judge of the First Cir- 
 cuit from 1S12 to 1813, and again from 1819 to 1.S3(>. 
 He was in Congress from 1815 to 1817. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was admitted to the bar of Ten- 
 nessee in 1788 at Jonesboro. He represented David- 
 son County in the Constitutional Convention of 1796, 
 and on the admission of the State to the Union, was 
 elected our first Representative in Congress. He 
 served on the Superior Court from 1798 to 1801 ; was 
 Senator of the United States from October 19, 1797, to 
 October 6, 1798, when he resigned. He was again 
 elected Senator in 1823, becoming a candidate to 
 
l8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 defeat Col. John Williams, and having accomplished 
 his purpose, resigned in 1825, and was succeeded by 
 Hugh L. White. No opinions of his are preserved.* 
 He was an efficient judge without being a learned 
 one. The events of his life are too well known to 
 be repeated here, and the anecdotes relating to his 
 peculiarities, both real and unreal, are household prop- 
 erties throughout the State. 
 
 By an Act of the Legislature, passed in November, 
 1809, the Superior Court was abolished, and a Su- 
 preme Court of Errors and Appeals, and five Circuit 
 Courts of Law and Equity established. The salary of 
 3. circuit judge was one thousand dollars a year. 
 
 The Circuit Court had jurisdiction of all cases at law 
 and in equity, formerly triable in the Superior Courts, 
 concurrent jurisdiction with Courts of Pleas and Quar- 
 ter Sessions, and appellate jurisdiction- in cases tried 
 in Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. The judges 
 of the Supreme Court down to the year 1815 were 
 Hugh L. White, from 1809 to 1815; George W. Camp- 
 bell, from 1809 to 1811; John Overton, from 1811 to 
 1816, and Archibald Roane, from 1815 to 1818. W. 
 W. Cooke served from October 19, 1815, to ISIG. 
 The salary of the judges of this Court was fifteen 
 hundred dollars a year. The jurisdiction of the 
 Court was purely appellate, and opinions on materi.il 
 points were required to be in writing.f 
 
 These Courts will be further considered in a subse- 
 quent chapter. 
 
 *Since tbls brief notice of General Jackson was prepared, the 
 writer has been told that an opinion, written by him, exists among 
 the old papers in the courthouse at Kllzabethton , but the document 
 is not accessible. -f Acts 1809, Chap. 49. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 1 9 
 
 Brief sketches of these judges and of some of the 
 more prominent lawyers who practiced in Tennessee 
 in 1815, and before that time, will now be presented. 
 They will be meagre -md unsatisfactory. The prepar- 
 ation of them has involved an amount of labor wholly 
 disproportionate to the results. As to White, Grundy, 
 Haywood and Overton, the material is abundant and 
 trustworthy, though scattered. But in preparing the 
 other sketches now to be submitted, it has been nec- 
 essary to examine all the histories of Tennessee, and 
 many histories of Nortii Carolina, Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky, to say nothing of encyclopedias, pamphlets and 
 persons. 
 
 Archibald Roane was born in Lancaster County, 
 Pennsylvania, in 1760, and was thoroughly educated. 
 He appears to have been admitted to the bar at Jones- 
 boro and at Greeneville in 1788. He was made the 
 territorial Attorney-General for the district of Hamil- 
 ton, which comprised originally the counties of Knox 
 and Jefiferson. He was a delegate to the Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1796 from Jefiferson County, and 
 v.'as one of the first three judges of the Superior Court 
 of the State, the others being John McNairy and Willie 
 Blount. In 1801, when Sevier had served as Governor 
 as many consecutive terms as the Constitution per- 
 mitted, Roane was elected to the office, becoming thus 
 the second Governor of the State. He was naturally 
 ambitious to succeed himself, but Sevier being again 
 eligible, entered the field against him, and after a most 
 acrimonious contest, Roane suffered' the mortification 
 of a defeat by a vote of (i,786 to 4,923. While he was 
 Governor, the office of Major-General of the militia 
 became vacant, and was eagerly sought by Andrew 
 
20 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Jackson and by John Sevier. Between these two 
 popular heroes a bitter antagonism had arisen. Indeed 
 the new State was too small to hold two such able and 
 ambitious aspirants for leadership. The electors of 
 the Major-General were the field officers of the militia, 
 and in this case they were evenly divided, and the law 
 gave the deciding vote to the Governor. He voted 
 for Jackson, and it is not to be doubted that this was 
 one of the principal causes of Sevier's candidacy at 
 the next election. It is said that Roane denounced 
 Sevier bitterly during the canvass, and it is well known 
 that at this time, very injurious charges were made 
 against Sevier. A letter from Roane to Winchester, 
 containing a threat to denounce Sevier as dishonest, 
 is preserved, but the character of Roane, as it comes 
 down to us, is not of a kind to support the belief that he 
 actually engaged in personal vituperation. All ac- 
 counts make Roane a scholarly man, fond of literature, 
 deeply learned in the classics, of affable manners, 
 though dignified, and liable to fits of abstraction. He 
 was probably the most cultured man of his time in 
 Tennessee, with the exception of Haywood, and pos- 
 sibly Grund)-. But these qualities, while they could 
 not fail to command respect, were not the best calcu- 
 lated to win popularity in a frontier community. It is 
 not the thoughtful, scholarly, scrupulous thinker who 
 is best adapted to such conditions, but the full-blooded, 
 determined man of action, the partisan, who is always 
 for his own side. Roane was unequally matched 
 against the dashing Indian fighter, the inveterate hand- 
 shaker, the lavishly hospitable Sevier, who for twenty 
 years had held, and in truth deserved, the first place 
 in the hearts of the people. It is a fact of interest that 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 21 
 
 Roane was at one time the tutor of Hugh Lawson 
 White. From 1811 to 1815, he was judge of the Sec- 
 ond Circuit. In 1815 he was made one of the judges 
 of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals, and 
 served until his death in 1818. 
 
 The fact that his career was so successful affords 
 proof that even in that strenuous time our fathers 
 esteemed learning and culture, and were pleased to 
 honor them. He seems to have been wholly lacking 
 in the qualities that made Sevier and Jackson and 
 Robertson leaders, and to have owed his prominence 
 entirely to his intellectual gifts and acquirements, and 
 to his personal worth. 
 
 There are some interesting old statutes of Tennessee 
 regulating lawyers. The Act of December 20, 1798, 
 required applicants for law license to be examined 
 bv two or more judges of the Superior Court, and to 
 "possess a competent share of law knowledge." This 
 is still the theory of the law. Lawyers from other 
 States were admitted upon vouchers of persons of 
 veracity. At one time they were required to re- 
 side a year in the State as a condition of the right to 
 practice. By an Act passed in 1815, licensed attorneys 
 of other States were admitted to practice in Tennessee 
 only after examination by two judges. 
 
 Chapter 61 of the Acts of 1817 provided for the dis- 
 barment of lawyers for five years for gaming, but the 
 Act did not extend to shooting matches or to playing 
 on licensed billiard tables. 
 
 A North Carolina Statute, passed in 1786, may be 
 mentioned in this connection as further showing the 
 feeling against lawyers referred to above. The second 
 section of the Act provides that: "Whereas, the fre- 
 
22 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 quent abuses of attorneys have occasioned distress 
 to many of the good people of this State, it shall not 
 be lawful for either plaintiff or defendant to employ, 
 in any matter or suit whatever, more than one attorney 
 to speak to any suit in court." 
 
 A subsequent section fixes the fees of counsel, 
 making the maximum ten pounds, and declaring it 
 an indictable offense to ask, take or receive, directly 
 or indirectly, a larger fee than that allowed by the 
 Statute. 
 
 Chapter 7 of the Acts of the Tennessee Legislature 
 of 1796 makes the maximum fee twelve dollars and a 
 half. The language of the North Carolina Statute 
 seems to imply that the fee there provided is not simply 
 a tax fee, but the full amount of compensation. 
 
 In a Tennessee case of Newman vs. Washington, 
 (Martin & Yerger, 79), decided in 1827, it was con- 
 tended that such was the law in Tennessee, and that 
 the attorney was entitled only to the tax fee provided 
 l)y the Act. In that case the lawyer sued for his fee 
 and recovered $315.00. Under the Statute his fee 
 would have been two dollars and fifty cents, and his 
 client's principal defense was that an attorney could 
 recover only the tax fee. 
 
 The client further invoked in his defense the fine old 
 English doctrine that: "The profession of the law is of 
 an honorable character, and services rendered by its 
 professors are gratuitous." Crabb J., delivering the 
 opinion said: "The law in England is certainly as 
 contended for, both in relation to counsellors and 
 physicians. But the doctrine has not prevailed in this 
 State in regard to either." 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 23 
 
 The two professions are much indebted to Judge 
 ("rabb. 
 
 The art most prized and most practiced in East Ten- 
 nessee is oratory. So deeply ingrained into the East 
 Tennessee character is the love of public speech that 
 it is an unusual thing to find a native of that section 
 who is not at all times ready to address his fellow 
 citizens. Politics and polemic theology are the fa- 
 vorite themes, but no subjects are excluded. Prob- 
 ably the most active debating societies in the world 
 are the County Courts of East Tennessee. The quality 
 of this oratory as to form and as to substance is not 
 despicable, though not always above criticism. 
 
 Speaking seriously, the gift of speech belongs, in 
 an extraordinary degree, to even the uneducated peo- 
 ple of East Tennessee, and there is no place where the 
 orator's voice is more potent, or the orator's genius 
 more admired, than in East Tennessee. To succeed 
 there in public life one must be a speaker. The aspir- 
 ant for popular favor may do many things that he 
 ought not to do, and may leave undone many things 
 that he ought to do, but one thing he must do, he must 
 speak. It is the universal opinion, especially in the 
 back counties, that no man is "smart" who cannot 
 "make a speech." Almost without exception the 
 prominent men of the section have been gifted speak- 
 ers, as for example, Horace Maynard, Andrew John- 
 son, Nathaniel G. Taylor, Landon C. Haynes, John H. 
 Crozier, Thomas A. R. Nelson, William G. Brownlow, 
 Spencer Jarnagin, Plugh L. White. In later times, 
 Robert L. Taylor and L. C. Houk have represented 
 the most popular and effective qualities of stump- 
 speaking. 
 
24 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The first great orator of East Tennessee was Wil- 
 liam Cocke. He was one of the popular heroes of 
 his time, and many stories are told of him. He is 
 described as a tall, black-haired, black-eyed man, of 
 splendid physique, fiery, enthusiastic and fearless. He 
 came of English stock, as we shall see, but one cannot 
 help believing that there was a strain of Celtic blood 
 in his veins to account for his sentiment and enthu- 
 siasm and his fervidness of speech. He was a de- 
 scendant of the fourth generation, of one Richard 
 Cocke, who came to Virginia from Devonshire, Eng- 
 land, in 1632. He was born in Amelia County, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1748. William Goodrich, of Philadelphia, 
 whose paper in the third number of the American 
 Historical Magazine is the most valuable publication 
 on the life of William Cocke that has been made, states 
 that when Cocke was twenty-seven years of age, the 
 Revolution being imminent, he was offered by Lord 
 Dunmore, the Colonial Governor of Virginia, any 
 office in the army below that of Commander-in-Chief, 
 provided he would espouse the cause of the Crown 
 against the Colonies. He replied, it is said, that the 
 King did not have money enough to buy him, that the 
 cause of the Colonies was just, and that he would 
 devote his life to it. It is to be hoped that this pleas- 
 ing story is true, and there is no reason to. doubt it. 
 Cocke was an officer of the Provincial Militia, and no 
 doubt had distinguished himself, and it is known that 
 he was a bold man and a sincere patriot. Mr. Good- 
 rich further says that before this occurred, he had 
 accompanied Daniel Boone on an exploring expedi- 
 tion into Eastern Tennessee and Western Kentucky. 
 But the facts seem to be, that at some time after 1775, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 25 
 
 Cocke was employed by Richard Henderson to aid in 
 establishing settlers in Transylvania, and was thus 
 brought into contact with Boone, and made a long, 
 solitary and dangerous journey into Kentucky. 
 
 Of his career from this time till the .Vutumn of 1780, 
 not much is known. He was a leading spirit among 
 the settlers, and was greatly esteemed for ability and 
 courage. He was in the King's 3.[ountain campaign, 
 and served with credit. 
 
 In the establishment of the State of Franklin he was 
 one of the leaders, and was next to Sevier in promin- 
 ence and influence. He, probably, was in all its conven- 
 tions, and was opposed to the Houston Constitution. 
 There is some doubt as to whether it was he or Sevier 
 who finally proposed the adoption of the North Caro- 
 lina Constitution. In civil affairs he was probably 
 more skilful than Sevier, and was certainly the better 
 speaker and debater. In the efifort to treat with North 
 Carolina, he and David Campbell were the represent- 
 atives of the State of Franklin. Campbell was in- 
 jured by an accident, and Cocke appeared alone before 
 the Carolina Legislature and delivered a long, impas- 
 sioned and forcible, but ineffective speech. It was he 
 who carried to Philadelphia the memorial of Franklin 
 asking for recognition as a State, and on all occasions 
 that demanded special ability, he was spokesman. He 
 was Sevier's most trusted and valued adviser, and was 
 steadfastly loyal to him, unless we regard his short 
 candidacy for Governor in 1807 as an act of disloyalty. 
 In the Constitutional Convention of 1796 he repre- 
 sented Hawkins County, and was an active and influ- 
 ential participant in all the proceedings. It was he 
 who gave to the famous town-lot tax clause its final 
 
26 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 form. He and William Blount were the first Senators 
 of the United States from Tennessee, and having 
 served out the short term, he was again elected in 1799 
 and served till 1805. In 1797 a new county was estab- 
 lished and named for him. 
 
 In 1809 he was elected Judge of the First Circuit, a 
 position to which he was not adapted. The only un- 
 fortunate events in his history were caused by his 
 acceptance of this office. The political leader is ac- 
 customed to defer largely to the wishes of his friends, 
 and to carry this habit wherever he goes. The popular 
 orator seldom has the habits of self control and labor- 
 ious investigation that are conditions of success at 
 the bar and of efficiency on the bench.' There was no 
 other public station to which, by temperament and 
 habits, Cocke was so little adapted. It was in the 
 interval between his retirement from the Senate and 
 his election to the bench that he announced himself 
 a candidate for Governor. He withdrew, however, be- 
 fore the election, and it was then charged that he had 
 been acting in concert with Sevier for the purpose of 
 deterring others from entering the race. This accusa- 
 tion he denied in a vigorous open letter, and no proof 
 was made against him. 
 
 Leaving Tennessee in 1812, he went to Mississippi, 
 and there, though well advanced in years, displayed the 
 same qualities that had made him already conspicuous 
 successively in three States. He was elected to the Leg- 
 islature, and in 1814 was appointed by President Madi- 
 son agent for the Chickasaw Indians. At the age of 
 sixty-five he volunteered for the war of 1812, and 
 served with so much efficiency and gallantry as to win 
 the hearty commendation of General Jackson. He died 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 27 
 
 at Columbus, Mississippi, August 32, 182S. The State 
 of jNIississippi erected a monument to liis memory, 
 inscribing upon it a brief and eulogistic account of his 
 life. 
 
 His career was a remarkable one. Like a number 
 of other able men of that time, he moved westward 
 again and again in the vanguard of civilization, and 
 took part in the organization of State after Slate. He 
 served in the Legislature of Virginia, North Carolina, 
 Tennessee and Mississippi; was a Judge, twice a Sena- 
 tor, and was a gallant soldier in our two wars with 
 England. 
 
 He is remembered in Tennessee as the great orator 
 of his time, and by consent of his contemporaries, he 
 had no ecpial as a popular speaker. A remarkable 
 readiness and brilliancy of speech has been a charac- 
 teristic of his family in all succeeding generations, and 
 his descendants have filled acceptably many places of 
 honor and trust, and have rendered valuable services 
 to the State and to the Nation. We have special cause 
 to be grateful to him as the friend of the schools. He 
 was one of the most active advocates of the establish- 
 ment of Blount College, and was the zealous supporter 
 of every movement in behalf of education. We can 
 afford to remember him only as the amiable and 
 accomplished gentleman, the great orator, the sincere 
 and steadfast patriot, and the gallant soldier of libert\'. 
 
 John Cocke, son of General William Cocke, was 
 born in Nottoway County, Virginia, in 1773, and 
 died in Rutledge, Grainger Coimty, Tennessee, Feb- 
 ruary 16, 1854. 
 
 He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but his 
 life was too much devoted to other pursuits to allow 
 
28 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 him to become eminent in the profession. He was a 
 member of the lower house of the first Legislature 
 of Tennessee, and served in that branch of the Assem- 
 bly six different terms, and was twice Speaker, first 
 in 1812, and again in 1837. He was elected twice from 
 Hawkins County and four times from Grainger 
 County. He was also Senator from Grainger County 
 in the third General Assembly, that of 1799. 
 
 When the six months' volunteers were organized in 
 Tennessee in 1813, he was Major-General for East 
 Tennessee, and commanded them in the Creek war. 
 In 1819 he was elected to Congress and served con- 
 tinuously for four terms. Retiring from public life, 
 he passed the remainder of his days upon his farm. 
 Parton, in his Life of Jackson, refers to him as "General 
 John Cocke of East Tennessee, a gallant and worthy 
 gentleman, much caluminated in the histories of this 
 period." The facts thus referred to arose out of Gen- 
 earl Cocke's connection with the Creek war. There 
 seems to be no doubt that General Cocke was much 
 misrepresented and very unjustly treated. So gross 
 were the indignities put upon him by Jackson, that he 
 demanded that the matter be submitted to a court 
 martial, which acquitted him. The verdict of history 
 ought to be that Cocke came out of the affair with more 
 credit than did Jackson. There can be no doubt that 
 he earnestly desired and strenuously endeavored to 
 carry out all his orders from Jackson. The circum- 
 stances which prevented efficient co-operation were 
 wholly fortuitous and beyond his control, and Jackson 
 who was frequently unreasonable, was especially sc 
 during the Creek war, on account of sickness and 
 constant anxiety. 
 
OP TENNESSEE. 29 
 
 General Cocke is entitled to the lasting gratitude of 
 the people of East Tennessee and of the whole State, 
 because it is to him that we owe the existence of the 
 Deaf and Dumb School at Knoxville. 
 
 Another distinguished man who was for awhile a 
 member of the bar of Tennessee, but whose history, 
 like that of Andrew Jackson, is too well known to be 
 recited here was Thomas Hart Benton. He was 
 in fact hardly identified with Tennessee. His public 
 career began in this State, but he was essentially a 
 Westerner, and not a Southerner. 
 
 He was born in Orange County, North Carolina, 
 jXIarch 14, 1783. His father was a lawyer of fair 
 standing, and his mother a Virginia woman of good 
 family. 
 
 He was for a time at the Universit)- of North Car- 
 olina, but did not graduate, as his mother, after his 
 father's death, which occurred before Benton com- 
 pleted his college course, brought her family to Ten- 
 nessee, settling near Nashville. Nevertheless Benton, 
 with his keen and strong intellect and great ambition, 
 continued his studies, and as Roosevelt savs, became 
 a cultivated, and even a learned man. He was admit- 
 ted to the bar at Nashville in 180G, and began the prac- 
 tice at Franklin, Williamson County: His abilities 
 were such that he could not fail to be prominent in any 
 field of intellectual work, and there can be no doubt 
 that if he had been inclined to devote himself to the 
 law he would have attained eminence in the profession. 
 His inclinations, however, were toward politics, and in 
 1811 he was elected to the Legislature. The judiciary 
 system of the State was, at this time, undergoing re- 
 formation, and Benton seems to have interested him- 
 
30 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 self actively and intelligently in the reforms. Roosevelt 
 states that he introduced and secured the passage of 
 a bill giving negroes the full benefit of trial by jury. 
 The Army Register of the United States makes Benton 
 Lieutenant-Colonel of the 39th U. S. Infantry, which 
 was commanded by Col. John Williams. He held 
 this commission from June 18, 1813, to January 15, 
 1815. From December, 1812, to April, 1813, he had 
 been Colonel of Tennessee Militia. Shortly after the 
 close of the war of 1812, he removed to Missouri, which 
 was his domicile thenceforth. It is surmised that his 
 difficulty with Jackson was the cause of his emigration. 
 It is not probable that personally he was afraid of 
 Jackson, but at that time the hero of New Orleans 
 had grown to such proportions that Tennessee was no 
 place for a man whose pride and ambition could not 
 be satisfied with any position except the foremost. 
 
 Willie Blount, the younger half-brother of Wil- 
 liam Blount, was born in Bertie County, North 
 Carolina, in 1767, according to one authority, and in 
 1768 according to another. He followed his brother 
 to Tennessee, and was for a time one of his secretaries. 
 While still under thirty years of age he was elected one 
 of the judges of the Superior Court of the State, but 
 declined the office. He was elected Governor in 1809, 
 and re-elected in 1811 and in 1813, serving during the 
 entire period of our second war with England. He 
 was a trustee of Blount College and of Cumberland 
 College, and was a member of the Legislature. Dur- 
 ing his administration the Creek war occurred, and by 
 his course in regard to it he won wide reputation and 
 popularity. By his personal efforts, and, it is said, on 
 his own responsibility, he raised $370,000 for Jackson, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 3 I 
 
 for which he was thanked by the President and three 
 Secretaries of War. 
 
 By his vigorous prosecution of this war, and his 
 zealous patriotism in the war of 1812, he attracted 
 favorable attention throughout the country. Probably 
 no Governor of Tennessee has been more generally or 
 more favorably known among his contemporaries. 
 He was an enthusiastic admirer and close friend of 
 Andrew Jackson, by whom the good will was returned. 
 Their cordial relations were never disturbed. Soon 
 after the battle of New Orleans, Jackson wrote to 
 Blount, with his own hand, a brief account of it. 
 At a grand banquet at Nashville, May 22, 1815, Blount 
 presented to Jackson a sword which had been voted 
 him by the Legislature of Mississippi for his services 
 in the Creek war. 
 
 The policy of public improvements upon which Ten- 
 nessee entered fifty years ago, was earnestly promoted 
 by Governor Blount. In 1811 he laid before the Leg- 
 islature an internal improvement Act of New York, 
 which probably as much as anything else inspired our 
 policy. When the Constitutional Convention of 1834 
 met, he was a delegate to it from Montgomery County, 
 and on various occasions urged upon that body the 
 importance of increased 'facilities of travel and trans- 
 portation. That the results of the adoption of this 
 policy were unfortunate cannot be attributed to a 
 want of judgment on his part. In the destruction of 
 values, and the overthrow of our industrial system by 
 the great civil war, must be found the real cause of 
 our financial troubles. Governor Blount's purpose 
 was patriotic, and but for the war it is altogether pro))- 
 
32 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 able that events would have approved the soundness 
 of his policy. 
 
 In 1827 he was a candidate for Governor against 
 Sam Houston, and was badly defeated. His services, 
 however, were not forgotten, and when he died the 
 Legislature voted him a monument, to be erected at 
 Clarksville. He was a good man, of fair abilities 
 and worthy purposes ; his services were of substantial 
 value to the State and to the Nation, and he should be 
 remembered gratefully and in honor. He died Sep- 
 tember 10, 1835. 
 
 One of the most interesting men in the early history 
 of the Nashville bar was John Dickinson. He was 
 a native of New England, born in Charlestown, New 
 Hampshire, December 17, 1781. He was an alumnus 
 of Dartmouth, and after leaving college came to Knox- 
 ville, where he taught school for two years. He then 
 moved to Nashville, where he studied law under Judge 
 Overton, and also under Judge McNairy. When he 
 came to the bar he was immediately successful, and ac- 
 quired an enviable reputation. He is said by his con- 
 temporaries to have been one of the most brilliant and 
 capable among the noteworthy lawyers of that period. 
 He died in 181-5, much regretted, and leaving a repu- 
 tation such as few lawyers of the State have earned in 
 so short a time. He was unfortunate enough at one 
 time to become involved in a duel with a brother of 
 Judge Overton, whom he wounded, coming off himself 
 unhurt. This affair does not seem to have impaired 
 his standing or popularit3^ It is not recorded that 
 he held any office, but by all accounts he was a man of 
 winning personality and extraordinary gifts. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. ^;} 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 John Haywood — John Williams — Thomas L. Wil- 
 liams — Jenkin Whiteside — Felix Grundy — W. C. O. Clai- 
 borne — W. W. Cooke — Bobert Whyte — Jacob Peck — 
 Pleasant M. Miller — Alexander Outlaw. 
 
 In a very appreciative and excellent sketch of 
 Judg-e John Haywood, prefixed to the reprint of 
 his "Civil and Political History of Tennessee," A. S. 
 Colyar gives the date of Haywood's birth as 1753, and 
 Phelan follows him, but in Goodspeed's History of 
 Tennessee, the date given is March 16, 1763. It is 
 impossible to say which is right. The article reprinted 
 by Clayton and quoted from below appears to be the 
 authority adopted by Goodspeed. 
 
 John Haywood was born in Halifax County, North 
 Carolina, and occupies an honorable place in the his- 
 tory of that State. He held there the position of 
 Attorney-General from 1791 to 1794. He was then 
 raised to the bench of the Superior Court and served 
 for ten or twelve years. In 1801 he published a 
 "Manual of the Laws of North Carolina," and after- 
 wards edited the State Reports, covering the period 
 from 1789 to 1806. While he was upon the bench, a 
 Secretary of State, who was his personal friend, was in- 
 dicted for forging land warrants, and he resigned to 
 defend him. The public was much incensed against 
 the accused, and great unpopularity is said to have 
 
34 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 attached to Haywood for his course in the matter, 
 ahhough his chent was convicted, and this, by tradition 
 at least, was the cause of his leaving North Carolina 
 and coming to Tennessee. He moved to this State 
 probably in 1810, purchasing an estate seven miles 
 from Nashville, where he made his home for the re- 
 mainder of his life. The date of his coming to Ten- 
 nessee is not certain. Colyar puts it in 1802 or 1803, 
 Clayton in 1807, and Phelan in 1810. In 1812 he was 
 elected one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and 
 held the office until 1826. At this time there was no 
 Chief Justice of the Court, but it is said that Haywood 
 was accepted as the presiding member. Colyar inti- 
 mates that he did not preside with much dignity, and 
 says that his one fault as a Judge was an excessive 
 kindness of heart, which made him too lenient to 
 law-breakers. He illustrates this peculiarity by the 
 following anecdote: 
 
 "On one occasion a very bad man had been con- 
 victed when the public was clamorous and the Attor- 
 ney-General persistent. Finally Judge Haywood said 
 to the Attorney-General: 'This is signing the poor 
 fellow's death warrant, and I reckon I'll have to do it, 
 but I want you to understand this hanging must last 
 for several years.' " 
 
 While he was on the bench he published the three 
 volumes of Tennessee Reports which bear his name, 
 and in collaboration with R. L. Cobbs, compiled the 
 volume of statutes known to the profession as "Hay- 
 wood and Cobbs." 
 
 His large and active mind was not sufficiently en- 
 gaged by these duties, and being fond of literature, 
 history and metaphysics, he found pleasant employ- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 35 
 
 ment in philosophic and historical writing. As an 
 author he is best known by his "Civil and Political 
 History of Tennessee." This valuable book comprises 
 the history of Tennessee from its beginning to the 
 adoption of the Constitution of 1796, and was prepared 
 with great labor and care. It contains almost a daily 
 record of events. The style is rich, somewhat too 
 rich in places, showing a fondness for large words 
 and flowing sentences, but while the author is uncon- 
 sciously inclined to magnify the merits of certain of 
 our ancient worthies, and is sometimes more positive 
 in opinion than is altogether safe, his book is excep- 
 tionally fair and trustworthy. He also wrote the 
 "Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee," a 
 book now nearly forgotten and never much read. In 
 it, among other things, he undertakes to prove the de- 
 scent of the North American Indians from the an- 
 cient Jews. Very iew persons have had the courage 
 to read this book, although it is said to abound in 
 learning and in ingenious reasoning and speculation. 
 He was the author of still another book called the 
 "Christian Advocate." Colyar says that it gives rise 
 "to the report that Judge Haywood accepted the doc- 
 trine of visible supernatural agencies." He further 
 says that this came in part from the discussion in the 
 book of the power of water-witches. It seems that 
 Judge Haywood was a believer in the occult science 
 of locating wells by means of a forked switch. Even 
 to this day the water-witch plies his vocation in many 
 parts of Tennessee. 
 
 Judge Haywood's mind seems to have been attracted 
 by every subject that could engage the speculative or 
 reasoning faculties. The fact that he carried on these 
 
36 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 diverse pursuits, and at the same time gave much at- 
 tention to the education of young men for the bar, 
 proves the richness of his powers of mind. We may 
 be inclined to smile now at his belief in water-witches 
 and his speculations about the origin of the Indians, 
 but the fact remains that he was the greatest jurist 
 that has lived in Tennessee. History, philosophy, 
 occultism were his amusements. And it is said that 
 while his speculative works have the peculiarities 
 pointed out here, they are wonderfully rich in genuine 
 and accurate learning. 
 
 Clayton, in his history of Davidson County, repro- 
 duces a sketch of Haywood which was originally pub- 
 lished in the Southwestern Law Journal and Reporter 
 for June, 1844. The name of the author is not given. 
 The following is extracted from that sketch as an ex- 
 cellent statement of Judge Haywood's great influence 
 upon the jurisprudence of Tennessee and of North Car- 
 olina. "As an instance of the effect which his reasoning 
 had upon the current of decisions in North Carolina, 
 as well as in Tennessee, we need only to refer to the 
 case of the State vs. Long, decided at Hillsboro, 
 North Carolina, in April, ITOo. This was an indict- 
 ment against Long for larceny, on the authority of the 
 English cases, that borrowing with the fraudulent 
 intent of stealing the property borrowed would con- 
 stitute larceny. Two of the Judges went with the 
 English authorities, Judges Haywood and Williams 
 held that in order to constitute larceny, the property 
 should have been taken invito domino, and Long was 
 acquitted. To Ha)-wood's report of this case, he 
 appended a note, opposing the authority of the En- 
 glish modern cases, and contending for the law as laid 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 37 
 
 down in Coke, Hale and Hawkins. Upon this 
 authority of this extra-jndicial opinion of Judge Hay- 
 wood, the courts of Tennessee (and of Nortli Carolina 
 too, it is believed) have uniformly acted. * * * * 
 In Braden's case, Overton, J., said: 'The rule laid 
 down in the note of the case of the State vs. Long., 
 is correct law, and the reasoning, though contrary to 
 many late decisions in England, is incontrovertible.' 
 By an Act of the Legislature of the 21st of January, 
 1842, the law which had been established for fifty years 
 was thrown aside, and the English law established 
 in all its vigor. 
 
 "But the ability and learning of Judge Haywood 
 were nowhere so fully displayed as in the celebrated 
 case of the University of North Carolina against Toy 
 and Bishop. The 'Legislature of 1789 conferred upon 
 the University all the property which had, or might 
 thereafter escheat to the State; but by an Act of 1800, 
 this right was attempted to be taken from the Univer- 
 sity, which was resisted by Judge Haywood, who was 
 then at the bar. The law divesting the University 
 was declared void and unconstitutional, and the rights 
 of the University permanently sustained. * * * * 
 When Judge Haywood came to Tennessee, the profes- 
 sion was much divided in reference to the construc- 
 tion of the Act of 1797, explaining the Statute of Limi- 
 tation of 1715. The questions involved in this Statute 
 had been decided in North Carolina in the case of 
 Crutcher vs. Parnell. In that case the argument 
 of Judge Haywood had the effect to produce the 
 decision that seven years' possession with a color of 
 title would bar an action of ejectment, and that it was 
 not necessary to show a regular chain of title. The 
 
38 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Act of 1797 provided that the Act of 1715 should apply 
 in all cases where any person or persons shall have 
 had seven years' peaceable possession of any land by 
 virtue of a grant, or deed of conveyance founded on 
 a grant, and no legal claim by a suit, etc. The cases 
 of Sawyers, lessee, vs. S/iantion,l Tenn., 46S; Lillard 
 vs. Elliot, Patton vs. Eaton, 1 Wheaton, and Hamp- 
 tons, lessee, vs. McGlnnis, 1 Tenn., 286, were decided 
 about the time Judge Haywood made his appearance 
 at the bar of Tennessee, in which the doctrine of a 
 connection of title seemed to be settled. The case of 
 Weatherhead and Douglass vs. Bledsoe's Heirs, re- 
 ported in 2 Tenn., 352, was the first leading case on the 
 construction of this Statute in which Judge Haywood 
 took a part as counsel. A distinguished and able 
 lawyer who was then at the bar, thus describes the 
 position of Judge Haywood in reference to this case: 
 'No case could have been more thoroughly investi- 
 gated and ably argued at the bar than that of Weath- 
 erhead and Douglass vs. Bledsoe'' s Heirs. By the time 
 at which it came up for final adjudication, many cases 
 involving the same questions were in progress in the 
 Circuit Courts; the subject had been very much dis- 
 cussed at the bar and elsewhere ; public attention was 
 strongly directed to it, and the faculties of the profes- 
 sion had become quickened and invigorated, all their 
 zeal and energy aroused, and all their resources stimu- 
 lated into action by the general interest which was now 
 beginning to be felt in the issue; all seemed to antici- 
 pate that a decisive battle was to be fought, and how- 
 ever it might terminate, that the result would be most 
 disastrous to some and most fortunate to others, and 
 a very doubtful influence to the community at large. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 39 
 
 Jenkin Whiteside appeared as the great champion for 
 Bledsoe's heirs and connection of title; John Haywood 
 for Weatherhead and Douglass and the doctrine of 
 'color of title.' * * * * Notwithstanding Judge 
 Haywood's great talent, he lost the case by the opinion 
 of all the Judges, excepting Judge Overton, dissenting. 
 Soon after this opinion, Judge Overton resigned, and 
 Cook died, and their places were supplied by Robert 
 Whvte and John Haywood in the year 1816. When 
 jMr. Haywood became a Judge of the .Supreme Court, 
 although he stood alone on the subject of his doctrine 
 of 'color of title,' he never yielded it. From that time 
 until 1825, he persevered in his opposition to the con- 
 struction of the Statute of Limitation which made a 
 connection of title necessary. From being alone in 
 his view of this law. Judge Haywood found himself 
 at last sustained by all the members of the Court of 
 five Judges, with the exception of Judge Whyte, who 
 was not to be moved from his opinion by popular 
 feeling or the sophistry of legal learning." 
 
 The author of the article quoted above declares that: 
 "In tact and eloquence — such eloquence as reaches the 
 heart and convinces the judgment — Haywood had no 
 equal in Tennessee." He further asserts that as an ora- 
 tor he was equal it not superior to Grundy, which is not 
 in accord with the general opinion of later times; and 
 that he possessed "inexhaustible stores of imagination," 
 and was c[uick in argument and in reply, but that his 
 imaginative faculties were so largely developed as to 
 "give to some of his opinions an air of eccentricity." 
 Like most men- of strong and quick minds and posi- 
 tive convictions, Haywood was sometimes regarded 
 as overbearing. It is said also that he was ambitious 
 
4Q 
 
 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and was disposed to prefer his own judgments to those 
 of his associates. This last characteristic is not at all 
 exceptional in great judges. It is interesting to note 
 that, notwithstanding his devotion to the law and to 
 literature and philosophy, he accumulated and left to 
 his heirs a large property. 
 
 In person he was an immense man, weighing, it is 
 said, three hundred and fifty pounds. He died De- 
 cember 12, 1826. 
 
 Stories of distinguished men are very much to be 
 distrusted. As a rule they have come down from a 
 remote antiquity and have been applied in succession 
 to the great men of many generations. The writer 
 has heard stories told of Lincoln and Webster which 
 are to be found in Boccaccio. The rich store of anec- 
 dotes of Judge Haywood, therefore, is not drawn upon 
 in this sketch. Of no Tennessean except Andrew 
 Jackson, and possibly Davy Crockett, have so many 
 amusing stories been told. The account given by 
 Judge Guild of his examination by Haywood is 
 trustworthy, however, and illustrates the simple lux- 
 uriousness of the private life of the great jurist. 
 Judge Guild relates that in the year 1822, desiring to 
 be licensed to practice law, he rode out to Haywood's 
 home, where he found the jurist lying on a bull's hide 
 under the shade of an oak tree. The reception ac- 
 corded the seeker after license was apparently not very 
 cordial, but servants were called and a chair placed for 
 him, and the examination began. It appears to have 
 been a long and rigid one, and Guild suggests that 
 Haywood wished to find reasons for refusing the 
 license, which is possibly not correct. Finally the 
 two parties pleased each other greatly by a mutual 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 4I 
 
 witticism, and the license was granted and supple- 
 mented by some excellent advice. Meanwhile sun and 
 shade had been moving, and as often as necessary 
 Haywood had called his negroes, who seizing the 
 bull's hide "by the tail," hauled him into the shade, 
 saving him the exertion of rising. 
 
 Haywood's place in the history of Tennessee is a 
 very enviable one. He is regarded as our greatest and 
 most learned jurist, and as we have seen, was esteemed, 
 by some, the equal of Grundy as an advocate. That he 
 could have deserved this high praise as a lawyer and as 
 a Judge, and at the same time have possessed an accur- 
 ate and profound general scholarship, and have been 
 a writer of extraordinary ability, proves his mind to 
 have been one of a very high order. There are some 
 light, active and alert intellects that do many things 
 passably without excelling in any respect, but there 
 are minds so richly endowed that they genuinely excel 
 in many things. Mr. Gladstone is an example of this 
 many-sided greatness in our own time. Judge Hay- 
 wood had one of these richly endowed minds. He was 
 capable of great achievements in almost any field of 
 intellectual effort. It would be difficult to find, in the 
 whole range of our State history, a man of equal 
 strength, versatility and massiveness of intellect. Not 
 only was he a great Judge and a great lawyer, but he 
 gave dignity and influence to the profession by dem- 
 onstrating a capacity for large affairs outside the law. 
 A lawyer who excels only in his profession may be 
 never so valuable to his client, and the first duty of 
 every lawyer is to the law and to his client, but it is the 
 Mansfields, the Erskines, the Websters and the Hay- 
 woods who have done most to make the profession 
 
42 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 the controlling one of the world. It owes 
 much of its influence to the learning and tech- 
 nical skill of men who have lived only for the law, 
 but not less to the men whom it has trained and fitted 
 to combine with the law other, and it may be, greater 
 things. The debt of the English-speaking world to the 
 lawyers is incalculable, but this is attributable not 
 more to those who have consecrated themselves to the 
 exclusive study of the noble science than to those who 
 mastering the law, but rising above the purely business 
 and selfish work of the profession, have made useful 
 and effective in the affairs of the world, the skill and the 
 learning gained at the bar. It is not asserted that a 
 lawyer should apportion his time and energies among 
 diverse pursuits; there is already too much sciolism 
 and case study as it is. But surely it is possible to be 
 a lawyer, a good lawyer and a successful one, without 
 surrendering the dignity of manhood, or the right to 
 participate in the general business of the world. 
 
 The enormous increase of lawyers is begetting a 
 competition as strenuous as that of the commercial 
 world. The commercial spirit is taking hold of the 
 profession. Formerly a lawyer was estimated accord- 
 ing to his knowledge of the law and his ability at the 
 bar, and business was not solicited. Now there are men 
 in the profession who are conducting detective agen- 
 cies and collecting agencies, advertising and photo- 
 graphing themselves to get business; hurrying their 
 solicitors to the scene of every accident to secure em- 
 ployment'in the action for damages. Too often even 
 the reputable lawyer is content to be the instrument, 
 not the adviser of his client. Formerly the client did 
 as the lawyer told him, but now the dignity and the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 43 
 
 ethics of the profession sometimes with difificulty with- 
 stiind the demands of rich and valuable clients. Of 
 course this is not true of all lawyers. There are many 
 in every community who uphold the honor and the 
 dignity of the profession, but the poison is spreading. 
 The old high standards are disregarded more and 
 more, and the profession is in danger through these 
 unworthy members of losing its hold upon the respect 
 of the world, and its commanding influence in affairs. 
 We no longer study as Haywood and his generation 
 studied. A few months' reading, a superficial ac- 
 quaintance with the Code of Tennessee, and Caruthers' 
 History of a Lawsuit, a complaisant Judge, a perfunct- 
 ory and careless examination, a "pass examination," 
 and a new lawyer is made. There is no longer need 
 of Blackstone, and Coke, and Kent. The license once 
 had, the Code and the form-books and the encyclope- 
 dias of law and of pleading and practice, do the rest. 
 The average learning of the profession in the law, is 
 lessening day by day; and easy access to the bar is 
 bringing to it multitudes of men of inferior intellect 
 and low moral standards. Above all men the lawyer 
 should be well educated and honest. His proper 
 business brings, him into contact with every aspect of 
 the world's affairs. He deals primarily with the ail- 
 important science of government. His profession 
 heretofore has been the foremost, and it will continue 
 to be so if only he will honor it himself. 
 
 The profession in Tennessee can have no better 
 model than John Haywood. Morally sound, intel- 
 lectually strong, profoundly learned in the law, liberally 
 educated, scholarly, yet practical and successful, he was 
 indeed the '"very model" of a lawyer. 
 
44 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 In the year 1776, a Commissioner was sent by North 
 CaroHna to examine and report upon the condition of 
 affairs in the western territory of that State. This 
 Commissioner was Joseph WilHams, the father of John 
 Wilhams and of Thomas L. Williams. 
 
 Joseph Williams was a man of much note in North 
 Carolina. Some years before the Revolution he set- 
 tled in Surry County, in that State, near the Shallow 
 Ford of the Yadkin River. He was an officer in the 
 British service under the Colonial government, but 
 early in the revolutionary movement declared himself 
 for the patriot cause, and was elected to the convention 
 which met at Hillsboro in 1775. Among the other 
 members of that convention were Robert Lanier and 
 Joseph Winston, who were his brothers-in-law. In 
 1776 he was commissioned Colonel in the Continental 
 army, and served in that capacity throughout the war, 
 being especially active in subduing the Tories who in- 
 fested North Carolina. His loyalty to the cause of the 
 Colonies never wavered, but he devoted himself with 
 energy, and gave his fortune to their service. He died 
 in 1826 at the age of eighty, having lived for nearly 
 half a century under the republican form of govern- 
 ment which he had so honorably aided to establish. 
 
 Two military coats which belonged to him, one red 
 and the other blue, are preserved in the rooms of 
 the Virginia Historical Society at Richmond. 
 
 His regiment was present at the battle of King's 
 Mountain, but owing to the illness of his wife he was 
 unable to take the field at that time. He actively aided 
 his brother-in-law, Major Winston, to prepare the reg- 
 iment for the campaign in which it rendered the iilost 
 efficient service. Colonel James Williams, who was 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 45 
 
 killed at Kings jMountain, was his cousin. Joseph 
 Williams is honorably mentioned in Wheeler's History 
 of North Carolina, in Wheeler's Reminiscences, in 
 Caruthers' History of the Revolution in North Caro- 
 lina, and in many other histories of North Carolina, 
 
 John Williams, the future Senator from Tennessee, 
 \\as born in Surry County, North Carolina, January 
 29, 1?7S. The extent of his education is not known, 
 but he was a man of culture, and about the time of 
 his majority secured a law license in North Carolina, 
 though he did not engage in the practice, at least to 
 any considerable extent, until he removed to Ten- 
 nessee some years later. 
 
 Probably he was attracted to the beautiful valley of 
 East Tennessee by the accounts he heard from his 
 father. A letter written by Joseph Williams, after his 
 return from his trip to East Tennessee, is preserved. 
 In it he gives a brief but glowing description of the 
 country lying at "the mouth of the Holston." The 
 point indicated probably is the junction of the Hol- 
 ston and French Broad rivers in Knox County, where 
 the home of J. G. M. Ramsey, the historian, after- 
 wards stood, although it is claimed by some that it 
 is the junction of the Little Tennessee and the Holston, 
 at Lenoir City. The date at which John Williams 
 came to Tennessee is not certainly known, but in 1813 
 he was commisioned Colonel of the Thirty-ninth Reg- 
 ular United States Infantry, and was in command of 
 that regiment in the Creek war. He had previously 
 served as a Captain in the regular army, in the Sixth 
 Infantry, and as Colonel of Mounted Tennessee Volun- 
 teers, and had established a reputation for gallantry and 
 for ability as a military leader. 
 
46 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The following extracts from Parton's "Life of Jack- 
 son" are presented as showing the importance of the 
 services of Colonel Williams and his regiment in the 
 Creek war: 
 
 "On the Gth of February marched into Fort Strother 
 the Thirty-ninth Regiment of United States Infantry, 
 six hundred strong, under Colonel Williams, a most 
 important acquisition. Into this regiment one Sam 
 Houston had recently enlisted as a private soldier and 
 made his way to the rank of Ensign; the same Sam 
 Houston who was afterwards President of Texas and 
 Senator of the United States. It was to the patriotic 
 zeal of Hugh L. White, of East Tennessee, that Gen- 
 eral Jackson owed this priceless re-enforcement of 
 regulars. Hearing rumors of General Jackson's dan- 
 ger, Judge White left the bench and hurried to the 
 wilderness to learn by personal inspection the true 
 state of affairs. He found Jackson almost alone in the 
 woods, contending with every difficulty. * * * * 
 He returned to East Tennessee to aid in the raising of 
 a new army. There he found his brother-in-law. Col- 
 onel John Williams, at the head of the Thirty-ninth 
 Regiment, preparing to descend to New Orleans, 
 according to orders received from the Secretary of 
 War. He told Colonel Williams that he had been 
 commissioned by General Jackson to represent to him 
 his condition as very deplorable. * * * Judge 
 White remained with Colonel Williams nearly all 
 night, using every means in his power to impress upon 
 his mind the necessity of relieving General Jackson's 
 force. His importunities finally prevailed. Colonel 
 Williams acquiesced in his wishes, and wrote to the 
 War Department stating his intention to proceed to 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 47 
 
 Jackson's headquarters instead of to the South, ac- 
 cording to previous instructions, and upon learning 
 that his plans were approved by the government, at 
 once marched for the former destination. 
 
 "On February 31, 1814, Jackson wrote to Major 
 William B. Lewis: 'I am truly happy in having 
 Colonel Williams with me. His regiment will give 
 strength to my arm and quell mutiny.' " * 
 
 In a private letter written April 1, 1815, describing 
 the opening of the attack on the Horse-shoe, Jackson, 
 as quoted in the Nashville Whig of the 2Tth of that 
 month, said: "The Thirty-ninth Regiment, led bv the 
 gallant Colonel Williams and IMajor Montgomery, was 
 in the center." f 
 
 Colonel \\"illiams came out of this war with great 
 credit, and in 1S15 was elected to the vacancy in the 
 United States Senate caused by the resignation of 
 George W Campbell, and at the expiration of that 
 term, was re-elected and served until 1S:23, when he 
 was again a candidate, but was defeated by Andrew 
 Jackson. In 1823, Jackson and Williams were in per- 
 sonal and political antagonism, and the friends of 
 Jackson resolved to defeat Williams unless he would 
 promise to support their leader for the Presidency. 
 
 John H. Wheeler says that this enmity was caused 
 by Jackson's failure to do justice, in the opinion of 
 Colonel Williams, to the conduct of the Thirty-ninth 
 Regiment in the battle of the Horse-shoe. X 
 
 It should also be said that Colonel Williams, having 
 yielded to the urgency of Judge White, and having 
 
 * Parton's Jackson, vol. I. , p. 603. 
 t Parton's Jackson, Vol. I , p. 517. 
 t Wheeler's Eemlnlscences, p. 419. 
 
48 IJENCH AND BAR 
 
 departed from his original plan, and having sought a 
 change of his orders, thought that General Jackson 
 had not sufficiently recognized the merit of his con- 
 duct. 
 
 While there are numerous utterances of Jackson's 
 recorded, bestowing praise upon Colonel Williams, it 
 will readily be understood that military leaders are not 
 in the habit of commending their subordinates to the 
 detriment of their own interests or their own fame. 
 
 When the Jackson men demanded from Williams a 
 promise to support their candidate for the Presidency, 
 he replied that he had already pledged himself to 
 Mr. Crawford, and declined to give the promise. He 
 made an active canvass of the State in his own behalf, 
 and secured many assurances of support. He was 
 very popular, and the Jackson party, after trying the 
 strength of many possible candidates, decided that the 
 only way to beat him was to have Jackson himself 
 become a candidate. 
 
 It is a striking fact that a good and competent man 
 was thus sacrificed for loyalty to his promise, and be- 
 cause he would not yield to the ambition of General 
 Jackson. 
 
 While in the Senate, Colonel Williams advocated 
 internal improvements, and particularly desired the 
 building of a great national highway from Washing- 
 ton southwestward through Virginia and Tennessee. 
 In 1825 he was appointed by President Adams, Min- 
 ister to Guatemala. After his return home he was an 
 active promoter of the projected Louisville, Cincinnati 
 & Charleston Railroad, which was intended to extend 
 from the Ohio River through the States of Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina to the 
 
JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 49 
 
 Atlantic Ocean. He was also, during this period, 
 twice elected to the State Senate, but mainly devoted 
 his time to the law. He died at his home near Knox- 
 ville, August 10, 1837. 
 
 He was the grandfather of J. C. J. Williams and 
 Thomas L. Williams, both living members of the 
 Knoxville bar, and of Rufus W. Williams of the New 
 York bar. His son. Colonel John Williams, the father 
 of the three last named, was for many years prominent 
 in East Tennessee, and was probably the most inti- 
 mate friend of Andrew Johnson. 
 
 The controversy between Colonel Williams and Gen- 
 eral Jackson is of much greater historical importance 
 than appears upon the surface. From what has been 
 said of Colonel Williams' position in regard to internal 
 improvements, it will be seen that he inclined to the 
 policies which were afterwards advocated by the Whig 
 party. 
 
 In the first quarter of this- century, and indeed until 
 1835, neithef the Federalists nor the Whigs had any 
 apparent strength in Tennessee. The public men of 
 the State were, almost without exception,. Jeffersonian 
 Republicans. No doubt there were many others like 
 Colonel Williams who were not in entire accord with 
 the Republican policies, but there was no organized 
 opposition to that party. The first positive manifesta- 
 tion of opposition that was at all important is to be 
 found in the controversy between Williams and Jack- 
 son, and probably the origin of the Whig party in 
 Tennessee may be traced to this occurrence. Among 
 those who supported and voted for Williams in oppo- 
 sition to Jackson, was David Crockett, whom Phelan 
 regards as the father of the Whig party in Tennessee. 
 
50 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The confirmation of the division thus begun will be 
 shown in the sketch of John Bell. This brief statement 
 will indicate, however, the importance of Senator Wil- 
 liams, as a factor in the political history of the State. 
 
 The flag carried by the Thirty-ninth Regiment at 
 the battle of the Horse-shoe is still preserved by Mrs. 
 Joseph W. Sneed, of.Knoxville, who is a grand-daugh- 
 ter of Colonel Williams, and whose husband. Judge 
 Sneed, is his grand-nephew. 
 
 Joseph Williams, a son of Senator Williams, served 
 acceptably in Congress as a representative of ' the 
 Knoxville district. 
 
 The history of the descendants of Joseph Williams, 
 of North Carolina, is full of interest. He had ten sons 
 and two daughters. In addition to Senator John Wil- 
 Hams, two others of these sons were men of note, and 
 played important parts, one in the history of Ten- 
 nessee, and the other in the history of North Carolina. 
 They were Thomas L. Williams and Lewis Williams, 
 and were twin brothers. The record of this double 
 birth is found in the family Bible, and is a pleasing 
 manifestation of parental care and exactitude. The 
 entries are as follows: "Lewis Williams, sixth son, 
 born first February, exactly at day-break, 1786." 
 "Thomas L. Williams, seventh son, first February, five 
 minutes after day-break, 1786," 
 
 Thomas L. Williams was a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of Tennessee, and was also Chancellor. It is in 
 the last capacity that he is best known. Born in North 
 Carolina, as above shown, he came to Tennessee early 
 in this century. He was a skillful and successful law- 
 yer, and in 1826 was made a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court. He was appointed by the Governor to a va- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 5 I 
 
 cancy, but the Legislature declined to fill the place 
 permanently, thereby reducing the number of Judges. 
 From the time of his retirement from the Supreme 
 bench tmtil 1836, he practiced law in Knox and ad- 
 joining counties. In 1836 he was elected Chancellor 
 for the Eastern Division, and was twice re-elected, 
 holding the position continuously until 1851. He 
 died at Nashville, December 2, 1856. 
 
 To be Chancellor in Judge Williams' time meant 
 much more than it does now. He presided in nine- 
 teen counties, holding thirty-eight courts a year, and 
 was absent from home for forty weeks each year. 
 There were no railroads in Tennessee until the "fifties," 
 and to all of his courts Chancellor Williams went on 
 horseback, over rough roads, riding winter and sum- 
 mer, and enduring hardships that few men could have 
 supported. The Chancery Court was not a popular 
 favorite. Public sentiment was unfriendly, and legis- 
 lation, therefore, while it did not go to the extent of 
 abolishing the Court, was not favorable to it. Through 
 this trying period Chancellor Williams was assiduous 
 and unswerving in the discharge of his arduous duties. 
 To his fidelity and endurance the lawyers of the State 
 attributed in large measure the preservation of the 
 Chancery system. 
 
 In the lawyers' memorial of Judge Williams, at- 
 tached to 4th Sneed, it is said that his most note- 
 worthy peculiarity as Chancellor was a repugnance 
 to fraud in all its forms, and it is intimated that his 
 faculty for detecting fraud was perhaps excessively 
 developed. If this be true, it was a failing that leant to 
 virtue's side. Judge Williams was a man of strong 
 will and convictions, not without prejudices, but essen- 
 
52 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 tially honest and just. Without being exceptionally 
 learned, he was well founded in the law and had the 
 power to analyze and discriminate. He is described 
 as possessing strong, vigorous, practical, good sense. 
 He holds a prominent and honorable place in the his- 
 tory of our judiciary. His portrait, which may now 
 be seen in the Chancery Court-room at Knoxville, 
 shows him to have been a handsome, dignified, refined 
 looking man. 
 
 The career of his twin brother Lewis, above referred 
 to, was a distinguished one. He was for twenty-eight 
 years a member of Congress from North Carolina, and 
 Thomas H. Benton, in his "Thirty Years' View," 
 refers to him as "the father of the House." He was 
 one of the first to receive this honorable distinction. 
 
 Among the most distinguished lawyers of Tennessee 
 in the beginning of this century, was Jenkin White- 
 side. He was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 
 1782, and died at Nashville, September 25, 1822. 
 When General Daniel Smith resigned from the United 
 States Senate in 1809, Whiteside was elected on the 
 26th of May of that year to succeed him, and 
 served until September 1, 1811, when he resigned and 
 returned to the practice of the law. 
 
 He was a specialist in land law, the only branch of 
 the law in which, at that time, large fees were to be had 
 in Tennessee. It was on account of his proficiency in 
 this respect that he was so largely employed in the set- 
 tlement of the controversies which arose over the grant 
 of lands to the colleges and academies of the State. 
 He is described as a man of "vigorous understanding, 
 wonderful sagacity and acuteness, devoted much to 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 53 
 
 mone)'-making, and especially delighting in specula- 
 tion in uncultivated lands." * 
 
 He acquired large bodies of wild lands, and along 
 with them the usual appurtenances of Tennessee lands 
 in those days, to-wit, lawsuits. 
 
 In 1801 and 1802, he was one of the Commissioners 
 for the government of Knoxville. In running through 
 the Tennessee Reports covering the period of White- 
 side's active practice, his name is found oftener than 
 that of any- other lawyer. It seems certain that he 
 had the largest practice. It is also apparent from ex- 
 amining the reports, that his most frequent competitor, 
 after 1808, was Felix Grundy. 
 
 If Felix Grundy had not lived in the time of Clay 
 and Webster, and had not been brought constantly 
 into contact with them, he might have had a fame as 
 great as theirs. Clay was a greater orator than Grundy, 
 but not much greater; Webster was more eloquent, 
 but not much more. There are passages in Grundy's 
 speeches that are not surpassed in American oratory, 
 and there was a time when his career promised to be 
 as conspicuous and as important as that of any Ameri- 
 can living in his time. 
 
 Felix Grundy was of English descent. His father, 
 who was a native of England, emigrated to America 
 when a young man and settled on the Virginia fron- 
 tier. There, in Berkeley County, Felix Grundy was 
 born September 11, 1777. Two years later the family 
 moved into Pennsylvania, and in 1780 went farther 
 westward into Kentucky, where Felix Grundy 
 lived from childhood to manhood. Throughout the 
 
 *Foote. 
 
54 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 period of his youth the entire Kentucky frontier — and 
 it was all frontier at that time — was subject to con- 
 stant incursions by the Indians. The Grundy family 
 seems to have been particularly unfortunate in these 
 Indian wars. The eldest son had been killed by the 
 savages in Pennsylvania, and the dangers that the 
 survivors suffered and the misfortunes they endured 
 in the wilderness, were eloquently portrayed in one of 
 Mr. Grundy's speeches in the Senate. He said: "If I 
 am asked to trace my memory back and name the first 
 indelible impression it received, it would be the sight of 
 my eldest brother bleeding and dying under the 
 wounds inflicted by the tomahawk and scalping-knife. 
 Another and another went in the same way. I have 
 seen a widowed mother plundered of her whole prop- 
 erty in a single night; from afifluence and ease, re- 
 duced to poverty in a moment, and compelled to 
 labor with her own hands to support and educate her 
 last and favorite son — him who now addresses you." 
 
 These sentences graphically portray the conditions 
 under which the future Judge and Senator was reared. 
 
 As a boy he developed a fondness for reading, and 
 fortunately at the time when it was proper for him to 
 attend school. Dr. James Priestly, who was at one time 
 President of Nashville University, established an acad- 
 emy at Bardstown, Kentucky, and at this institution, 
 one of the most excellent of its kind, Felix Grundy was 
 liberally educated. His mother wished him to become 
 a physician. Medicine is always an honorable and 
 mysterious profession, and was particularly important 
 and remunerative on the frontier. It is intimated by 
 one writer that he was destined to this profession by 
 his mother, partly on account of the fact that he was 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 55 
 
 the seventh son in regular succession. He began the 
 study of medicine, but while receiving his education, 
 developed remarkable powers as a public speaker, and 
 an inclination toward the law. His mother was wise 
 enough to yield her own preference to the unmistak- 
 able manifestations of his fitness for the bar. 
 
 He was licensed to practice law in 1797, and two 
 years later was elected to a Convention called for the 
 purpose of revising the Constitution of Kentucky. In 
 this Convention he greatly distinguished himself, es- 
 pecially in the advocacy of judicial reforms which have 
 since been accomplished and need not be mentioned 
 here. 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of the Convention he 
 was elected to the Legislature, and was successively re- 
 elected until 1806. During a part of his career in this 
 body he encountered Mr. Clay frequently, and ^Vithout 
 any loss of reputation. It is related that at one time 
 Grundy and Clay alternately occupied the attention of 
 the General Assembly for six days. The occasion of 
 this remarkable debate was the introduction of a bill 
 for the ostensible purpose of incorporating an insur- 
 ance company in Lexington, but for the real purpose 
 of establishing a bank. Grundy regarded the attempt 
 as fraudulent, and opposed it, or rather sought a repeal 
 of the law after it had been passed. Clay spoke in 
 support of the measure. 
 
 In the fall of 1806 Mr. Grundy was nominated for a 
 judgeship of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals, 
 and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Soon 
 afterwards he became Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court. In the winter of 1807, finding the salary of 
 the office insufficient to support a growing family, he 
 
56 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 resigned and returned to the bar; and in order to dis- 
 connect himself entirely from public affairs, came to 
 Tennessee, making his home at Nashville. For three 
 years he gave himself exclusively to the law, almost 
 instantly acquiring a large and lucrative practice. But 
 he was born for large affairs, and in 1811 an election to 
 Congress was almost unanimously accorded him. He 
 was elected with the understanding that he regarded 
 the aggressions of Great Britain, which were constant 
 at that time, as insupportable and as demanding 
 redress. Entering Congress in November, 1811, as 
 a Democrat, he took an active part in all the proceed- 
 ings that led to the war of 1813, promptly and earnestly 
 uniting with those who demanded resistance of Eng- 
 land. He was placed upon the Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs, which at a lime like that, was the most import- 
 ant of all the committees, and joined in the favorable 
 report upon the President's war message of June 1, 
 1812. Throughout the war he was a staunch sup- 
 porter of the administration, and was the subject of 
 incessant and angry attack by the Federalists. He was 
 both the most efficient and the most conspicuous of 
 Mr. Madison's friends. The Federalists attributed the 
 war to "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil," and there 
 can be no doubt that the first two were in very large 
 measure responsible for it. 
 
 Mr. Grundy served two terms, and then, from 1815 
 • to 1819, was not again in public life. In the 
 year last named, however, he consented to be- 
 come a member of the Legislature of Tennessee, 
 in which capacity he served for six years. ' One 
 of the important events of this time was the estab- 
 lishment of the boundary line between Tennessee and 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 57 
 
 Kentucky, over which there had been much 
 debate, giving promise of serious trouble. Fi- 
 nally an amicable adjustment was made through the 
 efforts of Mr. Grundy and William L. Brown, under 
 appointment by the Legislature. 
 
 In 1829, Grundy succeeded John H. Eaton in the 
 United States Senate, and served until 1833, when 
 he was again elected and served until he was appointed 
 Attorney-General for the United States by Mr. Van 
 Buren, in 1838. He held this position for a year, and, 
 resigning in 1839, was a third time elected to the 
 Senate. His death occurred December 19, 1840. 
 
 Mr. Grundy was easily the ablest and most success- 
 ful criminal lawyer of his time in Tennessee, and in the 
 Southwest. John M.. Bright is authority for the state- 
 ment that of one hundred and sixty-five persons whom 
 Grundy defended for capital offenses, only one was fi- 
 nally condemned and executed. This phenomenal suc- 
 cess did not fail to bring upon him the criticism of the 
 less successful. Defeated lawyers sometimes declared 
 his methods unworthy, and political enemies were zeal- 
 ous in giving currency to these censures. Political ani- 
 mosities are strong enough now, but in those days 
 they were much stronger; men fought each other in 
 politics as they fought the Indians, neither giving nor 
 asking quarter. There could be nothing good in 
 political enemies. 
 
 These stories of Grundy, coming down to later gen- 
 erations, affected the opinion of the historian Phelan, 
 whose judgments are not altogether commendatory. 
 These sketches are not intended to be eulogies, but 
 plain historical statements, and it is not asserted that 
 Mr. Grundy was a man without faults. There seems to 
 
S8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 be a positive injustice, however, in singling him out as 
 an object of attack, when there is no proof that in his 
 professional methods he was not as correct as his con- 
 temporaries were, and as a proper sense of personal 
 and professional honor required. That he was a suc- 
 cessful practitioner, and a most seductive advocate, no 
 one doubts; but he was too large to stoop to mean 
 things, and too capable to need the aid of improper 
 methods. Improprieties of professional conduct are 
 usually committed by those who have the active man- 
 agement of the details of a case, as in summoning wit- 
 nesses, preparing evidence and selecting juries. It is 
 well known that throughout Mr. Grundy's professional 
 life in Tennessee, his position was such as to relieve 
 him, in large measure, from detail work of this kind. 
 Almost invariably lie was associated with other lawyers 
 of less note who relieved him of the drudgery of the 
 cases. He succeeded by force of a marvelous ability, 
 and not by improper methods. His brilliant successes 
 were a constant source of astonishment tO' his con- 
 temporaries, as well as the cause of unkindly criticism. 
 Before a jury he seems to have been almost irresistible. 
 He was an unerring judge of human nature, and was 
 to the last degree tenacious of his purposes. It is 
 said of him that while he was on the floor his attention 
 was given exclusively to the jury, and that he always 
 knew what impression he was making. Like Rufus 
 Choate, he would sometimes concentrate all his pow- 
 ers upon a single juror, and rarely without effect. His 
 command of language was unsurpassed; his delivery 
 iwipassioned and dramatic; his personal appearance 
 pleasing, commanding and impressive, and his elocu- 
 tion of the most attractive quality. A writer com- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 59 
 
 paring him with Haywood, says that Haywood ad- 
 dressed the intellects of the jurors, and Grundy their 
 hearts. Such generalizations are more or less fanciful, 
 but it is probable that Grundy was a much more impas- 
 sioned and emotional speaker than Haywood. At the 
 same time, however, he was a thoroughly equipped 
 lawyer and a close and powerful reasoner. Even in 
 those times, when the graces of oratory were more 
 prized than they are now, men could not reach such 
 high stations as he held, nor maintain themselves in 
 them, without genuine and substantial ability. Grundy, 
 like Haywood, was a man of a large and versatile intel- 
 lect. It was not necessary for him to be a specialist in 
 order to excel. At the bar, on the bench, in the Senate 
 and in the Cabinet alike, he proved himself one of the 
 first men of his time. There was hardly a more bril- 
 liant or a more substantially learned and able man m 
 public life in this country in his time. In the Senate, 
 as an orator he was classed with Henry Clay, and as a 
 reasoner he ranked with the strongest men in that body. 
 It was as a jury lawyer that he was best known in 
 Tennessee, and to this day he is regarded as the ablest 
 and most successful advocate that has ever appeared 
 at the bar in this State. He was not, as many suppose, 
 a specialist in criminal law. An examination of Over- 
 ton's Reports will show that down to ] 808, the date of 
 his coming to Tennessee, the lawyers most frequently 
 before the Supreme Court were Whiteside, Dickinson, 
 Campbell, Trimble and Haywood, but that immedi- 
 a,tely after taking up his residence in the State, Grundy 
 acquired a practice as large as any of these had. In- 
 deed, if the reported cases from 1809 to 1811 were 
 counted, it probably would be found that he appeared 
 
6o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 oftener than any other lawyer, except Whiteside. He 
 had many land cases — the great staple of litigation at 
 that time — and was a popular and competent general 
 practitioner. 
 
 He is described as a man of ordinary stature, in- 
 clined to portliness; his complexion was ruddy, his 
 hair a light brown, inclined to red, and in later life 
 mixed with gray, and his eyes blue; his temperament 
 was cheerful, hopeful and benevolent, but he did not 
 lack firmness; his manners were the most attractive, 
 and he was so large a man intellectually that he was 
 not tempted to the harsh language or conduct which 
 characterized many of the public men of his time. 
 He therefore made comparatively few enemies and 
 many friends. His popularity was great, and he was 
 regarded throughout the State as one of the ablest 
 and most competent of the public men of his time. He 
 stands in the very front rank of our great men, hardly 
 surpassed by any in brilliancy or in substantial ability. 
 
 Few Tennesseans of early times were more success- 
 ful or fortunate than William 0. C. Claiborne. He 
 was born in Sussex County, Virginia, in 1775, and 
 died at New Orleans, Louisiana, November 23, 1817. 
 He received a liberal education and was thoroughly 
 trained in the law. The precise date of his coming to 
 Tennessee is unknown, but he was a member of the 
 Constitutional Convention of 1796 from Sullivan 
 County, and on September 28, 1796, was ap- 
 pointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Law and 
 Equity for the State, and served until October, 1797, 
 when he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, and 
 served until 1801. In 1802 he was appointed Governor 
 of the Territory of Mississippi, being the second to 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 6 1 
 
 hold that office, and in 1803, with General James Wil- 
 kinson, was made commissioner to take possession of 
 the Territory of Louisiana in behalf of the United 
 States, the purchaser. In 1804 he was Governor of the 
 Territory of Louisiana, and upon its admission as a 
 State, was elected Governor, and finally, in 1817, was 
 elected to the United States Senate, but died before 
 taking his seat. He thus aided in framing the first 
 Constitution of the State of Tennessee, was the second 
 Governor of the Mississippi Territory, the first Gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana Territory, the first Governor of the 
 State of Louisiana. It would be difficult to imagine 
 a career more successful. By all accounts he was a 
 man of high character and unusual ability. His de- 
 scendants are to be found among the oldest and best 
 families of upper East Tennessee. Claiborne County, 
 which was created in 1801, was named for him. His 
 part in the history of Louisiana was a very honorable 
 one. He was not popular among the Creoles on 
 account of the policy which he and Wilkinson adopted, 
 of bestowing the offices upon men from the States. 
 This naturally caused much dissatisfaction among the 
 Creoles, and therefore, when Claiborne was earnest for 
 the National cause, at the time of the British invasion, 
 he did not receive cordial support in New Orleans. 
 The reason, however, was dissatisfaction with the home 
 administration, and not a want of loyalty to the na- 
 tional government. The earnestness and determina- 
 tion of Claiborne's character are shown by the fact that 
 in order to secure support for the American cause, he 
 granted amnesty to the Barratarian pirates upon con- 
 dition that they would fight the British. The terms 
 were accepted and the pirates performed their part 
 
62 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 gallantly. Claiborne contributed materially to the de- 
 tection and defeat of Aaron Burr's conspiracy. The 
 historians of Louisiana characterize him as an able, 
 sincere, patriotic man, but very much determined to 
 have his own way in everything. 
 
 Of Judge W. W. Cooke, nothing is found except 
 that Albert D. Marks, in his sketch of the Supreme 
 Court of Tennessee, published in the Green Bag for 
 March, 1893, states that his fuU name was William 
 Wilcox Cooke, that he practiced law at Nashville, 
 served on the Supreme bench from 1815 to 1816, and 
 died July 20, 1816. 
 
 Judge Robert Whyte, who succeeded Judge Over- 
 ton on the Supreme bench, was a native of Scotland, 
 and was born at Wigtonshire, January 6, 1767. He 
 was educated at Edinburgh for the ministry, and was 
 at one time professor of languages at William and 
 Mary College, Virginia. He studied law in Virginia, 
 and moved to North Carolina, whence he came to 
 Nashville in 1804. He served as Supreme Judge from 
 1816 to 1834. He died November 12,1844. Mr. Marks, 
 in whose sketch is found nearly everything here stated 
 of Judge Whyte, says: "He sustained himself well 
 during his long term of service, with many able men, 
 and his opinions commanded great respect, though he 
 was a literalist, and laid great stress on technicalities.'' 
 From the inscription on his tombstone, it appears 
 that he was a member of the Baptist church, and was 
 prominent in the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 Jacob Peck was born in Virginia in 1779, ad- 
 mitted to the bar in that State in 1808, and died 
 in Jei¥erson County, Tennessee, June 11, 1869. He 
 was State Senator from Jefiferson County in 1821, arid 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 63 
 
 in 1823 was elected to the Supreme bench to succeed 
 Thomas Emmerson, who had resigned. He is de- 
 scribed as a man of unusual culture, fond of music, 
 painting, mineralogy and zoology. He was noted for 
 positiveness and independence of character, and for a 
 readiness to dissent from the opinions of his associates. 
 
 Judge Peck, following the example of Haywood, 
 Overton and Cooke, published a volume of decisions 
 of the Supreme Court. After his retirement from the 
 bench he continued the practice of law until his death, 
 but found much time to engage in literary and scientific 
 pursuits. He was a man of large frame and of extraor- 
 dinary physical vigor. He was a competent man of 
 affairs, and left a large and valuable estate. 
 
 Pleasant M. Miller was a native of Virginia, and 
 came to Rogersville, Tennessee, in 1796, remaining 
 there until 1800, when he removed to Knoxville. In 
 1801 and 1802 he was one of the commissioners for the 
 government of Knoxville. He was elected to Con- 
 gress from Hamilton District in 1809. Afterwards, 
 and about 1824, he moved to West Tennessee, and 
 from 1836 to 1837 was Chancellor of that Division. 
 He was one of the most prominent and successful men 
 at the Tennessee bar in his time. He married Mary 
 Louisa Blount, the daughter of Governor William 
 Blount, and from that marriage are descended many 
 of the best people in Tennessee, notably in the city of 
 Knoxville. 
 
 In the London Daily Telegraph of September 2, 
 1896, appeared the following: "It is pleasant to learn 
 that our correspondent was misinformed when he 
 stated that Mr. George Outlaw, who recently died in 
 South Australia, was the last male descendant of King 
 
64 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Edgar Atheling, whose political vicissitudes led to 
 the assumption by his posterity of this significant 
 cognomen. Letters from Limpsfield, Berkhampstead, 
 Kingston-on-Thames, and elsewhere, testify to the fact 
 that there are still living many Outlaws, some of them 
 doubtless unaware of the blue-blood coursing in their 
 veins, and that there is little likelihood of the royal 
 line becoming extinct for many generations to come." 
 
 To the family referred to in this extract belong the 
 Outlaws of North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. 
 The founder of the American family was Alexander 
 Outlaw, who came to this country and settled in North 
 Carolina in 1635. The family was prominent in the 
 early history of North Carolina, its members being 
 conspicuous for ability and for sterling integrity. Two 
 of them served with distinction in the State Legisla- 
 ture and in Congress. 
 
 Alexander Outlaw, the subject of this sketch, 
 was born in Duplin County, North Carolina, in 1738. 
 He received a classical education, was admitted to the 
 bar and began the practice in his native county. In 
 1783 he moved to Greene County, North Carolina, 
 and settled in that portion which is now Jefferson 
 County, Tennessee. He seems to have shared the gen- 
 eral opinion that the Cession Act of North Carolina, 
 of 1784, made it necessary for the settlers in the ceded 
 territory to erect a government of their own, and he 
 therefore took an active part in the formation of the 
 State of FrankHn. He was in the Convention of Au- 
 gust, 1784, and in 1785, and again in 1786 was one of 
 the commissioners of the State of Franklin to nego- 
 tiate with the Cherokee Indians. His associates in 
 1785 were John Sevier and Daniel Kennedy, and in 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 65 
 
 1786 ^^'llliam Cocke, Samuel W'eir, Henry Conway 
 and Thomas Ingles. 
 
 In 1796 Alexander Outlaw represented Jefferson 
 County in the Constitutional Convention, among his 
 colleagues being Joseph Anderson and Archibald 
 Roane. He was an active member of the Convention, 
 and was highly esteemed by his associates. He rep- 
 resented Jefferson County in the first General Assem- 
 bly, and in 1799 was elected to the State Senate from 
 Cocke and Jefferson Counties, and was made Speaker. 
 In 1801 he was returned to the Senate by the same 
 counties. It should be mentioned also that he repre- 
 sented the new and short-lived County of Caswell in 
 the Legislature of the State of Franklin. He had four 
 daughters and one son. These daughters were mar- 
 ried to four well known men of that time, to-wit: 
 Judge Joseph Anderson, Joseph Flamilton, Paul Mc- 
 Dermott and Judge David Campbell. I?rom Paul 
 McDermott and his wife was descended the wife of 
 J. B. Cooke, of Chattanooga, former Judge of the 
 Supreme Court of Tennessee; from Joseph Anderson 
 and his wife, the late Alexander Anderson, Senator 
 from Tennessee, and David D. Anderson, and Miss C. 
 G. Anderson, of Knox County, Tennessee. T. G. 
 Outlaw, a prominent and worthy citizen of Mobile, 
 Alabama, is believed to be the present head of the 
 direct line. 
 
 Alexander Outlaw died in October, 1825. He was 
 one of the best and purest, as well as one of the ablest 
 men of his time m Tennessee. Plis social position, 
 thorough education and high character gave him 
 prominence and influence, and his entire career was 
 marked by genuine and unselfish patriotism. No man 
 
66 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 in our early history left a better reputation, and none 
 more faithfully endeavored to discharge his duties as 
 a man and as a citizen. 
 
 Among the lawyers admitted to the bar of Knox 
 County between 1792 and 1806, where George W. 
 Campbell and Jenkin Whiteside, who were admitted 
 in 1798; Edward Scott in 1799; Pleasant M. Miller 
 in 1800; John Williams, James Trimble and Thomas 
 Dardis in 1803; Thomas Emmerson in 1805. 
 
OB' TENNESSEE. 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Early State Courts— The Oath of Office— Chang-es of 
 Jurisdiction — Character of the Lawyers — Riding: the Cir- 
 cuit — John Overton — James Trimble — Jesse Wharton — 
 George W. Campbell— John Catron — Return J. MeiRS 
 — Sam Houston — John H. Eaton — R. G. Dunlap — Joseph 
 Hamilton — Edward Scott — James C. Mitchell — George 
 C.Boyd. 
 
 It is proper to explain here, our early court system 
 more in detail. When Tennessee became a State, 
 she retained at first the court system of North Carolina. 
 This comprised two permanent courts, the Court 
 of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, which was the equiva- 
 lent of our County Court with an enlarged jurisdic- 
 tion, and the Superior Court of Law and Equity, having 
 a general original jurisdiction, and an appellate juris- 
 diction in cases coming from the Court of Pleas and 
 Quarter Sessions. By an Act passed in 1813, an im- 
 portant modification was made in the Court of Pleas 
 and Quarter Sessions, allowing five justices to hold the 
 Court, but administrative acts were still to be per- 
 formed by the whole Court. The Superior Court of 
 Law and Equity was established in the State of Ten- 
 nessee by an Act which took effect in April, 1796, and 
 was composed of three Judges, until the fall of 1807, 
 when a fourth was added. All the Judges were re- 
 quired to attend at every term. No one cguld be a 
 Judge of the Superior Court except persons who had 
 
68 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 been resident in tlie State when the Constitution was 
 adopted, or had been resident for three years after that 
 time. 
 
 The Judges were required to take the following 
 tremendous oath: "I do solemnly swear that I will 
 support the Constitution of the United States of Amer- 
 ica. So help me God. 
 
 "I do solemnly swear that I will support the Consti- 
 tution of the State of Tennessee. So help me God. 
 
 "I do solemnly swear that I will well and truly serve 
 the State of Tennessee in the office of Judge of the 
 Superior Court of Law and Equity of said State. I 
 will do equal law and right to all persons, rich and 
 poor, without having regard to any person. I will 
 not wittingly or willingly take by myself, or by any 
 other person, any fee, gift, gratuity or reward whatever, 
 for any matter or thing by me to be done, by virtue of 
 my office, except the salary by law appointed. I will not 
 maintain by myself, or by any other, privately or 
 openly, any plea or quarrel depending in any of the 
 said courts. I will not delay any person of common 
 right, by reason of any letter ox command from any 
 person or persons in authority to me directed, or 
 for any cause whatever; and in case any letters or 
 orders come to me contrary to law, I will proceed to 
 enforce the law, such letters or orders notwithstanding. 
 I will not give my voice for the appointment of any 
 person to be clerk of any of the said courts, but such 
 of the candidates as appear to me sufficiently qualified 
 for that office; and in all such appointments I will 
 nominate, without reward, the hope of reward, or 
 prejudice, favor, partiality, or any other sinister motive 
 whatever; and finally, in all these things belonging 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 69 
 
 to my office, during my continuance therein, I will 
 faithfully, truly, and justly, according to the best of my 
 skill and judgment, do equal and impartial justice to 
 the public, and to individuals. So help me God." 
 
 This first system continued until the passage of the 
 Act of 1809, which took effect January 1, 1810, by 
 which a Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals was 
 established, consisting, at first, of two Judges, but after- 
 wards, in 1815, increased to three. In 1823 the num- 
 ber of Judges was increased to four, and in 1821, to 
 five; then reduced to four again, which continued to 
 be the number until the courts were re-organized 
 under the Constitution of 1834. Under the original 
 Act, the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals was 
 to consist of two Judges of that Court sitting with a 
 Judge of one of the five circuits which were established 
 by the Act of 1809, and the Court was to sit at Jones- 
 boro for Washington District, at Knoxville for Hamil- 
 ton District, at Nashville for Mero District, at Clarks- 
 ville for Robertson District, and at Carthage for Win- 
 chester District — the District of Robertson, consisting 
 of Robertson, Montgomery, Dickson and Stewart 
 Counties, and the District of Winchester, consisting of 
 Jackson, Smith and Wilson Counties, having been 
 organized in 1806, leaving in Mero District, Davidson, 
 Sumner, Williamson and Rutherford Counties. At a 
 later date the circuits were designated by numbers, 
 and in 1817, Sparta was substituted for Carthage as a 
 court town, and subsequently other changes were 
 made. 
 
 By an Act passed in 1811, the provision requiring 
 the attendance of a Circuit Judge was repealed, and 
 from that time until another Judge was added to the 
 
70 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 court, the two Supreme Judges sat alone. Their con- 
 current judgment was controlling, but if they differed, 
 the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. The 
 same Act gave the Supreme Court "exclusive jurisdic- 
 tion of all equity causes arising in the Circuit Court." 
 But in 1813, Circuit Judges were again given concur- 
 rent jurisdiction with the Supreme Judges in equity 
 causes. This Act of 1813 also provided that an ap- 
 peal might be taken directly from the County Court 
 to the Supreme Court if both parties consented, other- 
 wise the appeal was to the Circuit Court. The Su- 
 preme Court sat annually at each of the places desig- 
 nated by Statute. Under the Constitution of 179(5 
 there was no constitutional court of last resort, and 
 hence it was that the Legislature was able, in 1809, 
 to abolish the Superior Court, and to substitute the 
 Supreme Court and five Circuit Courts. In later 
 times, the ability of the Legislature thus to abolish and 
 establish courts came near to producing disastrous re- 
 sults.. The Legislature failed in the effort to impeach 
 a Circuit Judge, and an Act to abolish the entire 
 court system was thereupon introduced and lacked only 
 one vote of passing. Aaron V. Brown is to be remem- 
 bered gratefully for his opposition to this measure. 
 The terms of all judges, under the Constitution of 
 1796, were during life or good behavior, and this cer- 
 tain tenure of office seems, in some cases, to have pro- 
 duced very bad results. Impeachments were not un- 
 common, and too often the charges were well founded. 
 It is said that impeachment was a favorite resort of 
 defeated lawyers, who found it an easy means of shift- 
 ing responsibility for failure, upon the courts. This 
 however, is an exaggerated statement. It is not in- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 7 I 
 
 sisted that the life tenure alone was responsible for the 
 unfortunate events in the history of our early Judiciary, 
 but it is beyond question that the responsibility rests 
 largely upon it. Sometimes the Judges became care- 
 less. It was one of the charges against Judge William 
 Cocke that he failed entirely to hold some of his courts 
 as required by law. One Judge gave as an excuse for 
 a similar dereliction, the fact that the court-house was 
 infested with fleas, having been invaded by swine, in 
 vacation. Sometimes the certain tenure of office made 
 the incumbent over-bearing and tyrannical. Jndge 
 Guild has a long story to tell of a Judge who so outra- 
 geously treated the bar that the lawyers resolved 
 unanimously to duck him if he did not amend his ways. 
 Timely knowledge of this dire purpose worked the 
 required change. 
 
 But after all, these cases were exceptional. While 
 unworthy men were occasionally elected, the Judges 
 were for the most part capable men, holding. to the old 
 traditions of the profession; learned in the law, firm 
 in the administration of justice, dignified, faultlessly 
 appareled and courteous. 
 
 In some histories of Tennessee, and in nearly all that 
 has been written elsewhere of the early bench and bar 
 of our State, a disposition to exaggerate the crude- 
 ness and roughness of the conditions under which the 
 law was then administered, is manifest. By the same 
 influences the impression has been created that the 
 lawyers were illiterate. Ramsey gives a picture of 
 the court-house at Greeneville, which was also the 
 State-house of Franklin. He describes it as a small 
 log house, without doors, windows or floor, lighted by 
 an opening which served as a door, and by the spaces 
 
■J2 BILNCH AND BAR 
 
 between the logs of the walls. Putnam has preserved 
 an account of a decidedly inelegant speech by Mr. 
 Douglass, of the Nashville bar, complaining of the 
 untidiness of the frequenters of the court-room. 
 
 Liberal generalizations, based on a few facts like 
 these, have very much misrepresented the early legal 
 history of the State. It must be admitted that for 
 many years the court-houses were rude and unattract- 
 ive. It cannot be denied that, as a rule, the pioneers 
 of Tennessee were plain people, but they were not all 
 grossly ignorant or uncouth. They had few of the 
 comforts of life, their clothing was plain, their houses 
 were rude, and their manners lacked polish, though 
 their morals were good and their purposes excellent. 
 But many of the early settlers were people of educa- 
 tion, of genuine refinement, and of honorable lineage. 
 
 As a rule the lawyers were men of intelligence and 
 education, and not without refinement. Willie Blount, 
 Roane, Grundy, Campbell, White, Cocke, Sevier, 
 McNairy, were all men who would have been accepta- 
 ble in any company, however refined. They were men 
 of culture and of personal dignity. Jackson was some- 
 times rough, and his quick and headlong temper drove 
 him to unseemly acts, but when master of himself, he 
 was a gentleman of most gracious and attractive man- 
 ners, respecting himself and respecting others. It is 
 said that when LaFayette was publicly received at 
 Nashville he entered the reception hall with Jackson, 
 and was presented by him, and that opinion was much 
 divided as to which had the more courtly manners, the 
 French nobleman or the American backwoodsman. 
 Judge McNairy and Judge Humphreys are remem- 
 bered as refined and scrupulously courteous. Hay- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 73 
 
 wood could be the most attractive of men when he 
 would, but his mood was variable. It must be remem- 
 bered that many of the leaders of the Tennessee bar in 
 earliest times were choice men, selected in some in- 
 stances by the President, or by the authorities of North 
 Carolina, as administrators of the new Territory. In 
 this way came the two Blounts, McNairy and others. 
 Claiborne and Overton were educated men, who main- 
 tained themselves acceptably and with dignity in con- 
 spicuous positions. Judge White was the most cour- 
 teous and dignified of old time gentlemen, the very 
 essence of propriety. As for Governor William 
 Blount, he is unquestionably the foremost man, in 
 early Southwestern history, for courtesy and deport- 
 ment, while his charming wife, Mary Grainger Blount, 
 is, by consent of her contemporaries, accredited with 
 all the graces and excellencies that adorn and dignify 
 womanhood. 
 
 In early times, and indeed down to the present gen- 
 eration, lawyers rode the circuits. No one county 
 afforded a supporting practice to a bar richly supplied 
 with able men, engaged in strenuous but legitimate 
 competition. And so each lawyer had his saddle- 
 horse, always one of the best, and followed the Judge 
 from court to court. The life was healthful and the 
 association of the lawyers created a feeling of fellow- 
 ship sueh as is not fostered by present conditions. The 
 heated discussions of the bar frequently begat asperi- 
 ties. Under any conditions it is not easy for lawyers to 
 cherish enmity against each other,, but especially was it 
 difficult when they rode the circuit. The long rides 
 together, and association at the village inn, favored a 
 close and friendly intercourse, and speedily effaced all 
 
74 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 recollections of blows given and received in court. In 
 the good old days, fees were not large, and as money 
 was a scarce commodity, payment was often made in 
 produce and live stock. It was not uncommon for 
 lawyers to carry branding irons to mark the cattle they 
 received for fees. Time was a most important element 
 of all contracts, especially with lawyers. The writer, 
 whose father was a lawyer of recent years, but of the 
 last generation that rode the circuit in East Tennessee, 
 has in his possession an old-fashioned note case, filled 
 to repletion with promissory notes of varying amounts, 
 all sleeping forever under the sure protection of the 
 statute of limitations. The son of a famous East Ten- 
 nessee lawyer declares that at his father's death 
 he found probably fifty thousand dollars of such 
 notes among his possessions. On some of these ven- 
 erable instruments in the writer's possession are 
 credits ranging from one dollar upward. It was not 
 only the lawyers, however, that suffered in this way. 
 In the old days a note of hand was in effect a promise 
 to pay at the convenience of the maker, and one must 
 almost regret that the modern business methods have 
 substituted a demand for promptness for the amiable and 
 kindly old-fashioned way. Even in the most primitive 
 parts of Tennessee, there is now a propensity to expect 
 money to be paid when it is due. Such a disposition 
 would, in former times, have been held as proof of 
 hardness of heart and of utter unreasonableness. 
 
 In that elder time, all lawyers were special pleaders, 
 and versed in the mysteries of nisi prius. Declara- 
 tions were taken from Chitty and resounded with 
 "whereas" and "heretofore," and "to-wit," and flowed 
 on to vast lengths with that fine old verbiage which 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 75 
 
 is as mysterious to the modern lawyer as formerly 
 it was to the unlearned. In the old Tennessee Reports, 
 "Den," on the demise of various parties, is a familiar 
 figure. Indictments, with obvious justice and sound- 
 ness, attributed all breaches of the criminal law to the 
 instigation of the devil, and described weapons ol 
 offense with infinitely impressive detail and circum- 
 stance. The English common law in its original pur- 
 ity prevailed, and the penalties prescribed by Statute, 
 and otherwise, were such as existed in England in the 
 eighteenth century. The stocks and the whipping 
 post were common, and sometimes the branding iron 
 was used. Till 1842, debtors might have been sent to 
 jail, and it was by Statute, and not by the Constitution, 
 that this was changed. 
 
 There was little commercial business, and the lawyer 
 was not also a constable. Professional standards were 
 high and business was not solicited, but followed merit. 
 The lawyer believed that the only right way to get bus- 
 iness was to deserve it. There was plenty of time, and 
 fame was made by good speeches, and so the cases 
 were argued at much length, and with every possible 
 display of skill and learning, and always before a large 
 and appreciative, but not uncritical audience. The day 
 of great speeches at the bar is past, or rather the day 
 when great speeches were made in all sorts of cases. 
 In the old time there were not many big cases, but 
 in almost every case there were big speeches. With 
 the increase of business the lawyers have put aside 
 eloquence. It is now a lost and a despised art at the 
 bar. The briefest possible statement of law and facts 
 takes the place of the finished and strenuous orations 
 of old times, and modern courts have adopted the 
 
76 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 inconvenient and obstructive custom of interrogating 
 counsel, so that fine periods are always in danger of 
 interruption, which means destruction. In the pres- 
 ence of an interrogative court, no man dare attempt 
 eloquence. This method of interrogation is further 
 objectionable on the ground that it requires an exces- 
 sive knowledge of the law and of the facts of one's 
 cases. 
 
 All in all, these old times were good times for the 
 lawyers, and good for Tennessee. It was at the old 
 bar that the men were trained who made Tennessee 
 the foremost State in the West, the equal in political 
 influence of the great State of New York. Under 
 these old methods grew up also the men who, in the 
 generation before the Civil war, gave to the Supreme 
 Court of Tennessee a deservedly unsurpassed reputa- 
 tion for learning, wisdom and justice. The two gen- 
 erations next after that which we have been consider- 
 ing were full of great lawyers and great Judges. 
 
 But they of the first generation were great also. 
 The bar of no State in the Union had more men of high 
 character and ability in the first quarter of this century 
 than that of Tennessee. And down to the war, Ten- 
 nessee held her place as the foremost State in the 
 Southwest, by the ability of an extraordinary succes- 
 sion of strong men, most of whom were lawyers. It is 
 a fact that the very first settlers of the State were 
 better educated and more refined in life and manners 
 than the mass of the people of the next generation. 
 The first comers were from older Colonies, where ad- 
 vantages were superior, whereas the generations im- 
 mediately following lived hard and isolated lives, the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 77 
 
 necessities of existence requiring all their time and 
 energies. 
 
 And while the writer has been constantly provoked 
 by the difficulties of finding the material required for 
 this work, he rejoices to have had occasion to examine 
 more closely than ever before, into the histories of the 
 men who were leaders in the first years of Tennessee. 
 One comes from the study of the period with aug- 
 mented respect, and with admiration for nearly all 
 whose names have appeared in these sketches. They 
 were better and stronger men than is generally be- 
 lieved. By their abilities and their virtues they would 
 have reflected honor on the State in any period of its 
 history, but especially when tried by the standards of 
 their own time, judged with due regard for their envi- 
 ronment, they were men to be honored and to 
 be praised, and the bar of Tennessee may do 
 well to ask itself wherein it now surpasses in 
 professional or in personal excellence such men as 
 Haywood, Grundy, K.(5ane, Trimble, Overton and 
 White. 
 
 One of the largest and strongest families in Ten- 
 nessee is descended from John Overton. It is con- 
 nected with leading families in all parts of the State, 
 and is especially strong at Nashville, Memphis and 
 Knoxville. 
 
 John Overton was born in Louisa County, Virginia, 
 April 9, 1766. He was too young to serve in the Rev- 
 olution, but two older brothers were in the Conti- 
 nental army. Without positive knowledge, it is inferred 
 that the family fortunes were at this time somewhat 
 embarrassed. At all events it is related that John 
 Overton purchased, with his own earnings, the law 
 
78 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 books that he studied. He is said to have been a 
 bookish youth, and must have been fairly educated, as 
 he was for a while a teacher. He began the 
 practice of law in Kentucky, but in 1789 moved to 
 Nashville. It is said that he had at this time the be- 
 ginnings both of a fortune and of a professional repu- 
 tation. In the same month in which he reached Nash- 
 ville came thither also Andrew Jackson, and between 
 these two a warm friendship instantly sprang up, to 
 be continued in unabated fervor throughout their lives. 
 They occupied the same ofHce, and were partners in 
 all affairs outside the law. This was before the time 
 when the vocabulary of Tennessee was reduced to the 
 one word "Jackson," and the friendship must have 
 been spontaneous and genuine. It is to be remarked 
 here that Overton was at this time a Federalist. 
 
 From 1789 to 1804 he was actively engaged in the 
 practice of law, not neglecting opportunities of in- 
 creasing his fortune by other legitimate means. He 
 was elected to the Superior Oourt in 1804, and served 
 until 1809. In 1811 he was elected to the Supreme 
 Court, and served till 1816. This was the formative 
 period of Tennessee law, especially of the land 
 law, and Judge Overton was peculiarly adapted 
 to the work that fell to him. Judge John M. 
 Lea, in an admirable paper on Overton, read 
 before the Tennessee Bar Association in 1891, com- 
 ments justly on the fact that English precedents were 
 of comparatively little service to our Courts in set- 
 tling land titles in Tennessee, under conditions wholly 
 unknown in England. It does not appear that Judge 
 Overton possessed extraordinary learning, or that 
 he was what is called a brilliant man. He seems rather 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 79 
 
 to have excelled in common sense. His training in 
 the law had been excellent, as appears from his opinions, 
 but his superiority was most manifest in dealing with 
 practical affairs. He must have been also by nature 
 an exceptionally just and honest man. 
 
 Having a large, though not extraordinary knowl- 
 edge of the law, and being clear of vision, just in pur- 
 pose, and of much experience in affairs, he was able to 
 render invaluable service in shaping the land laws of 
 the State. In his ability as a land lawyer, by common 
 consent, lies his chief excellence as a Judge, and his 
 title to a high place in the annals of the profession. 
 Though not conspicuously learned, he read largely 
 and gathered a valuable library. 
 
 About the year 1820 he began active work for the 
 election of General Jackson to the Presidency of the 
 United States. He dedicated himself to the task, and 
 labored at it with unfailing assiduity and determina- 
 tion. The caucus system was regarded as dangerous 
 to Jackson, and Overton was a leader in the attack 
 upon it and in the movement for the new plan of Na- 
 tional Conventions. He was distressed but not dis- 
 mayed by Jackson's defeat in 1824, and did not abate 
 his efforts. When his friend was finally elected, and 
 became the foremost man of his time in public life, 
 Overton rejoiced in his success and was satisfied. He 
 went with Jackson to V/ashington and was present 
 at his inauguration, and whenever the President 
 needed a friend, Overton was by his side, always 
 faithful and devoted, always clear-headed, discreet, 
 and wise. From his death-bed he sent to Jackson a 
 message of friendship and admiration. 
 
 An admirable specimen of Judge Overton's style 
 
8o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 of writing and method of reasoning will be found in 
 the case of Phillips^ lessee, vs. Robertson, Cooper's 
 edition, 2 Overton's Reports, 399. The opinion is a 
 long one, covering twenty-two pages in Judge 
 Cooper's reprint, and deals exhaustively with certain 
 questions of land law which were at that time, 1815, 
 giving our courts much trouble, but many of which 
 were permanently settled by this opinion. The terms 
 "notoriety," "general entry" and "special entry" re- 
 ceived in this decision the definitions which they have 
 ever since borne in Tennessee. The attitude assumed 
 by Judge Overton, in all cases of conflicting decisions 
 where independent action was necessary, is indicated 
 by the following language, tak^n from the opinion 
 referred to: "Upon what principles is this contest to 
 be conducted, is the question. Shall we adhere to the 
 spirit and meaning of the Statutes of North Carolina, 
 as interpreted by contemporaneous usage, modified 
 by the practice of our own courts previous to the year 
 1806, or shall we strike out some other plan, adopt 
 some new system, disregarding the ancient landmarks 
 of law? Shall we adopt the systems of Virginia and 
 Kentucky? That will not do, because, by the decis- 
 ions of this Court, following the steps of our prede- 
 cessors in the late Superior Courts, we have already 
 far departed from them. * * * Pq;- myself, t can 
 say that a strict adherence to the decisions of our 
 courts, previous to the year 1806, will be observed so 
 far as the principles of those decisions go, and when 
 they fail, the Statutes of North Carolina, on which our 
 own rest, with contemporaneous construction, will be 
 the guide; not the fluctuating passions and interests of 
 society, which change with times and circumstances." 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 8l 
 
 The same wise conservatism characterizes all his 
 decisions, but, as already indicated, circumstances were 
 frequently such as to require him to make precedents 
 instead of following them, and in such cases, the 
 soundness of his judgment and the eminently practi- 
 cal quality of his mind are always apparent. He did 
 not rashly disregard precedents, but was not helplessly 
 dependent upon them. 
 
 Overton's connection with the establishment of 
 Memphis forms an interesting chapter of his life. In 
 May, 1794, in partnership with General Jackson, he 
 purchased the Rice grant of land, at the mouth of 
 Wolf River. Upon this land a large part of the city of 
 Memphis now stands. The grant had been made by the 
 State of North Carolina, and the land was not subject to 
 occupation until the Indian title was extinguished. It 
 is an evidence of Overton's excellent business judg- 
 ment that, from the very first, he contended that the 
 Chickasaw Blufifs must be the site of a great city. He 
 made the investment confidently, and never for a mo- 
 ment lost faith. 
 
 Twenty-six years after the purchase, his expecta- 
 tions began to be realized. In 1820 the Chickasaw 
 BlufT was laid off into streets and alleys ;' squares were 
 set apart for pleasure grounds, and arrangements made 
 upon a large scale for the establishment of a city. 
 The place was called Memphis at the suggestion or 
 request of General Winchester, who was interested in 
 the Rice grant. How fully Overton's expectations 
 were realized and his judgment confirmed is well 
 known. 
 
 Judge Overton was mentally and morally a sound 
 and strong man. All his qualities appear to have been 
 
82 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 substantial rather than brilliant. He was cautious 
 and conservative in reaching conclusions, but resolute 
 in purpose, and in business was not afraid to 
 assume risks. He was liberal in temperament, and 
 while earnest in advancing his own fortunes, was a pro- 
 gressive and public-spirited citizen. Probably no man 
 of his time contributed more to the material growth 
 of the State. He is with propriety accorded a high 
 place in the history of Tennessee, and his descendants 
 may justly be proud of the good and honorable name 
 that he has left them. He died April 12, 1833. 
 
 James Trimble is described as a man of many 
 fine qualities. He was tmdoubtedly one of the best 
 lawyers of his time in Tennessee; a modest man of 
 gentle habits and much courtesy. His health was 
 never good, and his style of speech at the bar is 
 described as conversational, but very intense and sin- 
 gularly effective. His intellect was too active for a 
 frail body, and he died from the effects of over-work. 
 He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in 
 1781 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and educated at 
 Washington College, East Tennessee. Studying law 
 at Staunton, Virginia, he settled at Knoxville at a date 
 not known, and in a short time thereafter was elected 
 clerk of the General Assembly. In 1809 he was in the 
 Legislature from Knox County, and in 1810 was 
 elected Judge of the Second Circuit, defeating David 
 Campbell. He moved to Nashville in 1813, and prac- 
 ticed law there until his death. He was a trustee of 
 Cumberland College, was active in procuring the char- 
 ter of the Nashville Female Academy, and was instru- 
 mental in securing Philip Lindsley for the presidency 
 of Cumberland College. He was a Madisonian in pol- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 83 
 
 itics, and in 1822 supported William H.' Crawford in 
 preference to Andrew Jackson. His reputation for 
 professional skill and for integrity extended through- 
 out the State, and attracted to his office a number of 
 law students, among whom were .Sam Houston, Aaron 
 V. Brown, William E. Kennedy and George S. Yerger. 
 He was a member of the Presbyterian church, and an 
 elder. His death occurred in 1824. A short but ap- 
 preciative sketch of him will be found in Professor 
 Clayton's History of Davidson County, Tennessee. 
 
 No record of the birthplace of Jesse Wharton has 
 been found. He was a man of great prominence in 
 Tennessee in the early part of the century. He was a 
 member of Congress from Mero District in 1807, and 
 United States Senator from 1814 to 1815. He died at 
 Nashville, July 23, 1833. His successor in the Senate 
 was Colonel John Williams. 
 
 There is much doubt as to the nativity of George 
 W. Campbell. In an excellent article recently pub- 
 lished in the Knoxville Journal, William Rule states 
 that he was born in Scotland. The American Ency- 
 clopedia of Biography fixes his birth in Tennessee in 
 1768, which is obviously incorrect. Of the half dozen 
 or more books that have been consulted, a majority 
 make Campbell a native of North Carolina, but nothing 
 has been found to confirm the statement. His name 
 indicates American origin, and while the date of his 
 birth is not known, it is of record that he was elected 
 to Congress from Tennessee in 1803, and it is there- 
 fore to be inferred that he was born during the Revo- 
 lution. It seems hardly probable that at that time a 
 resident of Scotland would have been bold enough to 
 name a son for the arch-traitor George Washington. 
 
84 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Mr. Campbell came to Tennessee in the early days 
 of our Statehood, having been admitted to the bar in 
 North Carolina. In 1803 he was elected to Congress 
 from Hamilton District, and was re-elected in 1805 
 and in 1807. Together with Hugh Lawson White he 
 was elected Judge of the Supreme Court in 1809, and 
 served till 1811, when he was elected to the United 
 States Senate to succeed Jenkin Whiteside. Very 
 little is known now of his record as a Senator, but 
 he must have served acceptably, because in 1814 Mr. 
 Madison appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, 
 and in 1817 Mr. Monroe offered him the War portfolio, 
 which he declined. In 1817 he was appointed Minis- 
 ter to Russia, and was at St. Petersburg until 1830. 
 On his way to that city he stopped at Copenhagen, 
 in pursuance of directions from the State Department, 
 for the purpose of adjusting matters then in dispute 
 between the United States and Denmark. Leaving 
 Russia in the latter part of 1830, he returned to Nash- 
 ville in 1821, and from that time until his death, which 
 occurred February 17, 1848, he held no public ofifice, 
 except that in 1831 he was one of the commissioners 
 upon the French spoliation claims. 
 
 Judge Campbell had thus a very distinguished career, 
 and was in his time classed, as a lawyer, with Ha3'wood, 
 ^/ho seems to have been his close personal friend. He 
 was in no sense a popular favorite or hei'o, like Jackson 
 and Sevier, but owed his success solely to his ability. 
 He was a thorough lawyer, and it is said that he 
 shared fully in the general estimate of his abilities. 
 There is in existence a printed copy of an advertise- 
 ment in which he offered his professional services to 
 the public, and in which he, in effect, declared himself 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 85 
 
 the foremost lawyer of the State. While it might not 
 be difficult to find at any time a number of lawyers who 
 have the same estimate of themselves, this is the only 
 recorded instance in which the truth has been so frankly 
 avowed. It may be that Judge Campbell was not al- 
 together wrong. In any event, it is not to be denied 
 that if he really made such a statement, he was an 
 exceptionally candid man. 
 
 Notwithstandingthe fact that no other Tennessean in 
 the first two decades of this century, with the single ex- 
 ception of Andrew Jackson, held so many high places 
 under the Federal government, Judge Campbell is 
 almost forgotten. He seems not to have possessed 
 the striking personal peculiarities that impress the 
 masses. He was a scholarly and learned man, but 
 his time was one of action, and he was not a man of 
 action, but a student and a scholar. 
 
 He was Secretary of the Treasury at a trying time. 
 Financial matters were very much disturbed, and party 
 feeling intensely bitter. Naturally, his administration 
 was repeatedly and harshly criticised. That criticism 
 of this kind was largely unjust need not be said. As a 
 lawyer, as a Judge, as a Senator, as a diplomat, and as 
 a member of the Cabinet, Campbell displayed extraor- 
 dinary ability, and as a public officer he reflected great 
 credit upon his adopted State. 
 
 Under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1837, the 
 number of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States was increased from seven to nine. President 
 Jackson immediately sent two nominations to the Sen- 
 ate. The first was William Smith, of Alabama, who 
 declined the position on account of his age; and the 
 second was John Catron, of Tennessee, who ac- 
 
86 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 cepted, and was duly commissioned March 8, 1837. 
 There is a difference of authority as to Judge Catron's 
 birthplace. According to some, he was born in Penn- 
 sylvania. Albert D. Marks, in his History of the Su- 
 preme Court of Tennessee, gives his birthplace as 
 Wythe County, Virginia, and the time as 1779. In 
 Carson's History of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, it appears that his birth is assigned also to the 
 year 1786. 
 
 Marks says that at an early age he emigrated to Ken- 
 tucky, and thence to Tennessee in 1812, and that he 
 was admitted to the bar in 1815, beginning the prac- 
 tice in Overton County, Tennessee. Carson says that 
 he received a common school education, and in 1812 
 began the study of law in Kentucky, and was admit- 
 ted to the bar in 1815, after four years of study, during 
 which he devoted to his work sixteen hours a day. 
 He served under General Jackson in the war of 1812, 
 and was with him at New Orleans. In 1818 he re- 
 moved to Nashville, having been previously State's 
 Attorney for his circuit. He was elected to the Su- 
 preme Court of Tennessee in September, 1821, and was 
 the Chief Justice of that Court from 1330 to 1836, be- 
 ing the first Chief Justice. Mr. Carson says that he 
 owed his appointment to the supreme bench of the 
 United States to the friendship of President Van Bu- 
 ren, "who had been attracted by his great knowledge 
 of the laws applicable to land titles, a branch of un- 
 usual importance in the portion of the Union which he 
 represented." It seems more probable that the ap- 
 pointment was the result of Andrew Jackson's personal 
 regard for Catron. Jackson probably had known him 
 from the time of the New Orleans campaign, and all 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 07 
 
 Students of Tennessee history are familiar with the 
 fact that Catron was a skiUed poUtician, and a staunch 
 adherent of Jackson. For many years he had been 
 one of Jackson's most ardent admirers and most ef- 
 ficient supporters. In the campaign between Hugh 
 Lawson White and A^an Buren, Catron was particu- 
 larly active in Tennessee, and there can be no doubt 
 that Van Buren was under obligations to him, and did, 
 therefore, favor his appointment to the supreme bench, 
 but Catron's relations had long been much more inti- 
 mate with Jackson than they had ever been with Van 
 Buren. In the Van Buren- White campaign. Judge 
 Catron's political tactics had been so skillful that many 
 became confirmed in the belief that had gradually 
 been growing up in Tennessee, that he had an unfortu- 
 nate facility as a political manager. 
 
 Several stories are told of the methods by which 
 Catron's appointment to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States was secured. According to one of these, 
 his wife being with him at Nashville, and hearing of 
 the increase in the number of judgeships, virtually 
 compelled him to start with her immediately for the 
 national capital, not even telling him their destina- 
 tion until they had come to the Kentucky line; and 
 having arrived at Washington, she hastened to the 
 White House in the morning, before General Jackson 
 had completed his toilet, found him in his dressing- 
 gown, smoking his cob pipe, demanded her husband's 
 appointment, and received the reply: "By the Eternal, 
 he shall have it." * This is very good for a story. 
 
 Judge Guild has some interesting reminiscences of 
 
 * Hallum's Diary of an Old Lawyer. 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Judge Catron. He says that "he was a large, well- 
 proportioned man of swarthy complexion, with a fine 
 black eye and a firm, manly face, indicative of intelli- 
 gence, industry and a purpose to succeed in whatever 
 he might undertake— to paddle his own canoe, and ask 
 no favors. * * * * His citations of authorities 
 showed that he snufTed the midnight lamp in the labor 
 bestowed upon the cases intrusted to his care. He was 
 a harsh, unpleasant speaker, with a squeaking, unmelo- 
 dious voice, and his gestures were like those of a man 
 engaged in a fight; but there was a continued flow of 
 hard practical sense while his argument was so en- 
 forced by homely illustrations, that his speeches were 
 not only interesting, but frequently convincing. He 
 generally left a black eye before he came out of the 
 battle." * Judge Guild, however, is mistaken as to 
 the time when Catron went to Nashville, and when he 
 went upon the supreme bench of the State, and prob- 
 ably confuses the parts borne respectively by Catron 
 and Haywood in relation to the construction of the 
 Acts of 1715 and 1796. He also misses by two years 
 the time when Catron went upon the supreme bench 
 of the United States. 
 
 Many events of Judge Catron's early life are imper- 
 fectly known, but it is certain that his parents were 
 poor, and that his opportunities for education were 
 very inferior. He was a growing man, however, and 
 seems to have increased in intellectual stature until he 
 became really one of the strongest men of his time. 
 Like nearly all the great lawyers and Judges 
 of his time in Tennessee, he gave more atten- 
 
 *Oia Times In Tennessee, p. 459. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 89 
 
 tion to real estate law than to any other branch of the 
 science. Btit the lawyers of that day were general 
 practitioners. The condition of affairs did not permit 
 them to be specialists. Catron is remembered in Ten- 
 nessee for his judicial utterances upon the subject of 
 duelling-, especially in the noted case of the State 
 vs. Smith* In this opinion he describes with 
 great force the different classes of men, as he con- 
 ceived them, who accepted the code of honor. In that 
 case an information had been exhibited to one of the 
 Judges of the Circuit Court, charging that Smith, 
 while an attorney of said Court, had accepted in the 
 State of Tennessee a challenge, and had fought a duel 
 in the State of Kentucky, and killed his antagonist. 
 The Circuit Court ordered Smith to be disbarred, and 
 he appealed to the Supreme Court. That Court 
 affirmed the judgment, holding that it was good cause 
 to strike the attorney from the roll, that he had ac- 
 cepted a challenge to fight a duel, or had fought a 
 duel in a sister State, and killed his antagonist. A 
 brief quotation will illustrate the spirit of Judge Catron, 
 as displayed in this opinion: "To restrain the blind 
 and criminal passions that drive to ruin the fearless 
 and valuable man ; to restrain the wicked vanity of the 
 noisy coxcomb; and to protect from his misguided 
 fears of giddy and idle ridicule the physically weak and 
 nervous man, have mankind generally, and Tennessee 
 in particular, legislated to punish duelling. * * * 
 We are told that this is only a kind of honorable hom- 
 icide! The law knows it as a wicked and wilful mur- 
 der, and it is our duty to treat it as such. We are 
 
 * 1 Yerger, 228. 
 
90 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 placed here firmly and fearlessly to execute the laws 
 of the land, not visionary codes of honor, framed to 
 subserve the purposes of destruction." 
 
 This is strong language, in view of the fact that Judge 
 Catron had always been a fighting lawyer, and had 
 carried in his saddlebags with his clean shirts, a case 
 of duelling pistols, which he is said to have been 
 ready to use on slight occasion. 
 
 When the war between the States began, Catron 
 espoused the side of the Union, and retained his place 
 upon the bench. Leaving Nashville at the outbreak of 
 hostilities, he did not return until the Federal au- 
 thority had been re-established, when he reorganized 
 the United States Courts. 
 
 The estimate of Judge Catron given by Carson in 
 his History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 is an exceptionally favorable one, as the following 
 quotations will show: "His power of judicial analysis 
 was remarkable, and he sought in all cases to weigh 
 and examine every authorit/ cited by counsel, and 
 accepted such only as seemed to be founded on prin- 
 ciple. * * * J)- ^as ^hg testimony of his brethren 
 of the bench that, in the learning of the common law 
 and of equity jurisprudence, and especially in its ap- 
 plication to questions of real property, he had few 
 equals, and hardly a superior. He was distinguished 
 for strong practical sense, firmness of will and honesty 
 of purpose. He was candid, patient and impartial." * 
 
 "In the period immediately preceding the war many 
 grave questions of constitutional construction con- 
 fronted and divided the Supreme Court of the United 
 
 * Carson, p. 299. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 9I 
 
 States. In these divisions, according to the phrase 
 of Justice Curtis, AIcLean and Wayne were the high- 
 toned Federalists; Catron, Crier and McKinly were 
 also Federalists in their tendencies, but much less 
 pronounced; Woodbury, Daniel and Nelson were gen- 
 erally in accord with the Chief Justice." * 
 
 One of the more important opinions delivered by 
 Justice Catron while upon the supreme bench of the 
 United States, was in refusing a motion for a writ of 
 habeas corpus in re Thomas Kaine. The petitioner 
 was an alleged fugitive from Great Britain, and a ques- 
 tion of extradition arose under the tenth article of the 
 treaty of 1842 between the United States and Great 
 Britain. A warrant had been issued by the United 
 States commissioner at the instance of the British 
 consul for the apprehension of a person who, it was 
 alleged, had been guilty of an attempt to murder, in 
 Ireland. Ivaine had been committed for the purpose 
 of awaiting the order of the President of the United 
 States; he applied for a writ of habeas corpus, which 
 was issued by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 and after a hearing the writ was dismissed and the 
 prisoner remanded. 
 
 In the Dred Scott case, Catron delivered a separate 
 opinion in which he concurred generally with Chief 
 Justice Taney in his opinion as to the unconstitution- 
 ality of the Missouri Compromise Act, though he was 
 of opinion that the judgment of the Circuit Court on 
 the insuiificiency of the plea in abatement was conclu- 
 sive as to the jurisdiction of the Court. In other re- 
 spects he concurred with the Chief Justice. 
 
 * Carson, p. 277. 
 
g2 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 In nearly all of Justice Catron's opinions there is 
 a manifest leaning toward Federalist principles in con- 
 struing the Constitution — an interesting and rather 
 surprising fact, as he had been a lifelong friend and 
 supporter of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Among the important cases in which he delivered 
 opinions may be cited the License Cases, i Howard, 
 U. S., 404-633; and the Passenger Cases, 7 Howard, 
 283-572. 
 
 He died May 30, 1865. 
 
 One of the most pleasing figures in the legal history 
 of the State is the Tennessee representative of the name 
 Return J. Meigs. He was the son of John Meigs, 
 and the grandson of Colonel Return J. Meigs, the 
 Indian agent. Return J. Meigs, of Ohio, was his 
 uncle. He was born April 14, 1801, in Clark County, 
 Kentucky. His father gave him a common school 
 education, and afterwards required him to take a special 
 course in the classics and in mathematics. He 
 studied law in Kentucky, and began the practice at 
 Athens, Tennessee, in 1823. At that time the bulk 
 of the litigation in that section was in connection with 
 the Cherokee treaties of 1817-1819. The questions 
 arising grew mainly out of the construction of the 
 reservation clauses in the treaties. In the course of 
 a few years he became known throughout the State 
 as a lawyer of unusual ability, and in 1834 formed a 
 partnership with James Rucks, at Nashville. He was 
 afterwards associated with Judge John M. Lea, one of 
 the most distinguished members of the Tennessee bar 
 now living. In 1838 he was appointed State reporter, 
 to succeed George S. Yerger, but becoming a candi- 
 date for a succeeding term, was defeated by West H. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 93 
 
 Humphreys. The Legislature was Democratic, and 
 Meigs was a Whig. In 1848 he began the preparation 
 of his Tennessee Digest, which has been an invaluable 
 book to the profession in Tennessee, and which has 
 never been equalled by any similar work in the State, 
 and probably never surpassed anywhere. It continued 
 to be almost exclusively used by the profession for 
 twenty years, and is the basis of the Digest of Ten- 
 nessee decisions which is now most generally used. 
 It is a lasting monument to the author. He was pecu- 
 liarly adapted to the work by his habits of patient and 
 scrupulous investigation, his extraordinary power of 
 analysis and discrimination, and his gift of concise 
 and clear statement. But the most remarkable fact 
 about the Digest is that it shows a broad and thorough 
 comprehension of the spirit of our jurisprudence as a 
 whole. The author did not confine his attention to 
 the particular subject or case on which he was work- 
 ing, but saw each subject in its various relations to 
 cognate subjects. The book is therefore a harmonious 
 work, not simply full and accurate in each individual 
 part. The parts are jointed and fitted together so as 
 to give an adequate view of our system of jurispru- 
 dence, and the Digest is not simply a succession of 
 disconnected summaries of particular cases. In ad- 
 dition to all this, there is in it much learning and 
 valuable historical information on the subject of the 
 statutory laws of North Carolina and Tennessee. It 
 is the work of a scholar and a philosopher, as well as 
 a profoundly learned lawyer. We have had in Ten- 
 nessee many lawyers who as practitioners equalled or 
 surpassed Mr. Meigs, but probably not one who was 
 more thoroughly learned in the law, or better quali- 
 
94 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 fied to expound it. His Digest has every good quality 
 of its kind, and no better fortune could befall the pro- 
 fession than to have it brought down to date, with the 
 same thoroughness. But who shall do the work? 
 
 In 1853 Meigs was appointed, with W. F. Cooper, 
 afterwards a Supreme Judge, to prepare a Di- 
 gest of the Statute laws of the State. The two 
 commissioners were engaged in this work from 18-53 
 until the Winter of 1857-1858, when they made their 
 report to the Legislature, and the Code was adopted. 
 It is the only Code that Tennessee has ever had. There 
 are three later compilations of our Statutes, all based 
 upon this one, and following the admirable plan upon 
 which it was constructed, but none of them has re- 
 ceived official recognition, so that the Code of 1858 
 is in fact the Code of Tennessee to-day, and our Su- 
 preme Court has held that the Statutes of the State 
 may be properly designated only by reference to the 
 original Acts, or to this Code. 
 
 Mr. Meigs had no connection with politics, except 
 that in 1847 he was elected to the State Senate from 
 Davidson County, at the time when the State was most 
 active in prosecuting its policy of public improvements ; 
 a policy with which he was in thorough accord, and 
 which he earnestly advocated. When the war between 
 the States began, he declared himself a Union man, 
 and on account of the fact that Tennessee had arrayed 
 herself upon the other side, changed his residence to 
 New York in June, 1861. In 1863 he was called to 
 Washington by Mr. Lincoln, and requested to prepare 
 a Digest of the laws of the District of Columbia, but 
 declined for the reason that, in his judgment, a knowl- 
 edge of the laws of Maryland was necessary to the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 95 
 
 proper preparation of such a Digest. On the same 
 day that this offer was made to him he was, by the 
 special request of Mr. Lincoln, appointed Clerk of 
 the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and 
 held that position until his death, October 19, 1891. 
 
 He was unquestionably the best qualified man in 
 his peculiar lines of work that we have had at the bar 
 of Tennessee. He was for many reasons an admirable 
 man. No one knew the law better, and no man of 
 his time in Tennessee was his superior in scholarly 
 attainments. His reading was wide and thorough, and 
 all his knowledge was digested and serviceable. 
 
 At the bar he was universally respected, and when he 
 sought to do so, he commanded a lucrative practice, 
 but unlike most men of unusual ability, he lacked am- 
 bition, or at least that kind of ambition which strives 
 perpetually for display and for position. Some may 
 say that the clerkship of a court was tmworthy of a man 
 of his ability, but it gave him a living, and he had 
 already the respect of all who knew him, and had also 
 the satisfactions that belong alone to the scholar's 
 quiet life. If he had remained in Tennessee he might 
 have led a more conspicuous life, but not a happier or 
 more useful one. Probably he might have had in 
 Tennessee any ofhce that he would have accepted, but 
 he did not return to the State after the war, preferring 
 to continue the secluded life to which he had become 
 accustomed. 
 
 It is part of the unwritten history of that time that 
 when a Senator was to be elected, in 1865, the Legis- 
 lature of Tennessee, seeking for a man of commanding 
 ability and reputation, acting through certain of its 
 members, offered the place to Meigs. The offer was 
 
g6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 made by telegraph. He replied that he was not then 
 a citizen of Tennessee and did not wish the office. He 
 was importuned to accept it, but peremptorily declined. 
 There is good authority also for the statement that the 
 President offered him the place upon the Supreme 
 bench of the United States, made vacant by the death 
 of Judge Catron, but he declined it. 
 
 While he was a studious and retiring man, he was 
 not without capacity for affairs, or force of character. 
 He is said even to have been obstinate and intolerant of 
 opposition, and at times inclined to use extremely 
 vigorous language. A friend, who knew him well, 
 says that he was by nature, as well as by training and 
 practice, a Puritan. 
 
 Persons who have examined the State library at 
 Nashville, will recall that it is a large collection of 
 books, many of which are of great value and merit. 
 There are many of these that would have been selected 
 only by a man of "much literature," as Dr. Johnson 
 would have said. It is creditable to the State that so 
 much good taste and judgment should have been 
 shown in selecting the nucleus of its library. The 
 credit for this is due to Mr. Meigs, who was for a 
 considerable time the State Librarian. It will be found 
 that Tennessee has really an excellent library, if ever 
 it shall be so arranged as to be available to students 
 without the most exhaustive manual and mental labor 
 in finding what is there. 
 
 Sam Houston, like Thomas H. Benton, belongs 
 more to the history of another State than to that of Ten- 
 nessee. Unlike Benton, however, he had risen to high 
 position before he left Tennessee. 
 
 He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 97 
 
 Rockingham County, Virginia, March 2, 1793. His 
 father, who had been a gallant and distinguished sol- 
 dier of the Revolution, died in 1807, leaving the mother 
 with six sons and three daughters dependent on her. 
 As so many Americans of reduced fortunes have done, 
 she sought to better her condition by moving west- 
 ward. She came to Blount County, Tennessee. Sam 
 Houston studied in the intervals of hard work, and it is 
 related that he committed to memory the whole of 
 Pope's translation of the Iliad, a tradition which the 
 writer does not credit. 
 
 The family put him to clerk in a country store, but 
 finding the business irksome, he fled to the Indians 
 beyond the Tennessee River, and lived with them for 
 five years. At the age of eighteen, finding himself in 
 debt, he opened a school for white children and earned 
 the money to pay his debts. The tuition was eight 
 dollars a year. In 1813 he enlisted in the Thirty-ninth 
 United States Regular Infantry, and was soon made 
 a Sergeant. Proving himself an efficient drill master, 
 he was commissioned as Ensign, and held that rank 
 when his regiment led the fight in the great battle of 
 the Horse-shoe, as already related in the sketch of 
 Colonel John Williams. It will be recalled that in this 
 hot contest, Houston was conspicuously gallant, and 
 was desperately wounded. He was unable to be at 
 New Orleans with Jackson, but after the close of the 
 war was stationed there as First Lieutenant in the 
 Thirty-ninth regiment. In 1817 he returned to Ten- 
 nessee and was stationed at Nashville on duty in the 
 office of the Adjutant-General .of the Southern Di- 
 vision. In the Autumn of the same year he was sent 
 to execute a treaty made by General Jackson with the 
 
98 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Cherokees, and performed his mission to Jackson's 
 entire satisfaction. But having conducted a delega- 
 tion of Indians to Washington, he was met there with 
 the charge that he had violated the law in his efforts 
 to prevent the smuggling of negroes from the Spanish 
 province of Plorida into the Western States. The 
 charge was easily refvtted, but Houston was offended, 
 and resigning' his commission, went to Nashville to 
 study law. He was at this time twenty-iive years of age, 
 and was deeply in debt. In June, 1818, he entered the 
 ofifice of James Trimble, and in a few months was ad- 
 mitted to the bar and opened an office at Lebanon. 
 Shortly afterwards he was made Adjutant-General of 
 Tennessee, with the i-ank of Colonel. His success at 
 the bar was speedy, and in 1819 he was elected Dis- 
 trict Attorney of the Davidson District, and removed 
 lo Nashville. He held this ofifice for only one year, 
 and then resigned and entered upon a successful gen- 
 eral practice. In 1821 he was elected Major-General 
 of Tennessee, and in 1823 was elected to Congress 
 without opposition, and was re-elected in 1S25. So 
 great had become his popularity, that in 1827 he was 
 elected Governor by a majority of twelve thousand 
 votes. The Legislature was composed almost entirely 
 of his friends, and no man ever entered upon a high 
 ofifice under more favorable auspices. In January, 
 1829, he was married, and in less than three months 
 had separated from his bride, resigned his ofifice, given 
 up the great future that was before him, abandoned civ- 
 ilized life, and returned to live among the savages who 
 had been the friends of his youth, but whose dwelling- 
 place was now in a far western wilderness. The mo- 
 tive which prompted this extraordinary conduct is not 
 
OF TENNESSEE 99 
 
 known, and probably will remain forever unknown. 
 From this time he has no part in the history of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 It is the testimony of his contemporaries that Hous- 
 ton displayed genuine ability as a lawyer, and was 
 capable of attaining a high place in the profession. 
 
 Among the more conspicuous figures appearing in 
 the history of Tennessee within the first quarter of this 
 century, was John Henry Eaton. He was a native 
 of Halifax County, North Carolina, where he was born 
 in 1787. He spent several years at the University of 
 North Carolina, but did not graduate. After leaving 
 college he studied law, and then came to Tennessee, 
 but the exact date of his coming cannot be stated. 
 By the year 1818 he had become sufficiently prominent 
 at the bar to secure the appointment to a vacancy in 
 the United States Senate. He received this appoint- 
 ment September 5, 1818, and being thereafter elected, 
 served continuously until March 4, 1829, when he 
 entered the Cabinet of Andrew Jackson as Secretaiy 
 of War. 
 
 Mention has been made of the fact that public 
 opinion pointed to Hugh L. White as the represent- 
 ative of Tennessee in Jackson's Cabinet; but Eaton, 
 who, being more complaisant, was more acceptable to 
 Jackson personally, forestalled White's candidacy by 
 a very ingenious scheme. He wrote to White in effect, 
 that Jackson desired one of them to be in his Cabinet. 
 He knew White's character well enough to believe 
 that when thus approached he would decline. The ex- 
 pectation was well founded, and Eaton received the 
 appointment which he had eagerly coveted. He was 
 a man of positive ability, and was an efficient Secretary. 
 
lOO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The rather sensational incidents connected with his 
 marriage with the beautiful but somewhat notorious, 
 widow Timberlake, are well known. This marriage 
 resulted in the breaking up of Jackson's ofKcial 
 family, and in a vast deal of scandal and unpleas- 
 antness. But, while one may question Eaton's taste, 
 it seems certain that public opinion dealt with him 
 with undue severity, and that he is entitled to credit 
 for loyalty to his wife. He was Secretary of War from 
 1829 to 1831; from 1834 to 1836 he was Governor of 
 Florida, and from 1836 to 1840, minister to Spain. He 
 created a decided sensation in the ranks of the Dem- 
 ocracy by refusing in 1840 to support Van Buren, giv- 
 ing as his reason that while in Spain he had seen the 
 workings of a hard money system, and had become im- 
 pressed with the belief that it was wrong in princi- 
 ple. It was expected that his course in this matter 
 would create a breach between him and Andrew Jack- 
 son, but it seems not to have had that effect. He died 
 in Washington in November, 1856. He was one of 
 Jackson's most zealous and influential supporters. 
 The invasion of Florida by Jackson occurred during 
 his first term in the Senate, and in the heated debate 
 that followed, Eaton stood firmly for his friend. 
 
 About the year 1818, he published the life of Jack- 
 son which bears his name, and which Parton criticises 
 as follows: "The best of all the popular lives of Jack- 
 son; valuable for its full details of the Creek war; not 
 designedly false, but necessarily so, because written 
 on the principle of omitting to mention every fact and 
 trait of its subject not calculated to win general ap- 
 proval." 
 
 Eaton is described as a handsome, graceful man, a 
 
OF TENNESSEE. lOI 
 
 fine elocutionist, and a good writer. His special dis- 
 tinction was won in politics and not at the law. In 
 view of the fact that he was elected to the Senate at a 
 very early age, he must, however, have displayed con- 
 siderable ability at the bar. 
 
 The first male child born in the town of Knoxville 
 was Richard G. Dunlap. The exact date of his 
 birth cannot be given, but it was in 1793. He was 
 educated at Ebenezer Academy under the Rev. Samuel 
 G. Ramsey, and was a student when the war of 1S12 
 began. He was at the time nineteen years of age, and 
 being filled with martial ardor, raised a company of cav- 
 alry and tendered them to General Jackson, by whom 
 they were accepted. Dr. Ramsey says that he became 
 one of Jackson's favorites, and retained his good will 
 and confidence to the end. He served with much 
 credit at Mobile and at Pensacola. Whether or not he 
 was at New Orleans does not definitely appear. 
 
 At the conclusion of the war, in 1815, he returned 
 to Knoxville and began to study law in the office of 
 John McCampbell. Dr. Ramsey is authority for the 
 statement that he was a successful practitioner, but 
 that the law was not altogether a congenial pursuit, 
 and that he organized, at a date not given, a volunteer 
 troop of light horsemen, of which he was unanimously 
 elected commander. He held the office of Brigadier- 
 General in the East Tennessee Militia during the trou- 
 bles with the Seminoles in 1836. In 1831, he was 
 elected to the Legislature from Knox County. He ap- 
 pears to have been one of the champions of public 
 im_provements, and Ramsey refers to him as the "father 
 of our system of common schools." The exact service 
 that he performed in this last respect is not shown by 
 
102 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 any accessible authority. In 1835 he was for a short 
 time a candidate for Governor, but withdrew from the 
 contest on account of ill-health. 
 
 Soon after the termination of his services as General 
 of Militia, he went to Texas, and at a subsequent date 
 was made a member of the Cabinet of that Republic, 
 and then sent to Washington as minister plenipo- 
 tentiary. While there he was married, but survived 
 the marriage only about a year. 
 
 The facts here recited are taken from a sketch of 
 General Dunlap, which was printed by Dr. J. G. Al. 
 Ramsey in the Knoxville Argus of July 21, 1841, for a 
 copy of which the writer is indebted to Governor 
 James D. Porter, who married a daughter of General 
 John H. Dunlap, of Paris, Tennessee, a brother of 
 Richard G. Dunlap. Dr. Ramsey speaks of General 
 Dunlap in terms of the highest praise. 
 
 He seems to have been a man of a high sense of 
 honor, and an ardent lover of liberty. He was not con- 
 spicuous as a lawyer, but was a man of energy and 
 ability, and was best satisfied when in action. The 
 monotony and drudgery of the lawyer's life were dis- 
 tasteful, and he sought an outlet for his restless ener- 
 gies in active pursuits. Military life attracted him, 
 and in it his abilities were best displayed. His record 
 shows him to have been an honest, brave and worthy 
 man. 
 
 Reference has been made to the admission of 
 Joseph Hamilton to the bar of Tennessee, and to 
 the fact that he was a son-in-law of Alexander Out- 
 law. Mr. Hamilton was one of the notable men of his 
 time, and it is unfortunate that so little of his history 
 has been preserved. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 103 
 
 His family was, as the name indicates, of Scottisli 
 origin. It was one of tlie man}' staunch Presbyterian 
 families that came to America by way of Ulster, in 
 search of religious liberty. Many of these Scotch- 
 Irish families trace their lineages back to very honor- 
 able beginnings. This branch of the Hamiltons has 
 upon the distaff side an ancestress, Margaret Wallace, 
 who was a direct descendant of the great Sir William of 
 that ilk, the national hero of Scotland. Robert Ham- 
 ilton, the father of Joseph, came from Scotland and 
 settled in the valley of Virginia, "on Carrs Creek, in 
 Rockbridge County. Here Joseph was born in 1763. 
 He received a classical education at Liberty Hall, 
 which afterwards became Washington College, and is 
 now Washington and Lee University. 
 
 He came to Tennessee in ITSi, having been ad- 
 mitted to the bar in his native State. Among the 
 lawyers with whom he was associated were David 
 Campbell, Archibald Roane and Joseph Anderson. 
 For forty years he was an active practitioner, 
 and it is said, was generally referred to as the 
 "honest lawyer." This must have been a very 
 gratifying and enviable distinction, because Anderson, 
 Roane and nearly all of his associates were honest 
 beyond question. 
 
 Joseph Hamilton's wife was the third daughter of 
 Alexander Outlaw, and to the marriage were born 
 eleven children. Among the descendants are the 
 Gammons, of Jonesboro, and of Knoxville; the Blairs, 
 of North Carolina, and the Van Dykes, of Athens and 
 of Chattanooga. Collaterally the family is connected 
 with the Daviess family of Kentucky. Everything 
 that is known of Joseph Hamilton is creditable. His 
 
104 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 descendants hold him in the greatest esteem and rev- 
 erence, and undoubtedly he was both a good and an 
 
 able man. 
 
 Judge Edward Scott was a person of many pecu- 
 liarities. It is not claimed that he was a man of 
 broad and comprehensive mind, but he was a dihgent 
 student, had a tenacious memory, and prided himself 
 on his ability to cite and to quote cases. It is said of him 
 in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, that he admin- 
 istered the law as he remembered it, seldom throwing 
 himself on his own resources. This was true gen- 
 erally, but on at least one occasion he made a de- 
 cidedly original ruling. It will be remembered that in 
 early times there was a mystical phrase current in 
 Tennessee, and perhaps elsewhere, whose origin is 
 unknown and whose significance, while admitted to be 
 in the highest degree offensive, has never been defined. 
 This phrase was "school-butter," and for a member 
 of one school to apply it to a member of another 
 M'as to offer an unpardonable insult. A fight was the 
 invariable result, except when the offended party was 
 superior in number, and then the rule was to duck the 
 offender. Many instances of the infliction of condign 
 punishment for the use of this mysterious and offen- 
 sive epithet are recorded. 
 
 While Judge Scott was on the bench, a young man 
 was arraigned before him on a charge of assault and 
 battery. It appeared in the testimony that the as- 
 sault had been committed upon the prosecutor for say- 
 ing "school-butter" to the defendant. Judge Scott 
 charged the jury that the use, of the epithet was 
 equivalent to striking the first blow, and the defendant 
 was acquitted. This was a departure from the estab- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I05 
 
 lished rule that no words justify a blow, and proves 
 that for once, at least. Judge Scott did rely on his own 
 resovirces. 
 
 He resided at Knoxville and served upon the Circuit 
 bench from 1815 to 1841. His manners were not 
 pleasant, but he was a just and well-meaning man, 
 otherwise he would not have been retained on the 
 bench so long. 
 
 In 1820 he published his "Revisal" of the Statutes 
 of Tennessee, and of the Charters and Statutes of 
 North Carolina, which is even now a book highly 
 valued by the profession. It is a careful, trustworthy 
 and creditable piece of work. It has preserved the 
 author's name in the profession, and will never cease 
 to be useful and interesting. 
 
 One of the old-time Judges and public men of Ten- 
 nessee worthy to be remembered, but now almost for- 
 gotten, was James C. Mitchell. He was the son of 
 James Mitchell and his wife, Mary Coffield, and took 
 his middle name from his mother. He was born in 
 Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, on March ]0 or 
 11, 1786, and was married to Margaret Lewis, in Sevier 
 County, Tennessee, May 7, 1807. His wife was of the 
 Eastern, or Welsh branch of the Lewis family, which 
 played so important a part in colonizing Augusta 
 County. 
 
 After his marriage he resided for a time in Rhea 
 County, Tennessee, but about 1817 removed to Athens, 
 in McMinn County. In 1813 he was made Solicitor- 
 General for the second district, and served till 1817. 
 In 18,25 he was elected to Congress from the third 
 congressional district, and was re-elected in 1827. Lie 
 thus served with James K. Polk, John Bell and David 
 
Io6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Crockett. Our Senators at this time were John H. 
 Eaton and Hugh L. White. 
 
 In 1830, the year succeeding his retirement from 
 Congress, Mitchell was elected Judge of the Eleventh 
 Circuit, and held that office until 1836. Retiring from 
 the bench he, like many other prominent Tennesseans, 
 was seized by the "Mississippi "fever," and removed to 
 the new State during its "flush times." 
 
 He now adventured upon cotton planting on Big 
 Black River, about thirty miles from Vicksburg. 
 Probably he combined the practice of law with plant- 
 ing. It appears, however, that his agricultural efforts 
 were not crowned with success, and he discontinued 
 them in favor of his first love, the law. 
 
 His political aspirations had not subsided and he 
 was at one time a candidate for the Mississippi Legis- 
 lature, and later was a candidate for Governor, but, 
 being a Whig, he was in both instances unsuccessful. 
 He made a very acceptable Judge, administering the 
 law with ability and maintaining the dignity of the 
 Court, even to the extent of fining a spectator for wear- 
 ing creaking boots. He is remembered as a tall and 
 strong man, more than six feet in height, of fine pro- 
 portions and prepossessing appearance. His voice 
 was particularly good and he was an effective public 
 speaker. He was not without self-esteem, but it is to 
 be suspected that the accounts of him that have been 
 preserved exaggerate this amiable failing. His sense 
 of humor was fine, and was effectively used on the 
 stump. One of his witty sayings was also a wise one, 
 and deserves the careful consideration of all politicians. 
 Discussing the art of political speaking, he declared 
 that it consisted mainly in never making a distinct 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I07 
 
 point. To use his own phrase: "A speech of this 
 kind should be blown up like a bladder, leaving no 
 handle to be seized bj' an adversary." 
 
 Judge Mitchell was a man of ability, and an upright 
 and capable Judge, and fully deserves the respect of 
 posterity and an honorable place in the annals of the 
 bar of Tennessee. He died at Jackson, Mississippi, 
 A.ugust 17, 1843. 
 
 One of the best lawyers of Tennessee in the first half 
 of this century was George C. Boyd, of Clarksville. 
 He belonged to the class of pure lawyers, that is to say, 
 a class that adheres strictly to the law, giving atten- 
 tion to nothing else. Mr. Boyd was not a narrow or 
 uncultured man. Upon the contrary, it seems that 
 he -was well educated, but after entering upon the pro- 
 fession he gave it his exclusive attention. 
 
 He was born in Virginia, but the place and the date 
 of his birth cannot be stated. In his youth his father 
 moved to Christian County, Kentucky, and he was 
 educated in the literary, and also in the law depart- 
 ment of Transylvania University, at Lexington. 
 
 After leaving the University he moved to Clarksville, 
 Tennessee, and completed his law studies in the office 
 of Cave Johnson. 
 
 He practiced law at Clarksville until his death, which 
 occurred in 1847. Like all the successful lawyers of 
 that time, he rode the circuit. In his case the circuit 
 embraced Montgomery, Robertson, Dickson, Stewart 
 and Humphreys Counties, in all of which he practiced 
 with success. It is said that he almost invariably had 
 one side in the more important cases, in all this circuit. 
 His reputation extended into Kentucky, and he fre- 
 quently appeared in the Courts at Hopkinsville and 
 
Io8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Russellville. In politics he was a Whig, and was re- 
 peatedly urged to run for Congress against Cave John- 
 son, but he held Mr. Johnson in the highest esteem, 
 and not only refused to antagonize him, but voted for 
 him. 
 
 He was a great admirer of Mr. Webster, whom he 
 regarded as the foremost American lawyer. 
 
 His memory was marvelously retentive, and he 
 could cite the volume and page of all our more im- 
 portant decisions. Gustavus A. Henry said of him: 
 "His mind was too much engrossed in delving down 
 to the reason and foundations of every legal principle, 
 to have time to indulge in elegant and ornamental 
 rhetoric. He did not disdain these things, for no man 
 was more moved by true eloquence than he, but the 
 bent and inclination of his mind was toward profound 
 legal investigation, and close and earnest thought. He 
 was the best lawyer of his age I ever knew, and would 
 have risen to the head of the profession in Tennessee 
 had not his life been cut short in early manhood." 
 
 Mr. Boyd was married in 1842 to Miss Virginia C. 
 Conrad, of Springfield, Tennessee. It is with special 
 pleasure that the writer contributes his mite toward 
 rescuing from neglect the memory of a man like Mr. 
 Boyd. He was supremely devoted to his profession, 
 and by his abilities and high character improved and 
 honored it. He preferred the law before everything, 
 and we should be ready to do honor to the memory of 
 one who manifested so high and just an estimate of 
 the dignity of our profession. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. IO9 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Hugh Lawsoii White. 
 
 In his admirable book, "The Winning of the West," 
 Theodore Roosevelt calls attention to the fact that 
 whereas all the Southwestern States were first settled 
 by a class of people whom he calls backwoodsmen, 
 this rough and hardy race did not retain control, ex- 
 cept in Tennessee. In Kentucky and elsewhere, poli- 
 tical power quickly passed into the hands of a more 
 cultured and opulent class which followed in the foot- 
 steps of the pioneers. In Tennessee this was not the 
 case; upon the contrary, the pioneers and their de- 
 scendants have always been dominant, and society, 
 while greatly improved and refined, has retained the 
 general tone which the first settlers gave it. 
 
 This is as accurate as any general statement could be. 
 Tennessee has never been an aristocratic State, but 
 always essentially democratic. The first settlers were 
 thorough-going democrats, and their institutions were 
 as democratic as the conditions of the times permitted. 
 We have the word of Mr. Jefferson for it, that our first 
 Constitution was the most republican of its time. 
 
 These democrats who thus seized and held Ten- 
 nessee, were in the main of that highly composite but 
 thoroughly defined race which we call Scotch-Irish; 
 lowland covenanters transplanted to America. This 
 
I lO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 was the most independent of races, John Knox being 
 its ideal of manhood. Coming into the wilderness 
 the Scotch-Irish found much to develop the harsher 
 qualities of their race. The frontier was no place for 
 the refinements of life. Indian warfare was infinitely 
 fierce, brutal, horrible. It was practically incessant, 
 and the butcheries of the savages not unnaturally pro- 
 voked the frontiersmen to acts of cruel retaliation. 
 Such results were all the more certain among men 
 whose law was the Old Testament, and whose ideas of 
 war were drawn from the histories of Joshua, of Barak, 
 and of Gideon. These bloody encounters of the fron- 
 tier brought out the old Norse fierceness of the race. 
 It was a fighting stock, and if its piety was not only 
 sincere, but at times painfully strenuous, the life of 
 the frontier could hardly have failed to develop anew 
 whatever of harshness there was in the blood. 
 
 The highest type of this frontier mind is Andrew 
 Jackson, a man of unsurpassed physical and mental 
 courage, determined beyond all the needs of life, nar- 
 row, uneducated, honest, sincerely patriotic, fierce in 
 temper, cruel in battle, vindictive and unforgiving — 
 an astonishing compound of good and bad qualities, 
 but indisputably one of the great men of our country. 
 But the Scotch-Irish were not all of this quality. In 
 Scotland, in Ireland, and in America the race had been 
 the friend of education, abounding always in pious and 
 fervent preachers of the Word. Through Pennsylva- 
 nia, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennes- 
 see, school-houses and churches mark the courses of 
 its westward marches. If many yielded to the hard and 
 coarse conditions of frontier life, very many more did 
 not. Some were more fortunately situated, some 
 
OF TENNESSEE. Ill 
 
 had minds and morals of a firmer cast. The Scotch- 
 Irish race had its full share of faults, but of 
 virtues also. Energy and courage fitted it for the 
 conquest of the wilderness, and in love of liberty and of 
 learning, and in faith in God, it laid well the founda- 
 tions of a new Christian civility. 
 
 Of the higher and finer qualities of this race there 
 has been no better representative than Hugh Lawson 
 ^^'hite. 
 
 We do not know the history of the family beyond the 
 General James White who was the father of Hugh 
 Lawson and the founder of Knoxville. James White 
 was not without education, and though his means were 
 not large at first, he was naturally qualified for leader- 
 ship, and won for himself an honorable place in early 
 history. He was a man of strong character, appar- 
 ently of natural gentleness and refinement, but fearless 
 and firm. His wife, Mary Lawson, is described as a 
 delicate and refined woman, of exemplary Christian 
 character, not lacking decision. 
 
 The first child of this union was the subject of this 
 sketch. He was born in Iredell County, North Car- 
 olina, October 30, 1773. When he was eight years old 
 his father came to what is now Knox County, Ten- 
 nessee, where he acquired large bodies of land, includ- 
 ing most of the territory of the present city of Knox- 
 ville. A house in which he passed much of his life in 
 Tennessee, is described as follows by one of his de- 
 scendants: 
 
 "A front view displays two square, sections, 'pens' or 
 apartments of unequal size, each a story and a half high, 
 built of logs coarsely hewn, the interstices of which are 
 stuffed with clay, and with an outer covering of boards. 
 
112 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Between these two rooms stands a heavy stone chim- 
 ney, furnishing a fireplace in each. A rude piazza 
 extends across the whole front, its roof some distance 
 below the eaves of the house, and supported by six 
 slender sawed posts. The whole stands upon wooden 
 blocks or underpinnings ; one small window is visible, 
 while a small stepladder in one corner of the piazza 
 is the stairway to the half story above." 
 
 In this home, or in one like it, subject to all the 
 privations and dangers of frontier life, Hugh Lawson 
 White grew to manhood. The time abounded in perils, 
 and the safety of the home frequently depended upon 
 the rifles of the group of sturdy sons who were growing 
 up around James and Mary Lawson White. The 
 neighborhood possessed a single tub-mill, and to the 
 eldest son fell the arduous and perilous duties of mill 
 boy. He made a "hand" at plowing and at clearing the 
 forests, and when he was not needed for these various 
 duties, attended such schools as the settlement 
 afforded. 
 
 Only the rudiments of learning were to be acquired 
 in the log school-houses, but ere long there came to 
 the new settlement one of those missionaries of educa- 
 tion, of whom so many marched in the van of the west- 
 ward progress of the Scotch-Irish, and at the age of 
 fifteen, young White began to study the ancient lan- 
 guages under the Rev. Samuel Carrick, who was to 
 be the first President of what is now the University 
 of Tennessee. Occasionally also, he was assisted by 
 Archibald Roane, who is described as a "scholar of 
 eminence." 
 
 His pursuits were destined to be still further diver- 
 sified, when, in 1793, an Indian war began, which led 
 
OF TENNESSEE. II3 
 
 to Sevier's last and famous expedition to the Indian 
 country, and ended in the battle of Etowah. In this 
 battle White shot and killed the Indian leader King 
 Fisher, and it is related that he was so overwhelmed 
 with regret at having shed the blood of a human being, 
 even in honorable combat, that he would not suffer the 
 deed to be mentioned in his presence. His grand- 
 daughter and biographer declares that he positively 
 forbade Dr. Ramsey to state the fact in the Annals of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 At the age of twenty he became the private secretary 
 of Governor William Blount, succeeding Willie Blount, 
 the younger half brother of the Governor. As Judge 
 White was distinguished in after life for dignity and 
 courtesy of deportment, and a knowledge of the us- 
 ages of refined society, it is to be inferred that, in addi- 
 tion to the excellent training which he received at 
 home he profited largely by association with the 
 courtly Governor and his arccomplished wife. Blount 
 was a man of distinguished family, tracing his lineage 
 back to the time of the Conqueror. He had moved in 
 the highest Colonial society and was justly considered 
 a model of dignity and of deportment. He was at this 
 time not only Governor of the Territory, but also Com- 
 missioner of Indian Affairs, and White acquired 
 a knowledge of these affairs which was utilized to the 
 great advantage of his reputation, and of the public 
 service when he became United States Senator. 
 
 There is some uncertainty of dates at this point. It 
 is related that about 1794 White went to Philadelphia 
 for the purpose of studying mathematics. He appears 
 to have remained there something like a year, when he 
 went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to study law. In 
 
I [4 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 1796 he began the practice at Knoxville. His success 
 at the bar was prompt. To a deserved reputation for 
 integrity and abiHty, he added incessant and scrupu- 
 lous industry. If he was fortunate in having the sup- 
 port of a large and influential connection, his success 
 was in no degree artificial, but was the just reward of 
 substantial merit and ability. 
 
 In 1801, at the age of twenty-eight, he was elected a 
 Judge of the Superior Court, at that time the highest 
 judicatory in the State. In 1807 he resigned to enter 
 the State Senate, In 1809 he was appointed United 
 States District Attorney, and this office also he re- 
 signed to go into the State Senate. At the close of his 
 second Senatorial term, in 1809, he was appointed a 
 Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals, 
 and retained that office until 1815. He had been 
 elected President of the Bank of Tennessee in 1813, and 
 after retiring from the bench served in that position 
 till 1827. In the meantime, however, he had been 
 elected again, in 1817, to the State Senate, receiving 
 every vote cast in Knox County except one. In 1807 
 he had compiled the land laws of Tennessee, and in 
 1817 had prepared and secured the passage of the first 
 effective law in Tennessee against duelling, and it may 
 be remarked in passing that he did infinitely more 
 than any other man for the establishment of the laws 
 and of the strong adverse sentiment which have sup- 
 pressed this custom in Tennessee. 
 
 In March, 1831, he was appointed Commissioner 
 under the Florida treaty with Spain, and served until 
 June, 1824. During this service he retained his po- 
 sition as President of the Bank of Tennessee, but re- 
 fused to accept any compensation, although he dis- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. II5 
 
 charged the duties of the office with efficiency and to 
 the entire satisfaction of the bank and its patrons. The 
 versatility and the superiority of his abiUties are for- 
 cibly indicated by the fact that the Bank of Tennessee, 
 under his management, was the most successful finan- 
 cial institution that has existed in Tennessee. It was 
 the only bank in the State that weathered all the 
 financial storms of that tempestuous period. 
 
 The published opinions of Judge White are to be 
 found in Cooke's Reports. They are simple in lan- 
 guage, yet correct and excellent in style, displaying a 
 mastery of legal phrase, without ostentation. His men- 
 tal processes appear to have been direct and incisive. 
 There is not much of quotation nor of reference. On 
 a smaller scale he performed services like those which 
 immortalize Marshall. It was his business in a new 
 country, under new conditions, to make precedents 
 rather than to follow them. There is nothing to indi- 
 cate an inclination hastily or wilfully to override estab- 
 lished rules, but much to prove that it is true, as has 
 been written of him, that he was neither a case lawyer 
 nor a case judge, but was guided by a large and accu- 
 rate knowledge of the essential principles of the law, 
 and by a strong natural sense of justice. 
 
 In October, 1825, Andrew Jackson, United States 
 Senator from Tennessee, resigned, and White was 
 elected to succeed him. He was elected three times, 
 practically without opposition. In politics he was 
 what we would call a Democrat, though then called a 
 Democratic-Republican; that is to say, following the 
 lead of James Madison, the greatest constructive 
 statesman this country has produced, he believed in 
 the strict interpretation of the Constitution, and this 
 
Il6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 time-honored Democratic principle was his guiding 
 star throughout his political career. 
 
 His first conspicuous appearance in the Senate was 
 in the great, but forgotten debate on the Panama 
 Mission. The subject of the debate was the proposi- 
 tion that this government should join the other Amei-- 
 ican republics in a convention on the Isthmus of Pan- 
 ama. The excellence of the declared purposes of the 
 convention attracted a strong support in Congress, 
 but White opposed it both upon principle and upon the 
 ground of inexpediency. His granddaughter, who is 
 his only biographer, does not give her authority, but 
 quotes some one of eminence as saying that his speech 
 on this question was "the ablest exposition of the pow- 
 ers of government made during the discussion." The 
 opposition was unavailing, the Commisioners were ap- 
 pointed, but the convention was never held. 
 
 A subject constantly before Congress during Judge 
 White's service was that of internal improvements. It 
 was upon this question that the strict constructionists 
 always fought the hardest, and White, true to his Madi- 
 sonian principles, was found in every instance in oppo- 
 sition to the appropriations, which, though not as large 
 as at present, were sought with no less avidity and 
 selfishness. 
 
 The great question of the time was the re-charter- 
 ing of the United States Bank. The existing charter 
 had been granted in 1816 for a term of twenty years. 
 Judge White had aligned himself on this question long 
 before his election to the Senate. While a member of 
 the Tennessee Legislature in 1817, he had vigorously 
 opposed the establishment of a branch of the bank in 
 Tennessee, and had been known for many years as an 
 
OF TENNESSEE. II7 
 
 opponent of the institution. He regarded the charter 
 as unconstitutional, and believed that the method, 
 ■whether constitutional or not, was inexpedient and 
 impolitic. The management of the bank being aware 
 of the unfriendliness of General Jackson, began as early 
 as 1832, an effort to secure an extension of the charter 
 which expired in 1836. When the question came be- 
 fore the Senate, White opposed the extension in a vig- 
 orous and effective speech. His kindly disposed biog- 
 rapher, as might be expected, praises this effort also 
 without stint. There seems to be no doubt, however, 
 that it was the strongest argument of the administra- 
 tion. He was probably the most experienced and the 
 most competent financier of either party in the Senate.* 
 The bill passed, and, as every one expected, Jackson 
 vetoed it. Upon the debate over the veto message, 
 Webster led for the bank and White against it. Our 
 biographer again bestows unqualified praise upon her 
 kinsman's speech, intimating that Webster did not at- 
 tempt to answer it because he could not meet the argu- 
 ment. Despite the fact that W^ebster was indisputa- 
 bly the greatest intellect of his time, we may be tempted 
 to believe that he could not answer the Tennessean 
 because it is well known that, in matters of finance, 
 whether public or personal, he was never at his best. 
 
 In 1833, Jackson removed the government deposits 
 from the Bank of the United States and distributed 
 them according to his own judgment, or as was said by 
 his enemies, according to his own interests, among the 
 
 *Of Judge White's ability as a flnancler Henry S. Foote says: 
 "Some of Ws most elaborate speeches In the Senate upon Important 
 questions of finance are perhaps as valuable specimens of politico- 
 economical discussion as can anywhere be found." 
 
Il8 ■ BENCH AND BAR 
 
 State banks. This action, which was denounced by 
 the opposition in unmeasured terms, was approved by 
 Judge White, who believed that the President had 
 the constitutional right to remove the deposits when- 
 ever he believed that they were in danger, and the Pres- 
 ident had no ditificulty in making the necessary dec- 
 laration at this time. 
 
 Being a man of humane sentiments, of fine natural 
 sensibilities, highly cultivated, his knowledge of the 
 treatment of the Indians by the government enlisted 
 White's sympathies very earnestly in behalf of the red 
 men, and not a little of the policy of the government in 
 removing them to new lands in the West, instead of 
 permitting them to be exterminated, is to be attributed 
 to him. He was untiring in his efforts to ameliorate 
 the condition of this unfortunate race. 
 
 He had not long been a Senator before his unfailing 
 independence of character began to give dissatisfac- 
 tion to his political associates. General Jackson and 
 his friends, according to the custom of politicians, had 
 assisted themselves to success by bitter denunciations 
 of all the methods and policies of the Adams adminis- 
 tration. It is edifying to know that one of the princi- 
 pal misdemeanors which Jackson charged against 
 Adams was the abuse of the executive power in public 
 appointments. Another charge was that he had coun- 
 tenanced a duelist, Henry Clay. It is to be presumed 
 that General Jackson did not personally instigate this 
 accusation. In 182G, while Adams was President, 
 Judge White spoke strongly against the abuse of pat- 
 ronage. In 1830, the subject being again before the 
 Senate, and the policy of the Jacksonians having been 
 more extreme than that of their predecessors, White 
 
OF TENNESSEE. lig 
 
 was unable to grasp the principle of party philosophy, 
 that a thing which was wrong when done by his oppo- 
 nents was right when done by his friends. He, there- 
 fore, took the same position which he had taken in 
 1856. This grave political error was highly offensive 
 to General Jackson and his friends, especially to the 
 General, to whom it never occurred that one could 
 oppose his opinions or wishes without being an enemy 
 of the President and therefore of the people. 
 
 When Jackson removed the deposits in 1833, the 
 Senate passed a resolution of censure. White opposed 
 this resolution, but when, at a later date, Benton 
 brought forward his famous and persistent expung- 
 ing resolution, he opposed that also upon the firm 
 ground that the Senate had no right to mutilate 
 its own records, and could not, as Mr. Clay put 
 it, "make that not to be which is." In this matter 
 also he incurred the disapproval of the President. 
 
 The records have been carefully searched to discover 
 his opinions upon the subject of slavery, the writer hav- 
 ing become greatly interested in the emancipation pe- 
 titions and debates of the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1834, as indications of the mind of the people of Ten- 
 nessee on this vexed question. There is no positive 
 expression of his personal judgments, but as a Senator. 
 he opposed the consideration of abolition memorials 
 on the ground that the subject was one with which 
 Congress had not the right to deal. 
 
 Upon the proposition to distribute the surplus pro- 
 ceeds of the public lands, he was at first in opposition, 
 because the treasury was empty and the government 
 was in need of money, but when it was subsequently 
 presented in 1836, he favored it, because at that time 
 
I20 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 we were out of debt and the treasury was literally over- 
 flowing. 
 
 He was one of the first and most strenuous advocates 
 of holding the public lands for actual settlers. 
 
 Upon the subject which was to furnish his enemies 
 the means of terminating his political career, to-wit, 
 the sub-treasury, his convictions were strong and im- 
 movable, and he did not at any time hesitate to avow 
 them in the most emphatic speech. The sub-treasury 
 bill was the distinctive measure of the Van Buren 
 administration. 
 
 Judge White declared the principle ground of 
 his opposition to be that the bill contemplated the 
 issue of paper money by the Federal government. 
 This he held to be unconstitutional, and he predicted 
 that the inevitable result of adopting such a measure 
 would be the creation of unlimited quantities of 
 paper which was sure to become depreciated; and upon 
 this subject he said, "No paper currency not converti- 
 ble into specie at the will of the holder, ever did or 
 ever will long retain its nominal value." 
 
 Upon the great and interminable question of the 
 tariff he was essentially a Democrat, that is to say, he 
 was opposed on principle to protection. 
 
 From this hasty statement it will appear that he was 
 a thorough-going Jefifersonian and Madisonian Demo- 
 crat, and that he was a Jacksonian Democrat in every 
 respect save one, that is to say, he did not accept the 
 Jacksonian dogma that the President could do no 
 wrong. 
 
 Jackson was six years older than White, and the 
 friendship between the two dates from White's appear- 
 ance at the bar in 1796. This friendship grew and 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 12 1 
 
 strengthened through many years, and ended only 
 when Jackson became convinced that White had a 
 will of his own, and convictions of his own which were 
 not to be overthrown by threats or entreaties, nor by 
 the seductions of ambition. The degree of intimacy 
 which existed between them is indicated by the follow- 
 ing words, which were written by Judge White himself: 
 "For many years I have been on the most intimate and 
 confidential terms with the chief magistrate. We have 
 conversed with, and written to each other, perhaps with 
 as much freedom as if we had been brothers." During 
 the early part of Jackson's administration the policy of 
 the government, in finance and in Indian affairs, was 
 practically controlled by the Senator from Tennessee. 
 It is evident that when he was first elected Jackson 
 was not unmindful of White's right to a place in the 
 Cabinet. In February, 1829, a month before the in- 
 auguration. Major Eaton wrote to Judge White a very 
 astute letter in which he said, "General Jackson desires 
 to have either you or me near to him." Eaton knew 
 beforehand what reply he would receive, and the result 
 is apparent in his extraordinary but arrested career as 
 a Cabinet officer. In 1831 the President proffered the 
 War Department to White, but it was declined. Dur- 
 ing the years 1829, 1830 and 1831, it was Judge White's 
 earnest desire, on account of family afflictions, to retire 
 from the Senate, but he remained solely on account of 
 the solicitations of the President and his friends. A 
 letter which was written by Jackson October 12, 1829, 
 is preserved. It abounds in expressions of gratitude 
 and almost of affection. 
 
 It is apparent that by the close of 1832 the estrange- 
 ment of these old friends had begun. In May of that 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 year White, writing to a friend in Knoxville, said, "I 
 am for General Jackson, but I am not either a Calhoun- 
 Jackson man or a Van Buren- Jackson man. I will go 
 on exactly as I have done, making myself as useful as 
 I can, determined to leave myself at liberty, when Gen- 
 eral Jackson is off the stage, to exercise my own judg- 
 ment on the question of a successor." 
 
 There is a note of pathos, almost of tragedy, running 
 through his history from 1832 to the end of his life. 
 His attachment to Jackson was strong and sincere, 
 and of many years' standing, and the severance of their 
 relations under circumstances which caused him to be- 
 lieve, correctly or incorrectly, that Jackson was both 
 insincere and ungrateful, must have been infinitely 
 painful. 
 
 No effort is made here to declare the right and the 
 wrong of the controversy between these two great 
 Tennesseans. But it may be said that while it is 
 hardly possible that White could have been so abso- 
 lutely free from blame as his friends would have us 
 believe, the right of the controversy was in the main 
 on his side. This was the verdict of the people of 
 Tennessee by a majority of more than ten thousand. 
 
 Mr. Sumner, in his life of Jackson, says in an off- 
 hand way, that White was piqued on account of Jack- 
 son's failure to appoint him to his first Cabinet. This 
 is probably true, but the feeling did not last long. 
 Throughout Jackson's first administration. White was 
 his staunch supporter and confidential friend. It 
 seems to be clear that the trouble had its origin, as 
 already indicated, in White's independence of 
 character and absolute loyalty to his convictions. 
 He could not see why abuses of executive power were 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 23 
 
 wrong when committed by Adams, and right when 
 comn-jitted by Jackson. He regarded the expunging 
 resohition as unreasonable and absurd. On various 
 occasions he had found his convictions in conflict with 
 the imperious will of his illustrious friend. 
 
 The purity and strength of Judge White's character, 
 and the excellence of his abilities, had so impressed 
 themselves upon the public mind that, in 1833, he wa.s 
 regarded by many as a proper man to be President. 
 This fact of course was known to General Jackson, 
 It is to be doubted whether or not, under the circum- 
 stances, Jackson would have been favorable to White's 
 election to the presidency. It is asserted that at one 
 time he did favor it, and it is of record that when advo- 
 cating Van Buren's nomination, he expressed a wil- 
 lingness that White should have the place after Van 
 Buren had served eight years; but from the very be- 
 ginning of his first administration it would appear 
 that he cherished the design of making the astute New 
 York politician his successor. If Van Buren was not 
 a statesman, he possessed a degree of intelligence 
 and of cunning which made him a most successful and 
 dangerous politician. He had been the chief support 
 of Jackson in New York, and had, by the arts of which 
 he was a consummate master, firmly ingratiated him- 
 self with the President. 
 
 Between White, the embodiment of lofty patriotism, 
 and Van Buren, whom he regarded as the incarnation 
 of selfish ambition and political cunning, there was 
 nothing in comm.on. White did not understand that 
 his personal friendship and political loyalty to Jackson 
 required absolute obedience to the President, and an 
 unqualified surrender of his opinion upon every sub- 
 
124 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 ject upon which they might disagree, and he would 
 not support Van Buren. The President being deter- 
 mined that this faithful henchman should be his suc- 
 cessor, sought to dispose of White by placing him 
 upon the bench of the Supreme Court, and failing in 
 that, caused him to understand that practically any 
 office of his own choosing was open to him. Finally 
 he endeavored to have him take the second place upon 
 a Van Buren ticket. 
 
 As the sentiment in favor of nominating White for 
 the presidency became more pronounced, Jackson 
 declared that if he accepted he would be made odious 
 to society. This seems to liave been the direct cause 
 of White's candidacy, or rather it was the harsh ex- 
 pression of the sentiment and of the policy which he 
 felt himself bound in honor, as well as by a feeling of 
 natural indignation, to resist. Upon this subject, he 
 said in a speech in Knoxville, August 1, 1838, "This 
 threat answered a purpose that the persuasion of 
 friends could not. Despotic power never has gov- 
 erned and never shall govern me. My name was 
 given to the public, and should have been if the act had 
 lost me the good opinion of every political friend I 
 had upon earth, and I might almost add, if it had even 
 endangered the good opinion of my wife and children." 
 
 It was in the year 183-1 that it pleased the President 
 to promulgate this edict. In December of that year 
 a majority of the Tennessee delegation in Congress 
 sent a written request to White to become a candidate, 
 and he promptly consented. Instantly a war of vitu- 
 peration and slander was flagrant. The administra- 
 tion organ at Washington, long trained in methods 
 of invective and misrepresentation, endeavored to make 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 125 
 
 its charges and epithets equal to tlie wishes of its 
 imperative master. Nothing was left undone to fulfill 
 the executive threat that the man who had been guilty 
 of the unspeakable crime of differing with General 
 Jackson, should be made odious to society. John Bell, 
 one of the purest, best, and ablest men in the history 
 of Tennessee, being White's most conspicuous sup- 
 porter, also fell under the presidential anathema, and 
 felt the full fury of a partisan press, less refined by 
 far than the press of our own time, and incited to ex- 
 traordinary coarseness and bitterness by a desire to 
 win the approval of the autocrat of the White House. 
 
 Jackson directed a convention to be called for the 
 purpose of securing the claim of the successor ap- 
 pairent. In May, 1835, it was held at Baltimore, and 
 the forefather of Tammany was named to succeed his 
 illustrious master. There was no delegation from 
 Tennessee, but the vote of the State was cast by a gen- 
 tleman of the name of Rucker, who happened to be 
 present, and who by this act attained a conspicuity 
 otherwise hopelessly beyond his reach. 
 
 James Parton, the most voluminous and perhaps 
 the best biographer of Jackson, says that for seven 
 years the President had schemed and labored to elect 
 Van Buren, and that leaving N^ew York out of con- 
 sideration, Van Buren's election was as much Jack- 
 son's act as if the Constitution had empowered him to 
 appoint his successor. Strangely enough, Tennessee, 
 with all its devotion to Jackson, was from the begin- 
 ning unfriendly to Van Buren. The press of the 
 State, by a majority of more than two-thirds, including 
 both the Nashville papers, was for White, so that a 
 new paper, the Union, was established at the capital 
 
126 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 as the Van Buren organ. Every charge that ingenuity 
 and malignity could suggest was made against the 
 daring apostate from Jacksonism, and the President 
 came all the way from Washington to fight for his 
 nominee. It was thought the wisest policy to make 
 it appear that the fight was between White and Jack- 
 son. The President denounced White, who was the 
 most democratic of Democrats, as a Federalist, and 
 sought to cast opprobrium on his supporters by calling 
 them Whigs. In this, as in all his battles, Jackson 
 "acknowledged no criterion but success." 
 
 It is proper to say here that while the utmost free- 
 dom has been used in describing Jackson's conduct 
 in his relations with Judge White, it is not the writer's 
 purpose to speak disrespectfully of a man who was 
 deservedly eininent, and who was in many respects 
 truly great. There was never a more sincere patriot 
 than Andrew Jackson, and when his vision was not 
 distorted by those terrible passions which repeatedly 
 hurried him into the most lamentable errors, there 
 was no more honest or honorable man. But the vio- 
 lence of his passions, and his inability, or at'least his 
 failure, to control them marked his career with acts 
 which were unworthy of the least of men, much more 
 one of the greatest. We cannot agree with Mr. Parton 
 that Jackson's election to the presidency was a mis- 
 take. He was one of the best and most useful of the 
 Presidents, and it might be well for the country to have 
 another Jackson. Above .all things else, we need men 
 of convictions, and it may be asserted safely that few 
 men have had so many convictions as Andrew Jackson. 
 But no degree of respect or admiration for Jackson 
 should blind us to facts in the study of history. That 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 27 
 
 he did Judge White great injustice seems to be beyond 
 dispute; that he used the influence and power of 
 his great name and station to perpetuate his own rule, 
 through his subservient follower, \'an Buren, is as 
 certain as anything can be. When his blood was 
 stirred and the fury of battle was upon him, he fought 
 with all the weapons he could find. And it was not 
 difficult to stir his blood. The fighting instinct never 
 slumbered. Woodrow Wilson says truly that every 
 man who opposed him became at once his enemy. 
 
 As affairs in Tennessee progressed, Jackson became 
 more and more embittered. It soon became apparent 
 that the hero's name had lost its spell. The success 
 of John Bell in the August election was infinitely gal- 
 ling, and things went from bad to worse. Polk found 
 the sentiment for White so strong that on the stump 
 he declared his personal preference for him. Cannon 
 who was for White, defeated Carroll, who was for Van 
 Buren, by 7,000 majority in the Governor's race. 
 Above all White carried Tennessee by ten thousand 
 majority. In the Hermitage district he received 43 
 votes and Van Buren 18. White had been nom- 
 inated by the Legislatures of Tennessee, Illinois and 
 Alabama, but the only States that he carried were 
 Tennessee and Georgia. Van Buren was elected, and 
 Jackson would have been satisfied but for the hateful 
 returns from Tennessee and from the Hermitage dis- 
 trict. 
 
 The new Legislature of Tennessee re-elected Judge 
 White to the Senate by a large majority, but if his 
 enemies were for the time defeated, they were strong, 
 aggressive, and vindictive. In the next Legislature 
 the majority was reversed, and a vigorous and system- 
 
128 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 atic effort to instruct White and his colleague, Foster, 
 out of the Senate instantly began. It was known 
 that the senior Senator believed in the doctrine of in- 
 struction, that he was unalterably opposed to the sub- 
 treasury scheme, and therefore, that to instruct him to 
 vote for that measure would be to drive him from the 
 Senate. After a hard fight the instructions were 
 given, and his avowed opinions left him no option but 
 to resign whenever the sub-treasury came before the 
 Senate. In due time the politicians at Washington 
 furnished the complement to the action of their fellow- 
 schemers at Nashville, and he promptly presented his 
 resignation. One who has had even a slight ex- 
 perience in politics must have learned that politicians 
 are not to be judged by exacting standards of right. 
 It is very certain also that if Legislatures could now 
 instruct Senators out of office, the proceeding would 
 be of frequent occurrence, but Senators do not now 
 recognize the right. And this modern view of the 
 subject, while it certainly is not founded solely in su- 
 perior patriotism, is clearly right in principle. Sena- 
 tors are elected to serve for a term of six years as the 
 intelligent representatives of the people of the State. 
 It is the spirit of the Constitution that if their services 
 be unacceptable, or if they be for any reason unsatis- 
 factory, they shall be retired at the end of the term. 
 In the case now under consideration. Judge White 
 must have known that the people of Tennessee who 
 had recently voted for him for the highest of offices, 
 with full knowledge of his opinions on the question of 
 the sub-treasury, did not desire his retirement from the 
 Senate, and did not expect nor wish him to support 
 the administration. He could not have failed to know 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 29 
 
 that the instructions were devised solely for the par- 
 tisan purpose of driving him out of the Senate. In no 
 act of his public life was he so much in error as in this. 
 But he believed it to be his duty to resign, and he was 
 true to his convictions now as always. He was not 
 the only Senator who suffered this fate. For instance, 
 Mangum, of North Carolina, and John Tyler, of Vir- 
 ginia, had resigned because they could not obey legis- 
 lative instructions. 
 
 The fatal question was presented to the Senate on 
 January 13, 1840. Judge White being as usual in his 
 place, arose and read from manuscript his reply to 
 the instructions. The document was at once digni- 
 fied and spirited. He was not a great master of words 
 like Webster, Clay, and Choate. His language was 
 plain, direct, forcible. His grasp of his subject was 
 always firm, and as a rule he spoke without notes, but 
 on this occasion he read in order that he might not be 
 misrepresented. 
 
 It is plain that while he was sacrificing ofifice and 
 whatever of ambition remained to him, to a sense of 
 duty, he was not tamely submissive to wrong. More 
 than once he indulged in the severest irony. He com- 
 plimented his instructors upon their intellectual at- 
 tainments, and their profound researches into consti- 
 tional law, and upon the fact that they were not men of 
 ordinary capacity or of equivocal moral character. 
 In conclusion he said, "I was called to the service of my 
 State fifteen years ago without any solicitation on my 
 part. With reluctance I accepted the high station 
 which I now occupy. I have been continued in it per- 
 haps too long for the interests of the country. I have 
 been thrice elected by the unanimous vote of your 
 
13° BENCH AND BAR 
 
 predecessors. My services have been rendered in times 
 of high party excitement, sometimes threatening to 
 burst asunder the bonds of this Union, and your reso- 
 lutions contain the high compHment that bitter political 
 opponents can find only a solitary vote worthy in their 
 judgment of unqualified commendation.' I hope it will 
 be in your power to select a successor who can bring 
 into the service of the State more talents. I feel a proud 
 consciousness that more purity of intention, or more 
 unremitting industry he can never have. P'or the sake 
 of place I will never cringe to power. You have 
 instructed me to do those things which, entertaining 
 the opinion that I do, I fear I would not be forgiven 
 for, either in this world or in the next; and practicing 
 upon the creed I have long professed, I hereby tender 
 to you my resignation." 
 
 His friends lamented his retirement and endeavored 
 in every way possible to manifest their disapproval of 
 the conduct of the Legislature. But while we may be 
 convinced that he was the worthiest and most capa- 
 ble man in Tennessee for the office of Senator, it is 
 probable that nothing could more effectually have con- 
 firmed his reputation for patriotism and devotion to 
 duty than his resignation and the circumstances at- 
 tending it. His exit from a place in which he had 
 served with distinction for fifteen years was dignified 
 and impressive. He had not outlived his usefulness 
 nor the respect or confidence of the public. The cir- 
 cumstances gave to his retirement somewhat of the 
 quality of martyrdom. A public dinner at Washing- 
 ton, at which Henry Clay was the foremost figure, at- 
 tested the esteem and respect of his associates, and 
 from Washington to Knoxville continuous demon- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I3I 
 
 strations evinced a general and sincere sympathy and 
 approval. The resignation was a noble ending of a 
 political career which for patriotism, uprightness, cour- 
 age, and fidelity, has never been surpassed in the his- 
 tory of this country. 
 
 He came home an invalid. He was now sixty- 
 seven years of age, and a frame which never had been 
 robust, was enfeebled by years of hard work and by 
 the ravages of disease. He died April 10, 1840. 
 
 To form an estimate of the character and conduct of 
 Judge White which will satisfy the impartial and crit- 
 ical student of history, is not easy, because most of 
 those who knew him are dead, and the history of his 
 life and times has never been adequately written. His 
 only biographer is his granddaughter. She was a 
 most estimable lady, not without literary accomplish- 
 ments, but her book is a eulogy. The faults of her 
 subject, and being a man he must have had faults, 
 arc not shown nor even hinted at. The controversial 
 papers of his time are not to be trusted. Jackson had 
 much to say of him, but up to a certain point his words 
 are those of an ardent friend, and beyond that point 
 they are the words of the most thorough and unrelent- 
 ing of haters. Sumner (as already quoted) says that 
 White was piqued because Jackson did not give him 
 a place in his first Cabinet. Parton says he was 
 jealous of Van Buren. There is no doubt that White 
 was for. years the most trusted of Jackson's friends. 
 The degree of this intimacy has already been shown. 
 It cannot be proved, but is probably true, that Jack- 
 son's course towards the Bank of the United States 
 was inspired and sustained by White. In ISl? White 
 had opposed the establishment of a branch of that 
 
132 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 institution in Tennessee, while Jackson had in effect 
 favored it by suggesting certain persons to be its 
 officers. In Indian affairs, White was the best versed 
 and the most competent of Jackson's advisers. 
 
 He was an ambitious man. Conscious of large 
 abilities, he desired public recognition not less ear- 
 nestly, perhaps, than Jackson and Clay, who are ac- 
 counted among the most ambitious of men. Being 
 thus ambitious,, and holding Van Buren in the slight- 
 est esteem, he was offended and embittered by the 
 obvious and systematic efforts of his old friend to se- 
 cure the presidential succession for the New York 
 politician. If there was weakness in this it was of the 
 most natural and excusable kind. 
 
 Judge White had the firmness of his race somewhat 
 excessively developed, or in plain words, he was obsti- 
 nate. Opinions once formed were to be changed only 
 by the most cogent reasons; it was fortunate, there- 
 fore, that as a rule his mental processes were deliberate. 
 His granddaughter to whom, as to all womankind, the 
 gentler sides only of his character were presented, has 
 portrayed him as a mild-mannered, amiable, immacu- 
 late gentleman, better than any man ever was, pos- 
 sibly better than any man ought to be. It is not nec- 
 essary to deny that he possessed the good qualities 
 which she assigns him, but certainly he had other 
 qualities. He was a stern, though just judge and 
 man of affairs ; he was strenuously ambitious, though 
 incapable of chicane or of corruption; he was so con- 
 fident of himself that he sometimes fell into serious 
 error from disregard of the just opinions of sincere 
 friends. As a Judge, his self-reliance may have ren- 
 dered him too intolerant of precedent when it con- 
 
OF TENNESSEE I33 
 
 fiicted with his convictions of justice; as an advocate, 
 he was a hard fighter and a vigorous declaimer. He 
 was a man of strong passions, but as a rule he con- 
 trolled his passions instead of surrendering to them like 
 his illustrious friend and enemy. 
 
 Finall)', and above all, he was absolutely honest. 
 His history appears to justify the strong statement that 
 he was so essentially honest that he was incapable of 
 falsehood in act or word. His honesty was a mental 
 as well as a moral quality. If he was firm, he was 
 also just, and if he was ambitious, he never failed to 
 prefer his country to himself, so that in all the years of 
 his public life no blot fell upon his name. There were 
 many men of his time of more brilliant intellect, but 
 none of a finer or firmer moral quality, and if we ven- 
 ture to except Calhoun, none in whom such high moral 
 attributes were combined with such exceptional gifts 
 of mind. Except his granddaughter, no writer has 
 given Judge White so much attention as Henry A. 
 Wise. He is hardly less eulogistic than Miss Scott, 
 as the following will show: "The name highest on the 
 list of Jackson's friends, which vouched for his ability 
 and fidelity and for his wisdom and virtue, was that of 
 Hugh Lawson White, the Nestor of his day in the Sen- 
 ate, and the Cato of his country. * * * Hugh L. 
 White, the Senator from Tennessee, was, in fact, more 
 than any other man, responsible for Jackson's 'good 
 behavior' in the presidency. * * * pjg ^^^^^ q^q 
 of the best judges of men and things we have ever 
 known, and one of the purest and most exalted patriots 
 who ever served his country, always unselfishly, with 
 a stern virtue and the strongest sense of duty, un- 
 flinrhed by fear or favor, but ever touched by the ten- 
 
134 BENCH AND KAR 
 
 derest devotion and affection. He was grave, taciturn, 
 and laborious, always conscientiously exact, strict, 
 and precise, and abhorred every form of deceit, in- 
 justice or want of ingenuousness. He committed him- 
 self rarely and slowly, but once committed he was as 
 immovable as a rock, unless convinced of a wrong, 
 and was wholly unapproachable by any indirection or 
 circumvention. His knowledge of the intrigues going 
 on around him was inexplicable, and the thoughtful- 
 ness by which he discerned and resolved them, almost 
 awed one as by the presence of a seer whose prophecies 
 were certain to be realized. He was very thin, tall, and 
 ghostly in appearance, but was physically very sinewy 
 and strong, and had immense capacity for labor. His 
 eyes were a clear blue, but small, and so deep set that, 
 when he drew his brows over them in thought or con- 
 versation, they looked like black diamonds, scintil- 
 lating various sparkling lights; and his lips were so 
 compressed that he wore an appearance not only of 
 firmness but also of constant restraint and self-com- 
 mand. He was always terribly in earnest, yet at times 
 enjoyed humor, such as that of the inimitable Balie 
 Peyton, and when he did smile, which was seldom, it 
 was the sweetest smile we ever caught from lip or 
 cheek of man. He was a great and good man, without 
 fear and without reproach."" Again referring to the 
 resignation. Wise says: "Thus the nation lost its high- 
 est exemplar of wisdom, honesty, and purity in public 
 service." Foote says of him: "As a constitutional 
 lawyer it is doubtful whether the Republic has ever 
 produced Judge White's superior." 
 
 From all that has been shown it must appear that 
 he was a man of extraordinary merit and ability. In 
 
or TENNESSEE. 135 
 
 an age less prolific of great men his place in history 
 might have been more conspicuous. He was the 
 contemporary of Jackson, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, 
 and Benton. He had not the self-assertiveness, the 
 prompt initiative, the irrepressible and headlong en- 
 ergy, the imperativeness, which made Jackson a leader 
 wherever he went; he had not the glorious gift of 
 eloquence, nor the winning personality of Clay; not the 
 massiveness of intellect which placed Webster above 
 all his countrymen; not the deep learning, the fearless 
 logic, the overpowering mental force of Calhoun, nor 
 the tremendous egotism and momentum of Benton, 
 but at a time when all these were playing their great 
 parts upon the stage, he was called by one of the most 
 eminent of his contemporaries, ''The highest exemplar 
 of wisdom, honesty, and purity in public service."' 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Court of 1834— Nathan Green— Eobert L. Caruth- 
 ers— Abraham Caruthers- Wm. B. Turley— Wm. B. 
 Reese— A. W. O. Totten— R. J. McKinney— Wm. R. 
 Harris— Archibald Wright— The Chancery Court Sys- 
 tem— Bromfleld L. Ridley— A. J. Marchbanks— Elijah 
 Walker— Robert H. Hynds. 
 
 The Constitution of 1834, the one people's Consti- 
 tution of Tennessee, marks an era in the history of the 
 State. The new Constitution was an expression of the 
 new life of the State. It was in a sense the declaration 
 of the fact that Tennessee had ceased to be a frontier 
 community, and had become a great State, not even 
 yet highly developed, but conscious of great achiev- 
 ments and assured of a prosperous future. The his- 
 tory of Tennessee somewhat fancifully, but not unhap- 
 pily, has been divided into three periods. The period 
 before the Constitution of 1834 has been called the 
 Ancient; that between 1834 and 1865, the Mediaeval; 
 and the succeeding one the Modern. 
 
 It is in the events of the Mediaeval period that our 
 people have most pride. In that time population in- 
 creased with extraordinary rapidity, material develop- 
 ment was satisfactory, the political leadership secured 
 to us by the superiority of our public men gratified 
 'our State pride, and in every way Tennessee had rea- 
 son to be satisfied with herself. In keeping with other 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 1 37 
 
 things, this was the golden age of the bench and bar. 
 Judge Ingersoll, of the Knoxville bar, has written 
 with classic eloquence: "In the decisions of the old 
 Supreme Court, composed of three Judges, extending 
 from 1834 to 186-1, and embraced in the Reports from 
 9th Humphreys to 1st Coldwell, inclusive, is to be 
 found a body of jurisprudence as fair to look upon as 
 Apollo Belvidere, a structure of judicial decisions as 
 strong as a pyramid, as symmetrical as a Campanile, 
 as faultless as the Parthenon." 
 
 But while we allot to the Court of the Constitution 
 of 1834 a full measure of praise, we must not forget the 
 services of the judges who had gone before. 
 
 The times that tried Judges' souls most were not 
 those after 1834, when Tennessee was becoming a 
 commercial and manufacturing State, and when 
 Green and Reese, and Turley and McKinney and 
 others were wisely and skillfully rounding out and 
 finishing the fabric of our jurisprudence, but when 
 mighty John Haywood, and Overton and White were 
 clearing the ground and laying the foundations. The 
 one great source of litigation in the ancient period 
 was land titles. In that time the soil of Tennessee 
 was as prolific of land claims almost, as of its natural 
 products. 
 
 English precedents could not in many cases furnish 
 a guide. Conditions were new, and the Court was 
 compelled to make the law. It did make the land law. 
 
 The Court of 1834 came into existence just when 
 the State had entered upon a period of commercial ex- 
 pansion, and when the multiplication of corporations 
 was giving rise to many new questions. But 
 commercial and corporation cases had not been un- 
 
138 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 known before 1S34-, although it is true that they had 
 ■been less frequent than they were subsequently. 
 
 It was in the departments of commercial and cor- 
 poration law, and generally in cases of the kinds that 
 are produced by density of population and diversifica- 
 tion of pursuits, that the great work of the new Court 
 was done. But the Court was not without precedents. 
 It had the rich stores of English decision, and an 
 abundance of important and helpful adjudications' of 
 American courts. The courts of the United States, of 
 Massachusetts, New York, and of other older States, 
 had traversed the ground upon which our Court was 
 entering in 1834. 
 
 This is not said in derogation of the Court whose 
 extraordinary ability and invaluable public service the 
 writer cheerfully concedes and cordially praises. 
 Building mainly upon the broad and firm foundations 
 laid by its predecessors, this Court did raise and finish 
 as sound and imposing a structure of jurisprudence as 
 can be found anywhere. Not only did it pronotince 
 upon important questions of commercial and corpora- 
 tion law, which were new in Tennessee, but am.ong 
 other great things, it gave form and just proportion to 
 our equity system. It was in these things, commer- 
 cial law, corporation law, and equity jurisprudence in 
 all its phases, that the great work of the Court was 
 done. In no respect was it deficient, but in these it 
 conspicuously excelled, because by them its attention 
 was oftenest required. 
 
 This Court was uniformly and continuously excel- 
 lent. All its members were exceptionally competent, 
 and this was a natural result of the general conditions 
 in Tennessee. It was a time of healthy and genuine 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 1 39 
 
 growth in the State; activity, prosperity, success, 
 were on every hand; every interest prospered. j\Ia- 
 terially, morally, mentally, our people were advanc- 
 ing rapidly. It was indeed a golden age in the State's 
 history, to which we may look with just pride and for 
 inspiration to earnest effort to restore the prosperity 
 and greatness that have been impaired, but not lost. 
 
 In the first or ancient period, the great Judge, by 
 common consent, was John Haywood. The Judges 
 under the Constitution of 183-1 were all strong men, 
 and it would be difficult, as well as invidious, to say 
 which is entitled to the first place. Probably in a 
 given number of lawyers, however, a majority would 
 mention Nathan Green first among the Judges of that 
 period. It is not asserted that he was an abler man 
 or a better Judge than Turley, Reese, McKinney or 
 Wright, but he was the spokesman of the Court in 
 more cases of importance than any of his associates, 
 and especially in cases affecting the equity jurispru- 
 dence of the State. It is probable that cases of this 
 class were assigned to him in the .Supreme Court in 
 preference to other Judges, because of his experience 
 and his excellent record as Chancellor. 
 
 Nathan Green was born in Amelia County, Vir- 
 ginia, Alay 16, 1792, and died at his home in Lebanon, 
 Tennessee, March 30, 1866. He studied law and be- 
 gan the practice in Virginia, but soon afterwards came 
 to Tennessee and settled at Winchester, where he 
 seems to have secured, in a short time, a satisfactory 
 practice. 
 
 It is said that at that time the lawyers of the State 
 were, like many of their fellow citizens, somewhat 
 addicted to gaming, and it is a fact not to be 
 
140 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 disputed that this seductive pursuit has at times 
 furnished a vent for the active intellect of the 
 profession. It is related in all accounts of 
 Judge Green that he yielded at one time to 
 the allurements of the gaming table, and thereby- 
 lost everything that he had acquired. His refor- 
 mation was due to his own good sense and strength 
 of character, and to the influence of his admirable 
 wife, who seems to have b,een a woman of the noblest 
 character, of exemplary loyalty, patience and afjfection. 
 It is said that she never complained, and never re- 
 proached her husband, but upon the contrary, was 
 sympathetic and affectionate, while she deplored his 
 fault, and sought by gentle and loving persuasions 
 to cure it. * 
 
 Such conduct is worthy of all praise, and did not 
 fail of its proper reward. Judge Green was at all times 
 a man of strong character and high purposes, and it 
 is not difhcult to understand how his own convic- 
 tions, re-enforced by an unavoidable sense of gratitude 
 and affection for his wife, worked a complete change 
 of conduct. He overcame his passion for cards, 
 united himself with the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, and became in time one of its most prominent 
 and influential supporters. 
 
 It is not at all strange that at a time when gaming 
 was a more venial offense than now, a young man of 
 active mind should have sought in its excitements, 
 relief from the monotony of life in a country town, 
 but it would have been as strange as unfortunate if a 
 man of Green's force of mind and character, and innate 
 integrity, had not speedily overcome the habit. The 
 reformation was com.plete and permanent, and from 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 14! 
 
 that time the better elements of his character were 
 always ascendant, and his influence at the bar and on 
 the bench was always on the right side. 
 
 His public life began with an election to the State 
 Senate in 1826. Without efifort he was a leader in the 
 Legislature, impressing himself favorably and strongly 
 upon his associates. In 1827 he was chosen Chancel- 
 lor for East Tennessee, when the State had just created 
 the Chancery Court and there were only two Divisions. 
 In 1831 he was elected to the supreme bench, and was 
 elected again after the adoption of the Constitution of 
 1834. For more than twenty years he remained in 
 this high Court, exerting an unsurpassed and most 
 salutary influence upon its decisions and its policy. 
 He has been called the "Hardwicke of Tennessee," 
 and the "father of our equity jurisprudence.'' No 
 other Tennessee Judge, with the single exception 
 of Haywood, has so powerfully or permanently 
 impressed himself upon the jurisprudence of Ten- 
 nessee, and none has left a more admirable record. 
 
 In 1852 Green retired from the bench, and thence- 
 forth, until the civil war interrupted his work, gave his 
 time to the Lebanon, or Cumberland University Law 
 School. His great reputation, extending through the 
 State, and widely beyond its borders, attracted young 
 men from all the Southern States. He was ably 
 supported by Judge Abraham Caruthers and Chan- 
 cellor Ridley, and the popularity won for the School by 
 these distinguished names was soon re-enforced by the 
 quality of their work. No similar institution in the 
 South has been so well attended, or has trained so 
 many lawyers who have risen in the profession. It 
 has continued to be to the present time, the best known 
 
142 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 law school in the South. In almost every Southern 
 State its graduates are among the leading lawyers, 
 and in several, they are now to be found on the 
 supreme bench. At the meetings of the Tennessee 
 Bar Association it is common to have the graduates 
 of the Lebanon Law School photographed in a group, 
 and this grotjp invariably contains much of the best 
 talent of the State. 
 
 In the controversies leading up to the war, Judge 
 Green consistently declared himself opposed to seces- 
 sion, and advocated the maintenance of the Union. 
 It is said that, with characteristic frankness, he freely 
 expressed these sentiments in his lecture-room. More- 
 over, he seems not to have believed that there was 
 occasion for seceding, even if the right existed. He 
 did not believe, however, that it was permissible, or 
 justifiable, under the Constitution, for the North to in- 
 terfere in the domestic affairs of the South, or for the 
 Federal government to resort to coercive measures. 
 Therefore, when the issue was made and hostilities 
 began, he arrayed himself on the side of the South. 
 He was not connected with the army, as he had 
 long passed the age of service, but remained qui- 
 etly at home throughout the war, and without 
 molestation of person or property. In the Spring of 
 1866 he began active work to resuscitate the Law 
 School. He entered upon the undertaking with his 
 old time zeal and energy, forgetting his age and con- 
 sequent infirmity, and was in a little while compelled 
 to give up. After a short illness he died. He had 
 frequently said, in reply to the remonstrances of his 
 friends, that he wished to wear out and not to rust 
 out. And he was right. He died in the eflort to 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I43 
 
 do good, and in the possession of his facuUies. To 
 the very last he was a useful man. The character of 
 Judge Green will repay study. His dominant quality 
 was force. Physically, mentally and morally he was 
 strong. Such men are not always superior to temp- 
 tation. Sometimes they yield and become confirmed 
 in evil doing, and are the worst enemies of society. 
 But all Judge Green's impulses and purposes were 
 right, and in the end he was victorious over tempta- 
 tion and evil habit, and came out of the strife purified 
 and strengthened. He was for many years the 
 leader among the laymen of the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church. He was a diligent student of the Bible, 
 and was led by his tastes into a careful study of theol- 
 ogy, in which he became profoundly learned. 
 
 In everything that he did, earnestness, sincerity and 
 power were manifest. As an advocate he possessed 
 almost none of the graces, but was rich in substantial 
 qualities. Physically he lacked symmetry, but he 
 spoke with vehemence, and it need not be said that he 
 reasoned with power. His methods were straight- 
 forward and direct. He was wanting in wit, humor 
 and fancy, but never in logic. 
 
 As a Judge he displayed great learning, and also a 
 thorough mastery of his learning. These two things 
 are not often itnited. The very learned lawyer is apt 
 to be dependent on his learning. We have had Judges 
 who were possessed by learning rather than posses- 
 sing it. Judge Green's mind was large enough and 
 strong enough to digest what he read, so that he was 
 not only a learned Judge, but truly a great Judge. He 
 is one of the finest figures in our history, and few men 
 have rendered more substantial service to the State. 
 
144 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Robert Looney Caruthers was born in Smith 
 County, Tennessee, July 31, 1800. His education 
 began in the country schools of the neighborhood, was 
 continued for awhile at Columbia, and completed at 
 Washington College, East Tennessee. He read law 
 with Judge Samuel Powell, at Greeneville, and began 
 the practice at Carthage, but soon afterwards moved 
 to Lebanon, in Wilson County. For a great part of his 
 long and useful life he held positions of honor and of 
 tiust. In 1823 he was elected Clerk of the lower 
 house of the Legislature, which then met at Murfrees- 
 boro. In 1827 he was made State's Attorney for the 
 Lebanon Circuit, receiving his commission from Sam 
 Houston, and held the position for almost five years, 
 when he resigned and was elected to the Legislature 
 to represent Wilson County. In this Legislature, 
 the first under the new Constitution, he was a member 
 of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Represent- 
 atives. In 1841 he succeeded John Bell in Congress, 
 but declined a re-election. In 1844 he was an Elector 
 -for the State at large on the Whig ticket. In 1852 
 Governor William B. Campbell appointed him to the 
 supreme bench to fill the vacancy created by the res- 
 ignation of Nathan Green. The Legislature elected 
 him to the same office in 1853, and the people elected 
 him in 1854, after the amendment of the Constitution 
 depriving the Legislature of the power to elect Judges. 
 He remained on the suprem.e bench until the Court 
 was suspended as a result of the war. He was a dele- 
 gate to the Peace Congress of 1861, and a member 
 of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. 
 When the third term of Isham G. Harris, as Governor, 
 expired in 1863, Judge Caruthers was elected to sue- 
 
-;^/^ ^^/y//^^ 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 45 
 
 ceed him, but was never inaugurated. In addition to 
 all these civil positions, he held, in 1834, the oiifice of 
 Brigadier-General of Militia. 
 
 After the war his time was devoted to the Cumber- 
 land University Law School, an institution with which 
 his name, like that of Judge Green, is inseparably con- 
 nected. He died in October, 1882, at the ripe age 
 of eighty-two years. 
 
 Judge Caruthers was the first President of the Board 
 of Trustees of Cumberland University, and was a shin- 
 ing light in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
 His character was marked by an extraordinary 
 purity. The moral faculties were always dominant. 
 He was sincerely pious, genuinely benevolent without 
 ostentation, and the sure supporter of every well-con- 
 sidered work of temperance, morality or religion. He 
 was a man of firmness and decision, and therefore not 
 only well-inclined, but also efficient in well doing. 
 His mental gifts were large and various. As a lawyer 
 he was thoroughly trained, after the fashion of his time, 
 before entering upon the practice, and continued there- 
 after to be a diligent student. 
 
 It is a little surprising to find him i-anked so high 
 as an advocate, by Albert D. Marks and Andrew B. 
 Martin, both of whom have written accounts of Iiis 
 life. The correctness of their statements is not dis- 
 puted, but in that remote part of the State in which 
 these Sketches are written, he has not been thought 
 of as a great advocate, but only as a great jurist. Mr. 
 Marks declares that he was without doubt the greatest 
 advocate Tennessee has ever had, and some one is 
 quoted as having said that, when on the wrong side 
 of a jury case, he was an obstruction to justice. If 
 
146 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 these estimates of his ability as an advocate be correct, 
 he has not beert dealt with justly, because it is within 
 the writer's knowledge that the lawyers of the present 
 generation do not know him as a great advocate. 
 
 He is not said to have been an orator or a declaimer, 
 but an irresistible reasoner, controlling courts and 
 juries by the force of logic, and of a strong, com- 
 manding personality. 
 
 Everything that has been written of him is com- 
 mendatory. Such faults as he may have had, have 
 been entirely obscured from public view by his many 
 excellent qualities. 
 
 He was one of the coterie of good and able men 
 who, toward the end of the first half of this century, 
 gave to the little town of Lebanon, and to its schools, 
 the unique and enviable reputation which they still 
 retain. 
 
 The names of Green, Caruthers, Stokes, Martin and 
 others, remind us invariably of Lebanon and Cumber- 
 land University, and the Law School. To these men, 
 largely, Lebanon is indebted for the fact that for fifty 
 years it has been one of the chief centers of the educa- 
 tional and religious life of the South. Its influence, 
 always good, has extended into all the States of the 
 South and Southwest. It has been a conservative, 
 sound, orthodox and beneficent influence. All honor 
 to the little town and its admirable University for the 
 good they have done and the good they are doing. 
 May they continue to prosper and remain steadfast in 
 upholding the old standards of culture and of faith. 
 
 Abraham Caruthers was the first law professor 
 of Cumberland University. Judge Nathan Green, of 
 the Supreme Court, was elected professor of interna- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I47 
 
 tional law and political economy in the University in 
 1845, but declined the position. Judge Caruthers, 
 who was subsequently requested to establish a law 
 school, entered upon the work in the month of Octo- 
 ber, 1847, thereby becoming the founder of the most 
 successful and the most 'useful law school that has 
 existed, up to this time, in the Southern States. For 
 this reason, and on account of his abilities and his per- 
 sonal worth, he is entitled to a high place among the 
 lawyers of Tennessee. 
 
 He was born in Smith County, Tennessee, Jan- 
 uary 14, 1803. While he was a child his father died. 
 By means of his own strong will, and by the help of 
 friends, he acquired a fair education, studied law and, 
 began the practice in 1824 at Columbia, Tennessee. 
 Soon afterwards he removed to Carthage, in his native 
 county, and in 1833 was appointed by Governor Car- 
 roll, Judge of the Circuit Court for the Third Circuit. 
 He was elected in 1836, Judge of the Fourth Circuit, 
 without opposition, and at the expiration of his term 
 was again elected without opposition, and served until 
 1847, when he retired to take charge of the Law 
 School. 
 
 In the records of the lives of our Circuit Judges 
 and Chancellors, prepared mainly by friends and kins- 
 people, it is almost invariably stated that few of their 
 decisions were reversed by the Supreme Court. This 
 statement may be made safely in regard to Judge 
 Caruthers, whose ability as a nisiprius Judge is uni- 
 versally recognized. It is said that it was not uncom- 
 mon for the Supreme Court to incorporate his deci- 
 sions literally, in its opinions. In the administration 
 of the criminal law he was exact and rigid, and his 
 
148 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 influence upon morals in his circuit, was strong and 
 salutary. 
 
 In resigning in 1847 and entering upon his new 
 work, he was undertaking an experiment of doubtful 
 result. The modern method of advertising was at 
 that time unknown in Tennessee. The Law School 
 began when Judge Caruthers met seven students in 
 the office of his brother, Robert L. Caruthers, in Leb- 
 anon. During the first term the number increased to 
 thirteen. The first lesson recited was in the "History 
 of a Lawsuit," which was then a little book of forty 
 pages which Judge Caruthers had recently published, 
 and which he called the "Primer." He did not adopt 
 the lecture system, but assigned lessons in text-books, 
 and upon each of these rigidly examined the students, 
 holding that this was the only proper way to teach 
 the law. He adopted also a system of moot courts, 
 thereby making his students practicing lawyers from 
 the first. His plan was popular, and was satisfactory 
 to the management. 
 
 In the second year of the Law School, Judge Nathan 
 Green, of the Supreme Court, and Bromfield L. Ridley, 
 Chancellor of the Lebanon Division, were associated 
 with Judge Caruthers, but Judge Ridley was able to 
 give but little time to the work. In 1852 Judge 
 Green resigned from the bench, and from that time 
 gave' his attention exclusively to the Law School. In 
 1856 his son, Nathan Green, Jr., became an active 
 member of the law faculty, and is now at the head of 
 the School. In 1861 there were one hundred and 
 eighty students in the Law School. 
 
 The issuance of President Lincoln's proclamation in 
 April, 1861, making a call for volunteers to suppress 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 14g 
 
 insurrection in the Southern States, caused the imme- 
 diate suspension of the Law School and the dispersion 
 of tlie students to tlieir homes. Judge Caruthers had 
 been a strong Union man, and on many occasions had 
 declared his opposition to secession and to every move- 
 ment that tended to disturb the harmony, or to 
 threaten the integrity, of the United States; but like 
 the great majority of the Unionists of Middle and West 
 Tennessee, he felt, when the issue had been made, and 
 a choice of position was unavoidable, that his duty 
 la} with the South and with the State. He, therefore, 
 declared his adherence to the Confederacy, and ear- 
 nestly devoted himself to its interests. 
 
 He was a member of the Legislature from Wilson 
 County in 1861, the first Legislature elected under the 
 Confederate regime. 
 
 Upon the occupation of Middle Tennessee by the 
 Federal army in the Spring of 1862, fearing arrest, 
 he left his home and went to Marietta, Georgia, where, 
 away from family and friends, he died May 5, 1862. 
 
 An earnest efifort has been made to secure a full 
 history of the Supreme Court Judges under the Con- 
 stitution of 1834 from original sources, but without 
 success, except as to Judges Green and Caruthers. 
 It must, therefore, be admitted frankly that what is 
 said here of Judges Turley, Reese, Totten and Harris, 
 is largely taken from the History of the Supreme Court 
 by Albert D. Marks, who is always trustworthy, but 
 whose work should not be too freely appropriated. 
 As to Judge McKinney, there is an excellent account, 
 which was read by W. A. Henderson before the Bar 
 Association, and probably is based on personal recol- 
 lections of Judge McKinney's friend. Judge R. M. 
 
IjO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Barton. The Court was first composed of Judges 
 Green, Turley and Reese. 
 
 William Bruce Turley was born in Alexandria, 
 Virginia, in the year 1800. The family was English, 
 with intermixtures of Irish and Huguenot blood. In 
 1808 Judge Turley's father came to Tennessee and set- 
 tled in Davidson County. The son was educated at 
 the University of Nashville and studied law in the 
 office of William L. Brown, in that city. He entered 
 upon the practice at Clarksville, and in 1829 was 
 elected Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. In 1835, 
 at the age of thirty-five, he was elected to the supreme 
 bench, and served for fifteen years. He was re-elected 
 in 1847 for the ensuing term, but, as related by Mr. 
 Marks, his relations with Judge Green were not satis- 
 factory, and in 1850 he resigned and accepted the 
 judgeship of the Common Law and Chancery Court of 
 Memphis. He died May 27, 1851. The causes of 
 disagreement between Judges Turley and Green 
 are not known, and members of Judge Green's family 
 know nothing of the occurrence. 
 
 It is probable that Judge Turley was more alert, 
 intellectually, than any of his associates. Mr. Marks 
 says that the work of a nisi prius Judge was better 
 suited to his tastes than that of a Supreme Judge, 
 and that hewas somewhat intolerant of the labor of con- 
 sultation. A very distinguished lawyer who knew and 
 admired him, writes as follows: ''Turley did not care 
 much for precedents, but rather thought, in the lan- 
 guage of the Code Napoleon, that no case should bs re- 
 garded as a precedent. I once read a private letter 
 written by Judge Kent, in which he said that he studied 
 the facts patiently, attended to the argument of coun- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 151 
 
 sel, determined on which side justice lay, and then 
 spent much labor searching for authority to sustain 
 his determination, and never failed to find it. Turley 
 was just such a lawyer." 
 
 The writer of the letter says further: "He was well 
 read in history, fond of poetry, and it was a treat to 
 listen to his recitations from Shakespeare and Byron.'' 
 
 In this connection it may be said that many of the 
 opinions of this Court have a high literary quality and 
 value. It is well known in the profession that many 
 of the great English judges were masters of style, and 
 prided themselves greatly on that fact. 
 
 Some of our Judges, notably Reese and Turley, 
 were imbued with the same spirit. They were fond 
 of giving to their opinions a dignified and imposing 
 form, and some of them are models of English of the 
 good old-fashioned sonorous kind. Witness the fol- 
 lowing from Judge Turley's pen, in Green vs. Allen, 
 5 Humphreys, 179 : "It is a cause of melancholy reflec- 
 tion to those who have looked into the history of the 
 Church to find at how early a period its hierarchy, for- 
 getting the great and vital principle which had been 
 so impressively taught them, 'that the kingdom of 
 Christ was not of this world,' entered into a struggle 
 in the first place for the attainment of wealth, and in 
 the second place for the acquirement of temjJoral 
 power. The new but zealous converts, imperfectly 
 acquainted with the mild and self-denying tenets of 
 the religion they professed, having but a very imper- 
 fect conception of the principles of action upon which 
 they hoped for the enjoyment of that immortality of 
 happiness promised them — ignorant of the propriety 
 and necessity of controlling and suppressing their evil 
 
152 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and wicked propensities, were early led into the belief 
 that a composition for their indulgence was to be found 
 in dedicating to the Church their worldly wealth, which 
 from the high estimate placed upon it by themselves 
 they judged must be highly prized as an atonernent 
 for their crimes." 
 
 These are not perfect sentences, but they suggest the 
 old masters. It is submitted that a Judge is not less 
 a Judge because he writes good English. Green vs. 
 Allen being a case involving the general subject of 
 charitable bequests, afforded a fine opportunity for the 
 display of learning and of rhetoric, and Judge Turley 
 was equal to the occasion. The case is the leading 
 one on the subject in Tennessee. 
 
 It is remembered that Judge Turley was of a con- 
 vivial turn, but it cannot be charged that he was on 
 that account less faithful or efficient as a Judge. The 
 manner of his death was very distressing. While 
 walking on the street in Raleigh, Tennessee, he fell 
 and caught on liis cane, which broke under his weight 
 and one of the sharp points ran him through. 
 
 It seems to be the opinion of his contemporaries 
 that Judge Turley, while less studious perhaps than 
 some of his associates, was not inferior as a lawyer, 
 and probably was quicker of apprehension than anv of 
 theiVi. 
 
 William B. Reese was born in Jefferson County, 
 Tennessee, November 19, 1793, and died at Knoxvilfe, 
 July 7, 1859. His family was among the first settlers 
 in East Tennessee, and his father, who was a lawyer, 
 was a prominent supporter of .the State of Franklin. 
 
 Judge Reese was educated at Blount College and at 
 Greeneville College, and was admitted to the bar in 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I53 
 
 1817. Nothing is known of his record in detail until 
 1&32, when he was elected Chancellor of the Eastern 
 Division to succeed Nathan Green. It is said gener- 
 ally — and no doubt correctly — that he enjoyed a good 
 practice. As Chancellor he displayed ability of the 
 highest order, and it is asserted that of the cases 
 appealed from his Court to the Supreme Court, only 
 two were reversed. 
 
 In 1835, when the Legislature was called upon to 
 choose Judges of the Supreme Court, under the new 
 Constitution, Judge Reese was unanimously chosen 
 as one of the three. He served the full term of twelve 
 years, but was not a candidate for re-election in 184T. 
 At that time he aspired to the United States Senate, 
 but was defeated by John Bell. Soon afterwards he 
 was made President of East Tennessee University, 
 which position he held until the failure of his health 
 compelled him to retire. 
 
 Judge Reese was easily the most scholarly of all 
 our Supreme Judges, with the possible exception of 
 Haywood. After leaving college he continued to be a 
 student, and was to the end of his life a constant and 
 careful reader. His opinions show the results of his 
 broad and thorough scholarship. They display not 
 only an accurate knowledge of the law as written and 
 declared by the courts, but also a clear understanding 
 and a firm grasp of principles. He was in no sense a 
 case lawyer, but sought the sources and the reasons of 
 the law. The native power and careful training of his 
 mind were such that the great stores of his learning 
 were always serviceable and never confusing. He had 
 the gift of analysis as well as of acquisition. 
 
 For the office of college President he was excep- 
 
154 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 tionally adapted. His reputation for learning was 
 great and deserved, his character was clear and his 
 name dignified by the eminent positions he had held. 
 He was an acceptable and successful President, and 
 was of great service to the institution. In him the 
 moral qualities were not less developed than the in- 
 tellectual, and his influence and active exertions were 
 freely given for the public welfare. 
 
 He was interested in practical affairs, and gave in- 
 telligent and helpful attention to the material develop- 
 ment of the State. He supported the movement to 
 secure the two railroads that were built to Knoxville 
 in the fifties, and was a director of one of the cor- 
 porations. 
 
 It is not often that so many good qualities are 
 combined, or that one man is able to serve efficiently 
 so many important interests. 
 
 Mr. Marks refers in terms of deserved praise to the 
 learning and ability shown in Judge Reese's opinion 
 in the case of Polk vs. Paris, 9 Yerger, 159, in which 
 the rule in Shelley's case was applied. It is said that 
 the erudition of the opinion drew forth especial praise 
 from Chancellor Kent. 
 
 Judge Reese was not only one of the most learned 
 of our jurists, but in every respect one of the most 
 comDctent and efficient. 
 
 A. W. 0. Totten. who succeeded Judge Turley on 
 the supreme bench, was born in Middle Tennessee, 
 but reared in Gibson County, in West Tennessee, and 
 admitted to practice at Trenton. He afterwards re- 
 turned to Jackson, where he was eminently successful. 
 In later times no lawyer who aspired to a judgeship 
 would have removed from Trenton. No town in the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 55 
 
 State contributes so continuously, or more acceptably, 
 to the high judgeships. Totten, however, was ele- 
 vated to the supreme bench despite the fact that he had 
 left Trenton. He was first appointed and then elected, 
 and served until 18.')5, when he resigned and was suc- 
 ceeded by William R. Harris. He died in 1867. 
 
 Judge Totten did not make a great name on the 
 supreme bench, and is not so highly esteemed as a 
 Judge, by the profession, as are Green, Reese, Turley, 
 McKinney and Wright. He was a man of high char- 
 acter, not wanting in firmness, a well-read lawyer, dil- 
 igent and cautious. He was not unacceptable as a 
 Judge, but did not rise to the stature of the great men 
 of the Court. From a memorial of Judge Totten, 
 appended to ith Coldwell, and presumably prepared by 
 Judge West H. Humphreys, the following is extracted: 
 
 "His person was tall, manly and striking. His man- 
 ners were bland and courteous in a high degree, and 
 his general deportment dignihed, without stiffness or 
 reserve. In the most exciting debates at the bar, 
 he never descended to wrangling or lost the serenity 
 of his temper or the tranquility of his manner. His 
 delivery was measured and deliberate, and his language 
 accurate and correct, as it fell from his lips. * * * 
 Without the possession of pre-eminent ability he never 
 fell below the occasion which called forth his mental 
 powers. He filled the measure of judicial duty." 
 
 Judge Totten was one of the Commissioners, ap- 
 pointed by Governor Harris in 1861, to form a military 
 league with the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 One of the great Judges who served upon the su- 
 preme bench under the Constitution of 183-t was 
 Robert J. McKinney, of East Tennessee. He was a 
 
1^6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 native of Ireland, born in County Coleraine, February 
 1, 1803. His father, Samuel McKinney, left Ireland 
 in 1809 and came to the city of Philadelphia. From 
 that favorite landing place of the Irish immigrant he 
 followed the stream of population that was flowing 
 westward to the Alleghanies, and then southwestward 
 along the mountain slopes. Penetrating into the val- 
 ley of East Tennessee, he settled not far from where 
 Rogersville, in Hawkins County, now stands. 
 
 Robert J. McKinney grew to young manhood upon 
 the farm, always industrious and frugal, and deter- 
 mined to rise in the world. According to the rule of 
 that time his schooling was at first limited to the win- 
 ter months when farm labor was impossible, but finally 
 he was able to attend Greeneville College for a time. 
 
 W. A. Henderson, whose sketch of Judge McKin- 
 ney was read before the State Bar Association in 1884, 
 says that this college schooling was for only a few 
 months. It is certain that he left college without 
 graduating, and began the study of law in the office 
 of his uncle, John A. McKinney, at Rogersville, and 
 received his license in December, 1824. He then 
 settled at Greeneville and began the practice, according 
 to custom and necessity, by riding the circuit. Mr. 
 Henderson states that for the first five years he did 
 not earn a "competency," but that in ]8?9 the case 
 of Rhea vs. j!?/^efl was to be tried at Blountville, on an 
 issue of devisaviivelnon, McKinney being the junior 
 counsel for the proponents. When the case was 
 called the senior partner was ill, and the case was 
 tried and won by McKinney. His management of 
 this case is said to have established his reputation and 
 to have brought him a lucrative practice. He was 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 157 
 
 in the Constitutional Convention of 1834, and while 
 his part in it was not exceptionally prominent, and his 
 position at the bar was not yet fixed, he was probably 
 the most thorough lawyer in that body. 
 
 In the contest between Van Buren and Hugh L. 
 White, he was a White Elector for the State at large. 
 This was his only appearance in politics. He 
 seems, however, to have accepted at one time the 
 position of Major of Militia, for which he was ill- 
 adapted. Mr. Henderson relates that he appeared 
 at the first muster after his appointment, on the muster 
 grounds seven miles from Greeneville, with a full and 
 gorgeous equipment and mounted upon a fiery but 
 untrained steed, and that at the first outburst of martial 
 music his horse took flight and could not be stayed 
 until he reached Greeneville, seven miles away. This 
 incident is related by Mr. Henderson with his habitual 
 felicity, and is probably authentic. 
 
 In 1847 William B. Reese resigned his place on 
 the supreme bench, and largely through the instru- 
 mentality of Return J. Meigs, McKinney was elected 
 to fill the vacancy, his principal competitor being his 
 former law partner, William Henry Sneed. He 
 served continuously from 1847 to 1861, having been 
 re-elected after the amendment of the Constitution in 
 1853. In 1861 he was of the peace commissioners sent 
 to Washington by Governor Isham G. Harris. When, 
 after the war, the State brought suit to enforce its 
 liens upon the railroads to which it had given aid, he 
 served as one of its commissioners, with Archibald 
 Wright and Francis B. Fogg. He died October 9, 
 1875, at his home in Knoxville. 
 
 His closing years were peaceful and contented. In 
 
158 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 early life he had acquired habits of frugality and self- 
 restraint, and having a sound judgment and a gift 
 for aiTairs, he amassed by legitimate means a large 
 fortune, for his time. His earnings were husbanded 
 and his investments were judicious. He was highly 
 respected and esteemed by his neighbors, and while 
 he was always a strict man of business, he was kindly 
 and just, and by his large means was able often to aid 
 the unfortunate. He was a man of genuine piety, 
 and was one of the staunchest and most liberal sup- 
 porters of the venerable First Presbyterian Church 
 of Knoxville. 
 
 He was in no respect a brilliant or showy man, but 
 thorough, accurate, diligent and sound. He was 
 trained in the school of old-time lawyers. All who have 
 written of him lay stress upon his knowledge and 
 admiration of the common law, and the impression 
 has been created that he gave comparatively little at- 
 tention to anything else. It is submitted that this 
 is erroneous. He was better versed in the common 
 law than most lawyers, but this was equally true of 
 him in other branches. He excelled in knowledge of 
 the common law, but he was not less thorough in 
 equity and in statutory law. His opinions are ap- 
 pealed to in support of this assertion. It will be found 
 that they touch upon every phase of the law, and are 
 never inferior. He was not a specialist, but an accu- 
 rately learned and well rounded lawyer. He was not a 
 voluminous writer and apparently not a ready one, 
 but always exact and clear. He is said to have been 
 something of a precisian, and that fact, added to an 
 exceptional dignity and propriety of deportment, 
 caused the bar to stand somewhat in awe of him. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 159 
 
 While his opinions lack the literary embellishments 
 and the flavor of scholarship that characterize those 
 of some of his associates, they are invariably clear and 
 definite. The writer of this sketch is inclined to re- 
 gard him as the best opinion writer among our Su- 
 preme Judges, so far as lawyers' needs are concerned. 
 In his opinions there is no unnecessary verbiage. 
 They are carefully written in plain strong English 
 for the single purpose of expounding the law. 
 
 It is the observation of the writer, at the bar, that 
 his opinions are at least equal in authority to those of 
 any of our Supreme Judges. 
 
 William R. Harris, an elder brother of Isham G. 
 Harris, was born in Montgomery County, North Car- 
 olina, September 26, 1803, and was killed by the ex- 
 plosion of the steamboat "Pennsylvania," on the Mis- 
 sissippi River, near Memphis, January 13, 1858. 
 While he was a child his father moved first to Bedford 
 County, and then to F"ranklin County, Tennessee. 
 The circumstances of the family originally had been 
 prosperous, but gradually had declined. At one time 
 William R. Harris was Deputy Sheriff of Franklin 
 County, and while he held that ofiice, studied at night 
 and kept up with a class in Carrick Academy. 
 
 He began to read law in 1835, and was admitted 
 to the bar in 1827. Settling in Paris, Henry County, 
 soon after the establishment of the county, he secured 
 an excellent practice and rose rapidly in the profession. 
 In 1836 he was appointed by Governor Cannon to 
 fill a vacancy created by the resignation of the Judge 
 of the Ninth Circuit. This office he held until 1845, 
 when he returned to the bar. In 1851 he removed 
 to Memphis. He succeeded Judge Turley as Judge of 
 
l6o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 the Common Law and Chancery Court of Memphis, 
 by appointment, and was afterwards elected. On the 
 resignation of Judge Totten, in August, 1855, he was 
 appointed by Governor Andrew Johnson to the su- 
 preme bench, and was elected by the people in Decem- 
 ber of that year. He was starting on a trip to. New 
 Orleans when the deplorable accident, which caused 
 his death, occurred. 
 
 He is said to have excelled greatly in knowledge of 
 the common law, and of the rules of practice. 
 
 One of his brothers was a Methodist minister, and 
 he is said to have been himself a most devout man. 
 A citizen of Knoxville has told the writer that Judge 
 Harris, when in that city, was one of the most regular 
 attendants at the Methodist Church. It is also related 
 that he had a quick temper, and was very determined. 
 It is a tradition that on one occasion he wished to fight 
 a duel with one of his associates on account of some- 
 thing that had occurred in consultation. A duel' be- 
 tween Judges of the Supreme Court would have been 
 extraordinary, and hardly defensible. The tradition 
 is not in keeping with the trustworthy accounts of 
 Judge Harris' piety, but it is undeniable that 
 even the best men have tempers and do not 
 always control them. There is no doubt that 
 Judge Harris possessed many excellent and admirable 
 qualities, and that his life was really exemplary. He 
 is remembered as a man of fine abilities and of great 
 promise as a Judge. 
 
 Worthy to be ranked with Green, Reese, Turley 
 and McKinney, as the great Judges of Tennessee, in 
 the middle period of its history, is Archibald Wright. 
 
 He was born in Maury County, Tennessee, Novem- 
 
OF TENNESSEE l6l 
 
 ber 29, 1809, and died at Memphis, September 13, 
 1884. His father and mother were both of Scottish 
 Highlander descent. The family moved from Maury 
 to Giles County soon after his birth, and he was reared 
 in the last named county. His education was at Mount 
 Pleasant Academy and Giles College, and does not ap- 
 pear to have been extensive. It is said, however, that 
 he was a diligent student and made the most of his 
 opportunities. He studied law in the office of Chan- 
 cellor Bramlett, and was licensed and began the prac- 
 tice at Pulaski, in 1832. When the Florida war began, 
 he volunteered and served throughout the war. Re- 
 turning to Pulaski, he continued to practice law there 
 until 1851, when he removed to Memphis and entered 
 into partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. Eldridge, 
 and the Hon. Thomas J. Turley. In 1857 Governor 
 Harris appointed him to the supreme bench, and in 
 1858 the appointment was confirmed by a popular 
 election. He served until the Court was suspended by 
 the war. His name had been mentioned frequently 
 for the Supreme Judgeship before his appointment, 
 but he had declined to seek the place. 
 
 He was an early and zealous supporter of secession, 
 but was too old for service in the army. His two sons, 
 however, enlisted, and one fell at Murfreesboro, while 
 the other survived to become one of the foremost law- 
 yers of the State, and to form a long-continuing part- 
 nership with Thomas B. Turley, the son of his father's 
 partner, and United States Senator from Tennessee. 
 
 The war left Judge Wright, like many other 
 Southern men, bankrupt. His indebtedness seems 
 to have been incurred largely in purchasing planta- 
 tions and slaves in Louisiana before the war, and it is 
 
l62 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Stated that by the laws of Louisiana, debts made in 
 buying slaves were not enforceable by law, after the 
 war. But of neither this law nor the national bank- 
 rupt Act would Judge Wright avail himself. Like 
 Sir Walter Scott, and with the same old-fashioned 
 Scotch honesty, he set to work, in his old age, to pay his 
 debts. To this honorable but unpleasant task, he 
 seems to have given the remainder of his life. While 
 this course was not exceptional in the South, it cer- 
 tainly was in the highest degree admirable and praise- 
 worthy. 
 
 In all that has been written of Judge Wright, 
 stress has been laid on the terseness and directness 
 of his opinions. As they appear in the Reports, they 
 are devoid of adornment and. amplification, but are 
 eminently clear and satisfactory. They are such opin- 
 ions as the lawyer needs in the court-room — clear, 
 precise, unmistakable. Mr. Marks quotes Judge 
 Greer, of Memphis, as saying of him that as a Judge 
 he used a rifle, but as an advocate, a shot-gun. Marks 
 also relates the following: "In a very important case 
 which had been on trial for several weeks before an 
 able Federal Judge, he filed brief after brief on the 
 questions arising in the progress of the cause, until 
 the number reached nine. One morning the Judge, 
 seeing a new brief prepared for filing, asked Judge 
 Wright how it was that a Judge whose opinions were 
 models of terseness, should as a practitioner use such 
 voluminous and numerous briefs. 'Sir,' he replied, 
 'when I was a Judge I had the power to say what the 
 law was, and I said it as succinctly as possible; but in 
 the trial of my causes I find it essential to be prepared 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 163 
 
 on all points, because I don't know what some fool 
 Judge may decide.' " 
 
 Down almost to the day of his death, Judge Wright 
 remained in active practice. In his determination to 
 pay his debts he accepted every honorable employ- 
 ment that was tendered him. 
 
 With his large and deserved reputation, he might 
 have been elected to the bench again, but it said that 
 he repeatedly declined to allow the use of his name. 
 He had never sought office, but held to the old-fash- 
 ioned opinion at which the politician of the present 
 time laughs, that the office should seek the man. 
 
 In rugged strength of character and of mind. Judge 
 Wright much resembled Judge Green. Like Judge 
 Green, he was not a brilliant man, but strong and 
 sound. He is said to have been exceptionally familiar 
 with the Tennessee Reports, but it will be seen from 
 his opinions that he was not given to the display of 
 learning. He sought and reached the justice of the 
 case, putting his conclusions in the plainest possible 
 form. As a practitioner he was not only careful and 
 laborious, but while always fair and honorable, was 
 prompt and shrewd, and made the most of his cases. 
 Judge Wright exemplified in his life the highest quali- 
 ties of good-citizenship and true manhood. He was 
 among the most competent of our Supreme Judges, 
 and leaves a name of which his children and all the 
 people of Tennessee must be proucj. 
 
 At this point special mention should be made of the 
 Chancery Court. 
 
 The first Act of the Territorial Legislature, 1794, 
 Chapter 1, Section 1, continued the Superior Court, 
 as established by the State of North Carolina. In 
 
164 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 1787 the Superior Court had been divided, and the 
 Chancery branch created, and called the Court of 
 Equity. The same Judges held both Courts, but there 
 was- a Clerk and Master for the Chancery branch. 
 The first Act of the Territorial Legislature confirmed 
 the division of the Territory into Washington, Hamil- 
 ton and the Mero Districts, and conferred a Superior 
 Court of Law and Equity jurisdiction on each of them. 
 It has been stated that when, by the Act of 
 November, 1809, Superior Courts were abolished, and 
 a Supreme Court and five Circuit Courts established, 
 the Circuit Courts were invested with all the original 
 equity jurisdiction of the Superior Courts; that in 
 1811, this was taken from them and conferred on the 
 Supreme Court, and that in 1813 the Circuit Judges 
 were given concurrent jurisdiction in equity causes 
 with the Supreme Court Judges. In 1822 an Act 
 was passed "to amend the judiciary system of the 
 State," lay which it was provided that "there shall be 
 held by one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
 Errors and Appeals, a Court of Equity at the present 
 places of holding said Supreme Court in each circuit; 
 who shall possess original equity jurisdiction and no 
 other." LTnder this Act the Chancery Court was held 
 once in each year at Rogersville, Knoxville, Charlotte, 
 Sparta, Nashville and Columbia, sitting for two 
 weeks at each place except Nashville, where the term 
 was six weeks. In ,1824 it was enacted that the Chan- 
 cery Court should sit twice a year in each Circuit. 
 In 1827 an Act was passed for the election of two 
 Chancellors, and the State was divided into two chan- 
 cery divisions, the Chancellors having jurisdiction 
 over the entire State, and the right to interchange. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 165 
 
 The first Legislature under the Constitution of 1834 
 increased the number of Chancellors to three, and 
 since that time the number has been increased at the 
 will of the Legislature. 
 
 The Chancellors down to 1840 were Nathan Green, 
 Eastern Division from 1827 to 1831; William E. An- 
 derson, Western Division from 1827 to 1830; William 
 B. Reese, Eastern Division from 1831 to 1836 ; William 
 A. Cork, Western Division from 1830 to 1836; Thomas 
 L. Williams, East Tennessee from 1836 to 1843; 
 Pleasant M. Miller, West Tennessee from 1836 to 
 1837; Milton Brown, West Tennessee from 1837 to 
 1839; George W. Gibbs, West Tennessee to October, 
 1839; Andrew McCampbell, West Tennessee, 1839 to 
 1847. Bromiield L. Ridley became Chancellor of 
 the Fourth Division in 1810, the Act creating that 
 Division having been passed in 1839. The increase 
 in the number of divisions of course reduced the 
 importance of the office, or at least made the incum- 
 bents less conspicuous. According to the terminology 
 of the early Acts, the three divisions were divided into 
 districts. There were originally fifteen districts in 
 the Middle Division, and nine in each of the others.* 
 
 Some of the Chancellors have already been noticed 
 in these Sketches. Of many of the others no authentic 
 records can be found. 
 
 In the article on Chancellor Williams, reference is 
 made to the opposition to the Chancery Court as a 
 separate judicatory, which continued for some years 
 after its establishment. 
 
 Among the more distinguished Chancellors of the 
 State was Bromfield L. Ridley, who is remembered 
 
 *Acts 1835, Ohap. 4. 
 
1 66 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 as one of the purest and best men in the State's history. 
 For him, as for many other excellent men, we are 
 indebted to our mother State, North Carolina. He 
 was born in that State, in Granville County, August 
 1. 1804, and was educated at Chapel Hill, where he 
 graduated in 1824. At that time Dr. Joseph Caldwell 
 was President of the University, and James H. Otey, 
 afterwards Bishop of Tennessee, was one of the tutors. 
 Many members of the class of 1824 became distin- 
 guished. Among them were Wm. A. Graham, Gov- 
 ernor of North Carolina and Secretary of the Navy, 
 M. E. Manly and Augustus Moore, Judges of the 
 Supreme Court of North Carolina, David L. Swain 
 and David Outlaw. Ridley came to Tennessee in 
 1826, having been licensed to practice in North Car- 
 olina in that year. He located first at McMinnville. 
 In 1832 he .was appointed District Attorney by Gov- 
 ernor Carroll, and in 1835 represented Warren County 
 in the Legislature. He was a Democrat in politics, 
 but not a strong partisan. At the time of his death, 
 memorial meetings of the bar were held in several 
 counties, and printed copies of the proceedings have 
 been examined. They are devoted almost exclusively, 
 however, to deserved eulogy. The statement of facts 
 is very meagre. That he was an ambitious man, 
 and of excellent standing at the bar, we know gener- 
 ally- It is certain that he was made Chancellor of the 
 Fourth Division in 1840, and that with Judge Abraham 
 Caruthers, he was afterwards one of the professors 
 in the Lebanon Law School. He continued tO' be 
 Chancellor until 186], and died in August, 1869. 
 
 He is distinctively known in history as "Chancellor 
 Kidley," and his reputation as a Judge and as a man 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 167 
 
 is an enviable one. His long term of service testifies 
 forcibly to his ability as a Judge, and this testimony 
 is cordially confirmed by the opinions of those who 
 knew him. 
 
 He is described as a man of genial and kindly tem- 
 per, pure in his personal life, and above suspicion as a 
 Judge. He was a sincere Christian, and his life was 
 controlled by his religion. It is much to be regretted 
 that so few facts of his history have been preserved, be- 
 cause unquestionably he was one of the most excellent 
 and useful of our lawyers, and deserves to be honor- 
 ably remembered by the bar and by the people. 
 
 An interesting sketch of Judge Andrew J. March- 
 banks was read before the Tennessee Bar Asso- 
 ciation in 1890, by A. S. Colyar, and is the principal 
 source of information to which the writer has had 
 access. Mr. Cclyar does not give the date of the birth 
 of Judge IMarchbanks, but says: 
 
 "His early life has nothing peculiar in it, except that 
 not being fond of work, his mind at an early age fell 
 on the law. He was the son of a Scotchman who set- 
 tled in Overton County at an early day. The Scotch 
 name was Majoribanks." 
 
 It is found elsewhere that the future Judge was born 
 in Jackson County, Tennessee, November 21, 1804, 
 and that the family moved to Overton County during 
 his infancy. 
 
 It appears that in early life he was of an idle, ob- 
 stinate and combative disposition, and that at one 
 time he was nearly involved in a duel with Bromfield 
 L. Ridley. Mr. Colyar says that he was large, angu- 
 lar, raw-boned and awkward; that his clothes did 
 not fit him, and that he was sociallv very unattractive 
 
l68 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and not gifted in conversation. At the bar he is said 
 to have been at first uncouth, and sometimes uncivil 
 to his brother lawyers; but his arguments, while lack- 
 ing polish, were always strong and effective, and in 
 a few years he attained such' reputation that the law- 
 yers regarded him a-s a fit man for the bench. 
 
 In 1828 he was Elector for his district, and cast his 
 vote for Jackson and Calhoun. 
 
 He was elected Judge of the Thirteenth Circuit by 
 the Legislatuie, in 1837, and was retained, by succes- 
 sive re-elections, until the Court was suspended by the 
 war. He was one of the best Circuit Judges we have 
 had in the State, and probably has never been sur- 
 passed in knowledge of the land law by any Judge or 
 by any lawyer in Tennessee. Mr. Colyar confidently 
 declares that he was the equal of Whiteside, Overton 
 or Whyte, and says that the Supreme Court considered 
 him an authority on the land law, and never reversed 
 him in but one of his ejectment suits. The last state- 
 ment, while not important, is probably erroneous, as 
 will be seen by examining the cases of Waite vs. 
 Dolby, 8 Humphreys, 406, and Miller vs. Miller, 
 Meigs, 484. 
 
 It is evident that Judge Marchbanks had a high con- 
 ception of the judicial office. He maintained order 
 and dispatched business, and while awkward and un- 
 grammatical in speech, seems to have had a remarkable 
 aptitude for charging a jury. His fund of common 
 sense was large; in every way his intellect was vigor- 
 ous, and while he was not a scholarly man, he had 
 sufficient command of language to make himself 
 clearly understood. Greatly to his credit is the fact 
 that he would not permit litigants to converse with 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 169 
 
 him, but scrupulously avoided them. He was a grave 
 man, apparently without humor, and when occasion 
 demanded it, very severe. 
 
 The estimate to be derived from what is known 
 of Judge Marchbanks, is that he was a man of strength, 
 without any of the graces, or many of the refinements; 
 that he was not to be loved, but to be respected; that 
 as a young man he was harsh, intolerant and disagree- 
 able; that contact with the world smoothed many of 
 the rough places in his character, but not all of them; 
 that he was a good lawyer; that as a Judge he was in 
 all respects above the average, and that for learning 
 in the land law and ability to administer it as a Judge, 
 he has not been surpassed in the history of our judi- 
 ciary. He was a man of the strictest integrity and of 
 fearless and unfailing devotion to duty. 
 
 Elijah Walker and A. J. Marchbanks are gen- 
 erally regarded as the best land lawyers among our 
 Circuit Judges. Marchbanks was a native of Ten- 
 nessee, but Walker was born in Rockingham County, 
 North Carolina, March 8, 1809. When he was three 
 years of age his parents moved to Tennessee and set- 
 tled in Hickman County. He was educated in the 
 common schools of the County, and entered active 
 life as a school teacher. Subsequently he adopted, 
 for brief periods, various other active pursuits, 
 including merchandising, stock trading and medicine. 
 Finally he settled upon the law, and in 1831 or 1832 
 was licensed to practice. He was a man of ability and 
 of energy, and rose rapidly in the profession, proving 
 himself a worthy competitor of the many strong law- 
 yers that were then to be found in his part of the State. 
 
 In 1849 he was made Judge of the Fourteenth Cir- 
 
lyo BENCH AND BAR 
 
 cuit, by appointment, and served until 1861. From 
 1870 to 1873 he was Judge of the Eleventh Circuit. 
 It win thus be seen that he did not complete two of his 
 terms, one having been interrupted by the war, and the 
 other terminated by his death, which occurred Decem- 
 ber 1, 1873. He is said to have been a man of the rnost 
 extraordinary industry — and lawyers know that in , 
 their profession no quality is more valuable than this. 
 
 Judge John M. Taylor is authority for the statement 
 that Walker was probably more popular than any 
 other man who had ever lived in his Circuit. But 
 this popularity seems to have been secured not by 
 gracious manners or a genial disposition, though he 
 had both, so much as by the sterling qualities that he 
 was known to possess. 
 
 He was very absent-minded, and frequently in- 
 volved himself in absurd situations. Unlike March- 
 banks, he was a man of humor, fond of a jest himself 
 and tolerant of the jokes of others. It happened on 
 one occasion that his Court was in session at Lebanon 
 on April 1, and the Sherif? and the lawyers, aware of 
 his good humor and of his tolerant disposition, deter- 
 mined upon a practical test of them. They secured a 
 calf, carried it to the court-room in the second story 
 of the building, and secured it by ropes to the Judge's 
 seat. At the hour for the meeting of the Court, the 
 jury was in the box and a great company of spectators 
 had assembled.. Judge Walker, with his usual ab- 
 stracted manner, entered the court-room, walked up 
 the aisle to the bench, apparently unconscious of the 
 presence of any one except himself, and really uncon- 
 scious of the presence of the calf. As he was about to 
 take his seat he discovered the presence of the usurper. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 17I 
 
 however, and seizing it by the tail, said in a voice 
 audible throughout the court-room: "Where the h — 1 
 did you get your commision?" 
 
 Judge Walker was a plain and direct man in per- 
 sonal and in professional conduct. Like Marchbanks, 
 he had extraordinary capacity for instructing a jury 
 in the law. and his charges were always to the point 
 and brief, yet comprehensive. He was not a politician 
 nor an office seeker, and the offices that he held came 
 . to him practical}} unsought. Before the war he was 
 an ardent Whig, and while allied with the Democratic 
 party after the war, he claimed to his last day to be a 
 Whig. He was the equal of Marchbanks as a lawyer 
 and as a Judge, and was a man of much more amiable 
 and attractive quality. 
 
 The Hynds family is Scotch. Its original name 
 was Hyndford, and its home Edinburgh, in which 
 city there is a locality still known as Hyndford Square. 
 The Scottish Reformation divided the family, some 
 adhering to the old faith while others dissented. The 
 Presbyterian Hyndfords were among the great com- 
 pany of people of their faith who regenerated the 
 North of Ireland. In order to distinguish themselves 
 from the Catholic Hyndfords, they took the narne 
 Hynds. The founders of the family in this country 
 crossed the ocean at some time before 1775, and were 
 honorably represented in the Continental army. 
 
 George H. Hynds came to the Watauga country 
 at the close of the last century, settling near the line 
 between the present counties of Greene and Cocke. 
 Here Robert H. Hynds was born, April 6, 1802. 
 The family was poor and the son passed his early years 
 at hard work and with but little schooling. When 
 
172 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 he was about fifteen years of age his father moved to 
 West Tennessee, but he remained in East Tennessee. 
 From a diploma in the possession of his descendants, 
 it appears that he graduated September 10, 1819, at 
 Union Seminary. Where Union Seminary wais, it is 
 impossible to say with certainty. It was one of the 
 ambitious but evanescent seats of learning that at that 
 time abounded in East Tennessee. This diploma was 
 probably won by hard work, without the aid of friends 
 or money. 
 
 On April S, 1823, Robert Hynds was licensed to 
 practice law at Rogersville. He had studied under 
 Judge William B. Reese. He located at Dandridge, 
 in JefTerson County, riding a circuit that extended 
 over half the length and breadth of East Tennessee. 
 He gave especial attention to the land law and became 
 very proficient in it. In 1836 he served in the State 
 Senate from Cocke, Jefferson, Sevier and Blount 
 Counties. At one time he was an unsuccessful candi- 
 date for Chancellor against Thomas L. Williams. In 
 1852 Governor Campbell appointed him special Circuit 
 Judge during the disability of Judge Robert Anderson, 
 of the Twelfth Circuit, and he served acceptably for 
 a year. In 1853 he was elected Judge of the Twelfth 
 Circuit by unanimous vote of the Legislature. In 
 1854, the amendment of the Constitution giving the 
 election of Judges to the people, having gone into 
 efifect, he was elected by the people, defeating Judge 
 Anderson. He gave great satisfaction as a Judge, 
 being a good lawyer, and a thoroughly upright and 
 conscientious man. 
 
 His death occurred in July, 1856, in Greene County. 
 
 In politics Judge Hynds was a Whig, and was a 
 
OF TENNESSEE, 173 
 
 Clay elector in 1844. While on the bench he held 
 aloof from politics, having the highest regard for the 
 judicial office. He was a man of pure life, and a devout 
 and consistent Christian. 
 
 He was twice married, first, in 1826, to Miss Mary J. 
 Moore, of Jefferson County, who died in 1850; and 
 second, in November, 1851, to Miss Ann B. Swann, 
 an English lady, who survived him and died in 1892. 
 The children of the first marriage were numerous, 
 and they are now among the good citizens of West 
 Tennessee, Georgia and Texas. The only child of 
 the second marriage was Alexander Hynds, who is 
 now a lawyer at Dandridge, and occupies an honorable 
 position at the bar, and has also displayed a decided 
 aptitude for literature. 
 
 In person Judge Hynds was large and portly. He 
 was a man of genial disposition and of fine address, 
 and his charity and hospitality were proverbial. 
 
174 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 James K. Polk— Aaron V. Brown— Cave Johnson — 
 William B. Campbell— Ephraim H. Foster— Lunsford 
 M. Bramlett. 
 
 James Knox Polk was the eldest of ten children, 
 and was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
 November 2, 1795. The family name was originally 
 Pollock, but was gradually abbreviated to its present 
 form. The Pollocks came from the North of Ireland 
 as part of the .Covenanter immigration, and settled 
 in Maryland, whence they moved to Pennsylvania, 
 and were finally established on the western frontier 
 of North Carolina before the Revolution. Members 
 of the family were honorably connected with the early 
 patriotic movements in North Carolina, and several 
 of them were in the Continental army. The entire 
 connection appears to have been staunchly patriotic. 
 
 The father of the future President was a plain farmer, 
 intelligent and enterprising, and an ardent Jeffersonian 
 in politics. He brought his family to Tennessee in 
 the x^utumn of 1806, and was one of the pioneers of the 
 fertile Duck River Valley. 
 
 In the neighborhood schools, James K. Polk 
 acquired the beginnings of an English education, but 
 his father fearing the results of the confinement of 
 school life, especially in view of the fact that his son 
 had been compelled to undergo a painful surgical 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 175 
 
 operation, determined to make a merchant of him. 
 Accordingly, much against his will, the young man was, 
 in the year 1S13, assigned to the various unattractive 
 duties of clerk in a country store. This was one of 
 innumerable instances of the wisdom of parents in 
 selecting occupations for their sons. 
 
 The young man endured for a few weeks, with diffi- 
 culty, this uncongenial pursuit. His solicitations for 
 release were so earnest and persistent, that finally they 
 were successful, and in July, 1813, he was placed under 
 competent teachers for the continuation of his educa- 
 tion. In 1S1.5 he entered the Sophomore class at 
 Chapel Hill, and graduated with distinction in 1818. 
 In college he was a diligent and faithful student. 
 
 Returning to Tennessee, he began to read law in 
 the office of Felix Grundy in 1819, and was admitted to 
 the bar in 1820. He began his professional life at 
 Columbia, and within a year had won the public con- 
 fidence as a competent and trustworthy lawyer. He 
 was thoroughly educated, and had read law with dili- 
 gence and understanding, and carried to the bar the 
 habits of application that had made him successful at 
 college. 
 
 As early as 1823 he was attracted by politics, and 
 was elected to represent Maury County in the lower 
 house of the Legislature. He had previously been 
 Clerk of the House. In the Legislature he was dis- 
 tinguished for ability in debate, and for faithful and 
 efficient attention to business. He had already given 
 his adherence to General Jackson, and was one of 
 those who supported him for Senator to succeed John 
 Williams. At the August election, 1825, he was 
 elected to Congress. He was a "strict construe- 
 
176 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 tionist," and utterly repudiated the liberal interpreta- 
 tions of the Constitution that were favored by the Fed- 
 eralists. He consistently opposed all appropriations 
 for improvements within the States. At the outset 
 of his career he declared himself the opponent of the 
 Bank of the United States, and to this position he 
 steadfastly adhered. 
 
 When first elected he was one of the youngest 
 members of Congress. His first speech was in sup- 
 port of a proposition to amend the Constitution so as 
 to confer the election of President and Vice President 
 upon the people. The speech made a favorable im- 
 pression, and his associates at once saw that the new 
 member was a man of thoroughness and of substan- 
 tial ability, and not a mere declaimer. At the same 
 session he made another strong speech in the debate 
 upon the Panama Mission. 
 
 He was successively re-elected to Congress imtil 
 1839, when he withdrew from the contest in order to 
 become the Democratic candidate for Governor. 
 
 In December, 1827, he was given a place on the 
 Committee on Foreign Afifairs. A little later he was 
 made chairman of a special committee to consider 
 that part of the President's message which called the 
 attention of Congress to the existence of a surplus in 
 the Treasury. The report that he presented was an 
 admirable paper, and a strong presentation of his opin- 
 ion of the limitations of the power of Congress to raise 
 revenue. In 1832 he was transferred to the Com- 
 mittee on Ways and Means. At that session the Di- 
 rectors of the Bank of the United States were called 
 before this committee to answer a charge of obstruct- 
 ing certain measures of government. The majority 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 177 
 
 report exonerated the Directors, but the minority 
 report, prepared by Mr. Polk, was a severe arraign- 
 ment of the Bank, and a vigorous condemnation of 
 the poHcy of the government in creating it. A con- 
 sequence of this report was that the friends of the Bank 
 everywhere declared war upon him. At Nashville a 
 public meeting was held to denounce him, and his 
 next election was bitterly, but unsuccessfully con- 
 tested. 
 
 During the session of 1833 Mr. Polk was Chairman 
 of the Ways and Means Committee. This selection 
 was made largely because the President needed a strong 
 man and a trustworthy friend at the head of that im- 
 portant committee, to sustain his course in removing 
 the public deposits from the Bank of the United States. 
 One of Mr. Polk's greatest speeches was made in open- 
 ing the debate upon the removal. By the friends of 
 Jackson it was considered a complete vindication of 
 the President's conduct. In 1834 the Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives resigned, and Mr. Polk was 
 a candidate for the place, but was defeated by John 
 Bell. In 1835, however, he was elected, and was re- 
 elected in 1837. He was elected Governor of Ten- 
 nessee in 1839, defeating Newton Cannon, and was 
 an unsuccessful candidate for that office against James 
 C. Jones in 1841, and again in 1843. In 1839 he had 
 been mentioned for the Vice Presidency on the Demo- 
 cratic ticket, but the party preferred Richard M. John- 
 son. In 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for 
 President, and was elected, defeating Henry Clay by 
 an electoral vote of 170 to 105. His administration 
 was full of important events, such as the war with 
 Mexico; the annexation of Texas; the acquisition of 
 
178 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 New Mexico and California; the admission of Texas, 
 Iowa and Wisconsin as States; the settlement of the 
 Oregon boundary dispute; the re-estabHshment of the 
 independent treasury ; the establishment of the Smith- 
 sonian Institution, and of the Interior Department of 
 the Federal government. 
 
 Mr. Polk was a man of a very high order of ability 
 and of courage. Naturally he was fond of popularity, 
 but at more than one time he found his convictions 
 opposed to the popular will. In no instance did he 
 swerve from duty. His course in the bank controver- 
 sies twice endangered his election to Congress, and at 
 each of these times the show of opposition would have 
 dismayed a man of less determination. On both occa- 
 sions, however, he boldly met the issue and was tri- 
 umphantly re-elected. His enemies charged him with 
 subserviency to General Jackson, but it is more just 
 to say that, on the great public issues of the time, his 
 opinions were in accord with those of General Jackson. 
 In almost every instance these opinions had been 
 avowed and were well-known to the public before Mr. 
 Polk was elected to Congress, and before General Jack- 
 son became President. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 General Jackson originated all the great measures that 
 were carried out by his administration. Indeed, as 
 to the Bank of the United States, there are good 
 grounds for believing that General Jackson was not al- 
 ways its most vigorous opponent, but at one time re- 
 garded it not without favor. 
 
 A few extracts from President Polk's inaugural 
 address are presented here, as indicating his opinions 
 upon the great public questions of that time. He says : 
 "The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 79 
 
 safeguard of our federative compact, the offspring of 
 concession and compromise, binding together in the 
 bonds of peace and union this great and increasing 
 family of free and independent States, will be the 
 chart by which I shall be directed. 
 
 "It will be my first care to administer the govern- 
 ment in the true spirit of that instrument, and to assume 
 no powers not expressly granted or clearly implied in 
 its terms. The government of the United States is one 
 of delegated and limited powers, and it is by a strict 
 adherence to the clearly granted powers and by ab- 
 staining from the exercise of doubtful or unauthor- 
 ized implied powers, that we have the only sure guar- 
 anty against the recurrence of those unfortunate col- 
 lisions between the Federal and State authorities which 
 have occasionally so much disturbed the harmony of 
 our system, and even threatened the perpetuity of our 
 glorious Union. 
 
 "To the States respectively, or to the people, have 
 been reserved 'the powers not delegated to the United 
 States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the 
 States.' Each State is a complete sovereignty within 
 the sphere of its reserved powers. The government 
 of the Union, acting within the sphere of its delegated 
 authority is also a complete sovereignty. While the 
 general government should abstain from the exercise 
 of authority not clearly delegated to it, the States 
 should be equally careful that in the maintenance of 
 their rights they do not overstep the limits of powers 
 reserved to them. One of the most distinguished of 
 my predecessors attached deserved importance to the 
 'support of the State governments in all their rights, 
 as the most competent administration for our domestic 
 
l8o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 concerns, and the surest bulwark against anti-republi- 
 can tendencies,' and to the 'preservation of the general 
 government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the 
 sheet anchor of otir peace at home and safety abroad.'" 
 
 This was the accepted doctrine of the Democratic 
 party, especially in the South. It was never the Fed- 
 eralist doctrine, and has practically ceased to be the 
 Democratic doctrine. In so far as it intimates the ex- 
 istence of a right of secession, if it be susceptible of such 
 a construction, we will all concede the question to be 
 settled. The appropriation also has finally alktred the 
 Democratic party very far from its old doctrine of strict 
 construction, and we now look back with a sense of 
 complacent superiority upon the solicitude of our fore- 
 fathers for the integrity of the Constitution. It may 
 be that the strict constructionists were too narrow 
 and rigid in their opinions, but it is .submitted that 
 there is a happy mean between extreme strict construc- 
 tion and treatment of the Constitution as unwritten. 
 It is hardly too- much to say now, that liberal construc- 
 tions of the Constitution have gone so far that the 
 powers of Congress, especially in emergency, are prac- 
 tically unlimited. 
 
 Upon the subject of the tariff Mr. Polk said: "In 
 executing this (the taxing) power by levying a tariff 
 of duties for the support of the government, the raising 
 of revenue should be the object, and protection the 
 incident. To reverse this principle and make protec- 
 tion the object, and revenue the incident, would be to 
 inflict manifest injustice upon all other than the pro- 
 tected interests." 
 
 In regard to slavery he used the following language : 
 "It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 181 
 
 oui" country, misguided persons have occasionally in- 
 dulged in schemes and agitations whose object is the 
 destruction of domestic institutions existing in other 
 sections — institutions which existed at the adoption of 
 the Constitution, and were recognized and protected 
 by it. All must see that if it were possible for them to 
 be successful in attaining their object, the dissolution of 
 the Union and the consequent destruction of our 
 happy form of government, must speedily follow." 
 
 His opposition to national banks was expressed in 
 language that might have been used by Jackson him- 
 self. "We need no national banks or other extraneous 
 institutions planted around the government to control 
 or strengthen it in opposition to the will of its authors. 
 Experience has taught us how unnecessary they are 
 as auxiliaries of the public authorities — how impotent 
 for good and how powerful for mischief." 
 
 The quotations will show that Mr. Polk's democ- 
 racy was of the most orthodox kind, judged by the 
 standards of his own time. 
 
 Mr. Polk was a graceful, fluent, sometimes even elo- 
 quent, and always logical and forcible speaker. He 
 excelled particularly as a debater, and it was largely 
 by means of this excellence that he defeated Cannon 
 for Governor in 1839. Foote thought him the best 
 stump speaker of his time. In Congress he was 
 always courteous, and his speeches never descended 
 to personal or party abuse. He did not seek to shine 
 as a rhetorician, but rather to be a useful member. He 
 had not much of imagination, of fancy or wit. All 
 his abilities were substantial. As a proof of the thor- 
 oughness with which he did everything to which he set 
 his hand, it is stated that during his long term of ser- 
 
l82 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 vice in Congress, he "did not miss a single division of 
 the House, but that his name is on every list of yeas 
 and nays. It was these qualities of fidelity and thor- 
 oughness that made him a trusted and successful man. 
 In order to understand clearly that he was a man of 
 genuine ability, we need only to remember that in his 
 time, the House of Representatives was full of strong 
 men, such as John Quincy Adams, McDuffie, of South 
 Carolina, Mason, of Virginia, and Bell, of Tennessee. 
 With the ablest Whig leaders he was often in debate, 
 and never without credit to himself. That he held 
 a position of leadership among the Democrats of the 
 House is proof sufficient of superior abilities. 
 
 He was virtually the founder of the system of public 
 speaking by rival candidates for the Governorship, 
 which has prevailed in Tennessee ever since his day. 
 Public debate was a strong and keen weapon in his 
 hands in his race against Cannon, who was not gifted 
 as a debater, but in his canvass with "Lean Jimmy" 
 Jones, he was impaled upon his own weapon. In real 
 ability Jones was by no means his equal, but in rough 
 and tumble political debate he had no peer. He did 
 not reason nor care to reason; he joked his dignified 
 and serious competitor out of office. This is not said 
 in disparagement of the popular Whig leader, but is 
 merely the statement of a fact, which it is presumed will 
 not be disputed. 
 
 Mr. Polk was a serious but amiable man, and his 
 private life was above reproach. His reputation as a 
 public man also is clear. His integrity was never 
 questioned. It was sometimes said that he was not 
 sufficiently positive. It is submitted, however, that 
 this was not a well-founded criticism. He was a 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 1 83 
 
 thoughtful man, and, therefore, not prone to extremes 
 of speech or conduct. The popular idea of positive- 
 ness in Tennessee in his time, was the method of 
 General Jackson, to swear by the "Eternal," and on the 
 slightest provocation to strike and spare not. Mr. 
 Polk did not swear by the Eternal, and did not shed 
 blood, nor even engage in broils, but he succeeded 
 nevertheless in becoming President of the United 
 States, in winning a great name, and in rendering im- 
 portant services to his country. 
 
 Aaron V. Brown was born in Brunswick County, 
 Virginia, August 15, 1795. It will be found from 
 these Sketches that Brunswick and neighboring coun- 
 ties have contributed liberally to the best element of 
 population in Tennessee. Governor Brown's father 
 was the Rev. Aaron Brown, a Methodist minister, who, 
 enlisting before the age of twenty-one, served with 
 credit in the war of the Revolution. 
 
 Aaron V. Brown was educated at Westrayville, 
 Nash County, North Carolina, and at the Chapel Hill 
 University. He graduated as valedictorian of the 
 class of 1814. During his college life his parents had 
 moved to Giles County, Tennessee, where he joined 
 them after his graduation. In 1815 he began the 
 study of law in the office of James Trimble, at Nash- 
 ville, and began the practice in that city, but soon after- 
 wards returned to Giles County, where his industry 
 and ability speedily secured a good business. He 
 formed a partnership with James K. Polk, covering 
 several counties. This partnership continued until 
 Mr. Polk entered Congress. Mr. Brown served in 
 the State Senate from 1821 to 1827, except in 1825. 
 In 1831 and in 1833 he represented Giles County in the 
 
184 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 lower house of the Legislature. He was wisely in 
 favor of limiting the application of capital punishment, 
 and at the session of 3 831-1832 prepared a report on 
 the subject for the Judiciary Committee, which at- 
 tracted general and favorable attention. That Gov- 
 ernor Brown was a man of reading and of philosophic 
 turn, will be indicated by certain of the sub-heads of 
 this really able and learned document, as for instance: 
 "The Origin of Human Laws;'' the "Laws of Nature;" 
 "The Right as Supposed to be Founded on Divine 
 Revelation;" "The Fallibility of Human Tribunals." 
 The paper is excellently written and is a convincing 
 presentation of the author's opinions. 
 
 Governor Brown was elected to Congress as a Dem- 
 ocrat, in 1839, and served continuously till 1845. He 
 was an active and conspicuous participant in the great 
 debates that occurred during his service, and was a 
 member of the committee that framed the tariff of 
 1842, though in the minority that disapproved the bill. 
 As chairman of the Committee on Territories he re- 
 ported, in 1845, a bill organizing a territorial gov- 
 ernment in Oregon. This bill passed the House but 
 failed in the .Senate. 
 
 His service in Congress ending when Mr. Polk 
 became President, he determined to devote himself 
 thenceforth to his personal affairs, but before he 
 reached home the Democratic party in Tennessee had 
 nominated him for Governor in opposition to Ephraim 
 H. Foster, the Whig candidate. Despite the fact that 
 the Whigs had recently been repeatedly victorious, 
 Brown entered the field, made a vigorous canvass and 
 was elected by a majority of about fifteen hundred. In 
 1847, however, he was defeated. In 1 848 he was a can- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 1 85 
 
 didate for Elector for the State atlarge upon the Demo- 
 cratic ticket, and fully sustained his reputation as a 
 popular orator. In 1850 he was a member of the 
 Southern Convention held at Nashville, and was pres- 
 ent at both sessions. He was not a disunionist, but 
 disapproved all utterances and tendencies of the Con- 
 vention in that direction. He was actuated by genuine 
 patriotism, hut the policy which he advocated illus- 
 trates forcibly the dilemma in which he and all who 
 like him loved the Union but believed the legislation of 
 Congress against the spread of slavery to be unconsti- 
 tutional, were placed. 
 
 He advocated, not secession, but retaliation. In a 
 letter addressed to the Nashville Union, in June, 1850, 
 he said: "I would advise her (the South) to resort to 
 every sort of municipal regulation within the powers 
 of the States; to quarantine regulations of the most 
 annoying character; to every species of embarrass- 
 ment to her (the North's) trade and commerce. I 
 would have every Southern Legislature earnestly to 
 recommend to every merchant, trader, and factor, to 
 forbear the purchase and traffic in a single commodity 
 of Northern manufacture; and to every farmer and 
 planter and day laborer of th€ South, forthwith to give 
 up the purchase and use of any and every article of 
 Northern fabric; to give bounties and premiums for 
 the establishment of factories of every sort and descrip- 
 tion throughout the Southern States; to expend their 
 last dollar in the construction of railroads, turnpikes 
 and canals, from every region of the interior to the 
 best exporting and importing cities on the Atlantic 
 and the Gulf." 
 
 This he declares would be "A retaliation, sanctioned 
 
l86 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and approved by the great law of nature and of God, 
 and never to be discontinued until it induced a change 
 in the oppression of our adversaries." 
 
 As to the Union, he says: "The Union is my prop- 
 erty — my inherited property — which I regard of great 
 value. I never mean to permit the North to take it 
 from me, nor to induce me by its aggressions to throw 
 it away." 
 
 Southern men who loved the Union were in sore 
 straits at that time. Governor Brown's plan appears 
 to us now, to have been wholly impracticable, and in its 
 conception hardly worthy of his unquestionable ability. 
 But it was a compromise, a device to avoid the inevit- 
 able result that came in 1861. There was really no 
 middle ground, but here was an effort to make an arti- 
 ficial standing place. To such artificial measures, 
 compromises stiggested by patriotism, but opposed to 
 reason and experience, Henry Clay gave the best of 
 his great ability, thereby postponing for a few years 
 the unavoidable conflict between irreconcilable poli- 
 cies. 
 
 In his messages, Governor Brown continued the ad- 
 vocacy of the "amelioration" of the Criminal Code of 
 Tennessee, and missed no opportunity to declare him- 
 self in favor of a system of public instruction. In his 
 message of December 7, 1845, he called attention to 
 the fact that there were two hundred and fifty thousand 
 persons in the State, between six and twenty-one years 
 of age, and only one hundred thousand dollars, or 
 forty cents per capita, appropriated for public schools. 
 He advocated the use of proceeds of public land sales, 
 in aid of the schools. 
 
 On May 16, 1846, the United States made a requi- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 187 
 
 sition on Tennessee for three regiments of soldiers for 
 the Mexican war. On May 34, Governor Brown issued 
 a call for volunteers, apportioning the same eqvially 
 among the grand divisions of the State. Thirty thou- 
 sand, or ten times as many as were needed, responded, 
 and thus Tennessee deserved again, her name of "Vol- 
 unteer State." 
 
 Governor Brown was an ardent advocate cf the 
 annexation of Texas, and found himself, on account 
 of his course in that matter, involved in controversies 
 with Thomas H. Benton and with John Quincy 
 Adams. 
 
 It was during his last term in the Legislature that 
 the effort was made to abolish the existing court sys- 
 tem in Tennessee. The attempt was not prompted by 
 high motives, and it is to his lasting honor that he 
 vigorously opposed it. 
 
 The last public position that he held was that of 
 Postmaster-General in Buchanan's Cabinet. In 
 this position his really extraordinary abilities were 
 creditably displayed. It was through his efforts that 
 shorter communication with California, by way of 
 Tehauntepec, was established, and the overland mail 
 routes to the Pacific coast put in operation. He died 
 in Washington, March 8, 1859. 
 
 Cave Johnson was born in Robertson County, Ten- 
 nessee, January 11, 1793. After attending various 
 primary schools and academies, he was sent to Cum- 
 berland College at Nashville. Pie was there in 1811, 
 when the call was made for the Tennessee militia to 
 go to Mississippi. Actuated by an enthj.isiastic pa- 
 triotism, he set about raising a company of students 
 of the college. Pie succeeded, was elected Captain, 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and tendered his gallant company to General Jackson. 
 Greatly to his mortification, however, the General 
 declined their services, and advised them to return to 
 their studies. Being thus denied the opportunity to 
 prove their courage, the young men resumed their 
 academic pursuits, but not with the utmost good-will, 
 for the time, toward General Jackson. The impartial 
 observer will say that both parties acted well. The 
 boys showed a commendable spirit, and Jackson a 
 sound, judgment. 
 
 In 1812 young Johnson began to study law in the 
 office of W. W. Cooke, with whom he remained until 
 the Autumn of 1813, when his father's brigade of Ten- 
 nessee militia was sent to the aid of Jackson in the 
 Creek war. He served as Deputy Brigade Quarter-- 
 master in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. Return- 
 ing home in May, 1814, he entered the office of another 
 distinguished lawyer, .Parry W. Humphreys, and soon 
 afterwards obtained his license. 
 
 According to his own account, he was as precipitate 
 in love as he had first been in war, and not more fortu- 
 nate. It would appear that he paid his addresses, as 
 soon as he had secured his law license, to a lady fifteen 
 years of age, by whom he was rejected. Seeking relief 
 from this disappointment in his profession, he seems to 
 have become an unusually hard worker, and in 1817 
 was elected Attorney-General for his Circuit, by the 
 Legislature sitting at Knoxville. In 1825 he was 
 elected to Congress, and was re-elected until 
 1837, when he was defeated by ninety votes. 
 Resuming ,the practice of law, he found that 
 the lady to whom he had paid his addre^sses 
 in 1814 was now a widow, and finally his 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 189 
 
 revived, or persistent, affection was rewarded, and they 
 were married in 1838. It seems that during all these 
 years his affections had not been bestowed elsewhere. 
 In the election of 1839 he was returned to Congress, 
 and was re-elected in 1841 and again in 18-13. In this 
 last election his competitor was Gustavus A. Henry. 
 When Mr. Polk became President, he appointed John- 
 son Postmaster-General, and he filled that position ac- 
 ceptably for the full term. 
 
 In 1853 he was for a few months Judge of the Cir- 
 cuit Court, and in 1854 was elected President of the 
 Bank of Tennessee, and served in that capacity for six 
 years. In 1860 he was Commissioner of the United 
 States in settling the affairs of the United States and 
 Paraguay Navigation Company. 
 
 He took no part in the war, but his sympathies were 
 with the South, though he had at first opposed seces- 
 sion. He was pardoned by Andrew Johnson in 3 865, 
 and in 1866 was elected State Senator to fill a vacancy, 
 but was not allowed to take his seat. He died Novem- 
 ber 23, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Johnson left an enviable reputation. His career 
 proves that as a lawyer he possessed abilities of a high 
 order. In public life he was conservative, but always 
 capable and perfectly honest. As President of the Bank 
 of Tennessee he was devoted to hi* duties, and more in- 
 clined to follow the suggestions of his judgment and 
 conscience, than was pleasing to his party managers. 
 He would not consent to have the bank used for politi- 
 cal purposes, nor its competent oiificers displaced for 
 political reasons. 
 
 In a book called "Picturesque Clarksville," is a 
 letter written by him, in 1862, to his sons, who were in 
 
190 UENCH AND BAR 
 
 the Confederate army. It is the letter of an old man, 
 conscious of physical infirmity and awaiting his end 
 with resignation. It reviews with just pride, but with- 
 out boasting, the events of a long and useful life, and 
 refers in terms of simple and sincere affection and 
 sorrow, to his dead wife. A note of pathos pervades 
 the letter, and it is evident that the writer is a man of 
 sincere piety. His successes and his reverses are 
 alike narrated in simple language, without praise of 
 himself or censure of his enemies. He was one of the 
 foremost men of the State in his generation, and his 
 name is never omitted from the list of those whose 
 abilities and public services have reflected most honor 
 on Tennessee. 
 
 William Bowen Campbell, son of David Campbell 
 and his wife, Katherine Bowen Campbell, was born 
 February 1, 1807, on Mansker's Creek, Sumner 
 County, Tennessee, twelve miles from Nashville, and 
 died at his residence near Lebanon, August 9, 1867. 
 He was the last of the Whig Governors of the State, 
 and served in 1851-1853. He was descended from two 
 distinct families of Campbells. The family of his pa- 
 ternal grandmother of that name, is best known. 
 These Campbells lived originally at Inverary. They 
 formed a part of the Scotch emigration to Ireland, 
 whither they went about the year 1600. 
 
 In 1726 John Campbell, the father of a large family, 
 came to America and settled in Lancaster County, 
 Pennsylvania. About 1730 he removed with three 
 of his sons, Patrick, David and Robert, from Penn- 
 sylvania to Augusta County, Virginia. A great- 
 grandson of John Campbell was General William 
 Campbell, who commanded the American forces at 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I9I 
 
 the battle of King's Mountain, in which eight of his 
 family were engaged. David Campbell, the son of 
 John,' was the great-grandfather of William Bowen 
 Campbell. Another David, son of the first, from 
 whom Campbell Station, in Knox County, takes its 
 name, was his grandfather. Through his mother he 
 was related to Lieutenant Reece Bowen, noted in the 
 history of the King's Mountain campaign. The father 
 of William B. Campbell, the third David in regular 
 succession, was a plain farmer, but a man of good 
 morals and of more than ordinary intelligence. 
 
 The future Governor was the eldest of six children 
 and was raised upon a farm. When he was seventeen 
 years of age his father failed in business, and for the 
 next two years he earned his living as a wood cutter. 
 The father, however, being solicitous for the welfare of 
 his children, gave them every advantage in his power, 
 and William B. Campbell was sent to Abingdon, Vir- 
 ginia, where he completed his education under his 
 uncle. Governor David Campbell, with whom he after- 
 wards studied law. He also attended a course of law 
 lectures by St. George Tucker, of Winchester, Virginia. 
 He began the practice in Carthage, Tennessee, about 
 the year 1829, and in 1831 was elected, by the Legis- 
 lature, to the office of Attorney-General for that Cir- 
 cuit, his opponent being Bromfield L. Ridley. He 
 now removed to Sparta, in White County, where he 
 resided for a few years. In 1835 he returned to Car- 
 thage and was elected Representative in the Legisla- 
 ture from Smith County, and in the same year was mar- 
 ried to Miss Fannie I. Owen, only daughter of Dr. 
 John Owen, of Carthage. In 1836 he was elected 
 Captain of a company of volunteers for the Creek and 
 
192 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Seminole war, having resigned his position in the Leg- 
 islature to enter the army. Throughout a campaign 
 of seven months, he remained at the head of his com- 
 pany, and estabUshed an enviable reputation for cour- 
 age and skill. In a number of the hard battles of that 
 war, his company displayed great gallantry and won 
 the cordial commendation of the General. 
 
 In 1837 he became a candidate for Congress against 
 General William Trousdale, a man of large reputation 
 and of acknowledged ability, who had been the com- 
 mander of the regiment in which he had served in the 
 Florida war. Campbell was successful by a majority of 
 more than seventeen hundred votes. The two were op- 
 posing candidates again in 1839, when James K. Polk 
 was making his great fight for the Governorship, and 
 Campbell was again victorious. In 1841 he was again 
 elected to Congress, but this time without opposition. 
 In Congress he served on the committees upon Claims, 
 Territories, and Military Affairs, and was an earnest 
 and industrious advocate of economy in public expen- 
 ditures. His speeches were clear, strong and able, and 
 won the respect of his associates. At the close of his 
 third term in Congress he voluntarily retired to private 
 life and resumed the practice of law. Soon afterwards 
 he was elected Major-General of his military division. 
 
 When Governor Brown made his call for Tennessee 
 troops for the Mexican war, in 1846, Campbell was 
 among the thirty thousand who volunteered. The 
 First Regiment of Tennessee Volunteers was organ- 
 ized at Nashville in May, 1846. It was composed 
 entirely of Middle Tennessee troops. It elected 
 William B. Campbell, Colonel, and Samuel R. Ander- 
 son, Lieutenant-Colonel. Campbell was remembered 
 
OK TENNESSEE. 193 
 
 for his gallantry and ability in the Florida war. In 
 June, 1846, the regiment started to the seat of war. 
 The route was by steamboat to New Orleans; thence 
 by sailing vessels across the Gulf of Mexico, and by 
 steamers up the Rio Grande to Camargo, General 
 Taylor's point of departure. The battle of Monterey 
 was fought on September 21, 22. and 23, 1846. Tay- 
 lor, with a raw and undisciplined force of six thousand, 
 undertook to capture a city strongly fortified, and gar- 
 risoned by about twelve thousand men. In these days 
 of hard fighting the First Tennessee displayed a 
 desperate courage, losing one-third of its number. 
 It was the first to enter the city and to raise the 
 American flag within its walls. In a letter written 
 to his wife from the camp near Monterey, dated Sep- 
 tember 25, 1846, Colonel Campbell said: "My regi- 
 ment went early in action on the morning of September 
 2], and was ordered to sustain some regulars who were 
 said to be taking a fort at one end of the city. When 
 I arrived in point blank musket-shot of the fort, no 
 regulars were visible; they had filed to the left and 
 taken shelter behind some houses, so that the com- 
 mand was left exposed to the most deadly discharge of 
 artillery and musketry that was ever poured upon a set 
 of men. For a.moment it had a most terrifying effect, 
 foi they were thrown into consternation and confu- 
 sion until I rallied them and brought them to the 
 charge, and they bore the fight with wonderful cour- 
 age, rushing upon the fort and taking it at the point 
 of the bayonet. It was most gallantly done." 
 
 This charge became famous throughout the Ameri- 
 can army and added greatly to the reputation of the 
 Tennessee soldiers for gallantry. The form of com- 
 
IQ4 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 mand used by Colonel Campbell in ordering the charge 
 was: "Boys, follow me," and this has become one of 
 the favorite phrases of Tennessee oratory. From this 
 time forward the regiment was known as the "Bloody 
 First." In none of the wars in which Tennesseans 
 have been engaged have our soldiers done her more 
 honor in anything, than did Campbell's regiment in 
 this desperate charge. It must be remembered that 
 they were raw militiamen, poorly drilled and badly 
 armed. The First Tennessee was among the troops 
 detached from Taylor's army and- transferred to the 
 command of General Scott at Vera Cruz. In the siege 
 of that city Colonel Campbell was intimately associated 
 with Captain Robert E. Lee, in the construction of an 
 important marine battery. The regiment was in the 
 battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, ISIT", but in this 
 action Colonel Campbell commanded a brigade con- 
 sisting of his own and of a Pennsylvania regiment. 
 For his gallantry in this engagement, he was praised 
 by General Scott, who sent his compliments upon the 
 battle field, through Lieutenant McClellan. On an- 
 other occasion General Scott said of Campbell: "Sir, 
 I envy him his part at Monterey. He is truly worthy of 
 the respect and love of every soldier in the American 
 army." 
 
 This was the last battle in which the "Bloody First" 
 took part. It had entered the service for one year, 
 and was sent home to be mustered out. No officer 
 in the American army in the Mexican war enjoyed in 
 a higher degree the respect and confidence of his 
 associates than Colonel Campbell. The memory of 
 the "Bloody First" and of its gallant commander will 
 always be honored by the people of Tennessee. Col- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 195 
 
 onel Campbell returned from Mexico in the Summer 
 of 1847, and was by the Legislature of 1847-1848, 
 elected by unanimous vote Judge of the Circuit 
 Court. He succeeded Judge Abraham Caruthers. 
 As a Judge he commanded respect and esteem, both 
 by his undisputed ability and by the extraordinary 
 purity of his character. He was a sound, impartial 
 and thoroughly competent Judge. 
 
 In 1851 he was nominated, by acclamation, as the 
 Whig candidate for Governor. At the time of his 
 nomination, Meredith P. Gentry said of him in a pub- 
 lic speech : "Although Tennessee is rich in noble sons, 
 though, like the mother of the Gracchi, she can proudly 
 point to her children and say with truth, these are my 
 jewels; yet, in my opinion, she has not within her 
 broad limits a nobler son than William B. Campbell. 
 In integrity and honor, in nobility and truth, in cour- 
 age and patriotism ; in all that constitutes a high, noble, 
 and manly character, he has no superior." 
 
 In accepting the nomination, Campbell said: "I 
 accept with a pledge to my friends of a heart devoted 
 to the union of these United States, and to the honor 
 and prosperity of my native State." 
 
 He was elected Governor, defeating William Trous- 
 dale, the most popular and influential man of his party 
 at that time. It was in this campaign that he was 
 signally aided by our brilliant East Tennessee orator, 
 Thomas A. R. Nelson, who, at great personal sacrifice, 
 took the stump as his representative. As Governor, 
 Campbell displayed the same qualities that had made 
 him successful in other positions. He was able, firm, 
 impartial, and perfectly honest. At the end of the 
 term he was urged to become a candidate again, but 
 
196 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 declined, voluntarily retiring, for the purpose of giving 
 attention to his private affairs. 
 
 In 1853 he moved his family from Carthage to Leb- 
 anon, and accepted the position of President of the 
 Bank of Middle Tennessee. In the Presidential cam- 
 paign of 1860 he supported Bell and Everett, and in 
 1861 canvassed the State in opposition to secession. 
 He was an unswerving and outspoken supporter of 
 the Union, and was among the most prominent of 
 the Tennesseans who refused to go with the State when 
 it seceded. He was offered the command of all 
 the Tennessee forces "raised and to be raised for the 
 Confederate army," but declined. In May, 1862, he 
 was unanimously chosen president of a mass meeting 
 of Union citizens held at Nashville, and composed of 
 such men as Edmimd Cooper, Jordan Stokes, Russell 
 Houston, E. H. East and Balie Peyton. This meet- 
 ing appointed a committee which prepared an address 
 to the people of Tennessee, urging a return of the State 
 to the Federal Union. 
 
 On July 23, 1862, Governor Campbell accepted the 
 office of Brigadier-General in the Federal army, with 
 the understanding that he should not be assigned to 
 duty in the field. It is said that he accepted this 
 position with the hope that he might act as a peace- 
 maker between the government and the people of Ten- 
 nessee. Finding that the condition of affairs forbade 
 all hope of this, and his health becoming impaired, 
 he resigned in September, 1862, having resolved that 
 he would never draw his sword against the people of 
 Tennessee, even though he believed them to be wrong 
 in seceding. 
 
 In 1864 he was favorably mentioned in connection 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 97 
 
 with the nomination for the Vice Presidency upon the 
 Democratic ticket. Draper, the historian, wrote of 
 him at this time: "He has always been a conservative 
 in politics, kind, conciliating, yet firm and gentlemanly, 
 the very soul of honor, and never guilty of an unworthy 
 habit or a mean action." He had at this time identified 
 himself with the Conservative Part}-, in connection 
 with Henry Cooper, Thomas A. R. Nelson, BaUe 
 Peyton, and other prudent and moderate Union men. 
 These men presented to the State an electoral ticket 
 in support of General McClellan, and Governor Camp- 
 bell headed this ticket as one of the Electors for the 
 State at large. The Military Governor, Andrew John- 
 son, issued orders regulating the election, and, as 
 Campbell believed, unjustly excluding many who were 
 entitled to vote. This action Campbell vigorously 
 denounced with the result of producing a breach be- 
 tween Johnson and himself, but the Governor adhering 
 to his order, the electoral ticket was withdrawn. In 
 August, 1865, Campbell was elected to the Thirty- 
 ninth Congress by a large majority, but the Repre- 
 sentatives and Senators from Tennessee were at 
 first refused admission to their seats, although 
 they had been recognized by the Executive. 
 Campbell remained in Washington during the 
 impeachment trial, was reconciled with President 
 Johnson, and was one of his most trusted ad- 
 visers throughout the trial. In June, 1866, the Sen- 
 ators and Representatives from Tennessee were ad- 
 mitted to the Thirty-ninth Congress, and from that 
 time Campbell gave to Johnson's administration his 
 unwavering support. At this time, as during his for- 
 mer terms of service, he was recognized as an energetic 
 
198 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and capable man, devoted to business and to the public 
 welfare, and was placed upon a number of leading 
 committees. This was his last public service. 
 
 With the exception of Andrew Jackson, Campbell, 
 in the opinion of many, was Tennessee's best and most 
 competent soldier. In political life he was honest, 
 fearless and sagacious. He was a studious man, not 
 easily excited, far seeing, and while conservative, was 
 always firm and determined. The cast of his mind 
 was such as fitted him to be a Judge rather than an 
 advocate. His judgments were formed with care, but 
 with absolute fairness and impartiality. He had none 
 of the arts of the demagogue, but was sincere in public 
 as well as in private speech. He was a modest and re- 
 tiring man, and not an office seeker; such positions as 
 he held came to him by the will of the people in recog- 
 nition of his worth and ability. 
 
 In all respects he was a substantial man, and 
 thorough. Whatever he undertook, he did well. Phy- 
 sically, mentally and morally he was well developed 
 and symmetrical. Though one of the bravest and 
 most determined of men, he was at the same time one 
 of the kindliest. He was a fine judge of human 
 nature, and generally the turn of his mind was prac- 
 tical. He is said to have been of a sanguine and ner- 
 vous temperament, and at times liable to irritation, but 
 only for the moment. As a rule he was genial, 
 approachable by all, and kindly disposed. All in all, 
 he was one of the best rounded and most admir- 
 able men in the history of the State. 
 
 Ephraim H. Foster was born in Nelson County, 
 Kentucky, September 17, 1794. His father moved 
 with his family to Davidson County, Tennessee, in 
 
OF TENNESSEE. I 99 
 
 1797. The son was well educated, being a graduate 
 of Cumberland College, afterwards the University of 
 Nashville, in the class of 1813. As soon as he left 
 College he began the study of law in the office of John 
 Dickinson. 
 
 When the Creek war began he volunteered, and was 
 made General Jackson's private secretary, a position 
 which one would imagine to have been the most diffi- 
 cult in the army. 
 
 At the end of the war he returned to the law. So 
 rapidly did his business increase that within a short 
 time he sought a partner, and found a most acceptable 
 one in William L. Brown, who was afterwards upon 
 the supreme bench. 
 
 In 1817 he married the widow of his preceptor, John 
 Dickinson. 
 
 When Judge Brown went upon the supreme bench 
 Mr. Foster formed a partnership with Francis B. Fogg, 
 which was continued for many years. 
 
 In 1829 he was elected to the Legislature. In 1832 
 he seems to have decided to devote himself to politics, 
 and became a candidate for the United States Senate 
 against Felix Grundy, John H. Eaton and William E. 
 Anderson. The contest was long and bitter, but finally 
 Foster withdrew and gave his influence to Grundy, 
 who was elected. Up to 1835 he had been, like most 
 of the prominent men of Tennessee, a warm supporter 
 of Andrew Jackson, but in 1835 he united with the 
 majority of the Tennessee delegation in Congress, and 
 with other prominent men, in prevailing upon Hugh 
 L. White to become a candidate for the Presidency. 
 He was one of the founders of the Whig party in 
 Tennessee. In 1837 he was elected to the United 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 States Senate to succeed Grundy, whose term expired 
 in 1839. But in 1838 Mr. Grundy accepted a seat in 
 Van Buren's Cabinet, and Foster, receiving the exec- 
 utive appointment, filled the unexpired term. He re- 
 mained in office until January 13, 1840, having Hugh 
 L. White as his colleague. At the date last named he 
 and his colleague resigned because they could not fol- 
 low the instructions given them by the Legislature of 
 Tennessee, which was then a Democratic body. 
 
 In 1840 Foster was a Whig candidate for Elector for 
 the State at large. The Whigs were triumphant in this 
 election, and to Foster belonged a large part of the 
 credit for their success. In 1843 he was elected Sena- 
 tor a second time and served until March 3, 1845. 
 During this second term he was compelled to undergo 
 a very severe trial. The question of the annexation of 
 Texas was before the Senate, and Foster believed that 
 it was his duty as a Southern man to vote in favor of 
 the proposition. In this, of course, he was in oppo- 
 sition to his party. It appears from his own corres- 
 pondence that he was exceedingly distressed by his 
 situation at this time. 
 
 In 1845 he was the Whig candidate for Governor, 
 but was defeated by Aaron V. Brown. He was not in 
 office again, and died September 14, 1854, having been 
 an invalid for two j'ears. 
 
 It is the testimony of all who knew him, that while 
 he was a man of quick temper, and at times prone to 
 extremes of speech and conduct, Foster was, as a rule, 
 a very amiable and attractive man. He was a good 
 hater, but not malicious, . and regarded fidelity to 
 friends as one of the cardinal virtues. That his sense 
 of personal and political honor was high, is shown 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 20 1 
 
 by his resignation from the Senate. That the doc- 
 trine of instruction is not a sound one is now 
 generally believed, but both White and Foster were 
 sincerely and unselfishly patriotic, and believed that 
 they were doing right. If we cannot subscribe to 
 their conclusion, we must at least admire their devo- 
 tion to principle. 
 
 Among the Tennesseans of former times who \\'ere 
 once prominent, who performed valuable public 
 service, and whose names are all but unknown to the 
 present generation, is Lunsford M. Bramlett. 
 
 He was, like many others whose names belong to 
 our history, a native of North Carolina. He was born 
 in Surry County, but exactly when, it is impossible to 
 say. Conflicting accounts of the descent of his father 
 are given, some saying that he was of English origin, 
 and others that he was of Huguenot or Scotch-Irish 
 stock. It is certain that his mother wjs of the Vir- 
 ginia family of Taylors, and was remotely akin to 
 Zachary Taylor. 
 
 The future Chancellor probably was born in the 
 last decade of the last century. It appears that soon 
 after his birth the family went to Wilkes County, 
 Georgia, where he was reared. In 1813 he came to 
 Tennessee, and on March 7, 1814, was admitted to the 
 bar at Pulaski. He was a diligent and persevering 
 student of the law, zealous in behalf of his clients and 
 more than ordinarily prone to enter into their feelings. 
 That he was a successful lawyer, and was esteemed by 
 the public and by the profession, is proved by his eleva- 
 tion to the bench at a time when judicial oflice was 
 carefully bestowed. He became Chancellor in 1836, 
 and served until 184-1. He died in 1854. After retir- 
 
202 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 ing from the bench he endured the hard fortune that 
 waits on retired Judges, and was unable to regain his 
 practice. 
 
 In his life he was devoted to the law, and after his 
 death the settlement of his estale seems to have occu- 
 pied surviving members of the profession for some 
 time. 
 
 As Chancellor he was distinguished not for bril- 
 liancy or readiness of decision, but for careful and con- 
 scientious investigation, and an earnest desire to be 
 just. At the bar he was not an eloquent speaker, 
 but a painstaking and zealous advocate, who by fair 
 means made the best of every case. 
 
 This is the record, not of a great man, but of an ex- 
 cellent and worthy one, a good lawyer, and a competent 
 and upright Judge. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 2O3 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 John Bell — Johu Marshall — Spencer Jarnagin -A. O. 
 P. Nicholson — Gustavus A. Henry. 
 
 In the earliest days of Tennessee the great popular 
 leader was John Sevier. To him succeeded Andrew 
 Jackson, the absolute, whose reign extended from 
 1815 till his death, though his power suffered much 
 by the rise of the Whig party. From the death of 
 Jackson until the civil war, the most distinguished 
 and influential, and probably the most intellectual 
 man in public life in Tennessee, was John Bell. He 
 had not the good fortune, like Polk and Johnson, to 
 become President, but in the opinion of many he was 
 the superior of both in ability, and certainly was not 
 the inferior of either in personal worth. He was a 
 native of Tennessee, as neither Jackson, nor Polk, nor 
 Johnson was, and was born near Nashville, February 
 15, 1797. He was educated at the University of Nash- 
 ville, graduating in 1814, and was admitted to the bar 
 and began the practice in Williamson County. In 
 1817, when only twenty-one years of age, he was 
 elected to the State Senate from that county. 
 
 It was a grave mistake for even Mr. Bell to enter poli- 
 tics at the very beginning of his professional life. It is 
 an error into which many promising young lawyers 
 have been led by ambition, and by unwise friends. 
 
204- BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Bell, however, was exceptional, in that he at once 
 perceived his mistake, and declined re-election. 
 
 He moved to Nashville, and for the next ten years 
 gave his time to the profession and to general reading, 
 thus maturing his powers, and becoming an excellent 
 lawyer. He was a careful and discriminating reader 
 and thinker, and was in every way qualified to succeed 
 at the bar, but his inclinings were to the large affairs 
 of state. The cast of his mind was eminently judicial, 
 and this must be remembered in reaching a conclusion 
 as to his course in regard to secession, and as to nearly 
 every important act of his life. 
 
 In 1827, believing that the time had come when he 
 might safely yield to his strong inclination toward 
 politics, he became a candidate for Congress. His 
 competitor was Felix Grundy, who was then at the 
 zenith of his reputation as a statesman and as an orator, 
 and moreover had the zealous support of the hero 
 of New Orleans. Bell was of the same political faith. 
 General Jackson, however, was incapable of neutrality, 
 and indeed did not wish to be neutral in this case — 
 but gave his powerful assistance, openly, to Grundy. 
 This was the beginning of the breach between Jack- 
 son and Bell. The election resulted in Bell's favor, 
 and for the next fourteen years, continuously, he rep- 
 resented his district in Congress. 
 
 Despite the fact that the noisy and tempestuous 
 House of Representatives was not the forum to which 
 his deliberate and cautious, though vigorous genius, 
 was best adapted, he attained a commanding position 
 and a national reputation, and in 1834 was elected 
 Speaker of the House. In 1835 he was defeated for 
 the Speakership by his colleague, James K. Polk, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 205 
 
 between whom and himself political war was long 
 flagrant. Bell was easily the most accomplished, 
 thoughtful and effective speaker among the Tcn- 
 nesseans in Congress, but it is probable that he never 
 felt entirely at home in the House of Representatives. 
 His service in that branch of the government ended 
 when he became Secretary of War in Mr. Harrison's 
 Cabinet in IS-il. The death of the President and the 
 political defection of his successor brought about the 
 resignation of the Cabinet, with the single exception of 
 j\Ir. Webster, the Secretary of State. 
 
 Bell might have been elected at once to the Senate, 
 but preferred to remain for the time in private life, 
 and declined in favor of Ephraim H. Foster. 
 
 Meanwhile events of great importance to him and 
 to the country had occurred. It will be remembered 
 that he had entered public life as a Democratic-Repub- 
 lican, and that he had vigorously opposed the "Ameri- 
 can system." The occurrences that led to his reluctant 
 but radical change of position, form one of the most 
 interesting chapters in American political history. 
 
 He was a broad and liberal man, and was not vin- 
 dictive, but he could never forget the opposition of 
 Jackson in 1827. Jackson thus gained the enmity of 
 Bell, and soon afterwards adopted a policy which re- 
 sulted in the alienation of one of his most trustworthy 
 and valuable friends, Hugh L. White. As early, 
 probably, as 1831, Jackson had determined that 
 Van Buren should be his successor in the Presidency. 
 
 The Democrats of Tennessee and of other States 
 regarded White as the worthiest to succeed Jackson, 
 but he did not desire the place, or at least did not 
 consider it expedient to seek it at that time. Jackson, 
 
206 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 being aware of the pressure upon White, sought to 
 avert his candidacy by offers of various important 
 offices; and faiUng in this, became enraged and uttered 
 the unfortunate threat, that if White became a candi- 
 date he would be made odious to society. In Decem- 
 ber, 1834, a majority of the Tennesseans in Congress 
 met to consider White's candidacy. The result Vi'as 
 that on the day after the meeting a letter was sent 
 requesting him to become a candidate, to which, in 
 his indignation against Jackson, he promptly con- 
 sented. 
 
 With this began a furious factional war. Bell never, 
 up to this time, had placed himself squarely in oppo- 
 sition to Jackson, although he had disapproved the 
 removal of the bank deposits, and while his sentiments 
 were not cordial, he doubtless desired to remain at 
 peace with the President, politically. But the espousal 
 of White's cause was an unpardonable sin in Jackson's 
 eyes. 
 
 The Globe, the administration organ, at once de- 
 clared that White was being used by Bell to injure 
 the administration. Thenceforth it was war to the 
 knife between Bell and Jackson, as between White 
 and Jackson. Bell must not be returned to Congress; 
 so the President declared, but as no one could be found 
 to oppose him, he was returned despite the executive 
 fiat. Meanwhile, Bell was White's chief supporter in 
 Tennessee, more by reason of opposition to Jackson 
 than of love for White. He held the illustrious East 
 Tennessean in great esteem, but realized also that the 
 contest involved his own political life and the political 
 future of Tennessee. 
 
 The Jackson men brought Jeremiah George Harris 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 207 
 
 to Tennessee to edit their paper, and to denounce and 
 ridicule Bell and White. Jackson himself endured 
 willingly the fatigues of a journey from Washington 
 in order to confront and to confound his enemies. The 
 supporters of White were called Whigs, a term, at 
 that time, of reproach in Tennessee. But the people 
 loved and respected White, and had very different sen- 
 timents towards Van Buren, and so Jackson's journey- 
 ings, and denunciations and threats, were of no effect. 
 The State voted for White, and Van Buren could not 
 even carry the Hermitage precinct. 
 
 Up to this time Bell had supported all the more im- 
 portant measures of the Jackson administration. In 
 pursuance of his previously avowed opposition to the 
 American system, he had resisted the tariff of 1832, 
 and had advocated the compromise of 1833. In the 
 nullification troubles he had stood with Jackson. In 
 1835 he declared that the friends of White would 
 adhere to General Jackson, but would do so from a 
 desire to be consistent and out of respect for their own 
 characters and in support of their own principles. In 
 his celebrated Vauxhall speech, he emphatically re- 
 nounced pei-sonal allegiance to General Jackson. 
 
 Thenceforth he was classed as a Whig, and as a term 
 of additional reproach, was called a New Whig. The 
 most important fact in his Congressional record be- 
 tween 1836 and 18-41, probably was his vote in favor 
 of receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in 
 the District of Columbia. For this he was denounced 
 bitterly by the more extreme Democrats, and by not a 
 few of his own party, but was sustained by his con- 
 stituents. 
 
 The first battle between Whigs and Democrats in 
 
2o8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Tennessee was in 1839. The prescriptive policy of the 
 Democratic leaders had borne fruit, and now the State 
 was about to pass for a while into the hands of a strong 
 new party led by Bell, with the assistance of a corps 
 of popular and skilled politicians. Newton Cannon 
 was, in 1839, the first avowed Whig candidate for Gov- 
 ernor. Mr. Polk, his competitor, was elected; but the 
 Whig party was established. For many years after 
 Tennessee became a State, her public men, with the 
 exception of a very few, were Jeffersonian Republi- 
 cans, or Democrats, as they were indifferently called. 
 Probably the origin of the division into parties may be 
 found in the contest between Jackson and John Wil- 
 liams in 1833. Phelan calls Crockett the first Ten- 
 nessee Whig, but the separation was finally accom- 
 plished as here stated. 
 
 In 1840 Harrison carried Tennessee, over Van 
 Buren, by a vote of sixty thousand against forty-eight 
 thousand, and in that year, for the first time, the Whigs 
 of Tennessee openly professed the policy of protection, 
 but with great caution and to a very limited extent. 
 
 In 1841, and again in 1843, James C. Jones, the 
 Whig candidate for Governor, defeated Polk, who was 
 Jackson's successor in the active leadership of the 
 Democrats; and in the presidential election of 1844, 
 Mr. Polk again endured the mortification of losing his 
 own State, so strong and so compact had the Whig 
 party come to be in Tennessee. In 1845 the Demo- 
 crats were successful in electing Aaron V. Brown 
 Governor over Ephraim H. Foster, but in 1847 the 
 Whigs elected Neill S. Brown to that office. 
 
 During all the time covered by these struggles of 
 the new party against the old, the leader of the Whigs 
 
OK TENNESSEE. 209 
 
 had been John Bell. With him were associated 
 Ephraim H. Foster, Neill S. Brown, Meredith P. Gen- 
 try, G. A. Henry and many other men of ability, but 
 as to the actual leadership there was no question. Bell 
 was beyond dispute the ablest man of his party in Ten- 
 nessee, indeed in the South. In 1847 he had been 
 six years out of office, but never out of politics. In 
 that year he was elected to the Legislature from 
 Davidson County, and by that body was elected to 
 the United States Senate. This was most fortunate for 
 his fame and for Tennessee. No other man in the State 
 was so well qualified, by nature and b\' study, to fill 
 this important office. Intellectually he had hardly a 
 superior among the public men of the country, if we 
 except Webster and Calhoun. His mind was large 
 and thoroughly balanced ; his temperament was equa- 
 ble and philosophic; he had been a diligent and 
 thorough student of the philosophy and history of 
 government, and of general literature; he was a 
 speaker of rare power; a graceful and efTective rhet- 
 orician, and added to all this he was an honest man of 
 blameless life, and was known to be a sincere patriot. 
 His position in Tennessee was not unlike that of Cal- 
 houn in South Carolina; he surpassed all his com- 
 patriots by force of intellect and weight of character. 
 For twelve years he remained in the Senate, ranking 
 at first a little below the great triumvirs who had long 
 dominated that august body, and after they had passed 
 away, acknowledging no superior. 
 
 By his splendid abilities he brought credit to himself 
 and to the State, and unfailingly he was faithful to his 
 convictions of right and of duty. It was a time of 
 strife and of incessant comrnotion and change in the 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 political world. The slavery question could no longer 
 be avoided. Conditions imperatively demanded its 
 consideration, and no solution seemed possible. 
 
 Mr. Clay, strong as ever in love of the Union, was 
 still the advocate of compromise, and Bell was one of 
 his associates on the famous committee of thirteen, 
 to which in 1850, the two parties submitted the most 
 important questions of sectional difference. He sup- 
 ported the Compromise Act of that year, which gave 
 the country a brief respite from the irrepressible slav- 
 ery question. 
 
 To the bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, 
 introduced in 1853, and, disposed of in 1854, he was 
 strongly opposed, basing his opposition largely on 
 the injustice to the Indians that would result from its 
 passage. In 1854 he voted against the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise, which confrned slavery South 
 of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes. Bv this vote be 
 did not please his constituents, but he believed it to be 
 right. By his utterances on the subject of the Le- 
 compton Constitution for Kansas, before its approval 
 by the Senate, he incurred the disapprobation of the 
 Legislature of Tennessee, which was' expressed by a 
 resolution passed February 10, 1858, including the 
 following: "That our Senators in the Congress of the 
 United States are hereby instructed * * * to vote 
 for the admission of Kansas as an independent State 
 under what is termed the Lecompton Constitution." 
 He declined, however, to be instructed, voted against 
 the bill and became involved. in an unpleasant debate 
 with his colleague, Andrew Johnson. It is clear now 
 that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an 
 unwise measure, and only the most extreme partisan- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 21 r 
 
 ship could disapprove Bell's opposition to the Le- 
 compton Constitution. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Bell retired from the Senate. For the 
 last seven years he had been practically a man without 
 a party. In Tennessee the Whigs triumphed for the 
 last time in 1851, when they elected William B. Camp- 
 bell Governor. It is true that they carried the 
 State in the Federal election of 1853, but it was a bar- 
 ren victory. Pierce was elected by an overwhelming 
 majority, and the Whigs carried only four States. 
 Bell was returned to the Senate, and thenceforth he and 
 Crittenden, of Kentucky, represented the Southern 
 Whigs in that body. But in Tennessee and in the 
 Union, the party which had been led by Webster and 
 Clay had virtually ceased to exist. A new party had 
 been born which ere long was to attain an unequalled 
 ascendency and to perform mighty works. Bell and 
 Crittenden were true to the principles and traditions 
 of the Whig party to the last, but they stood alone. 
 They were not only the last of the Whigs, but the last 
 of the great men of their generation in the Senate. 
 
 It was at a time of uncertainty and anxiety that the 
 great Tennessean finally retired from ofhce. The 
 political skies were angry and full of threatenings, 
 and forebodings of evil oppressed every patriot heart. 
 Bell loved the Union with a surpassing love, and re- 
 turned to his home apprehensive and despondent. 
 Another presidential election was at hand. The Dem- 
 ocrats, long victorious, were now discordant. The. 
 convention at Charleston marked a fatal disruption of 
 the party. In a little while Douglass and Breckin- 
 ridge were in the field as candidates of opposing Dem- 
 ocratic factions. The Republicans, hopeful and aggres- 
 
212 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 sive, were led by Mr. Lincoln. But there were many 
 worthy men, especially in the South, who would not 
 follow either of the Democratic factions, and were 
 strongly opposed to the Republican policy. 
 
 A convention of these, representing twenty-two 
 States, met at Baltimore, May 9, 1860, and nomin- 
 ated Bell for President and Edward Everett for Vice 
 President. Mr. Bell's principal competitor for the 
 nomination was Sam Houston, of Texas. The Party 
 thus represented called itself the Constitutional Union 
 Party, and affirming that political platforms were in- 
 sincere and deceptive, adopted only a simple resolu- 
 tion, declaring in favor of the Union, the Constitution 
 and the enforcement of the laws. The result is well 
 known. Lincoln was elected and Bell carried only the 
 States of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia, with their 
 thirty-six electoral votes. New Jersey cast three votes 
 for him. 
 
 The six months succeeding the election were full 
 of distress and grief for Bell and for his friends in Ten- 
 nessee. Isham G. Harris, the Governor, a man of 
 great ability and boundless persistency and determin- 
 ation, was an avowed secessionist. Bell was not less 
 earnestly opposed to secession. The first efifort to 
 carry Tennessee out of the Union failed, and the Whigs 
 hoped that the crisis had passed, but when Lincoln 
 made his call for volunteers, and it became apparent 
 that the seceding States were to be coerced by force of 
 arms, the situation became infinitely embarrassing and 
 distressing. From this time forward nothing could 
 have prevented the secession of Tennessee. It was 
 not Governor Harris and his friends that drove Ten- 
 nessee into seceding — it was the policy of the Federal 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 213 
 
 authorities, or rather the force of events, which Ten- 
 nessee had little part in producing, and which her party 
 leaders had no power to resist. 
 
 A knowledge of Mr. Bell's pure character and lofty 
 patriotism, a genuine sympathy for him personally, 
 and a clear perception of conditions in the South, 
 are necessary to an understanding of his conduct in 
 this emergency. There was no sacrifice that he would 
 not have made to save the Union, but he believed now 
 that its destruction was inevitable. He believed also 
 that the policy of the administration was unconstitu- 
 tional and revolutionary. Alexander H. Stephens 
 declares that Mr. Lincoln's proclamations alone 
 caused Bell and other Southern Whigs to change 
 position. These proclamations, he says, were re- 
 garded by the Whig leaders in the South as not less 
 unlawful and oppressive than the edicts of Charles the 
 First for ship money. 
 
 It was on April 18, 1861, that Bell, Balie Peyton, 
 Neill S. Brown, Cave Johnson, R. J. Meigs and other 
 Unionists issued an address to the people of Tennessee, 
 in which they said: 
 
 "Tennessee is called upon by the President to fur- 
 nish two regiments, and the State has, through her 
 executive, refused to comply with the call. This re- 
 fusal of our State we fully approve." This was going 
 very far; but it was not all. A later paragraph con- 
 tains the following: "Should a purpose be developed 
 by the government, of overruning and subjugating 
 our brethren of the seceded States, we say unequiv- 
 ocally, that it will be the duty of the State to resist 
 at all hazards, and at any cost, and by force of arms, 
 any such purpose or attempt." 
 
2 14 BENC^ AND BAR 
 
 The address further calls upon the State to arm, and 
 to maintain a position of armed neutrality. 
 
 There can be no doubt that this expressed Mr. Bell's 
 convictions. He was a Unionist and a Whig, but he 
 was a Southern man, and had been reared a Demo- 
 crat and a follower of Jefferson. He had opposed 
 nullification, and now opposed secession; but no 
 Southern statesman of his generation could entirely 
 escape the influence of the pervasive sentiment of 
 State's rights, and State loyalty. If he did not approve 
 the doctrine of secession, he held the Southern, rather 
 than the Northern view of the limitation of the powers 
 of the Federal government over the States. 
 
 This letter halving been written, events dictated the 
 result. The South was threatened with invasion, and 
 the leader of the Constitutional Union Party, with a 
 heavy heart, but with honesty of purpose, became the 
 advocate of the policy which he had so long opposed. 
 He did not uphold secession, but believed that con- 
 ditions justified revolution, although he was at the 
 same time persuaded of the utter futility of the struggle 
 on which the South had determined to enter. At no 
 time did he believe that the South could successfully 
 withstand the North. Nevertheless, actuated by a 
 sense of duty, he took his stand with her. 
 
 Henceforth there was nothing in life for him. He 
 steadfastly supported the Confederacy, but took no 
 part in the war or in public affairs. After the war he 
 remained in seclusion, and died at Cumberland Iron 
 Works, September 18, 1869. y\t no time after 1861 
 did he attract or seek public attention. 
 
 Northern writers, notably Blaine and Greeley, have 
 severely condemned him. Mr. Blaine says: "If Mr. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 2 15 
 
 Bell had taken firm ground for the Union, the seces- 
 sion movement would have been to a very great extent 
 paralyzed in the South." Comparing Bell with Everett, 
 ■he says: "If Mr. Bell had stood beside him with 
 equal courage and equal determination, Tennessee 
 would never have seceded and the Rebellion would 
 have been confined to the seven original States. * '■'' 
 * A large share of the responsibility for the danger- 
 ous development of the Rebellion must therefore be 
 attributed to John Bell and his half million Southern 
 supporters of the old Whig party. At the critical 
 moment they signally failed." 
 
 These censures imply a belief that Mr. Bell was 
 insincere, whereas we affirm that he was wholly sincere, 
 and that he sided finally with the South because he 
 was convinced that it was right to do so, because the 
 Federal government, in his judgment, was violating 
 the rights of the States and subverting the Constitu- 
 tion. They attribute also to Bell and his fellow leaders 
 of the Whigs, a far greater influence than they really 
 possessed. Middle and West Tennessee, the slave- 
 holding portions of the State, carried Tennessee out of 
 the Union over the strenuous resistance of East Ten- 
 nessee, which practically had no slaves. The Federal 
 policy, in view of the conditions existing in the Spring 
 of 1861, made the secession of every State with large 
 slave-holding interests, inevitable. In ordinary times 
 leaders may lead, but this was no ordinary time. There 
 was an irresistible public sentiment in the presence of 
 which the greatest leaders were powerless. Mr. Bell 
 and his friends had done much when they defeated the 
 first attempt to secede. Subsequent events carried 
 the people far beyond the reach of personal or party 
 
2i6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 influences. Harris powerfully aided the impulse to 
 secession, and Bell powerfully resisted it, but the one 
 did not create the impulse and the other could not over- 
 come it. Moreover, it cannot be too often, or too 
 strongly asserted, that there came a time when Bell 
 regarded it as his duty to yield to the impulse and to go 
 with the South. 
 
 Of Mr. Bell personally, there can be but one opinion. 
 Intellectually he had no superior in Tennessee, and 
 probably at the zenith of his pov/ers, during his last 
 term in the Senate, was the peer of any public man in 
 this country. He was essentially a statesman and not 
 a politician. His powerful mind was quick to act, 
 but his scholarly and philosophic habit led him to con- 
 sider all sides of every question, and therefore, he was 
 at times too deliberate, and was charged with indecis- 
 ion. Caution was one of his characteristics, and this, 
 coupled with his fairness and his scorn of little things 
 and of unworthy methods, unfitted him for active polit- 
 ical leadership. He was a political philosopher, but 
 not a good partisan leader. In later life he was not 
 aggressive, though in his earlier struggles he was not 
 wanting in this respect. It is said that his canvass 
 against Grundy, in 1827, was not only one of the most 
 brilliant, but also one of the most aggressive in our 
 political annals. 
 
 With the increase of years and of experience came 
 also increase of caution. In the debates of the Senate, 
 he spoke late, but always with learning and with efifect, 
 covering and elucidating the entire subject. This 
 habit did not arise from timidity. ' His was one of ihe 
 few minds of the Senate that could not be satisfied 
 with incomplete knowledge. It is interesting to com- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 21 7 
 
 pare the two great rivals, Jackson and Bell. Both 
 were honest men, both patriots, both great men. Of 
 the two, -Bell was the more intellectual, Jackson the 
 stronger in will, the firmer in mind. Jackson's mind 
 was one of the greatest in our history, but of compara- 
 tively narrow compass — not broadly cultivated, and 
 capable of entertaining the strongest and most per- 
 sistent prejudices; Bell's intellect was both acute and 
 comprehensive; his mental vision large, his tempera- 
 ment liberal and judicial. Jackson had always one 
 definite concrete purpose, to the accomplishment of 
 which he devoted all his tremendous energy; Bell was 
 a philosopher, finding delight in the study of abstract 
 questions, and in all mental exercise. As a statesman. 
 Bell, with clear and comprehensive vision, saw every 
 aspect of every subject ; Jackson saw only one thing — 
 the object at which he aimed and toward which he 
 made way over every obstacle. Bell was serene, con- 
 templative, philosophic, a leader in everything to which 
 he turned his attention, but owing his ascendency to 
 pure intellect and not to superior powers of action; 
 Jackson was impetuous, strenuous, a man of impulse, 
 and of unparalleled force. 
 
 These generalizations do not, of course, reach the 
 exact truth. Jackson was endowed with a great intel- 
 lect, and Bell, while not primarily a man of action, was 
 not deficient in will. Jackson sometimes did not think 
 enough, and therefore, not without justice, was often 
 called narrow, prejudiced, violent; Bell thought care- 
 fully and conscientiously, and acted in moderation, 
 and therefore was called timid. The word does him 
 injustice. He was thoughtful, just, conscientious. 
 He confronted and defeated Jackson in Tennessee; 
 
2l8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 in the Senate he disregarded the wishes of the State 
 in his vote upon the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise; he would not submit to instruction in the matter 
 of the Lecompton Constitution; and as to the act for 
 which he was most criticised, his accession to the Con- 
 federacy, we must believe that it was an act of convic- 
 tion, or that he was guilty of insincerity and of recre- 
 ancy, a conclusion which is denied by every other event 
 of a long, useful and honorable life. 
 
 The most ardent admirer of Mr. Bell will hardly 
 claim that his temperament and habits of mind were 
 suited to times of revolution, but upon the other hand, 
 only an unreasoning prejudice can deny that he was 
 a sincere patriot, a wise, just and great statesman, and a 
 good man. 
 
 John Marshall, as the name will indicate, was of 
 Scotch-Irish descent. His father was William Mar- 
 shall, who married Ann Bell, the aunt of John Bell. 
 The subject of this sketch was born in Williamson 
 County, Tennessee, September 5, 1803. He had the 
 usual "old field" schooling, and later was under 
 private teachers who introduced him to the clas- 
 sics. To this delightful branch of learning he seems 
 to have been at first somewhat indifferent. Indeed, 
 he is not reported to have been a diligent student of 
 anything in his youth. In later life he became excep- 
 tionally versed in the classics. It is said that as a 
 young man he preferred fishing to learning, but his 
 natural abilities were so great, and his memory so 
 retentive, that he accomplished his tasks with extra- 
 ordinary ease and rapidity. 
 
 He determined early in life to be a lawyer, and in 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 219 
 
 1824 began to study for the profession under his kins- 
 man, John Bell. 
 
 In every department of the law he was well equipped, 
 efficient and successful. His Chancery pleadings are 
 described as "models;" before a jury he had no 
 superior, hardly an equal, while the" Supreme Court 
 held him in profound esteem and respect. It is 
 to be doubted whether or not the State has ever pro- 
 duced his superior as a lawyer. The very cordial and 
 appreciative estimate of him by Randall Ewing, in a 
 paper before the Tennessee Bar Association, has in- 
 duced the writer to make diligent inquiry concerning 
 him, and all accounts are alike. He had the character- 
 istics of the class represented in Tennessee by Hay- 
 wood, Turley and Jarnagin. Ph3'-sically he was strong 
 and healthy; mentally he was richly endowed, capable 
 of the highest and most difficult things, accomplishing 
 much, but yet indolent — more indolent physically than 
 mentally. Not negligent of duty, but content to do 
 well without trying to do his best, except when aroused 
 by some extraordinary cause. Of this class of men, 
 Mr. Webster is the best representative in .A.merican his- 
 tory, and in Marshall and the great expounder of the 
 Constitution, may be found many points of similarity. 
 Both were strong men physically, massive in intellect, 
 surpassing others without effort, yet sluggish mentally 
 and physically, and needing strong excitement to 
 arouse them. 
 
 Marshall's success as a lawyer was not delayed. Cli- 
 ents and reputation came to him quickly, and in a few 
 years he rose to the first place among the lawyers of his 
 circuit, and secured an enviable standing in the Su- 
 preme Court. 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 But while he grew steadily as a lawyer, and in gen- 
 eral reputation, he displayed no ambition for office. 
 A mind so great and so clear as his, was not to be 
 attracted by the empty and troublesome distinctions of 
 politics. He was content with being great inherently, 
 and cared nothing for titles and honors. Mr. Ewing 
 attributes his indifference to political honors, and all 
 sorts of official distinction, to a want of ambition. Is it 
 not better to attribute it to a clear sense of proportion 
 and a perception of the real value of things? He loved 
 his profession and his books and pictures, and music 
 and friends. His means enabled him to gather prob- 
 ably the best law library, and the best general library, 
 of his time, in the State; to surround himself with the 
 works of art to which he was passionately devoted, and 
 to enjoy his friends. Sought after, successful, honored 
 in his profession, the first man in his community, a 
 scholar, with the means of gratifying his tastes, rich in 
 friends — what more could a rational man wish? 
 
 At two periods of his life only did he allow himself 
 to have anything to do with public affairs. In 1837 
 and in 1839, he was State Senator from Williamson 
 County, as a Whig. His career as a legislator was dis- 
 tinguished by earnest and largely successful efforts 
 to abrogate imprisonment for debt in Tennessee. 
 From 1839 to 1861 he remained in the profession and 
 at home. , 
 
 When the troubles preceding the war began, he felt 
 that duty again called him to public affairs. He was 
 an ardent Union man, and opposed with all the 
 strength of his great nature, the proposition to hold a 
 Constitutional Convention to consider the question. of 
 secession. To him was due almost entirely the fact 
 
OF TENNESSEE 221 
 
 that his native county cast only forty votes in favor of 
 the Convention. 
 
 Many of his friends had espoused the other side, 
 and these witnessed liis course with regret and dismay. 
 Letters of appeal and of expostulation poured in upon 
 him, but his purpose was not to be shaken. Others 
 were for "armed neutrality." Marshall knew that 
 there was no middle ground — that Tennessee must be 
 for the Union or against it. And so he remained the 
 outspoken advocate of the Union, the unshaken op- 
 ponent of secession until Mr. Lincoln issued his call 
 for volunteers. Then his training as a Southern man 
 asserted itself, and reluctantly and sorrowfully he fol- 
 lowed Tennessee out of the Union. There were thou- 
 sands of good men in Tennessee, who loving the Union 
 as he loved it, held the State entitled to their first alle- 
 giance. 
 
 Nevertheless, Marshall was deeply grieved, and 
 came out of the struggle broken both physically and 
 mentally. The disasters that befell the Confederate 
 arms in 1862, and more especially in 1863, are said, in 
 turn, to have aiifected him profoundly. Old age had 
 come upon him, the future seemed without promise, 
 and so he died, as some say, of grief. His death oc- 
 curred October 3, 1863. 
 
 There is hardly a more interesting personality in the 
 history of Tennessee. His remarkable physical appear- 
 ance is described by Randall Ewing as follows: "Six 
 feet, one and one-half inches in height, fleshy even to 
 corpulence, a perfect digestion, and the muscles of an 
 athlete, pain and sickness were strangers to him. He 
 had more than any man I ever knew, that grand com- 
 bination which our medical brethren have epitomized 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 as Sana mens in sano corpore. In the course of twenty 
 years' intimacy, I cannot remember that he ever com- 
 plained of a corporal pain or illness. His head was 
 massive and peculiar in shape. When face to face you 
 would, at the first glance, pronounce him defective in 
 frontal development, the forehead being low and nar- 
 row, but viewed in profile you would be astonished to 
 find such an immense 'dome of thought' in the rear 
 of this narrow portico. In fact the word portico well 
 expresses the peculiarity of development; for it seemed 
 to be rather an addendum than a part of the original 
 design. In his dress he was careless, even to sloven- 
 liness. Many persons regarded this trait as a mere 
 afifectation ; but Mr. Marshall was too great a man for 
 affectation; that is the sin of small minds. * * * 
 Mr. Marshall's carelessness of dress was a legitimate 
 consequence of the want of order or system in small 
 things. His office table was of immense size, and was 
 always covered at least six inches in depth with papers, 
 records, memoranda, etc., which he would permit no 
 one to arrange or set in order." 
 
 He was a great reader and an enthusiastic collector 
 of rare books and rare editions, not as a mere amateur, 
 but as a genuine book lover. Like all men of active 
 mind, especially in surroundings that do not abound 
 in excitements, he was fond of amusements. 
 
 He was also a "great fisherman." The zeal with 
 which he followed this most fascinating of pursuits 
 is illustrated by an amusing anecdote. 
 
 On one occasion he was "going a-fishing," when 
 in crossing a stream, he had the misfortune to drop his 
 bucket of minnows into very deep water. Overcome 
 by the calamity, lie was returning homeward, when 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 223 
 
 he met a friend and fellow angler well supplied with 
 minnows, who kindly offered to divide bait with him. 
 This was well enough, but the oljliging friend was 
 bound for a different and distant point, and how should 
 Marshall carry the minnows so generously ofifered? 
 The problem was puzzling, but Marshall's resources 
 were equal to the emergency. His new silk hat had 
 every essential quality of a minnow bucket, and true dis- 
 ciple of Walton as he vvas, he hesitated at no sacrifice 
 for art's sake. The new hat filled with water received 
 the minnows; a "red bandanna" was fit covering for 
 a sportsman's head, and a great lawyer and fisherman 
 was once more happy. 
 
 The writer confesses to a decided partiality for this 
 big, untidy, unambitious, simple and kind hearted man, 
 and great lawyer. He had all the qualities that 
 attract popular favor. His mental force impressed all 
 with whom he came in contact; he had the gift of elo- 
 quence, and a genuine and natural kindness of heart 
 placed him above the needs of the demagogue's arts. 
 His very uncouthness of appearance and indifference 
 to dress were calculated to attract the common people. 
 His integrity was of sterling quality, and everybody 
 trusted him. Nevertheless he lived a rational, useful 
 and not wholly selfish life, instead of yielding to the 
 seductions which allure so many into the selfish and 
 unsatisfying occupation of office hunting. 
 
 Spencer- Jarnagin was a native of Grainger 
 County, Tennessee, and was born in 1792. He was 
 well educated, and was a graduate of Greenville Col- 
 lege in the class of 1813. He was admitted to the bar 
 in 1817. His law preceptor was Hugh L. White. 
 It seem.s that very early in his professional life, Jar- 
 
224 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 nagin became connected with litigation growing out 
 of the interpretation of Indian treaties and the cessions 
 of lands made under them. 
 
 In 1833 he was elected to the State Senate from 
 Knox and Anderson Counties. It was a time when 
 the mind of the State was turned to public improve- 
 ments, and the development of our natural resources, 
 and Jarnagin contributed his influence to these ends. 
 
 The famous Foreman case arose as follows: The 
 Legislature had passed an Act to extend the jurisdic- 
 tion of the State in high felony cases over the ter- 
 ritory of the Cherokee Nation. Under the provisions 
 of this law Foreman was indicted in McMinn County 
 for a murder committed in the Cherokee country. 
 The Circuit Judge, Charles F. Keith, sustained a plea 
 to the jurisdiction. The case was appealed by the 
 State, and was heard by Judges Catron, Peck and 
 Green. The State was represented by John H. Crozier, 
 solicitor for the Fourth District, and by George S. 
 Yerger, while Foreman was represented by Jarnagin. 
 
 This is perhaps the most learned of Tennessee cases. 
 Catron's opinion is of incalculable value to the student 
 of history, as well as to the lawyer. Jarnagin's speech 
 before the Supreme Court has always been famous in 
 East Tennessee as a masterpiece of logic, learning, elo- 
 quence and audacity; the audacity being displayed, 
 according to tradition, in criticising the Court to its 
 face. 
 
 It must be placed to Mr. Jarnagin's credit as a leg- 
 islator, that he favored the establishment of an asylum 
 for the insane of the State, and was the friend of popu- 
 lar education. 
 
 Until 1837 or 1838 he made his home at Knoxville, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 225 
 
 but in one of these years he moved to Athens, being 
 attracted to that place probably by the prospect of 
 litigation under the Ocoee land law. His expectations 
 were realized, and generally he was the lawyer of the 
 Indians — presumably on account of his connection 
 with the Foreman case. His kinsman, Milton P. Jar- 
 nagin, says that he largely instructed the Federal 
 Courts in the law of Indian titles. 
 
 In 1840 he was a Harrison Elector for the State 
 at large, and so much credit did he gain by this can- 
 vass, that he was conceded the Whig nomination for 
 the Senatorship,but the policy of the immortal thiiteen, 
 headed by Andrew Johnson, prevented the election of a 
 Senator in 1841, so that there was a vacancy for two 
 years. In 1843, however, Jarnagin was elected to the 
 Senate by the Whigs. In the Senate he took high 
 rank as an orator and as a constitutional lawyer, and 
 was justly regarded as one of the most brilliant and 
 also as one of the ablest men in the Senate. His fine 
 social qualities caused him to be. much sought after 
 by the society of the national capital. In 1846 came 
 one of the periodical contests over the tarifif. Mr. 
 Clay favored protection. Jarnagin, though a Whig, 
 favored a traiff for revenue only. Mr. Dallas, the 
 Vice-President, was not in accord with President Polk 
 and the Democratic party on the tariff question, Penn- 
 sylvania being strongly in favor of protection. As the 
 vote progressed, Jarnagin saw that by voting for the 
 pending bill he would create a tie. He therefore 
 voted for the tarifif of 1846, reducing the average duty 
 from thirty-three per cent, to twenty-four per cent. 
 He thus compelled Mr. Dallas to cast the deciding 
 vote. The result was the disappointment of Mr. Clay, 
 
226 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 and serious discontent with Jarnagin among the Ten- 
 nessee Whigs. 
 
 He was not re-elected to the Senate. He submitted 
 his name to the Legislature of Tennessee for a place 
 upon the supreme bench, but was defeated, and Robert 
 J. McKinney was elected. Upon his retirement from 
 the Senate, Mr. Jarflagin, being entirely without 
 means, changed his residence to Memphis, where he 
 continued the practice of his profession with brilliant 
 success. 
 
 In 1848 he made many speeches in favor of Taylor 
 and Fillmore. In all his speeches, whether on the 
 hustings or at the bar, he demonstrated the most ex- 
 tiaordinary ability, and captivated every audience that 
 heard him. Chancellor Kent is reported to have said 
 that Jarnagin was one of the most intellectual men of 
 our country, and in this high tribute all who knew him 
 and had no prejudices against him, concurred. 
 
 In July, 1853, he was engaged in the preparation 
 of an argument in an important case, and following a 
 habit to which he had long been addicted, went to fish 
 in a lake near Memphis, enjoying the sport and study- 
 ing his case at the same time. It seems that he 
 fasted during the day, and returning home in the 
 evening, ate inordinately, thus producing a violent 
 illness. According to his kinsman, Milton P. Jar- 
 nagin, the physician called in to attend him, appre- 
 hending that he had cholera, resorted to heroic treat- 
 ment, with the result of killing him. 
 
 Mr. Jarnagin hardly has received justice at the hands 
 of posterity. His somewhat erratic course in the Sen- 
 ate, which a charitable judgment may attribute to a 
 real desire to do right and to serve his country, was 
 
OF TENNESSEE, 227 
 
 regarded by his party associates as an act of treachery, 
 or at best, of weakness, and the impression got abroad 
 that the infirmity thus displayed was a part of his 
 character. But while his course in this respect may be 
 open to criticism, it happened, as it generally does in 
 such cases, that the criticism was much more sweeping 
 and general than he deserved. He is regarded as a 
 man of almost unlimited intellectual capacities, but 
 lacking decision. His enemies, of course, said that he 
 lacked principle, but his kinsman, writing of him, tells 
 the truth when he declares that his weakness was not a 
 want of principle, but a want of decision. If he had 
 possessed more firmness of will and of mind — or taking 
 the more charitable view of it, if he had been more 
 obedient to party demands, he might have held a 
 higher place in our history. It is unpleasant to concede 
 that a man of such extraordinary intellectual power 
 was deficient in will; and while upon the surface there 
 are things to indicate that he suffered from this defi- 
 ciency, it is always true that it is impossible for us to 
 know and to give just value to the springs and motives 
 of the conduct of another. 
 
 Alfred Osborne Pope Nicholson was born August 
 31, 1808, in a school house in Williamson County, 
 Tennessee. His father and mother had come to Ten- 
 nessee from North Carolina, and occupied the school 
 building while their own house was being constructed 
 The father, O. P. Nicholson, was a carpenter, mill- 
 wright and surveyor, and built one of the first houses, 
 if not the first, in the town of Columbia. 
 
 A school teacher at Columbia in the boyhood of 
 Judge Nicholson, was Squire Black, grandfather of 
 Henry Watterson, to whose tutelage the boy was duly 
 
228 BENCH AND HAR 
 
 committed. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was, even in 
 the first quarter of the century, a school of note, and 
 young Nicholson matriculated there in the Fall of 1823, 
 and graduated in 1827. 
 
 In 1828 he attended medical lectures at Philadelphia, 
 following the request of his mother, who wished him to 
 be a physician. His attendance, however, was limited 
 to one year, at the end of which he became the editor 
 of the Columbia, Tennessee, Mercury. He was mar- 
 ried in 1829, and about the same time began to study 
 law. In the same year he was a candidate for the Leg- 
 islature and was defeated, but at the next election was 
 successful by a large majority. 
 
 At this time were beginning to be heard the first 
 mutterings of opposition to General Jackson. Nichol- 
 son was an ardent advocate of Jackson, and a close 
 friend of James K. Polk. John Bell was just en- 
 tering public life, and was antagonistic to Polk, and 
 was thus brought into collision and debate with 
 Nicholson in the Legislature. The debates were ani- 
 mated, affording the young statesmen excellent oppor- 
 tunities to prove their abilities, and from them Nichol- 
 son and Bell acquired much prominence. Nicholson 
 was repeatedly returned to the Legislature, and in 
 1840 entered upon a larger political field, as a candi- 
 date for Elector for the State. On the death of Felix 
 Grundy, in 1840, Governor Polk appointed him to 
 fill the vacancy in the United States Senate. When 
 the Legislature met, he was nominated by the Demo- 
 cratic caucus, but the "immortal thirteen'' prevented 
 an election. 
 
 For some years Judge Nicholson now gave his time 
 exclusively to the law. In collaboration with Judge 
 
OF TENNESSEE 229 
 
 Caruthers, he had already prepared the Digest of Ten- 
 nessee Statutes known to the profession as "Caruthers 
 and Nicholson." 
 
 The political warfare between Polk and the anti- 
 Jackson forces, under the leadership of Bell, mean- 
 while was flagrant, and had much to do with Polk's 
 nomination to the Presidency in 1844. The great 
 issue of 1S44 was Texas. New England and the 
 great Jiliddle States generally opposed annexation, 
 and vigorously demanded tariff protection. The sup- 
 port of Pennsylvania was secured to Polk mainly by 
 a letter bearing his name, and advocating a tariff 
 primarily for revenue, and incidentally for protection. 
 It was asserted at the time, with probable truth, that 
 this letter was written by Nicholson. 
 
 In 1844, at the urgent solicitation of IMr. Polk, 
 Nicholson moved to Nashville to assume the editor- 
 ship of the Nashville Union. When Polk was received 
 at Nashville on his journey to Washington to be inau- 
 gurated, Nicholson made the speech of welcome, in 
 which he said: "The American people have selected 
 you President of the United States to carry out the 
 policy of the Democratic party." This utterance, 
 which was much criticised, was premeditated, because 
 the Democrats of Nashville regarded the President 
 as not sufficiently positive and aggressive. Polk dined 
 that day with Andrew Jackson, who repeated the in- 
 junction. A place in the Cabinet was now offered 
 Nicholson, but the state of his private affairs compelled 
 him to decline it, and he continued to devote himself 
 assiduously to the law at Nashville, carrying on his 
 newspaper work at the same time. In 1850 Governor 
 Trousdale appointed him Chancellor of the Maury 
 
230 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 County Division, but he resigned at the end of the year. 
 For a time he was President of the State Bank, but 
 resigned in 1852 and returned to Columbia. In that 
 year he was a Pierce Elector for the State. He had 
 served in the Senate with Mr. Pierce and a cordial at- 
 tachment had resulted. When Pierce became Presi- 
 dent he tendered Nicholson the office of Postmaster- 
 General, and afterwards the Spanish Mission, but both 
 were declined, as he preferred to go to Washington as 
 the editor of the Union, the Democratic organ, 
 founded during Polk's administration. 
 
 In 1857 he was elected to the United States Senate. 
 He was a believer in the right of secession, but did not 
 think, in 1860, that occasion was presented for exercis- 
 ing that right. However, when Tennessee took her 
 place with the South, he was loyal to the State, and was 
 a staunch supporter of the Confederacy to the end. 
 After the Federal occupation of Middle Tennessee he 
 refused to take the oath of allegiance, and was impris- 
 oned at Columbia, and then, by order of Andrew John- 
 son, sent beyond the lines. He returned with Hood, 
 became ill, and was unable to travel when the Confed- 
 erate army retired, and was arrested and confined 
 in the penitentiary as a hostage for some Union men 
 alleged to have been carried off by Forrest. The real 
 cause of his arrest seems to have been the request of 
 Andrew Johnson. He was retained in prison until the 
 surgeon in charge declared that further confinement 
 would kill him. Being released he went home to find 
 that his only possessions' were his real estate and one 
 cow. Soon afterwards he received an unsolicited par- 
 don from President Johnson, and a request to come to 
 Washington. He complied with the request, and was 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 23I 
 
 again in Washington in consultation with the Presi- 
 dent during his controversies with Congress. 
 
 In 1870 he was elected to the Constitutional Con- 
 vention of Tennessee, and was by far the most influen- 
 tial, as well as one of the most conservative members 
 of that body of able men. In the same year he was 
 elected to the supreme bench and was made Chief 
 Justice. In that position he exerted a great influence 
 upon the decisions and the general policy of the Court. 
 He died in 1876. 
 
 His career was one of much usefulness as well as of 
 exceptional success and prominence. He was a man 
 of great ability and of extraordinary purity of charac- 
 ter. If he had been more aggressive and self-assertive 
 he might have held office more frequently, but his 
 reputation could not have been better. He was totally 
 wanting in the arts of the politicians. He refused to 
 "electioneer" for him.self, and his diffidence amounted 
 almost to a misfortune. Few men in the history of 
 the State are more to be esteemed for ability 
 or valuable public service. As a Judge he was 
 an indefatigable worker, as indeed he was in every- 
 thing to which he put his hand. He was a great 
 lawyer, by virtue of a great intellect rather than by 
 extraordinary learning. He was a well read and 
 studious lawyer, but his chief excellencies as a Judge 
 were a natural sense of justice and a powerful mind. 
 He was Chief Justice in fact as well as in name, and 
 was peculiarly adapted to the difficult task of guiding 
 the Court in adjusting affairs under the new Consti- 
 tution. When he died his associates frankly and cor- 
 dially admitted their indebtedness to him. 
 
 Gustavus A. Henry, known to the last generation 
 
232 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 of Tennesseans as the "Eagle Orator," was born in 
 Scott County, Kentucky, October 8, 1804. When he 
 was fourteen years of age his parents removed to 
 Christian County, Kentucky. He was given a thor- 
 ough classical education at Transylvania University. 
 One of his schoolmates was JefTerson Davis, and be- 
 tween the two a cordial friendship was established, 
 and lasted throughout their lives. In 1831, and again 
 in 1833, Mr. Henry represented Christian County in 
 the Legislature of Kentucky. 
 
 In 1833 he married Miss Marion McClure, of 
 Clarksville, Tennessee, and removed to that city, whei^e 
 he made his home for the remainder of his life. It is 
 suggested that by this step he sacrificed a brilliant 
 political career in Kentucky. ' He was a Whig, and at 
 that time Tennessee was one of the strongest Demo- 
 cratic States in the Union. 
 
 In 1840 he was a Whig candidate for Elector in 
 the Clarksville district, and was an unsuccessful candi- 
 date for Congress against Cave Johnson 'in 1842. In 
 1844, 1848 and 1852 he was a Whig candidate for 
 Elector for the State at large. In 1851-1852 he was in 
 the Legislature, and in 1853 was the unsuccessful 
 Whig candidate for Governor against Andrew John- 
 son. 
 
 He was thus fated to be the unsuccessful leader of his 
 party in many hard fought battles, but he entered into 
 these contests with as much spirit as if he had been 
 assured of success. He was held in great esteem and 
 respect by the people of the State of all parties, and was 
 regarded as the equal of any public speaker in Ten- 
 nessee in the decade preceding the war, except William 
 T. Haskell. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 233 
 
 When Tennessee seceded the old Hnes between the 
 Whig and the Democratic parties were obliterated, and 
 Mr. Henry was elected Senator from Tennessee in 
 the Congress of the Confederate States. In that body 
 he was highly esteemed as a debater and as a clear- 
 headed man of business. He was one of the principal 
 supporters of the administration of his old friend, the 
 President. 
 
 As a lawyer he took high rank as an advocate, but 
 not otherwise. It is not characteristic of men of bril- 
 liant minds and extraordinary gifts of speech, to be 
 industrious workers. He was a man of strong re- 
 ligious convictions, and became a member of the 
 Protestant Episcopal church in 1854. From that time 
 he was always prominent in the affairs of his own par- 
 ish, and of the Diocese of Tennessee. His public career 
 ended with his service in the Confederate Senate. He 
 is best remembered in Tennessee as a great political 
 speaker. 
 
 It is related in the book entitled "Picturesque 
 Clarksville," in regard to Air. Henry, that after the fall 
 of A'icksburg, President Davis, fearing the results of 
 the public depression, requested the Senator from 
 Tennessee "to make a speech to the people from his 
 high standpoint in the Confederate Congress." The 
 writer continues: "This speech was delivered, so 
 powerful, so full of fervid eloquence, that at the con- 
 clusion, the whole Senate, and Cabinet and President, 
 who had honored the occasion with their presence, 
 were found in a compact group around the orator, hav- 
 ing been drawn, as they said, by an irresistible power 
 from their seats in the Senate chamber. Of this 
 speech, Mr. Davis said, 'its reasoning was as powerful 
 
234 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 as the thundering cataract, and its eloquence as inspir- 
 ing as the notes of the bugle sounding the charge, 
 when the host is about to join in the battle.' " 
 
 There is something almost pathetic in Mr. Henry's 
 history as a public man. He was ambitious and was 
 conscious of possessing the ability to distinguish him- 
 self in public life, but until his election to the Confed- 
 erate Senate, he was continuously defeated. It is true 
 he acquired a great reputation as an orator, but the 
 man of ambition craves place and power. These are 
 the only substantial and satisfying rewards, and he 
 did not attain them. The Confederate Senate was not 
 a place to win renown. The position was highly hon- 
 orable, but in it no great reputations were made. The 
 tremendous events of the war diverted attention from 
 it, and its functions were limited to legislation in sup- 
 port of a policy which indisputably was in the main 
 dictated by the President. There were great men in 
 the Senate, but they had little or no opportunity to 
 display or to utilize their abilities, so that to Mr. Henry 
 never came the opportunities for which he longed. 
 Nevertheless his life was by no means a failure; he left 
 an honorable name and fame, and was one of the best 
 and purest men in the State's history. 
 
 Pryor Lea was born near the close of the last 
 century, in Tennessee. At the age of fifteen, he was 
 elected clerk of the lower branch of the Legislature. 
 He was educated principally at Greeneville College, 
 under Dr. Charles Coffin, and was attending that in- 
 stitution in 1813, when there was a call for volunteers 
 for the Creek war. He responded to the call and 
 served throughout the war with credit. Resuming his 
 studies after the war, he completed his course, and 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 235 
 
 entered the office of Hugh Lawson White as a law 
 student. His relations with Judge White were always 
 the most cordial. At the bar he rose rapidly, and in 
 182 7 was elected to Congress from the Knoxville Dis- 
 trict, and served until 1831. In 1836 he moved to 
 IVIississippi, where he seems to have worked exces- 
 sively in the profession. This overwork, coupled with 
 severe domestic afflictions, impaired his health, and in 
 1846 he sought recuperation in Western Texas. Seek- 
 ing a permanent location, he was attracted to Aransas 
 Bay, believing that as the population of the State in- 
 creased an important commercial city must be estab- 
 lished in that vicinity. With two associates, he began 
 work at Lamar, but differences of opinion caused the 
 dissolution of the partnership, and Lea sought indi- 
 vidually to found a city. This was about 1852. The 
 State of Texas gave him a favorable charter, and he 
 pursued his enterprise with zeal and confidence, but 
 did not live to see it succeed. He was a strong State's 
 Rights Democrat, and though an ardent admirer of 
 General Jackson, repudiated the Nullification procla- 
 mation. In 1861 he was a member of the Secession 
 Convention of Texas, and wrote the address which it 
 issued to the people, .\fter the war he returned to the 
 law, and continued his efforts to build a city. He 
 ranked high as a lawyer, and was widely known and 
 esteemed in Texas. 
 
236 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Wm. T. Haskell— Balie Peyton— Thomas Barry— 
 The Anderson Brothers— The Yergers— Robert Hatton 
 Ebenezer Alexander. 
 
 The disposition to estimate men positively is dan- 
 gerous, but difficult to resist. Notlxing is more com- 
 mon than to hear it said of a distinguished man that 
 he was the greatest, the most eloquent, the wisest. In 
 the preparation of these papers material has been re- 
 ceived pronouncing confidently that this or that man 
 was the greatest in our State history, until it is found 
 that if these materials be trustworthy, we have had 
 not less than fifteen greatest men. The palm of elo- 
 quence also has been finally bestowed upon eight or 
 ten dififerent orators. In this last respect, however, 
 a positive estimate may be made without much danger. 
 So far as the writer's observation extends, it is the 
 well nigh universal opinion that the most eloquent 
 of all our public speakers was William T. Haskell. 
 His father, Joshua Haskell, came to Tennessee from 
 Rhode Island and settled at Murfreesboro, having 
 served previously in the Creek war. He was a 
 lawyer, and in 1821 was appointed Judge of the 
 newly-created Eighth Circuit, and removed to Jack- 
 son, in Madison County, so as to reside within 
 his circuit. In 1829 he was impeached, but was ac- 
 quitted for want of a constitutional majority against 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 237 
 
 him, the vote being a tie. There seems to be no room 
 to doubt that Judge Haskell's judicial habits were, 
 to say the least, some\vhat informal. Nevertheless he 
 was very popular and held the office until 1,836, serv- 
 ing in all fifteen years. 
 
 William T. Haskell was born at Murfreesboro, July 
 21, 1818, and was educated by private tutors, and in 
 the schools at Jackson until he was sufficiently ad- 
 vanced to enter college. Sometime prior to 1835 he 
 entered the University of Nashville, but did not com- 
 plete his course there. Probably the University of 
 Nashville never had a more negligent student. 
 
 He was a poet, an orator, a converser, a dreamer. 
 By reason of extraordinary natural gifts, he acquired 
 certain things without effort. These were the things 
 to which he was naturally inclined. The things that 
 required effort went unlearned. The mathematical 
 faculty rarely goes with the poetic or oratoric temper- 
 ament, and seems to have been almost entirely want- 
 ing in his intellectual make-up. Leaving college w ith- 
 out a degree, he enlisted for the Seminole war in 183r;, 
 and served with credit. There was excitement in war, 
 and he incessantly craved excitement. Moreover he 
 had many soldierly gifts. 
 
 Returning home after the war he became a lawyer, 
 and as early as 1840 drifted into politics and made a 
 canvass for the Whig party, and in the same year was 
 elected to the Legislature from Madison County. 
 
 In 1844: he canvassed the State for Henry Clay, mak- 
 ing some of the marvelous speeches upon which his 
 fame rests. 
 
 In 1846 he enlisted for the Mexican war, and was 
 elected Colonel of the Second Tennessee Regiment of 
 
238 BE>JCH AND BAR 
 
 Volunteer Infantry. He was a gallant soldier and a 
 capable leader, and came from this war with a reputa- 
 tion second, among the Tennesseans, only to that of 
 the splendid leader of the "Bloody First," William B. 
 Campbell. 
 
 Probably his best political speeches were made in 
 the campaign of 1856, and the greatest of these was 
 delivered at Knoxville in the first week of September of 
 that year. This week witnessed one of the last demon- 
 strations of vitality in the Whig party. The decadence 
 of the party had become painfully apparent to its 
 leaders in Tennessee, and this meeting was designed 
 as a great party revival in a section which had always 
 been one of its strongholds. 
 
 Three days were given to the meeting. From all 
 parts of East Tennessee, and from many counties of 
 Middle Tennessee, the loyal Whigs were gathered in 
 force. Orators for the occasion had been brought 
 from other parts of Tennessee and from other 
 States. Such champions of Americanism as May- 
 nard and Brownlow addressed the people on the 
 first days; Thursday was reserved for Haskell. On 
 that day a procession formed in the city, marched 
 across the valley on the East and ascended to the 
 summit of Methodist Hill which overlooks the 
 Tennessee far to the East and to the West, and 
 brings into view the blue lines of the Cumber- 
 land Mountains on the North and of the Smokies 
 on the South. On this attractive and inspiring 
 spot a speaker's stand had been erected. Fully 
 twenty thousand people had gathered. A mul- 
 titude of flags enlivened the scene, and the^ shouts of 
 enthusiasm drowned the noise of the cannon that thun- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 239 
 
 dered salutation and welcome to the great orator. He 
 had traveled far, was fatigued by the journey and 
 weak from disease, and many feared that the ordeal 
 would be too severe for his waning physical powers. 
 But the immense throng, with its boundless and con- 
 tagious enthusiasm, aroused the spirit of the orator, 
 and genius triumphed over physical weakness. His 
 first words were: "All hail. East Tennessee." For 
 four hours and more, he spoke, and not one auditor 
 withdrew. As he progressed his enthusiasm steadily 
 increased. No words were spoken save those that 
 were uttered by his wonderful voice, which could be 
 heard distinctly to the uttermost limits of the crowd, 
 but ever and anon arose a mighty uproar of applause. 
 The day was warm, and as the speaker felt the heat, 
 he cast aside necktie, collar, coat and vest, and thus 
 relieved of every incumbering garment, spoke as his 
 auditors had never heard man speak before. 
 
 He had every grace and gift of the orator, an imlim- 
 ited flow of purest and strongest words, the finest 
 fancy, the richest imagination, the most pleasing and 
 effective action, a voice of unequalled beauty and com- 
 pass. A generous enthusiasm and patriotism fired his 
 heart, and doubtless tradition speaks the' truth when 
 it declares that this was the grandest oration ever heard 
 on the soil of Tennessee, the culminating effort of a 
 splendid genius, an outpouring of captivating, resist- 
 less eloquence. 
 
 Haskell was by nature a great actor, and his 
 speeches were always essentially dramatic in quality 
 and in effect. In one of the passages of this great 
 speech — one often referred to and quoted — he sum- 
 moned the spirits of the mighty leaders of his party 
 
240 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 who had passed away. Invoking first the shades of 
 Webster and Clay, he turned toward the home of 
 Plugh Lawson White, which stood near by, and called 
 up the ghost of the "American Cato." He ex:claimed 
 that the spirit of White was there before him, and 
 shrank from its presence. As he drew back, trembling 
 before the picture that his imagination had conceived, 
 the faces of men blanched, and women shrieked and 
 fainted from terror. Seeing the excessive effect of 
 his magnificent acting, he waived the spirit away and 
 resumed his discourse. 
 
 This great speech brought to Haskell, already fa- 
 mous, a reputation such as no other public speaker in 
 Tennessee ever enjoyed, and the reputation was de- 
 served. Genius and eloquence are words much abused, 
 but to Haskell both may be applied in truth. He was 
 a man of genius as truly as was Webster or Chatham, 
 or any other of the world's great orators. Like Fox 
 and Sheridan, and even ^^''ebster, he had this divine 
 gift linked with many weaknesses. His life was irreg- 
 ular and ill-ordered. From the transcendent heights 
 to which he rose in the flights of his eloquence, he fell 
 very low in periods of relaxation and idleness. 
 
 He reminds one of another gifted American, Edgar 
 Allen Poe, and like Poe, he had the gift of song. At 
 least one of his poems is not unworthy of the genius 
 of any poet our country has produced. It was written 
 under the saddest circumstances. It is well known 
 in Tennessee, and will be recalled by the opening 
 couplet: 
 
 "I'm adrift on life's ocean and wildly I sweep, 
 Aimless and helmless its fathomless deep." 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 241 
 
 Haskell shared the fate of many other men of genius 
 who have been called to deal with practical afifairs. 
 His nature was too sensitive, his nerves too highly 
 strung for rough contact with men, for the struggles 
 that they incessantly make for place and power. 
 
 Once, in 1847, he was elected to Congress, but found 
 the service uncongenial and refused a re-election. 
 Natures like his can find no contentment in the world. 
 In moments of exaltation they rise far above the level 
 of ordinary men and affairs, but only to sink into dis- 
 content and despondency. This is one of the penalties 
 of genius, especially of the genius of the poet and the 
 orator. 
 
 The excessive nervous strains to which Haskell sub- 
 jected himself in every set speech that he made, com- 
 bined with the irregularities of his life, finally subverted 
 his nervous system, and the people of Tennessee beheld 
 with universal regret the sad spectacle of this wonderful 
 man paying the price of his marvelous gifts and tri- 
 umphs, by confinement in a mad house. It was in an 
 interval of restored reason that he wrote the beautiful 
 poem c]uoted from above. 
 
 His mind never recovered its balance. He died at 
 Hopkinsville, Kentucky, March 12, 1859. 
 
 His life was the most brilliant and yet the saddest 
 in the history of our State, exhibiting a resplendent 
 genius hampered by a fatal infirmity of will. No cen- 
 sure of him ever passes the lips of a Tennessean, but 
 every word is praise, and every sentiment sympathy. 
 
 No Tennessean has a more honorable record than 
 Balie Peyton. 
 
 He was born in .Sumner County, Tennessee, Novem- 
 
242 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 ber 26, 1803, and died on his farm near Gallatin, in 
 that county, August 18, 1878. 
 
 His education appears to have been acquired en- 
 tirely in the schools of the neighborhood. That it was 
 not extensive is probable, but it is certain that he 
 was, in after life, justly regarded as a man of culture. 
 
 In his time the intellect and the ambition of the 
 South turned to politics, and to the law, as the way that 
 led to political distinction. Pe3'ton secured a license 
 in 1824, and opened an office in Gallatin. After nine 
 years of practice he was, in 1833, elected to Congress, 
 being at that time, and for years afterwards, a warm 
 supporter of General Jackson. This election at the 
 age of thirty years, proves that he possessed in an un- 
 usual degree the qualities that made men successful in 
 those days. In 1835 he was re-elected, but in 1837 
 declined to be a candidate, because he wished to re- 
 move to New Orleans. 
 
 As a member of Congress he attracted the most 
 favorable attention. He seems to have participated in 
 the great debates of the time, and to have distinguished 
 himself especially by a speech in defense of Jackson's 
 removal of the bank deposits. 
 
 In 1837 he took up his residence at New Orleans 
 and entered upon the practice of law there. 
 
 In that year he took charge of the famous suit of 
 Myra Clark Gaines vs. Nezv Orleans. This case 
 grew to a ripe and rare age, furnishing occupation 
 and, presumably, remuneration, to several generations 
 of lawyers, and terminating in a recovery of nearly 
 $900,000. 
 
 Until about 1834 Mr. Peyton had been in thorough 
 accord with General Jackson on public questions, but 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 243 
 
 he was unfriendly to Van Buren, and supported Hugh 
 L. White, and therefore a coolness arose between him 
 and the Autocrat of the Hermitage. They were not 
 reconciled till many years afterwards, when overtures 
 were made by General Jackson in a manner highly 
 honorable to himself. 
 
 The political position assumed in opposition to Van 
 Buren was confirmed in 1840, when Peyton stumped 
 the States of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee 
 in favor of General Harrison. After Harrison's elec- 
 tion it is said that Peyton was asked to select an 
 office to which he wished to be appointed. Whether 
 this statement be accurate or not, he was appointed 
 United States District Attorney at New Orleans. 
 After President Harrison's death, he was offered 
 the Secretaryship of War in Tyler's Cabinet, but 
 preferred to retain the office of District Attorne3^ 
 He remained at New Orleans until the outbreak of the 
 Mexican war, when he raised a regiment of twelve 
 hu.ndred men, consisting of ten Louisiana companies 
 and two Alabama companies. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, the men were enlisted for six months only, and 
 after they reached Mexico, President Polk recalled all 
 troops that had enlisted for less than a year. The men 
 returned home, but the officers seem to have connected 
 themselves with the army in different capacities. Col- 
 onel Peyton became Chief of General Worth's stafif, 
 and in that capacity was present at Monterey, and re- 
 ceived in person the surrender of General Ampudia. 
 General Worth's report compliments Colonel Peyton 
 iii cordial terms. 
 
 In the campaign of 1848 Peyton canvassed the State 
 of Louisiana for Taylor and Fillmore. As a reward 
 
244 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 for his services he was appointed Minister to Chili by 
 Taylor, and held the office for the full term. When 
 Franklin Pierce became President he desired Mr. 
 Peyton to retain his place in Chili. Pie declined the 
 re-appointment, however, and went to San Francisco, 
 where he practiced law for five years. 
 
 In 1859 he returned to Tennessee and resumed the 
 practice of law at Gallatin. In the same year he was at 
 Philadelphia assisting in organizing the Union Party. 
 In 1860 he was a successful candidate on the Bell and 
 Everett ticket for Elector for the State at large. No 
 one in Tennessee did more to secure for Mr. Bell the 
 gratification of carrying his native State. 
 
 As the secession sentiment grew in Tennessee, 
 many of the staunchest friends of the Union yielded. 
 Even Mr. Bell could not withstand the results of early 
 training, and conceived it to be his duty to follow the 
 State out of the Union. Peyton, however, remained 
 firm. A speech made by him at Gallatin in 1861, in 
 opposition to secession, was. admired and praised 
 even by those who rejected its sentiments. 
 
 When the war came on he took no part in it, but did 
 his utmost to mitigate the sufferings of his neighbors 
 of both parties. It seems that his age and high char- 
 acter saved him from molestation. He is cordially 
 and gratefully remembered by the people of Sumner 
 County for his good and unselfish works in that dis- 
 tressful time. His last public service was as State 
 Senator from Sumner and Smith Counties in the 
 Legislature of 1869-1870. 
 
 Mr. Peyton was a man of fine personal appearance 
 and address, and possessed not a little personal mag- 
 netism. As a lawyer he is said to have been diligent 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 245 
 
 and painstaking, and to have prepared his cases with 
 care and skill, and to have presented them with force. 
 
 In Tennessee he was best known as a political de- 
 bater, and in that capacity he was among the foremost 
 men of the State. No man, not even in Kentucky 
 or Middle Tennessee, surpassed Balie Peyton in 
 the love of fine horses. This passion was a bond 
 of congeniality between him and General Jackson for 
 many years, and by reason of it, he and Judge Guild 
 were long inseparable. 
 
 Mr. Peyton had the temperament and the gifts of 
 an orator. He was physically strong, with good lungs 
 and voice. He was also fluent and correct in speech, 
 forcible in delivery, and rich in fancy, imagination and 
 humor. 
 
 That he was both determined and conscientious ap- 
 pears from his attitude toward secession. His whole life 
 showed a fearless devotion to principle. Pie did not 
 impress himself upon the history of Tennessee so 
 much as some of his contemporaries, who do not ap- 
 pear to have been superior to him in intellect, courage 
 or force of character. No doubt this was on account 
 of his long absence from the State. His frequent 
 changes of domicile made it impossible for him to 
 have anywhere the influence which his abilities and 
 character would otherwise have commanded. 
 
 Judge Thomas Barry was born in Sumner 
 County, Tennessee, July 2, 1807, and died May 23, 
 1891. His lineage was a very honorable one and the 
 family record is full of interest. Pie was the eldest 
 son of Dr. Redmond Barry, and his wife, Jane Alex- 
 ander, who was known to her contemporaries as "the 
 Cumberland beautv" on account of her exceeding 
 
246 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 personal attractiveness. The Alexanders were an old 
 North Carolina family, thoroughly patriotic, and dis- 
 tinguished in the Revolution. The father of the beau- 
 tiful Mrs. Barry was Captain William Alexander, of 
 the Continental army. 
 
 The President of the Convention that promulgated 
 the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was 
 Abraham Alexander, and the Secretary, John McKnitt 
 Alexander. Two others of the same name, and pre- 
 sumably of the same family, signed the Declaration. 
 
 Dr. Redmond Barry was a native of Ireland, and a 
 thoroughly educated physician. It is related that 
 through the influence of Charles James Fox he was 
 appointed Surgeon of a British man-of-war, but on 
 account of sympathy for the American Colonies, 
 whose troubles with the mother country were then 
 beginning, he resigned and came to North Carolina, 
 where, by the successful practice of his profession, 
 he acquired a fortune. Having done this, he gave 
 up medicine, came to Tennessee and studied law, and 
 engaged in his new profession with credit as- the con- 
 temporary of Grundy and Overton. 
 
 Mr. Grundy is reported to have said of him that 
 Dr. Barry was the only man he had ever known who 
 at the age of forty had thoroughly mastered the profes- 
 sions of medicine and law. 
 
 Judge Barry, the subject of this sketch, fulfilled in 
 his life the obligations imposed by a parentage so 
 honorable. He was carefully and liberally educated, 
 and throughout his life found pleasure 'in the study of 
 mathematics and the languages. 
 
 He was attracted while a young man to Andrew 
 Jackson, for .whom, in 1828, he cast his first vote. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 247 
 
 Politically and personally his relations with Jackson 
 were close and cordial. Barry's love of fine horses 
 is well known, and the writer, though a native of 
 alien East Tennessee, verily believes that the normal 
 habitat of the high-bred horse is not the vaunted blue- 
 grass region of Kentucky, but the smiling savannas 
 of i\Iiddle Tennessee, where General Jackson, and 
 Judge Barry, and Balie Peyton and Jo. Guild lived, 
 and where they loved and praised, and often sped their 
 noble steeds. 
 
 Judge Barry was happily circumstanced, so that 
 he could be a good lawyer without ceasing to be a 
 country gentleman. Like Peyton and Guild, he loved 
 the law without ceasing to love his horses. It was a 
 glorious life that these old-time gentlemen lived. 
 In this healthful mingling of professional work with 
 outdoor life, Judge Barry passed his young man- 
 hood, associated with Jackson and others of the strong 
 men who made Tennessee great in those davs. He 
 was the staunchest of Democrats, and early in the 
 "fifties" was the nominee of his party for Congress 
 against Charles Ready, but was unable to overcome 
 the large Whig majority in the district. 
 
 The troubles that preceded the civil war distressed 
 him greatly. Like many other Southern men who 
 loved the Union, he was unable to free himself entirely 
 from the influence of the State's rights doctrine which 
 prevailed so widely in the South. But his love of the 
 Union was invincible. 
 
 After the Federal occupation of Middle Tennessee 
 he gave his time largely to the work of ameliorating 
 the condition of his friends and neighbors who had 
 espoused the Southern cause, and by his course in this 
 
248 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 respect, won their lasting good will and gratitude. 
 In this he was not actuated by considerations of policy, 
 but by the impulses of a kind and generous heart. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1865 Governor Brownlow ap- 
 pointed him Chancellor of the Third Chancery Divi- 
 sion, and he filled the office with dignity, fairness and 
 ability until 1869. 
 
 He was thoroughly competent for its duties, and his 
 gracious manners and strict impartiality commanded 
 the good will and confidence of the bar and of the 
 people. One most admirable trait constantly manifest 
 in his conduct should be mentioned. He was the un- 
 relenting enem}- of all uncleanness of life and conver- 
 sation. 
 
 He lived to the ripe age of eighty-five years, re- 
 spected and esteemed by all who knew him. 
 
 In the month of October, 1801, came to live in a 
 beautiful section of Knox County, now called Grassy 
 Valley, a family of Scotch-Irish immigrants, consist- 
 ing of the parents, five sons and two daughters. They 
 came from Rockbridge County, in the valley of Vir- 
 ginia, where their ancestors had settled three-quarters 
 of a century before. 
 
 The head of the family was William Anderson, and 
 to this day many of his descendants possess portions 
 of the land that he purchased in 1801. 
 
 William Anderson was of pure Covenanter stock, a 
 Presbyterian of the straitest sect, sincerely God-fear- 
 ing and devout. His ancestors were in the great low- 
 lander migration to Ulster, and his grandfather and 
 grandmother saw the famous siege of Derry. 
 
 The sons of William Anderson were not all devout 
 men, but all possessed extraordinary abilities, and 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 249 
 
 probably no family in the State can point to so many 
 strong and promiiient men of any one generation. 
 The first and eldest of these was not a lawyer, but 
 three others were lawyers and Judges. 
 
 Isaac Anderson, the first born, was a Presbyterian 
 preacher, and for many years exerted an unsurpassed 
 influence for good in East Tennessee. 
 
 The next of the four was William E. Anderson 
 who was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, at a 
 date not known, and died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 
 October, 1841. 
 
 The date of his admission to the bar is uncertain, but 
 in 181 T he was of sufificient rank in the profession to 
 be elected Solicitor-General for the Fourth District. 
 He served in this office from 1818 to 1824. In 1824 
 he was a Jackson Elector for the Third District. 
 
 In 1827 the Legislature created separate Chancery 
 Courts, and established two Divisions. Anderson 
 having moved to Nashville, probably in 1825, was 
 elected the first Chancellor for West Tennessee, which 
 included most of Middle Tennessee, and served from 
 1827 to 1830. 
 
 In 1829 he was an unsuccessful candidate against 
 Felix Grundy and others for the United States Sena- 
 torship made vacant by the resignation of John H. 
 Eaton. 
 
 In 1833 he was elected to the lower branch of the 
 Legislature from Davidson County, and four years 
 later was in the State Senate from the same county. 
 In the controver.sy between Hugh L. White and 
 Andrew Jackson, he espoused the cause of White, and 
 was an Elector from the Eighth District. 
 
2SO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Not long after this he moved to Mississippi, hoping, 
 no doubt, to win higher honors in a new country. 
 
 The following description of him is taken from "Old 
 Times in Tennessee:" "Judge Anderson was six feet 
 eight inches high, of fine physique and commanding- 
 personnel, a man of great acuteness and depth of in- 
 tellect. He had but few equals in the State as a lawyer 
 and Chancellor. Was for years a member of the firm 
 of Rucks, Anderson & Grundy, of Nashville, which 
 did a sweeping and profitable practice. Chancellor 
 Anderson was lured by the flush times in Mississippi, 
 and moved to Vicksburg, where he died after estab- 
 lishing a great reputation as a lawyer. He was a man 
 of great humor and noted for his sociability and fun. 
 He was no office lawyer, and was never known to 
 study, but when called into a case he was always equal 
 to the occasion. He was a wheel horse in any case in 
 which he appeared. All yielded to him the front rank 
 either to repel the attack or head the column in the 
 charge." 
 
 All accounts agree in making him a man of the most 
 extraordinary gifts. Without difficulty and very 
 quickly he became eminent at the bar in East Ten- 
 nessee, at Nashville, and in Mississippi. It may be 
 surmised that as Chancellor he was not happily placed, 
 but no censures of his judicial conduct have been found. 
 There can be no doubt that his habits were irregular 
 at times to the extent of dissipation. He was one of 
 those men who, being rarely and richly endowed by 
 nature, excel others at will, without effort, and there- 
 fore are impatient of systematic work, and make lavish 
 use of their fine resources. It was known that he 
 would not prepare his cases, being utterly intolerant 
 
OF TENNESSEE 251 
 
 of the drudgery of the profession, but in the court- 
 room, and more especially before a jury, he was the 
 most formidable of antagonists. When the fury of 
 battle was not upon him he was indolent and prone to 
 seek enjoyment in conviviality. 
 
 It is clear that Anderson was a man of surpassing 
 ability, but of a fatal indolence, capable of doing much 
 but content to do comparatively little. It must be 
 added, however, that he was an amiable and kindly 
 man, and that his integrity was above suspicion. 
 
 A third brother, Samuel Anderson, exhibited like 
 qualities of mind, and won an honorable place among 
 the lawyers and Judges of the State. He, too, was 
 born before the family came to Tennessee. His op- 
 portunities of education were limited, as he was com- 
 pelled to work upon the farm until he was twenty-one 
 years of age. 
 
 He was licensed to practice law in the Winter of 
 1810. For about a year he practiced at Knoxville, 
 and then went to Murfreesboro, probably late in 1811, 
 where he resided until his death. In 1817, and again 
 in 1819, he represented Rutherford County in the 
 lower house of the Legislature. In 1830 he was ap- 
 pointed Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, to fill the 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of James C. 
 Mitchell. He was elected to the position by the Leg- 
 islature in the Autumn of the same year, and was again 
 elected in 1843, and served continuously from 1835 to 
 1851. 
 
 After his retirement from the bench in 1851, he de- 
 voted himself to the management of his farm near 
 Murfreesboro. 
 
 Of Robert M. Anderson, the third of the brothers 
 
252 UENCH AND BAR 
 
 who became a Judge, but little is recorded. He was 
 born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1793, and died 
 in Jefferson County, Tennessee, October 20, 1855. 
 The official records of the State show that when the 
 Twelfth Judicial Circuit was established in 1837, he 
 was appointed Judge of it, and held the office from that 
 date until 1854. 
 
 Judge Robert Anderson lived at New Market, in 
 East Tennessee. Physically and intellectually he is 
 said to have resembled his brother William. He was 
 a competent and satisfactory Judge, and was much es- 
 teemed in East Tennessee as a man of talent and char- 
 acter. He was somewhat convivial in his habits, but 
 was always faithful and efficient in the discharge of his 
 judicial duties. 
 
 The record of these four brothers is certainly a re- 
 markable one. Isaac was the foremost educator and 
 the leader of the Presbyterian Church in East Ten- 
 nessee; William was Chancellor, a great orator, and 
 a man of sufficient standing to contest the United 
 States Senatorship with Felix Grundy; Samuel was 
 Circuit Judge in Middle Tennessee for fifteen years, 
 and Robert was Circuit Judge in East Tennessee for 
 seventeen years. For fourteen years Robert and 
 Samuel were contemporaneously upon the bench. 
 
 Andrew McCampbell was of a Scotch-Irish 
 family which still has many representatives in East 
 Tennessee, especially in Knox and Jefferson Counties. 
 He was born in Rockbridge County. Mrginia, May S, 
 1797. While he was an infant his father died, and soon 
 afterwards the family moved to Knox Countv, in East 
 Tennessee, settling about five miles East of Knoxville. 
 The mother's maiden name was Anderson, and she 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 253 
 
 was the aunt of Samuel, Robert, William E. and Isaac 
 Anderson. 
 
 Andrew ]\IcCampbell read law under the direction 
 of his brother, John A. ^IcCampbell, who was a prom- 
 inent member of the Knoxville bar. Andrew did not 
 practice at Knoxville, however, but in 1819 removed 
 to Jackson, Tennessee, where he remained for about 
 one year, and then went to Paris, Tennessee. 
 
 In 1839 he was elected Chancellor for West Ten- 
 nessee, in which capacity he served till ].S4?, and then 
 voluntarily retired. He resumed the practice of law 
 and continued in it until his death, which occurred 
 January -i, 1884. 
 
 In a short sketch of Judge McCampbell, printed at 
 the time of his death by Governor Porter, it is said that 
 twice in his lifetime he declined appointment as Judge 
 of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Governor Porter further says of him: "He was 
 facile -princeps with his associates at the bar, and 
 enjoyed the respect and confidence of the public. His 
 career as a lawyer and Judge ran through sixty years' 
 residence in one community, and every year was 
 marked by the strictest professional integrity and by 
 constant efforts to uphold the dignity and character 
 of the bar. His family will have the satisfaction of 
 knowing that his efforts in this direction were valuable 
 beyond measure. 
 
 "Judge McCampbell was learned in all the branches 
 of the law, and was a classical and critical scholar and 
 one of the most delightful of companions. He was full 
 of pleasant reminiscence, but kept apace with current 
 events, and was up in the law. His kindness to young 
 lawyers, his perfect fairness and frankness to adver- 
 
254 BENCH ANU BAR 
 
 saries, are lessons long to be remembered. The writer 
 of this notice was often his junior in litigations of im- 
 portance, and was always his friend, and records his 
 profound sense of gratitude 'for the benefits derived 
 from his learning, as well as from his lofty bearing as 
 a lawyer." 
 
 In politics Judge McCampbell was a State's right 
 Democrat, but was a Union man, that is to say, he 
 was in favor of asserting the rights of the South within 
 the Union. Therefore he opposed secession, but 
 when the State went out of the Union he was loyal to 
 her, fully sympathized with the Southern cause and 
 rendered it material aid. He had three sons in the 
 Confederate army. 
 
 Judge McCampbell seems to have had many pe- 
 culiarities. One of these was that he would not prose- 
 cute a man charged with a criminal oftense. The 
 very remarkable statement is received from a trust- 
 worthy source, that he would never take the risk of 
 riding on a railway train, and died without having 
 enjoyed the pains and pleasures of railway travel. His 
 opinions as Chancellor were ver}' short, and he uni- 
 formly declined to state his reasons for his conclusions. 
 Being asked why this was the case, he replied that "A 
 court might render a righteous judgment and give a 
 fool reason for it." 
 
 It is probable that no man of his time was more 
 esteemed than Judge McCampbell by the people of 
 West Tennessee, and it is certain that his abilities, and 
 his virtues as a man, as a lawyer and as a Judge, fully 
 entitled him to this esteem. 
 
 The office of Attorney-General and Reporter was 
 created in Tennessee in the year 1831, and the first in- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 255 
 
 cumbent was George S. Yerger, who served from 
 1831 till October, 1838. 
 
 The Yergers were Dutch, They came to Ten- 
 nessee at an early day, and were living at Lebanon, in 
 \Mlson County, before the end of the last century. 
 It is said in Foote's "Bench and Bar of the Southwest,'' 
 that the Yerger mansion was, at the time when Sen- 
 ator Foote wrote, still standing at Lebanon, and that 
 in it had been born eight worthy men of that name, 
 all of whom but one, became lawyers. 
 
 Not far from the year IS-tO, the family moved to 
 Mississippi. The precise date when George S. Yer- 
 ger left Tennessee cannot be stated, but it was soon 
 after he retired from the office of Attorney-General. 
 He was at that time a lawyer of much note, and his 
 removal was a great loss to the State. From Foote's 
 account of him it appears that he was of a clear and 
 discriminating mind, and imusually retentive memory, 
 but was not a methodical student. He is said to have 
 preferred commercial and equity practice, although 
 he was an effective advocate. 
 
 As Reporter for the State he edited ten volumes of 
 decisions, which continue to be constantly used by 
 the profession and the courts. He was Attorney- 
 General when the celebrated Foreman case was tried 
 in the Supreme Court. It will be remembered that 
 Foreman had murdered the Cherokee Chief, Jack 
 Walker, in the territory of the Cherokee Nation. The 
 case excited much interest, not only on account of the 
 importance of the question involved, but for many 
 other reasons. Jack Walker had been a man of note, 
 and had so much attractecl a young daughter of Col- 
 onel Return J. Meigs, the United States Indian Agent, 
 
256 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 that she eloped and became his wife, and a veritable 
 Indian queen. 
 
 The Legislature of Tennessee had passed an Act 
 extending the jurisdiction of the State, in certain high 
 crimes, over the country then occupied by the Chero- 
 kees. Foreman having killed Walker in a difficulty 
 arising out of the proposition to remove the Cherokees 
 West of the Mississippi River, was indicted for mur- 
 der. He pleaded that he was a native Cherokee, and 
 that the crime charged against him, if committed at all, 
 had been committed within the limits of the Cherokee 
 Nation, and that the Act in question was unconsti- 
 tutional. The plea was demurred to, but the demur- 
 rer was overruled in the lower court, and the plea sus- 
 tained, and the State appealed. 
 
 Foreman was defended by Spencer Jarnagin, and 
 prosecuted by Yerger and John H. Crozier, the Dis- 
 trict Attorney. The arguments and the opinions in 
 the case attracted more attention, probably, than any 
 others that have ever been delivered in the State. The 
 opinions are undoubtedly the most learned in our 
 Reports. Judges Catron and Green agreed in holding 
 the Act of 1833 constitutional, but gave different 
 reasons in support of their conclusions. Judge Peck 
 dissented. The case is reported in 8th Yerger, and 
 the opinions occupy more than one hundred pages. 
 Mr. Yerger's argument impressed the Supreme Court 
 so strongly that by request of the Judges it was printed 
 as an appendix to the volume of his reports containing 
 the opinions. The argument is nearly as long as 
 Judge Catron's opinion, and rivals it in learning. 
 
 Another of the Yerger family, who was perhaps 
 a man of greater ability than George, was his 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 257 
 
 brother, Edwin M. Yerger, who was at one time 
 Chancellor at jNIemphis. A very eulogistic, but en- 
 tirely general account of him appears in "Keating's 
 History of ^lemphis." Foote says of him: "He was 
 decidedly a man of genius." He further says, in efifect, 
 that he was not a student, and therefore failed of the 
 full measure of professional achievement of which he 
 was capable. 
 
 J. S. Yerger and William Yerger were brothers 
 of George and Edwin, and both are given the title of 
 Judge in Foote's sketches. They were not Judges in 
 Tennessee, but doubtless held that position in Afissis- 
 sippi. Foote speaks of both in terms of the most 
 cordial commendation. 
 
 Reuben Hatton, the grandfather of Robert Hatton, 
 the subject of this sketch, was born in Virginia. One 
 of his sons, Robert Clopton, entered the ministry of 
 the Methodist Church. In 1826 he was located at 
 Youngstown, Ohio, and there, November 2, of that 
 year, was born Robert Hopkins Hatton. The full 
 name is given here, but it should be stated that General 
 Hatton, after reaching his majority, dropped the 
 middle name. 
 
 In 1835 the fiat of the church brought Robert Clop- 
 ton Hatton and his family to Nashville. Here the 
 young Robert was at school until 1837, when the 
 family took up its abode near Beech Grove, in Sumner 
 County. In 18-12 the father became pastor of a church 
 at Gallatin, and there principally, the son was educated, 
 and gave the first evidence of the disposition and 
 the ability to speak in public. In his sixteenth year 
 he delivered a Fourth of July oration on the Emperor 
 Napoleon. 
 
258 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 After leaving the local school, he was first a clerk 
 in a shop in Gallatin and then a school teacher in the 
 country. In the Autumn of 1845 he entered the 
 junior class of Cumberland University. He was not 
 well prepared, but by systematic and thorough work 
 overcame all difficulties and received his diploma in 
 June, 1847. He was then elected tutor in the Univer- 
 sity, and acted in that capacity for one year, when he 
 entered the law department, where he 'was able to re- 
 main for only a year, on account of the failure of his 
 means. In 1850, having secured a law license, he 
 formed a partnership with Jordan Stokes, one of the 
 principal lawyers of Lebanon. In the same year the 
 Board of Managers of the Washington Monument, 
 in \\'ashington City, made him its agent in Tennessee, 
 affording him opportunity for earnest and eloquent 
 advocacy of the patriotic movement, in the press and 
 in public addresses. In 1852 he dissolved his con- 
 nection with Mr. Stokes and entered into a partner- 
 ship with Nathan Green, Jr., who at the present time 
 is the head of the law department of Cumberland 
 University. On December 16, 1852, he was married 
 to Miss Sophie K. Reilly, of Williamson County, 
 Tennessee. His partnership with Judge Green lasted 
 for three years. He quickly acquired an honorable 
 position at the bar, and in 1852, yielding to a strong 
 natural liking, made his first venture in politics, as 
 sub-Elector on the Scott-Graham ticket. His speeches 
 attracted favor, and in 1853 we find the Lebanon 
 Herald declaring for the ■'gallant young Hatton" for 
 Congress. 
 
 In the Summer of 1855 he was elected to the lower 
 bouse of the Legislature from Wilson County, as a 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 259 
 
 Whig, and in 1856 was a candidate for Elector for the 
 Fifth District on the Fillmore and Donelson ticket. 
 In this canvass he sought in vain an opportunity to 
 meet "Lean Jimmy Jones," formerly the Ajax of the 
 Tennessee Whigs, who, strangely enough, was a zeal- 
 ous advocate of the Democratic nominee, Buchanan. 
 
 The Whig and American State Convention which 
 met at Nashville, May 1, ]857, unanimously nom- 
 inated Hatton for Governor. The Democratic candi- 
 date was Isham G. Harris, and the two competitors 
 began their joint canvass at Camden, West Tennessee, 
 May 25, 1857. At Fayetteville, in Middle Tennessee, 
 the debate grew so warm that it resulted in physical 
 violence. It seems that Harris struck Hatton and 
 that the blow was promptly returned. The combat- 
 ants were separated and the difificulty adjusted by their 
 friends. In the matter of courage both were above 
 suspicion. The canvass was continued without fur- 
 ther personal difficulty until late in July, when both 
 candidates were so exhausted by their tremendous 
 labors, that they withdrew all unfilled appointments. 
 The election occurred August 6, 1857, and the Demo- 
 crats were successful by a majority of more than 
 eleven thousand. 
 
 In 1859 Hatton was nominated as the Whig and 
 American candidate for Congress in his district, and 
 was elected. 
 
 J. V Drake has published a very complete biog- 
 raphy of General Hatton, in which are printed many 
 letters written by him from Washington while he was 
 in Congress, together with numerous extracts from his 
 diary. One noteworthy fact about the diary is that 
 each day's record closes with a statement of the chap- 
 
26o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 ters of the Bible read that day. He reached Washing- 
 ton December 1, 1859, and that night read the first 
 three chapters of Genesis. This is not lightly referred 
 to, because honor is due the man who honors the 
 Bible. 
 
 December 7, he writes in the diary: "Mr. Nelson, of 
 Tennessee, made an admirable speech, in which he 
 gave to Mr. Roger A. Pryor a perfect quietus." 
 
 On the 16th he wrote to his wife: "Have been in- 
 vited to drink a hundred times. * * * I am, so 
 far as I know, the only member of Congress, except 
 Etheridge, that does not drink." In the diary of De- 
 cember 23, he writes that Henry Winter Davis, of 
 Maryland, is the greatest man in Congress.' 
 
 The diary for January 3, 1860, is very sincerely writ- 
 ten, but is a little incongruous in its make-up, and 
 somewhat amusing. It is as follows: "Mr. Cox, of 
 Ohio, made a speech to-day, in the course of which he 
 said if it had not been for John Brown's raid the 
 Southern opposition and Republican party would, 
 before then, have been united on that floor. I rose 
 and told him it was false. He attempted to explain 
 out of it but failed — took the lie and seated himself. 
 He is a dirty dog — destitute of principle and courage. 
 Read the 19th, 20th and 21st chapters of Leviticus 
 and retired at 12 o'clock." 
 
 In the campaign of 1860, Hatton supported Bell 
 and Everett. In December of that year he was again 
 in Washington, and we find him writing in his diary: 
 "The folly of mankind has never been greater than 
 is now being exhibited by the politicians of the South 
 and North. Disunion is ruin to both sections." On 
 January 15, 1861, he writes to his wife: "All mv 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 26 I 
 
 letters from Tennessee indicate that the feehng for 
 secession is growing daily and rapidly. I fear it will 
 sweep the State. What madness and folly. Un- 
 equalled in the history of mankind. Well, it was not 
 I that did it, or aided to do it. My voice has been 
 raised continually against it." 
 
 At this session of Congress he spoke boldly and 
 eloquently in favor of the Union, condemning in 
 strongest terms the Southern secessionists and the 
 Northern agitators of the class of Garrison and 
 Phillips. 
 
 Returning to Lebanon in March, he delivered there 
 another powerful appeal for the Union. By his policy 
 on this great question he alienated many friends, but 
 he was a brave man and true to his convictions. But 
 strong Union man as he was, his course in the event 
 of the secession of Tennessee had been foreshadowed 
 in his correspondence and speeches. He believed 
 that the Northern agitators were not less to blame 
 for the destruction of the Union than the Southern 
 secessionists; he was a Southern man, honored by the 
 Southern people, and reared in the political atmos- 
 phere of the South. He believed that it was his duty 
 to stand by Tennessee and the South. Therefore, 
 when Mr. Lincoln issued his call for volunteers, he 
 set about raising a company for the Confederate army. 
 He was elected Captain of this company, and almost 
 immediately was made Colonel of the Seventh Ten- 
 nessee Regiment. 
 
 The regiment was ordered to the front in July, 1861, 
 and first served under General Lee in his West Vir- 
 ginia campaign, and afterwards took part in Jackson's 
 Valley campaign, but was detached and sent to Rich- 
 
262 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 mond early in the spring of 1862. May 23, 1863, 
 Hatton was made a Brigadier-General in the Confed- 
 erate army and placed in command of the Fifth Bri- 
 gade, First Division and First Corps of the Army 
 of Virginia. His brigade was composed of Tennessee 
 regiments. 
 
 At half-past six o'clock on the morning of May 28, 
 1862, he wrote to his wife as follows: ''We go to 
 attack the enemy beyond the river. Would that I 
 might bind to my heart, before the battle, my wife and 
 children. That pleasure may never again be granted 
 me. If so, farewell; and may the God of all mercy 
 be to you and ours a guardian and friend. 
 
 'If we meet again we'll smile ; 
 
 If not, this parting has been well.'" 
 
 At sunset on May 31, the Battle of Seven Pines 
 was raging. General Johnston had just been dis- 
 abled. His successor in command. General Gustavus 
 W. Smith, gave the order to Hatton to advance and 
 attack the enemy. Hatton led the charge, the 
 enemy's works were taken, but were recovered by 
 an overwhelming force, and the Tennessee brigade, 
 bleeding and shattered, retired, carrying with it the 
 dead body of its General. 
 
 The death of General Hatton caused profound re- 
 gret. He had won an enviable reputation, not only 
 for gallantry, but also for less conspicuous and attract- 
 ive, but not less important qualities of military lead- 
 ership. He was a strict disciplinarian, and the careful 
 guardian of the comfort and health of his men. 
 
 One writes of Hatton with peculiar pleasure. The 
 material at command has been sufiEcient to impart 
 a thorough knowledge of his character. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 263 
 
 That he was a man of exceptional talents is not to 
 be disputed. He was earnest, persistent and full of 
 courag:e, physical and moral. He seems to have 
 given much attention to the art of public speech, and 
 to have attained extraordinary excellence in it. As a 
 soldier he was conspicuously capable and gallant. At 
 all times he was conscientiously and sincerely a relig- 
 ious man. Like most self-made men, he was perhaps 
 unduly ambitious, and esteemed too highly the artifi- 
 cial honors of public station, but all in all he was one 
 of the best and most admirable of the distinguished 
 men of Tennessee. 
 
 Probably the most popular man that ever lived in 
 Knox County was Judge Ebenezer Alexander. 
 This popularit)^ was founded upon personal worth and 
 amiability, and unselfish and efficient public services. 
 
 Ebenezer Alexander, the son of Adam R. Alexander, 
 was born in Blount County, Tennessee, December '23, 
 1805, and died at Knoxville, April 29, 1S.")7. Soon 
 after the birth of Ebenezer the family moved to West 
 Tennessee. He was educated at Greeneville College, 
 and at East Tennessee College, at Knoxville, and 
 studied law under Judge Joshua Haskell, at Jackson. 
 Tennessee. Having removed to Knoxville, he was 
 married there, October 15, 1829, to Margaret, the 
 fourth daughter of Hugh L. White. He was long a 
 member of Judge White's family, and in charge of his 
 private affairs, while he was away from home on public 
 duties. 
 
 Mr. Alexander's wife died soon after the marriage, 
 and on January 31, 1833, he married Margaret, the 
 youngest daughter of Charles McClung. In 1S3.S he 
 was appointed Attorney-General for the Second Cir- 
 
264 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 cuit and served for a little less than a year. In 1844 he 
 succeeded Edward Scott as Judge of the Second Cir- 
 cuit, Judge Scott having died in that year instead of 
 in 1841, as stated on page 105 of this volume. Judge 
 Alexander remained upon the bench until his death. 
 
 He was an able lawyer, a dignified, competent and 
 efficient Judge — one of the best that ever sat upon 
 the bench of Tennessee — and a man whose whole life 
 was pure and without reproach. 
 
 His son, Ebenezer Alexander, now Professor of 
 Greek at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was minister 
 from the United States to Greece during President 
 Cleveland's second administration. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 265 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Horace Maynard — John Baxter— James E. Bailey — 
 Thomas D. Arnold— John Netherland— Thomas A.'E. 
 Nelson— Thomas M. Jones— M. R. Hill. 
 
 Horace Maynard was one of the leaders of the 
 Union party in East Tennessee throughout the period 
 when secession was discussed, attempted and defeated. 
 As an active, conspicuous and aggressive participant 
 in all events of that disturbed and trying time, he won 
 the good will and confidence of his own party, and 
 naturally incurred the enmity of the opposing party. 
 But the war is now far behind, its prejudices are 
 almost gone, and the time has come when men of 
 all parties will admit that Horace Maynard was not 
 only one of the ablest of our public men, but also one 
 of the best. 
 
 He was a native of Massachusetts, and was born at 
 Westborough, August 30, 1814. He was a graduate 
 of Amherst in the class of 1838. In the year of his 
 graduation he came to Knoxville, Tennessee, and be- 
 gan to study law in the office of Judge Ebenezer Alex- 
 ander. At the same time he was made tutor, and 
 afterwards Professor of Mathematics in East Ten- 
 nessee University. His connection with the Univer- 
 sity continued for six years. At the end of that period 
 he entered upon the practice of law. 
 
 The emoluments of his professorship had not been 
 
266 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 large, and his means were so limited when he came to 
 the bar that while other lawyers rode the circuit he,, 
 at first, walked it. It was not long until he made 
 himself felt at the bar. He had industry, the first 
 quality of a lawyer; he had read thoroughly, as law 
 students read in those days, and had by nature a dis- 
 criminating and analytic mind, which had been im- 
 proved by careful and persistent study. His scholar- 
 ship was of the highest order, and he was easily the 
 best read man of that time at the bar of East Ten- 
 nessee, which contained many lawyers of ability and 
 culture. 
 
 There is a story much told in East Tennessee, that 
 on one occasion the Knoxville lawyers going to court 
 at Clinton, in Anderson County, found the Clinch 
 River impassable except by swimming. Maynard 
 plunged boldly in and swam across. When he was 
 safely over, the other lawyers called to him to attend 
 to their cases, and returned home. The story further 
 is that the cases were so well attended to that the 
 clients all went to Mr. Maynard from that time. 
 
 As an advocate he was not only a brilliant and 
 logical speaker, but at times a very severe and sar- 
 castic one. Nevertheless he \\'as at heart one of the 
 kindliest of men. 
 
 His first appearance in politics was in 1852, when 
 he was a candidate for district elector on the Whig 
 ticket. At the next election he was the Whig 
 candidate for Congress in the Knoxville District, but 
 was defeated by the late William M. Churchwell. His 
 speeches, however, made such an impression on his 
 party that from that time as long as he lived he 
 was its accepted leader in East Tennessee. In 185(> 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 267 
 
 he was the candidate for State Elector on the Fill- 
 more ticket, and canvassed the State with William H. 
 Polk. In 1857 he was elected to Congress as a Whig, 
 and was re-elected in 1859 and in 1861. Congres- 
 sional elections were at that time held in August.. 
 Mr. Maynard was an avowed Union man, and an 
 object of suspicion and dislike to the Southern 
 sympathizers. On election day of 1861 he went to 
 Jacksboro, in Campbell County, near the State line, 
 and that night crossed the mountains into Kentucky. 
 He was admitted to his seat in Congress, and served 
 out the term as a zealous supporter of Mr. Lincoln's 
 administration. At the end of his term, and while 
 Andrew Johnson was Military Governor of Tennessee, 
 Mr. Maynard was made Attorney-General for the 
 State, and served until 18Go, when he was elected to 
 the 39th Congress from the Knoxville District. He 
 was re-elected from that district to the 40th, list and 
 42nd Congresses, and was elected in 1872 to the 43rd 
 Congress from the State at large. The canvass of 
 1872 was a memorable one. The regular Democratic 
 nominee for Congress from the State at large was 
 General B. F. Cheatham, but Andrew Johnson had 
 sought the nomination, and being dissatisfied with tlie 
 result, had become an independent candidate. The 
 three competitors canvassed the State. One of the 
 hardest battles of the campaign was at Knoxville. 
 General Cheatham, who did not count oratory among 
 his many good qualities, opened the debate and con- 
 tented himself with a brief written address. Having 
 read his address he retired to the hotel veranda and 
 placidly smoked many cigars, leaving the arena to his 
 competitors. ^Ir. Johnson was the hero and victor of 
 
268 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 njany such contests, but it must be admitted that on 
 this occasion he did not win fresh laurels. He lacked 
 the versatility and readiness of his opponent, and above 
 all the keen sarcasm which he was able to command 
 at will. It was a great debate and added largely 
 to Mr. Maynard's reputation. In 1874 he was a can- 
 didate for Governor, but was defeated by James D. 
 Porter. In 1875, having served sixteen years in 
 Congress, he was appointed by President Grant 
 INIinister to Turkey, and served until 18S0, when he 
 T,vas recalled by President Hayes and made Postmas- 
 ter-General of the United States. This was his last 
 public oiifice. He died at Knoxville, "May 3, 1882. 
 
 He had been since 1849 a ruling elder of the Second 
 Presbyterian Church at Knoxville, and was through- 
 out his life a consistent and devout Christian. 
 
 Mr. Maynard had many bitter political enemies, 
 but none ever denied his sincerity or integrity. A 
 story, told in many forms, is that on one occasion he 
 was approached by a prominent Tennessee politician 
 with a proposition which suggested improper rewards. 
 He made no reph-, but went to his bookshelves and, 
 turning his back upon his visitor, proceeded to read 
 aloud with much emphasis, again and again, the stat- 
 ute of the United States on the subject of offering 
 bribes to members of Congress. At each reading of 
 the statute he would emphasize a different word in 
 order that his auditor might get the full effect of every 
 word of the law. The question was never answered, 
 but the visitor was given every advantage for familiar- 
 izing himself with the law relating to bribery. It is 
 said that after awhile he retired in great confusion, 
 leaving Mr. Maynard still reading in sonorous tones. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 269 
 
 In the absolute purity of his public life and of his 
 private life yir. Maynard ofTers an example worthy of 
 all imitation. In all his dealings, in all relations in 
 life, he was consistently a Christian gentleman. 
 Throughout his life he continued to be a student. 
 A large and well selected library gave him the means 
 of gratifying his tastes, and without being in any 
 sense a pedant, he had about him the flavor of learning 
 at all times. Physically he was of striking appearance. 
 He was six feet and two inches in height, erect in bear- 
 ing, and deliberate and dignified in deportment. His 
 complexion was dark, and his features strongly 
 marked and full of intelligence and force. His hair 
 v.-as always worn so long that it touched his shoulders. 
 His voice was deep, clear and strong, and so thor- 
 oughly trained and well handled, that no amount of 
 use impaired its quality. As a speaker he was delib- 
 erate, and rarely indulged in what are called flights 
 of oratory, but by far the most eloquent utterance 
 the writer has ever heard was a short and apparently 
 unpremeditated eulogy on Henry Clay injected by Mr. 
 Maynard into a political speech at Knoxville. 
 
 He had none of the arts of the demagogue. His 
 speeches upon political subjects always seemed far 
 above his audience, yet they were always appreciated, 
 and he was the most popular public speaker in East 
 Tennessee, with the possible exception of Judge 
 Thomas A. R. Nelson. Political opponents dreaded 
 and disliked him, and aspiring members of his own 
 party, assiduously courting the popular favor, could 
 not understand why it was that this retiring and ap- 
 parently cold and haughty man, inexpert in hand- 
 shaking, was preferred even by the common people. 
 
270 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 His duties as a diplomat were faithfully performed, 
 and his services were in the highest degree acceptable 
 and satisfactory. As Postmaster-General, he dis- 
 played all the qualities that made his life one of con- 
 tinuous success. By means of his great abilities and 
 his conscientious devotion to duty, he gave satis- 
 faction and made reputation in every office to which 
 he was called. 
 
 In early life, and in the heated political struggles 
 -that engaged him for many years, his utterances were 
 sometimes harsh, but in times of revolution, antagon- 
 ists do not pelt each other with roses, and upon the 
 whole it is safe to say that Mr. Maynard was among 
 the most moderate men of. either side. He was always 
 respected and admired rather than popular. In man- 
 ner and in temperament he was austere, and not 
 cordial except to intimate friends. It is only those 
 who were very near to him that know how kindly his 
 disposition really was. 
 
 After his retirement from the Cabinet he lived at his 
 home in Knoxville, and mingled in the social life of 
 the city more than ever before. 
 
 It is not often that a man has lived so conspicuous 
 and militant a life as Mr. Maynard lived, without 
 being an object of slander and defamation. It is 
 believed to be a fact, however, that while his political 
 enemies found everything to say against him after the 
 manner of politicians, his private character was never 
 assailed. He was a profound scholar, a great lawyer, 
 a_ statesman of conspicuous ability, and always and 
 everywhere an honest man and a Christian. 
 
 John Baxter was born in Rutherford County, 
 :North Carolina, March 5, 1819. His father came 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 27 I 
 
 from Ireland to America seeking the fortune which 
 the A'ew World promised to industry and courage, 
 but the only heritage that he was able to leave hfs 
 children was his good name. His son, the subject of 
 this sketch, had no opportunities for education ex- 
 cept such as were afforded by the old field schools of 
 the neighborhood. He began real life as a mer- 
 chant in the State of North Carolina, but this 
 pursuit was uncongenial, offering no opportunity 
 for the exercise of the powers of mind of which 
 he could not have failed to be conscious, and he 
 wisely abandoned it for the profession of the law. 
 His adaptation to this new calling was speedily shown 
 in the most gratifying manner. In a few years he rose 
 to a position of deserved and enviable prominence 
 at the bar of his native State. In politics he was a 
 \\'hig, and as such was elected more than once to the 
 Legislature of North Carolina, in which at one time 
 he was Speaker of the lower house. In 18-1:4 he was 
 district Elector on the Whig ticket. 
 
 It is interesting to know that in early life Judge 
 Baxter accepted the code of honor and fought a duel, 
 in which he was slightly wounded. I'y accident his 
 antagonist fired before the word was given. There- 
 upon Baxter turned to the spectators and said: "Gen- 
 tlemen, duelling is wrong, and I do not intend to take 
 part in another one." He then fired his pistol into 
 the air, and the affair ended. 
 
 In the Spring of 1857 he removed to Knoxville, 
 Tennessee, where his most important professional 
 work was done. During the war he was loyal to the 
 Federal Union, and a fearless advocate of its cause. 
 In .the Constitutional Convention of 1870 he was a 
 
272 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 delegate from Knox County, and his ability as a 
 lawyer was recognized by his appointment to the chair- 
 manship of the judiciary committee. This was es- 
 pecially complimentary to him because he had been 
 a Union man, whereas a majority of the Convention 
 had supported the Confederacy. It will be found 
 by an examination of the journal of the Convention 
 that he was one of the most frequent, as he certainly 
 was one of the most competent, participants in its 
 deliberations. 
 
 During the next seven years he conducted probably 
 the most lucrative law practice that ever has been ac- 
 quired at the bar of East Tennessee. In all the courts 
 of the State his superiority was acknowledged, and he 
 was frequently employed in cases of importance and 
 difficulty before the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. He was not a specialist, but practiced in 
 all the Courts, and was not less efficient before a 
 jury than in the Chancery and Supreme Courts. 
 In 1877 President Hayes appointed him Judge of 
 the Circuit Court of the United States for the Sixth 
 Circuit. He died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 2, 
 1886. 
 
 Judge Baxter came to the bar equipped with very 
 little learning except in the law. Of that science he 
 had been a faithful student, and his extraordinaiy 
 powers of mind enabled him readily to acquire an 
 adequate knowledge of it. His distinguishing char- 
 acteristic as a man was force. Intellectually and 
 morally he was firm, independent, self-reliant. His 
 individuality impressed all with whom he came in con- 
 tact. Necessarily the speech and conduct of such a 
 man appeared at times harsh and, arbitrary. Never- 
 
s 
 
 OK TENNESSEE. 273 
 
 theless, he was essentially a just man. He saw thin'^,' 
 clearly, and in their true relations and proportions, 
 and perhaps too frequently failed to realize that others 
 were not so clear-sighted and so fearless of conse- 
 quences. 
 
 As a lawyer he excelled chiefly by reason of his 
 mastery of essential principles. He was thoroughly 
 versed in constitutional, statutory and reported law, 
 but his powerful mind was not always satisfied with 
 what had been written. He recognized the truth that 
 changing conditions of society frequently necessitate 
 departure from precedents, and thertefore, both as a 
 lawyer and as a Judge, he was liberal and progressive; 
 not forgetting, however, that without certainty and 
 stability there can be no law. He was by nature a 
 leader, and never a follower. Sometimes his inde- 
 pendence appeared to amount almost to eccentricity. 
 He was positive, often extreme; sometimes arbitrary; 
 always combative. He found his greatest pleasure in 
 intellectual exercise, and his weapons were always 
 sharpened and ready for battle. Such men'do not go 
 through the world without enemies. His life was 
 militant and aggressive. He created bitter enmities, 
 but found compensation in the devotion of sincere and 
 faithful friends. 
 
 His courage, moral and physical, was unyielding. 
 Conditions succeeding the war were such as to pro- 
 voke bitter controversies at the bar. Xot infre- 
 quently the trouble extended further. Judge Ba.x- 
 ter's position of leadership at the bar caused him to 
 be retained in nearly all the important and hotly 
 contested cases, and his aggressive professional meth- 
 ods often gave ofifense. In more than one personal 
 
274 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 affair produced in this way his extraordinary firm.ness 
 of mind and of will were strikingly displayed. 
 
 He was not a declaimer nor a skilled rhetorician, 
 but at times he was, in the best sense of the word, an 
 orator. It is remembered that in a case in which he 
 was personally interested, he made an argument be- 
 fore a jury which is conceded to have been the most 
 effective speech ever made at the bar of Knox County. 
 
 He was a lawyer of the class to which John Marshall 
 belonged, and was fitted, like Marshall, to have been 
 the founder of a jurisprudence. His whole profes- 
 sional life was given to the study of the law as a sci- 
 ence, whose principles were imperfectly compre- 
 hended, and more imperfectly practiced, and not fin- 
 ished and bound in books. He once said, half in jest, 
 half in earnest, to a young practitioner: "File your 
 bill and find your authorities afterward." This might 
 have been dangerous advice if seriously taken, but it 
 indicated to a certain extent his own methods. His 
 course as a lawyer was guided by his knowledge of 
 principles', and his citations of authorities were for the 
 benefit of the courts, in too many of which it is the 
 accepted opinion that law exists only in leather bind- 
 ings. If his briefs were examined it would be found 
 that the authority most frequently cited is Kent's 
 Commentaries. It was his invariable rule to base his 
 arguments on principles, and not on cases. 
 
 Many lawyers consider it important to present all 
 the points in their cases, however small they may be. 
 Judge Baxter gave his attention exclusively to the 
 material and controlling issues. No lawyer wasted 
 less time in unnecessary argument, and no Judge 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 275 
 
 more completely excluded from his decisions every- 
 thing irrelevant and immaterial. 
 
 In his time Judge Baxter was the accepted leader 
 of the East Tennessee bar. His ascendency was hardly 
 more attributable to his recognized superiority as a 
 lawyer than to his commanding personality. His 
 methods, as a Judge, were so direct, and his ability to 
 make up his mind so extraordinary, that the lawyers 
 were not infrequently disappointed in their expectations 
 of making learned arguments. It is related that on one 
 occasion there came before him a patent case, in which 
 eminent counsel had been engaged for many months. 
 Money had been spent without stint, and evidence had 
 been taken on both sides of the Atlantic, until the rec- 
 ord had grown to immense size. At the time ap- 
 pointed the learned counsel, with their huge record, 
 presented themselves in court. The Judge desired to 
 know the question in the case. An iron bolt A\as pre- 
 sented to him, and he was told the question was 
 whether or not it could be patented. He took the bolt 
 in his hand, and, without hearing a word of argument, 
 or a syllable of the proof, decided the case, saying: 
 "This bolt was in common use when I was a boy, and 
 is therefore not patentable now." Upon appeal to the 
 Supreme Court of the United States he was sustained. 
 
 All in all. Judge Baxter was one of the most re- 
 markable men in the history of Tennessee. 
 
 James E. Bailey was born in Montgomery 
 County, Tennessee, August 15, 1823, and died at 
 Clarksville, in that county, December 29, 1885. He 
 was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The father, George 
 Bailey, was for forty years Clerk of the Circuit Court of 
 Montgomery County. He gave his son a liberal edu- 
 
276 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 cation at Clarksville Academy, and in the University of 
 Nashville, of which Dr. Lindsley was then President. 
 James E. Bailey was admitted to the bar in July, 1842, 
 being then twenty years of age. In 1853 he entered 
 public life as a member of the Legislature, and was one 
 of the principal supporters of the policy of internal im- 
 provements. In politics he was a Whig, and adhered 
 to that party until its dissolution. In the controver- 
 sies preceding the war he was an earnest Union man, 
 as were his distinguished neighbors, Cave Johnson 
 and John F. House, and these three were elected, in 
 February, 1861, as Union delegates to the proposed 
 convention to pass on the question of secession. The 
 convention was not called, however, and when Ten- 
 nessee left the Union he, like many others who had 
 opposed the movement, went with her and espoused 
 the cause of the South. He was appointed by Gov- 
 ernor Harris a member of the State Military Bureau, 
 whose duty it was to organize and equip the State 
 troops. After a few months' service m this capacity 
 he raised a company among the young men of Mont- 
 gomery County and was elected Captain. His com- 
 pany was attached to the Forty-ninth Tennessee In- 
 fantry, and he was shortly afterwards elected Colonel 
 of that regiment. He was captured at Fort Doncl- 
 son, and was carried as a prisoner of war to Fort 
 Warren, where he remained until exchanged in the 
 fall of 1868. He rejoined his regiment at Vicksburg, 
 Mississippi, and commanded it until the Spring of 
 1863. At this time his health failed, and he resigned 
 the command of the regiment, and was made a member 
 of the military court of the corps of General Hardee,, 
 which position he held until the end of the war. After 
 
Of TENNESSEE. 277 
 
 the surrender he returned to Clarksville and resumed 
 the practice of the law. 
 
 In 18T4 he was a candidate before the Democratic 
 convention for Governor, but was defeated by James 
 D. Porter. He served twice as special Judge upon 
 the supreme bench of the State, and probably might 
 have had the position permanently if he had desired 
 it. In January, ISTT, after a long and hard-fought 
 contest, he was elected to the United States Senate to 
 fill the unexpired term of Andrew Johnson. In the 
 Senate ]\Ir. Bailey at once took rank as one of the 
 ablest lawyers in that body. It is related by one 
 who claims to have heard the remark, that when 
 Senator Thurman heard that Bailey had been de- 
 feated for re-election to the Senate, he said: "What 
 fools the people of Tennessee are, when they have a 
 Senator like Bailey, not to keep him." 
 
 At the expiration of his term as Senator, he was 
 defeated for re-election, mainly on account of divis- 
 ions in the Democratic party on the cjuestion of set- 
 tling the State debt. He belonged to what was 
 known as the "State credit," or high tax faction of the 
 party, and to the persistent residuum of that party, 
 which in 1883 was known as the "Sky-blues." 
 
 Toward the close of his services in the Senate, his 
 health began to fail, and he died December 29, 1895. 
 
 Mr. Bailey was one of the best balanced men, and 
 one of the most thorough and competent lawyers this 
 State has produced. He was not a brilliant man, but 
 had a sound, strong, clear mind, a cautious method,' 
 and habits of incessant application. He was a close 
 and careful reasoner, and always conscientious, so that 
 he is said to have been a strong advocate in a good 
 
278 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 case, but not very efficient in a bad one. He was a 
 ready worker as well as a persistent one, and therefore 
 accomplished much. In every respect he was a clean 
 and upright man, not a party leader, but a student, 
 and a scrupulous thinker, weighing carefully every 
 question presented to him, and lacking the "one-sided- 
 ness" that seems to be a condition to successful 
 political leadership; not a successful politician, be- 
 cause, having reached a conclusion, he adhered to it, 
 and would not compromise. By his personal purity 
 and dignity, and by his ability as a lawyer, and his 
 clear and forcible methods of expression, he acquired 
 and held the esteem and respect of the Senate. 
 He was not aggressive like his colleague, Senator 
 Harris, nor so well equipped in political tact and ex- 
 perience, but as a perspicuous and conscientious rea- 
 soner and debater, and as a lawyer, he won a highly 
 honorable place in the Senate, when it numbered 
 among its members such strong men as Edmunds, 
 Sherman and Thurman. 
 
 Thomas D. Arnold was a native of Virginia, and 
 was born in Spottsylvania County, May 3, 1708, 
 and died at Jonesboro, Tennessee, May 26, 1870. His 
 father was a farmer and a man of small means who was 
 unable to afford his son an education. At the age of 
 fourteen the boy enlisted for the war of 1812, being so 
 large for his age that he was accepted as a soldier 
 without question. 
 
 He was admitted to the bar at Knoxville in March, 
 1822. His combativeness led him early into politics, 
 and in 1827, and again in 1829, he was an unsuccessful 
 candidate for Congress. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 279 
 
 In 1831 Arnold was elected, as a Whig, to represent 
 the Second District in the Twenty- second Congress. 
 
 In Congress he voted to renew the charter of the 
 United States Bank. 
 
 Arnold was a candidate for Congress in 1833, in the 
 First District, but was defeated by Samuel Bunch, who 
 again defeated him in 1835. In 1837 he was defeated 
 by William B. Carter. In 1841 he was elected to Con- 
 gress from the First District, being at that time a 
 resident of Greene County. In 1836 he was made 
 Brigadier-General of the Second Brigade of Tennessee 
 Militia. In 1840 he was the Whig candidate for Presi- 
 dential Elector for his district. 
 
 When he was not in office he was a practicing 
 lawyer, from 1832 to 1870, and from Knoxville to the 
 Virginia line was recognized as a fighting lawyer. All 
 his methods were combative and personal, and invec- 
 tive was a favorite resort. 
 
 As a lawyer he was a fairly successful practitioner, 
 but did not achieve especial distinction, probably be- 
 cause of his proneness to abandon the profession 
 whenever the opportunity came to go into politics. 
 
 The name of John Netherland is a pleasant sound 
 in the ears of East Tennessee lawyers. It suggests 
 the most successful advocacy, the keenest and readiest 
 wit, geniality, good-fellowship, and hearty old-fash- 
 ioned manners. 
 
 Probably no other lawyer of equal reputation ever 
 cared so little for book law as Air. Netherland. Prob- 
 ably no other lawyer who knew so little law was ever so 
 successful. He was a jury lawyer and the best of his 
 class. The Supreme Court-room he rarely visited, and 
 the long pleadings, the tedious depositions and dry 
 
28o BENCH AND BAR 
 
 details of the Chancer)^ Court repelled and oppressed 
 his lively genius. He was not a hard-working lawyer, 
 but before an East Tennessee jury he was a very 
 Achilles. Xo foeman could withstand him. Here he 
 was genuinely eloquent and unfailingly effective. His 
 natural abilities were extraordinary, but had been 
 cultivated only in ways that are easy to men of quick 
 and lively parts. Human nature, as it exists in 
 the mountains of East Tennessee, was the book in 
 which he was best read, and he knew it thoroughly. 
 In homely wit and in anecdote he surpassed any man 
 of his time in East Tennessee, and he raised up a host 
 of imitators who cultivated and still cultivate the anec- 
 dote as a jury lawyer's most valuable possession. 
 
 He was born in Powhattan County, Virginia, Sep- 
 tember 20, 180S. While he was a child, the family 
 moved to Sullivan County, Tennessee, and settled at 
 Kingsport, on the Holston. He was well tutored, 
 having Samuel Doak for one of his masters, and 
 Samuel Powell as his preceptor in the law. Pro- 
 curing his license in 1829, just before he was twenty- 
 one, he removed in 1830 to Franklin, where he 
 remained for about two years, and then returned 
 to East Tennessee. In 1833 he was State Senator 
 from the First District, and in 1835 represented 
 Sullivan County in the lower house of the Legis- 
 lature. He had been a Jackson Democrat, but 
 in the Legislature refused to vote to instruct our 
 Senators to support Benton's expunging resolution, 
 and resigned. In 1836 he was District Elector on the 
 ^Mlite ticket, and in 1848 was Elector for the State on 
 the Taylor ticket. In 18.51 he was sent to the Legis- 
 lature from Hawkins County. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 261 
 
 In l.S.-)!t he was the Whig candidate for Governor 
 against Isham G. Harris, but was defeated. In the 
 war between the States lie was a Union man, but was 
 not in the army. At the close of the war his largeness 
 of heart and liberality of sentiment were constantly 
 displayed. He was the steadfast friend of the unfor- 
 tunate and sometimes oppressed Confederates, and 
 with Thomas A. R. Nelson and a few others of a like 
 liberal and lofty quality, incurred no little odium at 
 the hands of the radical Union element. 
 
 He was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1870, but was not conspicuous in its deliberations. 
 His death occurred October 4, ISST. 
 
 In his time he was one of the famous men of East 
 Tennessee, and was regarded throughout that section 
 as its most successful jury lawyer. His bright sayings 
 and amusing stories were household properties. To 
 the very last a speech by Netherland always filled the 
 court-room, and never failed to entertain and please 
 spectators, jury and Judge. No practitioner secured 
 more verdicts, but he was not addicted to unfairness 
 or any unprofessional conduct. He was an honest, 
 just and kindly man. In court and out of court he 
 was ever the center of a dehghted audience. His 
 habits and tastes were simple, and he was essentially 
 a domestic man, devoted to his family and happy in 
 their love. 
 
 He was the prince of circuit riders and would gladly 
 have died in harness, but some years before his death 
 an accident disabled him. The closing years of his 
 life were clouded by financial and domestic misfor- 
 tunes, but he endured them all with unfailing and ad- 
 
282 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 mirable fortitude, displaying a noble resignation that 
 surprised even those who had admired him most. 
 
 Thomas A. R. Nelson was born in Roane County, 
 Tennessee, in 1812, and graduated at East Tennessee 
 College, now the University of Tennessee, in 1838. 
 He studied law under Judge Thomas L. Williams, and 
 was admitted to the bar before he reached his majority. 
 At the age of twenty-one he was appointed by Governor 
 Carroll, State's Attorney for the First Circuit, where he 
 then resided. He was afterwards twice elected to that 
 office by the Legislature, and held it until 1841:. In 
 that year he canvassed the First Congressional District 
 as the Clay candidate for Elector, and again, in 1818, 
 canvassed it as candidate for Elector on the Taylor 
 ticket. In 1851 he was offered the mission to China, 
 but declined it. In the same year he was before the 
 Whig caucus for the United States Senatorship, but 
 was defeated by James C. Jones by one vote. In 1859 
 he was the Whig candidate for Congress in the First 
 District. His competitor was Landon C. Haynes, 
 and to this day every old Whig, and every old Demo- 
 crat of the First District, is enthused by the mention 
 of the Nelson-Haynes canvass. There could not have 
 been found in the State, at that time, two men more 
 capable of affording the people the enjoyment they 
 most craved. At every village and cross-roads the 
 gladiators met and strenuously contended. Never be- 
 fore had the polemic people of the First District en- 
 joyed such a treat, and never shall they see its like 
 again. 
 
 Nelson was elected by a small majority. It was dur- 
 ing this session of Congress that he made that famous 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 283 
 
 speech for the Union, which the London Times de- 
 clared the highest product of .-Vmerican oratory. 
 
 In 1S61 he was again elected to Congress, but en- 
 deavoring to make his escape across the mountains to 
 Kentucky, was captured by Confederate scouts in 
 Southwestern A'irginia, and ^^'as taken as a prisoner of 
 war to Richmond, where he was paroled upon condi- 
 tion that he would not engage in hostilities against the 
 Confederate States so long as they had possession of 
 Tennessee. He returned to his home in Washington 
 County, where he remained until General Ijurnside 
 occupied East Tennessee in 1863, when he removed to 
 Knoxville, where he resided until his death in 18T3. 
 
 When the Supreme Court of the State was re-organ- 
 ized under the Constitution of 1870, he was elected 
 to that body from East Tennessee. He remained 
 upon the supreme bench, however, but little more than 
 a year, when he resigned for the purpose of attending 
 to his private affairs. He fell a victim to the Asiatic 
 cholera which invaded East Tennessee in the Summer 
 of 1873. 
 
 In the great impeachment trial of .-Vndrew Johnson, 
 Judge Xelson was one of the coimsel of the President. 
 The argument that he made before the Senate in the 
 course of the trial did not satisfy him, and to the day 
 of his death he criticised it with undue severity. It 
 was almost an impromptu argument. Judge Inger- 
 soll, in his sketch of Judge Nelson read before the 
 Tennessee Bar Association, says that "until a very few 
 hours before he arose to address the Senate on this 
 occasion, Colonel Nelson had not expected to take 
 part in this memorable argument. * * * The 
 speech, therefore, does not show the elaborate finish 
 
284 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 which characterizes the efforts of his associates, Evarts 
 and Groesbeck, and of the impeachment managers." 
 The speech, nevertlieless, was an admirable one, and 
 will continue to reflect great credit on its author. 
 
 Judge Nelson was beyond question one of the best 
 law},'ers the State has produced. His mind was both 
 quick and strong. His study of the law had been 
 extensive and thorough, and he had a lasting fondness 
 for the fine distinctions and the rounded verbiage of 
 the common law. In the preparation and in the argu- 
 ment of his cases he was laborious to the last degree. 
 His constant companion in the court-room was a large 
 portfolio, in which were carefully prepared briefs and 
 notes for argument in every case. There were no 
 typewriters in those days, and he was his own secre- 
 tary. All his papers were in his own minute, regular 
 and exact handwriting. His method in preparation 
 and in argument, was to omit nothing. No fact, how- 
 ever small, escaped his attention, but was considered 
 and argued with fullness, and with earnestness. The 
 contrast Ijetween Judge Nelson and Judge Baxter in 
 this respect was marked. Baxter succeeded Nelson as 
 the leader of the Knoxville bar, but before Nelson's 
 death the two sometimes met in important cases. 
 Nelson, in earnest, impassioned argument, swept the 
 entire case step by step, discussing with learning and 
 with wonderful ingenuity and force everv proposition 
 of law and of fact. Baxter, upon the .other hand, ig- 
 noring all minor issues, seized upon the great control- 
 ling questions and devoted to them his entire strength. 
 Both methods have their advocates, and as exempli- 
 fied by these two great lawyers, both are admirable. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 285 
 
 Judge Xelson had a large practice, but was too in- 
 different to money to secure adequate returns from it. 
 
 His temperament was that of the orator and the 
 poet. He had the gifts of speech, of fancy, of 
 imagination. It is not often that these quahties 
 are happily combined, as in his case, with the 
 power of analysis, and the habit of laborious investi- 
 gation. In this union of diverse qualities was great 
 strength. The most common facts and occurrences 
 were invested with interest and significance under the 
 play of the advocate's impassioned rhetoric and rich 
 fancy. For style Judge Nelson went to the old mas- 
 ters of English, and his diction was always rich and 
 imposing. 
 
 He was the inost kindly and generous of men, always 
 ready to help the needy. To his friends his purse was 
 always open, a fact which was too -well known for his 
 own good. While he was a consistent and strong 
 Union man, he was repelled by the radical tenden- 
 cies exhibited bv some of his associates at the 
 end of the war, and united himself with the Conserva- 
 tive party, which ultimately was merged in the Demo- 
 cratic party. 
 
 Judge Xelson retired from the bench for purely per- 
 sonal reasons. His relations with his associates were 
 pleasant, and the work was not uncongenial. That 
 judicial duties were less to his tastes than the gladia- 
 torial combats of the bar and the hustings, may be true, 
 but his opinions show clearly that he possessed the 
 qualifications of an efficient and useful Judge. The 
 remaining two years of his life were passed at his 
 home in Kno.xville, quietly and happily. His per- 
 
286 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 sonal popularity in East Tennessee was very great. 
 He was held in cordial esteem by men of all parties. 
 
 He was socially inclined, and a fine converser. He 
 was a man of much refinement also, and his manner 
 toward ladies was in delightful contrast to the free 
 and easy demeanor which seems to meet the approval 
 of society at the present time. He was a "gentleman 
 of the old school." Hallowed be his memory, and the 
 memory of all like him. The writer of this Sketch 
 dwells with peculiar pleasure upon his memories of 
 Judge Nelson, from whom in childhood he received 
 many of the little kindnesses that win the hearts of 
 children. His love of children was one of his many 
 pleasing qualities. No man lived on a higher plane. 
 He was incapable of anything little or mean. False- 
 hood and all deceit he held in scorn and detestation, 
 and his word was never broken. He had many old- 
 fashioned ways as a lawyer, and would give his ser- 
 vices to a widow, or any helpless person, with as much 
 readiness and zeal as for the largest fee. As is not un- 
 usual with such men he was as guileless as a child. 
 For this reason he was often deceived by designing 
 persons, but never lost faith in humanity. 
 
 Along with these qualities he had the highest physi- 
 cal and moral courage. Ever faithful to his convic- 
 tions, he never lacked the courage to declare and sup- 
 port them. 
 
 His son, a second Thomas A. R. Nelson, is a lawyer 
 of high standing in East Tennessee, and in 1894 was 
 elected Judge of the Criminal Court of Knox County. 
 
 Thomas McKissick Jones was born in Pearson 
 County, North Carolina, December 16, 1816, but while 
 he was an infant his father's family removed to Giles 
 
OF TENNESSEE, 287 
 
 County, Tennessee, where he was reared and passed 
 his life. He attended local schools until 1831, when he 
 was sent to the University of Alabama, where he re- 
 mained until 1833, after which he attended the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia. 
 
 Returning to Pulaski in 1835, he read law one }'ear, 
 and the Florida war breaking out at that time, put 
 aside his professional pursuits, and raised a company 
 which formed a part of the First Tennessee cavalry, 
 or mounted infantry. Regiment. He was made Cap- 
 tain of the company, and had among his men Neill S. 
 Brown, Archibald Wright, and Solon E. Rose, who 
 came so near being United States Senator. At the 
 end of the war he returned to Pulaski, and was licensed 
 to practice law. He continued in the practice without 
 interruption until 1844, when he was made County 
 Elector for Giles County on the Democratic ticket. 
 In 1845 he was elected to the lower house of the Leg- 
 islature, and in 1847 was chosen State Senator for the 
 counties of Giles and Maury. In 1861 he was elected 
 to the Confederate Congress, and served until after the 
 fall of Fort Donelson, declining a re-election. He re- 
 mained in Pulaski tmtil the Federal occupation of that 
 place, when he was seized and sent as a prisoner to 
 Governor Andrew Johnson, at Nashville. Johnson 
 paroled him on condition that he would not communi- 
 cate with the Confederate Congress or with the Con- 
 federate commanders while Pulaski was surrounded 
 by the Federal forces. After the Federal armies had 
 been withdrawn, he went South and remained until the 
 close of the war, although he did not enlist. After the 
 war he resumed his practice at Pulaski, and continued 
 it until his death. 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 In 1872 he was, by appointment, for ten months 
 Judge of the Criminal Court for the counties of Giles, 
 Maury, Williamson and Marshall. In 1877 he was 
 Judge of the Court of Arbitration for Middle Ten- 
 nessee. At different times he served upon the supreme 
 bench by special appointment, and on one of these 
 occasions delivered a very learned and able opinion 
 in the case of the State of Tennessee vs. Whittvortk, 
 reported in Stli Lea, 594. This was the case in which 
 the State, the County of Davidson and the City of 
 Nashville claimed the right to tax land which had been 
 granted by the State of North Carolina to the Uni- 
 versity of Nashville, a provision of the grant being an 
 exemption from taxation for ninet}r-nine years. The 
 Court held the property exempt. 
 
 Judge Jones was throughout his life a Democrat. 
 In 1856, and again in 1880, he was a delegate to Na- 
 tional Democratic conventions. He was a delegate 
 from Giles County to the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1870, and served on the Judiciary Committee. He 
 advocated the appointment of Judges and Chancellors 
 by the Governor, hoping thereby to remove the Judi- 
 ciary from politics. 
 
 He was twice married, and his descendants form a 
 goodly company, both in number and in quality One 
 of his daughters married Z. AV. Ewing, of Pulaski, one 
 of the leading lawyers of Middle Tennessee. Three 
 of his sons were in the Confederate army, and two of 
 them were captured at Fort Donelson. Judge Jones 
 was a man of very considerable ability, and while he 
 was frequently drawn into politics, his ambitions were 
 all in the line of his profession. He was an industrious 
 and capable lawyer, with an aptitude for affairs very 
 
'^■0^ {^^^y^^^r^^^^^^^ 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 289 
 
 uncommon in his profession. Tly thrift and bv judi- 
 cious investments, he accumulated a considerable es- 
 tate, and passed the closing years of his life in comfort, 
 although he suffered at one time large losses as 
 surety for his friends. While he was not among the 
 most conspicuous public men of his time, he held a 
 high place at the bar, and was widely known as one of 
 the best and most useful citizens of Tennessee. 
 
 He died March 13, 1892. 
 
 M. R. Hill was born at Churchville, in the State of 
 New York, and died at Memphis, Tennessee, October 
 24, 18G7. Before he had attained his majority he went 
 to Kentucky, where he read law, and then came to 
 Dyersburg, Tennessee, where he opened an office and 
 began the practice. This was in 1839. He was with- 
 out friends or money, but studious habits and a cor- 
 rect life commended him to public favor, and his rise 
 in the profession was rapid. 
 
 In 1849 he moved to Trenton, and in the same year 
 was elected to the State Senate from a district com- 
 posed of Gibson, Carroll and Dyer Counties. He was 
 re-elected from the same district in 1851, and was 
 chosen Speaker of the Senate. He was originally a 
 strong Union man, but upon the outbreak of the war, 
 cast his fortunes with the South and entered the Con- 
 federate army. In December, 1861, he was elected 
 Colonel of the Forty-seventh Regiment of Tennessee 
 Volunteers, and in a brief term of service displayed 
 marked ability for military affairs. His regiment was 
 engaged on the second day of the battle of Shiloh, and 
 was conspicuously gallant. Soon after the battle Col- 
 onel Hill was attacked by a malignant and lingering 
 fever, which permanently impaired his health, and 
 
290 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 made it impossible for him to continue in the army. 
 At the close of the war he opened an office in Memphis 
 and practiced his profession until his death. 
 
 He is described as a man of decision, of great in- 
 dustry, and unyielding determination. He excelled 
 especially as an advocate, but was accomplished in all 
 branches of the law. His life was correct, and his 
 influence as a man and as a lawyer was salutary. His 
 devotion to duty is illustrated in the manner of his 
 death. At a time when he was called away from home 
 by business, the yellow fever broke out in Memphis, and 
 his friends besought him not to return home. He felt, 
 however, that it was his duty to return. In a few days 
 the fever attacked him and he died. In the resolutiotis 
 adopted by the bar of Trenton, at the time of his death, 
 he is described as a great lawyer, and as one of the 
 best debaters in the State. 
 
 The meagre accounts of him that are accessible, 
 indicate that he was a scholarly man, and that he was 
 habitually active, not only in his own affairs, but in all 
 matters of public improvement. 
 
OK TENNESSEE. 29I 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 John C. Brown— J. C. Guild — W. H. Sneed- T. C. 
 Lyon — C. F. Trigg — J. W. Deaderick — T. J. Freeman — 
 Robert McFarland— J. C. Burch- J. C. Gaut. 
 
 The following Sketch of John C. Brown was written 
 by Judge John S. Wilkes, of the Supreme Court, who 
 was the law partner and the intimate friend of Governor 
 Brown. 
 
 One of the noted figures in Tennessee history is 
 that of John Calvin Brown. He was prominent 
 alike in legal, in business, in social, and in military 
 circles, and any sketch of his life confined to one of 
 these features alone, would be necessarily imperfect. 
 He was born January 6, 1827, in Giles County, Ten- 
 nessee, and of this county he remained a citizen until 
 his death.- His father, Duncan Brown, was a farmer 
 in moderate circumstances. His mother's maiden 
 name was Margaret Smith. Both parents were of 
 Scotch descent. They emigrated from North Caro- 
 lina in 1808. John C. was educated in the old field 
 schools prevalent in Tennessee at that time. He after- 
 wards entered Jackson College, at Columbia, Ten- 
 nessee, where he received the best literary education 
 that its curriculum afforded. 
 
 John C. Brown was licensed to practice law in Octo- 
 ber, 1848, and in a short time secured a large and 
 
292 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 lucrative practice in Giles County and the counties 
 contiguous thereto. In 1859, being in delicate health, 
 he made a tour of Great Britain, the continent of 
 Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land. His mind already 
 stored with legal and general information, broadened 
 and strengthened under the influences of foreign travel, 
 his health was restored, and he was prepared for the 
 eventful life which lay before him. 
 
 Up to this time he had never sought ofifice, but had 
 devoted his time and energies to his profession. He 
 was a man of pronounced political views, however, and 
 was always, even after that party passed away, a zeal- 
 ous Whig. In 1860 he was an Elector on the Bell 
 and Everett ticket. Mr. Lincoln was elected, the 
 secession of certain States of the South followed 
 promptly, and the civil war soon after became flagrant. 
 
 Tennessee was intensely excited over the question 
 of remaining within the Union or seceding. Mr. 
 Brown took the stump, and made a vigorous canvass 
 in favor of the Union. 
 
 Events followed each other rapidly; South Carolina 
 and Mississippi seceded. Fort Sumpter was fired 
 upon and reduced. War became inevitable. Ten- 
 nessee began organizing her troops for the emergency. 
 John C. Brown in this crisis stood with his blood and 
 people, and entered the service of the State. He did 
 not enter the Confederate army, but was always zeal- 
 ous in asserting that he entered the service of his native 
 State, obeyed her behest, and did what he could to 
 sustain her honor and independence. Enlisting as a 
 private, he was at once elected captain, and immedi- 
 ately thereafter, May 16, 1861, was elected Colonel 
 of the Third Regiment of Tennessee Infantrv. yVt 
 
UF TENNESSEE. 293 
 
 Fort Donelson he was in command of a brigade. He 
 was captured and sent to Fort Warren, was exchanged 
 in August, 1862, promoted to the rank of Brigadier- 
 General and assigned to duty with General Bragg. 
 He participated in the battles of Perryville, and other 
 engagements in Kentucky, was a prominent figure in 
 the Georgia campaign under General Joseph E. John- 
 ston, engaged in the battles of Chicamauga, Mission 
 Ridge, the hundred days' contest between Dalton and 
 Atlanta, and in all the battles incident to the retreat. 
 He was promoted to the rank of Major-General, was 
 wounded at Franklin, Tennessee, under General John 
 B. Hood, and soon thereafter finished his military 
 career. 
 
 In his relations with the army he was always a strict 
 disciplinarian, and ever at the post of duty. 
 
 At the close of the war he returned to the labors of 
 his profession at Pulaski, Tennessee, and continued in 
 active practice until 1870, when he was elected a 
 member of the Constitutional Convention, of which, 
 upon its organization, he was made President. 
 
 In the same year he was elected Governor of Ten- 
 nessee, under the new Constitution, and in 1872 he 
 was re-elected to the same position. His administra- 
 tion of State afTairs was upon a strictly legal and busi- 
 ness basis. During his incumbency the bonded debt 
 of the State was reduced, and a floating debt of three 
 millions paid. 
 
 He was an uncompromising supporter and sustainer 
 of the credit of the State, and during his administra- 
 tion the finances of the commonwealth were placed 
 upon a sure and safe basis. Plis firm stand for the 
 credit of his State and the maintenance of her plighted 
 
294 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 faith cost him his poHtical Hfe, and in 1875 he was 
 defeated by ex-President Andrew Johnson for a seat 
 in the United States Senate. He had after this no fur- 
 ther poHtical aspirations. His methods were too open, 
 frank and manly to ensure for him a continuance of 
 political favor. He disdained the evasions and tricks 
 of the ordinary public man, and was outspoken upon 
 all questions affecting the public good. 
 
 After the close of his term as GoArernor, he returned 
 to the practice of law in Pulaski, in 1875, but was, in 
 November, 1876, solicited by Thomas A. Scott to take 
 charge of the Texas & Pacific Railway, then projected 
 as a trans-continental route across the State of Texas. 
 
 The capitalists connected with the enterprise recog- 
 nized the necessity of having a Southern man, of broad 
 intelligence and financial integrity, to aid them in 
 accomplishing their project, and they found such a 
 man in John C. Brown, who entered heart and soul 
 into the enterprise, and by his sagacity, observation and 
 experience pushed it to success. He was made Vice- 
 President of the Company, and placed virtually in 
 charge, not only of its construction and equipment, 
 which was a difificult task, but also of its interests 
 before Congress and the State of Texas. In Wash- 
 ington three successive terms, his duties before Con- 
 gress and its committees were onerous, varied and diffi- 
 cult. Prominent among his active antagonists was C. 
 P. Huntington. In the interest of his company Mr. 
 Brown made many legal arguments remarkable for 
 their broad scope, ability and eloquence. It was for 
 him a favorite field, calling at the same time for his 
 extensive legal information and his sound business 
 qualities and broad views of public policy. He was a 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 295 
 
 man of great personal magnetism, and his earnestness, 
 ability and readiness never failed to impress his audi- 
 ence with the strength of his position and the force of 
 his contention. Not only were these arguments made 
 with great force before Congress, but they were 
 pressed with still more and greater effect before the 
 Legislature of Texas and the various commercial and 
 industrial bodies at New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, 
 and other Southern centers. In all these localities 
 Governor Brown had an extensive acquaintance and 
 was popular, and his uncompromising views of finan- 
 cial honesty and policy made him a power among the 
 monied men of the East, who trusted him implicitly. 
 
 It was, at that date, a task to smooth over the asperi- 
 ties of the war and to bring the North, and South, and 
 East, and West together upon a basis of mutual con- 
 fidence and trust. 
 
 In 1880 Jay Gould acquired the Southern Pacific 
 Railway, but continued Governor Brown in charge of 
 the property under the same confidential relations as 
 had existed between him and Mr. Scott. Not only 
 so, but so profoundly impressed was Mr. Gould with 
 Brown's strong practical sense, broad views, extensive 
 legal information, his unswerving integrity and per- 
 sonal worth that, in 1881, he was urged to accept the 
 position of General Solicitor for the system of Gould 
 roads west of the Mississippi, including the Missouri 
 Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Iron 
 Mountan, the Texas & Pacific, the New Orleans & 
 Pacific, and the International & Great Northern Rail- 
 road. 
 
 It was in this position that his legal attainments 
 found full scope, and during the four years that he 
 
296 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Spent in charge of the legal department of this system, 
 he did a work which can never be forgotten, although 
 never fully known or appreciated. To conduct suc- 
 cessfully the affairs of his new position required not 
 only business qualifications of the highest order, but 
 extensive legal acquirements and a familiarity with the 
 general and local laws of nearly all the States West of 
 the Mississippi River, as well as the Federal Statutes 
 and decisions bearing upon corporations generally, 
 and especially the corporations with which he was 
 connected. It was a position fitted to his talents, re- 
 quiring boldness, discretion, broadness of view, with 
 the minutest attention to detail; an intimate and ex- 
 tensive knowledge of human character and nature. 
 The laws of Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, the 
 Indian Territory, and other States and Territories 
 through which the system passed, were as familiar 
 to him as those of his native State, and out of them all 
 he wove a system that was remarkable. His opinions 
 and utterances received and commanded the un- 
 bounded confidence of his associates and opponents. 
 
 In 1885 he was appointed Receiver of the Texas 
 Pacific Railway by the Circuit Court of the United 
 States at the instance of the holders of its bonds, and 
 while in his hands, as Receiver, it was practically re- 
 built. In 1888 he was elected its President, and in 
 1889, desiring to return to his native State, he was 
 elected President of the Tennessee Coal and Iron 
 Company, the largest industrial corporation in the 
 South. 
 
 He died in August, 1889, at Red Boiling Springs, 
 Macon County, Tennessee, and was buried at Pulaski, 
 in the midst of the people he loved so well and who 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 297 
 
 honored him so highly. A life-size statue of Italian 
 marble stands upon a granite pedestal in Maplewood 
 Cemetery, presenting a life-like representative figure 
 as he appeared in uniform, with his hand upon his 
 sword, and his gaze turned toward the South. 
 
 Josephus Conn Guild was born in Pittsylvania 
 County, Virginia, December 14, 1802, and died in 
 Nashville, Tennessee, January 8, 1883. \^'hen he was 
 two years old the family moved to Houston County, 
 Tennessee, where they lived until 1810, when they re- 
 rtoved to Sumner County. 
 
 It seems that the subject of this sketch advanced in 
 his academic course far enough to begin the study of 
 the classics. In after life he was zealous in building 
 on the foundation thus laid. In 18"21 he entered the 
 law office of Foster & Brown, at Nashville. 
 
 At this period of his life he formed a lasting friend- 
 ship with Balie Peyton. The two had many tastes 
 in common. Particularly did they agree in love of 
 fine horses and of horse racing. This last was a favor- 
 ite diversion of the time in the profession and out of 
 it. Many anecdotes of the achievements of the two 
 friends upon the race course have been preserved in 
 Judge Guild's book, and by his contemporaries. 
 
 Guild was a Democrat of the most pronounced and 
 aggressive type. In 1853 he was one of the Demo- 
 cratic candidates for Elector for the State at large, and 
 made a canvass against William T. Haskell. He was 
 always interested in politics and a strong partisan, 
 but held no political office, except that he was four 
 times elected to the Legislature, three times to the 
 House and once to the Senate. 
 
 He was an enthusiastic supporter of the policy of 
 
298 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 internal improvements, and is said to have introduced 
 into the House the bill of 1852. 
 
 In 1836 he enlisted for the Seminole war and was 
 made Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment commanded 
 by William Trousdale. Colonel Guild made an ad- 
 mirable record as a soldier, and was highly esteemed 
 by the officers and the men of his regiment. 
 
 In 1859 he was elected Chancellor of the Division 
 composed of the Counties of Sumner, Robertson and 
 Montgomery. The war brought his term as Chan- 
 cellor to a premature close, but not before he had 
 proved himself eminently qualified for the office. He 
 was a good lawyer, but above all he was blessed with 
 practical sense and the desire to do right. He was a 
 sympathetic man, and always on the lookout for equi- 
 ties. 
 
 About the close of the war Judge Guild moved to 
 Nashville, where he conducted a successful practice 
 until 1870, when he was elected Judge of the newly- 
 formed Law Court of that city. In 1877 this Court 
 was abolished, because it had accomplished the pur- 
 pose for which it had been created, and Judge Guild 
 returned to the practice. 
 
 In 1878 he published a book of five hundred pages, 
 called "Old Times in Tennessee." This book is one 
 of the most valuable of its kind. There are some in- 
 accuracies of dates in it, but it contains many vivid and 
 truthful pictures of men of past generations, and of the 
 habits and customs of the times of which it treats. 
 
 Judge Guild was thoroughly a man of the people, 
 and was always popular. Strong partisan as he was, 
 he never failed to poll more than his party vote in any 
 of his contests for office. As a Judge, especially dur- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 299 
 
 ing his second service, he was perhaps too much ad- 
 dicted to the humor for which he was noted in private 
 life. His sense of humor was highly developed, and 
 his repertory of anecdotes inexhaustible. The Ten- 
 nessee Reports show that for many years he had a large 
 practice. 
 
 One of the noteworthy members of the Knoxville 
 bar in the period immediately preceding the war was 
 William-Henry Sneed — the given name being a com- 
 pound one. 
 
 There is in existence a letter written more than 
 thirty years ago by Mr. Sneed to Plenry Winter Davis, 
 with whom he had served in Congress, in which, re- 
 ferring to the subject of criminal practice, he says 
 that he had always refused to accept a fee for prosecut- 
 ing a criminal for the reason that he believed that the 
 duty should be performed by a disinterested attorney, 
 paid by the State, and free from personal l)ias. 
 
 This is a very pleasing manifestation of a high sense 
 of justice and of professional propriety. There may 
 be room for argument of the question, but it would 
 appear that the right is with Mr. Sneed. The spe- 
 cially employed attorney is likely to Be more insistent 
 than the ends of justice demand, and is not expected 
 to be disinterested. Undoubtedly the true theory of 
 public prosecutions is that the public interests alone 
 shall be served, without regard to personal wishes or 
 resentments. 
 
 The sentiments expressed in this letter were char- 
 acteristic of Mr. Sneed. He belonged to tlie old-fash- 
 ioned school of men that had strong convictions and 
 adhered to them, not yielding to utility or the desire 
 for present gains. 
 
300 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 William-Henry Sneed was born in Davidson 
 County, Tennessee, August 29, 1812. At some time 
 between that date and 1832, his father, who was a 
 farmer, removed his family to Rutherford County. 
 The father is described as a man of intelligence, of 
 strong character and of thrift. He did not send hi.s 
 son to college, but gave him unusual advantages by 
 employing competent private teachers, who trained 
 him thoroughly in all the branches then taught in our 
 higher educational institutions. 
 
 Having been fond of reading, and of a studious 
 turn from his childhood, he now determined to study 
 law, and in the Spring of 1834 entered the office of 
 Charles Ready, at Murfreesboro. In 1839 he formed 
 a partnership with Judge Charles Ready, who held 
 him in the highest esteem and regarded him as ex- 
 ceptionally qualified for the law. This partnership 
 lasted till the Fall of 1843, when Mr. Sneed was 
 elected to the State Senate from Williamson and Ruth- 
 erford Counties. At the end of the legislative session 
 he moved to Greeneville, in East Tennessee, having 
 in the meantime married the only daughter of Dr. 
 Alexander Williams, of that place. 
 
 He now formed a partnership with R. J. McKinney, 
 and practiced for about a year in the Courts of that 
 Circuit. In 1845 he moved to Knoxville, where he 
 conducted an unusually successful practice until the 
 beginning of the war. He was a competent man of 
 affairs as well as a strong lawyer, and succeeded 
 in acquiring a valuable estate. He was enterprising 
 and full of public spirit, and did much to encourage 
 the growth of Knoxville. 
 
 In 1855 he was elected to Congress from the Knox- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 30r 
 
 ville District as a Whig, defeating David B. Cum- 
 mings. 
 
 He was a candidate for the supreme bencli against 
 Judge ]\IcKinney, and was defeated by a very small 
 majority. 
 
 In Congress he served with special distinction and 
 attracted many friends. 
 
 Like many other prominent Whigs, he was at the 
 outset of the secession agitation a pronounced Union 
 man. He made many strong speeches, declaring his 
 devotion to the Union and opposition to secession. 
 At the same time he said, however, that if the State 
 should decide to go out of the Union, he would go 
 with her. He was not a man of half measures, and 
 therefore when the secession ordinance had been 
 passed, he gave his allegiance to the Confederacy and 
 became one of its staunchest supporters, and his ability 
 made him conspicuous in the events of the time. He 
 was a just and humane man, although strong in con- 
 viction and positive in conduct. Having had access 
 to some of his private papers, the writer is convinced 
 that his motives and conduct during the war were 
 often misconstrued by his political adversaries. That 
 the policy of the Confederate government in East Ten- 
 nessee, in 1861 and 1862, was severe may be admitted. 
 It is probably true also that the severities of the admin- 
 istration were in some measure promoted by extreme 
 and unwise local politicians, but that Mr. Sneed was 
 not the friend of this policy, as his enemies insisted at 
 the time, can be proved. There were instances in 
 which he encountered personal danger in the effort to 
 protect Union men. 
 
 When Burnside occupied Knoxville, Mr. Sneed re- 
 
302 HENCH AND BAR 
 
 moyed with his family to Virginia, and resided at 
 Liberty, in that State, until after the surrender. Re- 
 turning to Knoxville as soon as conditions permitted, 
 he resumed the practice of law, but his financial condi- 
 tion relieved him of the necessity of hard work. He 
 died September 18, 1869. 
 
 Like all who actively participated in the affairs of the 
 war, he incurred many enmities, but even by his ad- 
 versaries his integrity was never denied. 
 
 Mr. Sneed was a man of unusual force of character 
 and ability, and of high social standing, and was there- 
 fore one of the most efficient supporters of the Confed- 
 eracy in East Tennessee. His sincerity cannot be 
 questioned. He acted upon conviction, without reser- 
 vation and without malice. 
 
 As a lawyer he was exceptionally successful, ft is 
 said by those who knew him at the bar, that he was 
 painstaking and laborious, and gave his cases the most 
 careful preparation. He is said to have excelled es- 
 pecially as a Chancery pleader and practitioner. Be- 
 yond question he was one of the best lawyers and one 
 of the ablest men of his time in Tennessee. His son, 
 Joseph W. Sneed, was formerly Judge of the Criminal 
 Court of Knox County, and is now the Judge of the 
 Circuit Court of that County. 
 
 Memorial resolutions of the bar of the Supreme 
 Court, on the death of Mr. Sneed, are appended to 
 6th Coldwell. 
 
 Thomas Clark Lyon was born in Roane County, 
 Tennessee, December 10, 1810, and was educated at 
 East Tennessee University under Dr. Charles Cofifin, 
 graduating in 1839. His graduating address was an 
 original poem, which, according to the writer of the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 303 
 
 memorial resolves printed in 6th Heiskell, "was es- 
 teemed by the large audience present, and the best 
 critics of that day, a most excellent and crditable pro- 
 duction." 
 
 As soon as he had graduated he began to prepare 
 for the bar. Not long after he had secured his license, 
 he seems to have enlisted in the United States army. 
 The account given at the bar memorial meeting is in 
 the following words: "Before he had fully entered upon 
 the practice of his profession, there being a call for 
 volunteers, he became a soldier in the army of the 
 United States, and was elected Lieutenant of the com- 
 pany to which he belonged. Upon the recommenda- 
 tion of General Richard G. Dunlap, commanding his 
 brigade, he was appointed Aide, with the rank of 
 Major, to General John E. Wool, the Commander-in- 
 Chief, and so ably and faithfully did he discharge his 
 duties, that this distinguished General became his 
 devoted friend and ardent admirer during life." 
 
 This is all true no doubt, and is well enough for 
 the purposes of deserved eulogy, but is very indefinite 
 as to dates and facts. It is clear, however, that Major 
 Lyon belonged to the volunteer force that was raised in 
 1836, in East Tennessee, for service in the Florida war. 
 Richard G. Dunlap commanded a brigade of these 
 troops, and Wool was in charge of the entire force. 
 They were not sent to Florida, but were retained in 
 East Tennessee to assist in the removal of the Chero- 
 kees West of the Mississippi River. 
 
 The account quoted from above contiunes : "He was 
 trained to the most considerate recognition of the 
 rights and feelings of others, so that during a pro- 
 fessional career of thirty years we venture to say no one 
 
304 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 can recall an instance of his using a term offensive to 
 the bench or to any member of the bar. His honor 
 was sacred in the practice of his profession as in the 
 avocations of life. A member of the bar and bench 
 said of him: 'So faithfully and liberally did he fulfill 
 his promises, that he never considered it necessary to 
 have recorded any agreement he might make.' " 
 
 He was frequently called ypon to act as Special 
 Judge of the Supreme Court, and his opinions are 
 among the very best to be found in our State Reports. 
 He had, in an eminent degree, every qualification nec- 
 essary for a good Judge. Being a man of unbounded 
 courtesy and of the most attractive manners, he was 
 a great favorite among the ladies, but died a bachelor. 
 In early life he was greatly attached to a lady to whom 
 he would have been married in a few days but for her 
 untimely death. He remained faithful to her memory. 
 
 In the year 1864 he left Tennessee and went to 
 Richmond, Virginia, with the purpose of offering his 
 services to the Confederate government. On the way 
 he was attacked by disease, and died October 1, 1864, 
 very soon after reaching Richmond. 
 
 He was an accomplished linguist, and a man of 
 broad and accurate scholarship, with decided tastes for 
 literature, and more especially for poetry and poetical 
 composition. All accounts make him a charitable and 
 just man, and a lawyer not surpassed in learning and 
 ability in his time in East Tennessee. Indeed, it is 
 probable that of all the lawyers of East Tennessee, 
 Judge Lyon was first in the estimation of the genera- 
 tion to which he belonged. It is not said that he was 
 an eloquent or accomplished public speaker, or that he 
 attempted anything beyond plain and direct argument. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. , 305 
 
 He seems to have been adapted by nature to the law, 
 and to have been a close and diligent student. He was 
 purely a lawyer. His general scholarship was a mat- 
 ter of pleasure, and all the serious work of his life was 
 given exclusively to the profession. 
 
 Mr. Lyon was an ideal lawyer and brought honor to 
 the profession. His accomplishments and abilities 
 commanded the respect and admiration of the bench 
 and of the bar, and his rare and admirable qualities as 
 a man attracted universal esteem and confidence. 
 
 Connally F. Trigg, the fourth in succession of 
 the United States District Judges for Tennessee, was 
 born in Abingdon, Virginia, March 8, 1810. He was 
 of an old and honorable family, of excellent position in 
 that cultured community. 
 
 In 1833 he entered upon the practice of law at Ab- 
 ingdon, where he lived until 1856, when he moved to- 
 Knoxville, Tennessee. He had risen to a high place 
 at the bar of Abingdon, which has always abounded 
 in strong lawyers. 
 
 Coming to the Knoxville bar with this excellent 
 reputation, he was cordially received, and was quickly 
 successful, and when the war began was regarded as 
 one of the best lawyers in East Tennessee. It is said 
 that he was not so studious as many of his associates, 
 but his natural abilities were excellent, and his person- 
 ality very attractive. He was of kindly and cordial 
 temper, and made friends and retained them. 
 
 He was one of the leaders of the Union Party in 
 East Tennessee, and was outspoken in his opinions. 
 The courage and decision that he displayed in the 
 early stages of the war won the confidence and admira- 
 tion of the Union Party, and his appointment to the 
 
3o6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Federal bench by Mr. Lincoln, in July, 1862, gave 
 great satisfaction. 
 
 Judge Trigg's courage and integrity were finely dis- 
 played in his course in the famous test oath cases, and 
 in the multitude of treason cases. 
 
 The Test Oath Act would, if sustained, have pre- 
 vented a large majority of the lawyers of Tennessee 
 from practicing. Judge Trigg was the first Federal 
 Judge to declare it unconstitutional. The treason 
 cases were the results of the bitter feeling engendered 
 by the war, and the spirit which prompted them Avould 
 have carried the successful party to most unfortunate 
 lengths, if it had not been checked. Judge Trigg had 
 been among the most pronounced of the Union men, 
 but resentment and malice had no place in his heart, 
 and he soon came to be recognized as one of the leaders 
 of conservative sentiment. 
 
 He remained upon the bench until his death, which 
 occurred at Bristol, April 25, 1880. 
 
 Much of his time as Judge was taken up in the ad- 
 ministration of the Federal revenue Statutes. A more 
 unpleasant duty could not have been imposed, and 
 he did not enjoy it. Some said that his kindness of 
 heart led him to be too lenient with the unfortunate, 
 and generally, ignorant men who were constantly in- 
 fringing the severe revenue laws. It is true that Judge 
 Trigg did often temper justice with mercy in such 
 cases, but not at the expense of duty, nor to the detri- 
 ment of public interests. 
 
 The qualities displayed by Judge Trigg in the admin- 
 istration of his high and powerful office, just after the 
 war, cannot be too much commended. They were es- 
 sentially characteristic. He was by nature just and 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 307' 
 
 generous. Moreover, he possessed the faculty of see- 
 ing both sides of a question. Strong in his convic- 
 tions, and fearless in pursuing them, he was not a par- 
 tisan to the extent of allowing his political judgments 
 or prejudices to influence his judicial conduct. He 
 treated fairly all men of all parties, and the Confederate 
 soldier or sympathizer, while never unduly favored, 
 was always sure to be fairly treated in his Court. Even 
 they who were the most extreme Union men of that 
 time, must .remember thankfully the fact that this fair 
 and impartial Judge, a member of their own party, 
 was brave enough and just enough to curb the preju- 
 dices and passions that were natural at such a time, 
 but that occasionally prompted to injustice and oppres- 
 sion. For this especially, all men of all parties should 
 remember Judge Trigg in honor and in gratitude. 
 
 James W. Deaderick was born at Jonesboro, 
 Tennessee, November 12, 1812. His father was from 
 \'irginia, and had served in the Revolutionary war. 
 His mother was from Delaware, and was a sister of 
 Joseph Anderson, Judge of the Territorial Court and 
 Senator from Tennessee. James W. Deaderick at- 
 tended East Tennessee College, which is now the Uni- 
 versity of Tennessee, for awhile, but did not graduate. 
 He married Adeline, daughter of Ephraim McDowell, 
 and a grand-daughter of Governor Isaac Shelby. 
 
 Judge Deaderick began life by farming and keeping 
 a store at Cheek's Cross Roads, in Jefferson County, 
 Tennessee. He failed in business, probably on ac- 
 count of the general financial depression of 1837, and 
 his too great liberalit}' in Ijecoming surety for friends. 
 For a time after this he resided in Iowa as an Indian 
 Agent, l^y appointment of President Tyler, and then 
 
308 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 returned to Jonesboro and began the study of law 
 under Judge S. J. W. Lucky. He was admitted to 
 the bar in 1844, when he was thirty-two years of age. 
 He was in no respect a briUiant man, but his abihties 
 were good, his industry exceptional, and his integrity 
 was universally recognized. He did not make his 
 way rapidly in the profession, but by perseverance and 
 hard work, gradually achieved an honorable position. 
 Having been a student and a reader from his youth, 
 his knowledge of general literature when he entered 
 the profession was large. He did not seek business, 
 holding, as every honorable lawyer ought to hold, that 
 it was unworthy and unprofessional to solicit employ- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1851-1852 he was in the State Senate, and served 
 as Chairman of the Committee on Internal* Improve- 
 ments. He was an advocate of State aid to railroads. 
 In the Presidential election of 1860 he was a Bell and 
 Everett Elector for the First District, but when the 
 State seceded he accepted the result and was loyal to 
 the Confederacy throughout the war. In 1870, when 
 the judiciary of the State was re-organized, he was 
 elected one of the Judges of the Supreme Court from 
 East Tennessee, and was re-elected in 1878 for the State 
 at large. Upon the death of Judge Nicholson, in 1S7G, 
 he was elected Chief Justice of the Court, and held 
 that position till his retirement from the bench in 1886. 
 He was a good man, and a good lawyer and a compe- 
 tent Judge. 
 
 There was no pretense of superior learning in his 
 opinions. They were always written, and were gener- 
 ally short and without much citation of authority. He 
 did not disregard the written law, but did not believe. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 3O9 
 
 upon the other hand, that what had been written should 
 prevail against manifest justice. He was thoroughly 
 honest and just as a man, as a lawyer and as a Judge. 
 On account of his extreme age he did not seek the 
 re-nomination for a third term, but retired to his home 
 in Jonesboro, where he died October 8, 1890. 
 
 His career shows the value of industry, of persevei"- 
 ance, of integrity. Entering the profession late in 
 life, by ability and the most faithful work, he rose 
 first to a position of leadership at the bar of East 
 Tennessee, and finally to the highest and most hon- 
 orable ofifice in the State. 
 
 Thomas J. Freeman was born in Gibson County, 
 Tennessee, July 19, 1827, and died at Dallas, Texas, 
 September 16, 1891. 
 
 He was educated in the schools of his neighborhood, 
 but did not attend college. Having studied law, he 
 was admitted to the bar, probably in 1848, and prac- 
 ticed at Trenton until the war began. Taking sides 
 with the South, he enlisted in the Confederate army, 
 and soon afterwards was elected Colonel of the 
 Twentv-second Tennessee Regiment. At the battle of 
 Shiloh he was severely wounded, and for a long time 
 disabled. Returning to the field after his recovery, 
 he was attached to Forrest's command, and served 
 tmder that brilliant leader to the end of the war. 
 
 After the war he took up his residence at Browns- 
 ville, where the Supreme Court then sat for the 
 Western Division of the State. He was soon recog- 
 nized as one of the foremost lawyers of West Ten- 
 nessee, and the suggestion of his name for the supreme 
 bench under the new Constitution of 1870 was 
 
3IO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 promptly approved. He was nominated and elected in 
 ISTO, and re-elected in 1878. 
 
 Failing of a nomination in 1886, he returned to the 
 bar, but like all retired Judges, found himself unfitted 
 for the active practice. When the law department 
 of the University of Tennessee was established in 
 1889, he was placed in charge of it. This has 
 now become a successful school, but Judge Free- 
 man's health did not permit him to reap the rewards 
 of his zealous and efficient work in organizing it. FTe 
 was compelled to give up his place and to seek the 
 restoration of his health in the milder climate of Texas. 
 
 The Supreme Court of 1870 found its hands very 
 full. Naturally enough, it began by undoing a good 
 deal that had been done by its immediate predecessor. 
 
 It is frequently said that it found its hardest work 
 in construing the new Constitution, but this is not an 
 accurate statement. It is true that many questions of 
 constitutional law came before it, but the difficulty was 
 not in construing the new Constitution, which was 
 practically identical with the old one, but in applying 
 established principles of constitutional construction to 
 changed conditions. The Court would have met the 
 same difficulties in this branch of the law if the Consti- 
 tution of 1834 had been retained in name as it was in 
 substance. 
 
 This does not alter the fact, however, that the Court 
 of 1870 was called to pass upon many difficult questions 
 of constitutional law, nor does it detract in any measure 
 from the value of its work. This branch of the law 
 was especially attractive to Judge Freeman, whose 
 mind was of a philosophic cast. Generally he was for 
 strict construction, and always he was positive in his 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 31I 
 
 Opinions and firm in his positions. The consideration 
 of these large and broad questions gave him deHght. 
 He wrote upon them with zest and force, witli much 
 learning, ingenuity and justice. His opinions did not 
 always prevail in the Court, and when they did not 
 he usually dissented. He was more frequently, and 
 as a rule more forcibly dissentient than any other of our 
 Judges. It is strange, perhaps, but it is true, that in 
 nothing did Judge Freeman command the approval 
 of the bar more than in his dissenting opinions. 
 Probably opposition aroused and quickened his facul- 
 ties. At all events, his dissents were unfailingly vig- 
 orous, and not infrequently convincing. 
 
 Dr. Johnson would have said of Judge Freeman 
 that his "literature was large." He read much in his- 
 tory, philosophy, poetry and fiction, and was fond of 
 conversing upon literary topics. 
 
 The State is much indebted to him for faithful and 
 valuable service, and he will always rank among her 
 best Judges. 
 
 Robert McFarland was born in Jefferson County, 
 Tennessee, April 15, 1832. He was the son of Colonel 
 Robert McFarland, who served as a Lieutenant in the 
 regular army of the United States during the war of 
 1812. 
 
 The family was Scotch, Presbyterian, and Whig. 
 The first of the Tennessee McFarlands, the grandfather 
 of the Judge, was also named Robert. He came to 
 Tennessee from Virginia in very early times, was a 
 noted Indian fighter, and was the first Sheriff of 
 Jefferson County. Judge McFarland's mother was 
 Miss Scott, of Jefferson County, who was of Scotch- 
 Irish descent. 
 
BENCH AND BAR 
 
 312 
 
 As a boy, McFarland gave no promise of distinction, 
 but was quiet, unobtrusive, somewhat melanclioly and 
 apparently indifferent, if not indolent. His education 
 was such as the old field schools of the time offered, 
 supplemented by a brief term at Tusculum College. 
 His occupation was not of his own choosing, but was 
 selected for him by his family, and strangely enough 
 the choice was a happy one. 
 
 Being thus directed to the law, he entered upon 
 his studies at the age of nineteen, in the office of his 
 brother-in-law, the elder Judge Barton, at Greeneville. . 
 Securing a license in 1854, he entered upon the prac- 
 tice in Greene and adjoining counties. He was for 
 a time in partnership with Robert Johnson, son of An- 
 drew Johnson, and later with Judge Barton and Mont- 
 gomery Thornburgh. In 1859 he married Miss Jennie 
 Baker, of Greeneville. 
 
 After his marriage he removed to Dandridge, in 
 Jefferson County. When the war began, he sided with 
 the South, and entered the Confederate army as a 
 volunteer in the latter part of 1861. He rose to the 
 rank of Major in the Thirty-first Tennessee Regiment. 
 Major McFarland was with his regiment in Bragg's 
 Kentucky campaign, in the defense of Vicksburg, and 
 later in Early's unfortunate campaigning in the Valley 
 of A^irginia. He was a conspicuously gallant soldier. 
 
 Returning home after the war, he found his position 
 one of difficulty and of danger. The feeling against 
 ''rebels" was intense, and probably he could not have 
 remained but for the support of a few Union friends, 
 foremost among whom was J. M. Thornburgh, who 
 had served through the Avar as a Colonel in the Federal 
 army, and was a man not only of ability and promin- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 313 
 
 ence, but of unsurpassed liberality of sentiment and 
 devotion to his friends. Thus upheld, Major McFar- 
 land remained in his former home, and ere long the 
 war prejudices subsided and gave him no more trouble. 
 He now formed a partnership in Greene County with 
 Robert M. McKee, and in other counties with his 
 friend, J. M. Thornburgh. 
 
 During the administration of Governor Senter, he 
 was occasionally called to fill temporary vacancies on 
 the supreme bench, and thus had opportunity to dis- 
 play that wonderful clearness of vision and judgment 
 for which he afterwards was noted. 
 
 On the resignation of Judge Thomas A. R. Nelson, 
 in 1871, Governor Brown appointed McFarland to the 
 vacancy. The remaining members of the Supreme 
 Court are said to have petitioned for his appointment 
 after the place had been declined by Judge James T. 
 Shields. In August, 1873, Judge McFarland was 
 elected by the people, and was again elected in 1878 
 for the full term ending in 1886. He died October 2, 
 1884. 
 
 As a Judge he has never had a superior in Tennessee. 
 He was not an exceptionally learned lawyer. In knowl- 
 edge of the written law he was far behind his great 
 associate, Judge William F. Cooper. He was less 
 learned than Reese, or Haywood, but one is tempted 
 to say that he had judicial genius. His mind was 
 perfectly balanced, his judgment almost infallible. 
 His eulogists say that he was painstaking and labori- 
 ous, and it is true, but the real source of his greatness 
 as a Judge was the clearness of vision that he had by 
 nature. In his opinions there is comparatively little 
 citation of authority, and his conclusions were reached 
 
314 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 with but little use of authoritj'. That he was thor- 
 oughly learned in the law, had mastered its principles, 
 isnecessarily true. But the excellence of his decisions 
 consists not in learning, but in justice. His mind and 
 character were pure. He had but one purpose, and 
 that was to do justice. Knowing the law as a science, 
 he applied its principles with unerring judgment. The 
 law is often artificial, but justice, never. McFarland's 
 opinions are satisfactory and convincing because they 
 accord with the natural sense of justice and of right. 
 
 In personal character, Judge A'IcFarland was strong 
 and pure. He lived always upon a high plane. The 
 religious equality of his race was strong in him. Al- 
 ways modest and even diffident, he was not more 
 sensitive for himself than for others. His manners 
 were simple, and courtesy was a quality of his nature. 
 
 In appearance he was not imposing; his figure was 
 slender and slightly stooped. His face did not give 
 the impression of strength; the forehead was high and 
 full, but the chin was narrow and not prominent. His 
 head was that of a thinker, a philosopher — an idealist. 
 The intellectual and moral qualities predominated in 
 him, and this was indicated by his head and face. 
 
 He died bravely and serenely, as a Christian man, 
 saying to the sorrowing company about his death-bed: 
 'Tt is as natural to die as it is to be born." 
 
 John 0. Burch, one of the most intellectual and 
 brilliant men in the recent history of this State, exerted 
 a positive influence upon the policy of Tennessee from 
 the beginning of the secession troubles to the end of 
 the reconstruction period. He is entitled to be hon- 
 orably remembered on account of his exceptional per- 
 sonal qualities and his valuable services. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 315 
 
 He was a native of the State of Georgfia, and the 
 son of Morton N. Burch, a prominent citizen of that 
 State, many times a member of its Legislature. His 
 mother, Mary Ballard Burch, was a woman of culture 
 and of high social position. It is to be inferred that 
 the family was in good circumstances, and it is clear 
 that the parents were alive to the importance of educa- 
 tion, for after their son had received such instruction 
 as the schools of his native State afforded, he was sent 
 to Yale College, in 1843, and graduated there with 
 distinction in IS-tT. 
 
 Selecting the profession of the law, he obtained a 
 license and practiced for three years in (ieorgia. [n 
 1852 he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was 
 an accomplished and effective public speaker, and early 
 displayed aptitude for political management and or- 
 ganization. He therefore speedily became prominent 
 in the Democratic party, and in 18.55 was elected to 
 the House of Representatives in the Tennessee Legis- 
 lature. In 1857 he was elected to the State Senate, and 
 became Speaker of that body. 
 
 In the Legislature he was distinguished for boldness 
 and decision, but was always courteous and consider- 
 ate. The energy of his character led him to take an 
 active part in the discussion of every important cjues- 
 tion, and he became widely known as one of the 
 strongest debaters and most accomplished parliament- 
 arians in the State. Like many other lawyers of 
 ability and of ambition, and with a taste for public af- 
 fairs, he found himself gradual!}' drawn from the law 
 into politics, and in 185il accepted the position of editor 
 of the Nashville Union and American, the most influ- 
 ential Democratic paper in Tennessee. As might be 
 
3l6 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 inferred from his antecedents, he was intensely South- 
 ern in sentiment, and belonged to that wing of the 
 Democratic party which held the most positive State's 
 right opinions. These opinions he advocated with un- 
 surpassed persistence and vigor. 
 
 In the great canvass of 1860, his paper strenuously 
 supported the Southern cause, and by its ability won 
 the respect of men of all parties. It was a positive and 
 a potent influence. Following his opinions to their 
 conclusion, Mr. Burch entered the Confederate army in 
 1861, and served first on the staff of General Pillow, 
 afterwards on the staiif of General N. B. Forrest, and 
 finall)' on that of General Withers. He was a brave, 
 energetic and useful soldier, and his war record was 
 altogether creditable. He served from 1861 to 1865. , 
 
 At the close of the war he returned to Nashville and 
 resumed the practice of the law, but in 1869 purchased 
 a controlling interest in the Union and American, and 
 again became its chief editor. In this position he con- 
 tinued until 1873, when he was appointed by Governor 
 John C. Brown to the office of Comptroller of the 
 State Treasury. In this office, as in every other that 
 he held, he was zealous, efficient and faithful, proving 
 that in addition to his scholarly accomplishments, he 
 possessed unusual practical abilities. 
 
 In March, 1879, when the Democrats were in control 
 of the United States Senate, he was elected Secretary 
 of that body, and took up his residence for the time 
 in Washington. He was an exceedingly attractive 
 man personally, and quickly became influential and 
 popular in Washington. It is stated that he was upon 
 terms of intimacy especially with James G. Blaine and 
 Allen G. Thurman, and that on matters of personal 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 317 
 
 conduct he was frequently consulted by Mr. Blaine, 
 despite their positive political differences. It is prob- 
 able that no man ever held the office of Secretary of the 
 Senate who was more popular, or more influential 
 among the Senators, or who exercised so large a social 
 and political influence. The position is one of dignity 
 and honor, but it was generally felt in Washington 
 that a, man of his ability was entitled to a more distin- 
 guished position. 
 
 The extent of Mr. Burch's influence in Tennessee 
 was never more clearly demonstrated than in 18T3, 
 when the Democratic party of the State, and of the 
 nation, was confronted by the difficult qixestion 
 whether or not it would recognize and adopt the nom- 
 ination of Greeley and Brown, the liberal Republican 
 candidates for President and Vice-President. The 
 following extract from a speech made by him at the 
 Democratic National Convention, at Baltimore, in that 
 year, will clearly explain his position, and will recall 
 the action of the Democrats of Tennessee. He said : 
 "In less than a week after the nomination of Horace 
 Greeley and Gratz Brown, at Cincinnati, the Democ- 
 racy of Tennessee assembled in convention, there was 
 doubt and hesitation running throughout the Union 
 as to what should be the course of Democracy, when 
 Tennessee Democracy, deriving inspiration from the 
 tomb of the Hermitage, took the responsibility of de- 
 claring that is was the high duty of every patriot in 
 the land to support the Cincinnati ticket. Tennessee 
 was the first to clasp the hand extended at Cincinnati. 
 Tennessee, who has given three Presidents to the 
 Union, gives her twenty-four votes for Horace Greeley, 
 of N^ew York. And I desire to say to the gentlemen 
 
3t8 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 from Missouri and the gentlemen from New Yorlv, 
 that as Tennessee was the first to put this ball in 
 motion, she proposes to enter the contest with them 
 and give the candidates of this convention a larger 
 majority than either New York or Missouri." 
 
 In the Tilden-Hayes contest of 1876, he was perhaps 
 more active than any other Democrat in Tennessee. 
 He had supported Mr. Hendricks for the Presidential 
 nomination at the National Convention, and was his 
 personal friend. After the election, and during the 
 contest, his great interest and zeal induced him to go to 
 the State of Louisiana, where he remained for some 
 time actively assisting the Democrats in their efforts 
 to make out their case. He was afterwards in Wash- 
 ington during the trial before the Electoral Commis- 
 sion, and was a trusted adviser of the Democratic 
 managers. 
 
 As an editor he maintained the highest standard of 
 professional ethics, but never left room for doubt as 
 to his sentiments or his policy. He was an exceed- 
 ingly graceful and forcible writer, and has hardly been 
 surpassed in editorial work in the history of Tennessee 
 journalism. His training had been in the old school 
 of editorial writers, and in the conduct of his paper he 
 gave attention chiefly to the editorial department. He 
 was fully alive to the importance of having a satisfac- 
 tory newspaper, but believed that the paper should 
 have an individuality which should be manifest in its 
 editorial columns. He is, therefore, more accurately 
 described as an editor than as a newspaper man, al- 
 though his paper was in its time, in all respects, the 
 most influential and the most widely circulated in the 
 State. His editorials and his speeches were uniformly 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 3 19 
 
 correct, rich and forcible in diction, displaying his 
 classical and general scholarship without ostentation. 
 
 The author is permitted to quote Henry Watterson 
 as saying that he has never known a man of finer 
 political judgment than Colonel Burch. He says' 
 "His judgment in public and party affairs, that is, in 
 estimating political forces and in foreseeing probable 
 events, was well nigh infallible." A distinguished law- 
 yer, who knew Colonel Burch intimately, said recently, 
 in homely phrase: "John Burch had a great big intel- 
 lect." 
 
 Colonel Burch died in Washington during his term 
 of office as Secretary of the United States Senate, July 
 28, 1881. 
 
 John Conaway Gaut was born in Jefferson County, 
 Tennessee, February 27, 1813. His grandfather was 
 a native of Scotland, and emigrated to America, where 
 he proved, as many of his compatriots did, the Scotch 
 capacity to rear a large family. James Gaut, the father 
 of John C. Gaut, was one of thirteen children, all 
 remarkable for longevity and other sturdy qualities of 
 the Covenanter stock. In 1821 James Gaut left his 
 ancestral home on the French Broad River, near Dand- 
 ridge, and moved to McMinn County, Tennessee. 
 This last region had been opened to settlers only about 
 a year. It was a part of the Hiawassee district from 
 which the Indians were removed in 1820. The county 
 had no court-house, there was not a brick chimney 
 within its borders, very little land was cleared, and the 
 conditions were in all respects rude and primitive. 
 
 James Gaut was a small farmer and needed the help 
 of his son, John Conaway, in supporting a family in 
 which there were eight younger children. The life 
 
320 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 was one of hardship and self-denial, and though calcu- 
 lated to develop character, had few pleasures. 
 
 What primary schooling young Gavit had it is impos- 
 sible to say. That he possessed the "rudiments" be- 
 fore attaining his majority is known, because soon 
 after reaching the age of twenty-one, he entered an 
 academy at Athens. He afterwards attended for a 
 time the College at Maryville, then under the Presi- 
 dency of the great Dr. Isaac Anderson, and later still, 
 the University at Knoxville. His name is not in the 
 list of graduates of the University. 
 
 In 1837 he began the study of law at Athens, in the 
 office of Spencer Jarnagin, in company with two other 
 students, one of whom was John M. Lea, who has 
 been for many years widely and favorably known in 
 Tennessee. 
 
 The removal of the Cherokee Indians to the West, 
 which occurred about this time, opened new and neigh- 
 boring territory to settlement and to litigation. In the 
 rich harvest thus accruing to the profession, Judge 
 Gaut had a full share, and the practice then acquired 
 made him one of the best land lawyers in East Ten- 
 nessee, the normal habitat of the land lawyer. 
 
 In 1863 he was elected by the Legislature to suc- 
 ceed Charles F. Keith as Circuit Judge. After the 
 amendment of the Constitution, he was elected to the 
 same office by the people, although he was a Whig, and 
 the Democrats were in the majority in the Circuit. 
 
 In 1862 he was re-elected, and held the office until 
 1865, when he resigned and moved to Nashville, where 
 he afterwards formed a partnership with Judge Robert 
 L. Caruthers. 
 
 He was a Whig before the war and an earnest Union 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 32 ( 
 
 man. A majority of the AMiig- leaders went with the 
 mighty tide of opinion that swept Tenne-^see out of the 
 Union in ISGl, but Judge Gaut was tenacious of his 
 opinion, and remained a Union man. He ^vas in the 
 self-constituted Convention of 1865, which amended 
 the State Constitution, but disapproved the course of 
 his associates. He was on the committee which re- 
 ported the schedule, but filed a minority report, in 
 which he said: "I object to making the Constitution 
 and referring it to the people without a convention, 
 and I object to the disfranchisement to the extent 
 provided for." 
 
 During the three succeeding years he earnestly and 
 vigorously antagonized the radical policy of the domi- 
 nant party, and was for a time the Chairman of the 
 Democratic State Executive Committee. 
 
 While he resided in East Tennessee before the war, 
 the era of public improvements occurred, and he be- 
 came one of the active promoters of the East Tennessee 
 and Georgia Railroad, which connected Knoxville and 
 Chattanooga. 
 
 He died July 4, ISO.".. 
 
 A. S. Colyar, writing of Judge Gaut, says: "He had 
 been on the bench but a short time before his reputa- 
 tion as a Judge reached every part of the State. As 
 a common law lawyer, on the bench, he ranked with 
 'Lige' Walker and Marchbanks, wiiich is saying a. 
 good deal." 
 
322 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Reconstruction Court— George Andrews — Sam 
 Milligan — Landon C. Haynes— John A. Gardner — Isham 
 G. Harris— A. 8. Marks- J. B. Palmer. 
 
 To write of any aspect of the history of Tennessee 
 during the reconstruction period, extending from 1862 
 to 1870, is a difificult and invidious task. In none of 
 the other seceding States was there so much division 
 of sentiment as in Tennessee. In Middle and West 
 Tennessee the people had generally espoused the cause 
 of the Confederacy, though many prominent families 
 of Middle Tennessee, and several sections of West Ten- 
 nessee, as for instance Carroll County and neighboring 
 districts, had remained loyal to the Union. East Ten- 
 nessee was, by an overwhelming majority, for the 
 Union, and the secession of the State was accomplished 
 by the votes of the other divisions. In the early part 
 of the war, when the Confederacy controlled the State, 
 its policy toward the loyalists had been severe, as all 
 war policies are, and when the Federals in turn were 
 in power, their course was not infrequently marked 
 by measures of retaliation. The severities exercised 
 by each side in its turn, were the natural results of 
 existing conditions. The impartial historian must de- 
 clare that not all the right was on either side. 
 
 The Supreme Court . of reconstruction times has 
 been severely judged. Sweeping charges of incompe- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 323 
 
 tency and unfairness have been made freely against 
 its members, and its opinions have been treated too 
 often as unworthy of serious attention. 
 
 The subject must be treated frankly, and therefore 
 it must be admitted that some of the judges of this 
 period were of comparatiA^ely inferior abilities, and 
 probably would not, under normal conditions, have 
 been selected for the bench ; but upon the other hand, 
 some were unusually competent, and probably none 
 was so imperfectly qualified as to be wholly excep- 
 tional in the history of the Court. 
 
 That in certain matters this Court appears to have 
 been partisan, must be admitted, but partisanship be- 
 longs to society in all its branches at such times. 
 It may be said justly, that nothing can excuse partisan- 
 ship in a court of justice, but only a moderate knowl- 
 edge of human nature is needed to understand why 
 this Court was influenced in certain respects by the 
 imperative prejudices of the time, and only a moderate 
 acquaintance with history to find parallel cases. The 
 men who sit to administer justice are never wholly 
 exempt from the operation of the great forces that 
 dominate society. That they should be exempt, when 
 those forces are misdirected, and should be absolutely 
 impartial, no one will deny, but that they never are 
 exempt is an indisputable fact. The reconstruction 
 time was a trying one. The war had aroused the worst 
 passions, engendered the bitterest prejudices every- 
 where. Few men of either side could be just in action 
 or in sentiment to those of the other side. 
 
 The reconstruction Court was elected by a minority 
 party, dominant by virtue of extraordinary conditions, 
 and to the profound dissatisfaction of the disfranchised 
 
■324 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 majority. The Republicans of Tennessee were in- 
 tensely bitter against their antagonists on account of 
 facts already indicated, but the atmosphere of the whole 
 country was saturated with bitterness. The people 
 represented primarily by the Court, regarded secession 
 as the acme of wickedness, and exasperation was kept 
 alive by the policy of designing leaders. The pressure 
 upon the Court was tremenduous. There was an ap- 
 prehension, real or simulated, that "rebellion," as it 
 was called, was not yet put down. Everything that 
 smacked of secession was hateful, and a widespread, 
 . though by no means universal sentiment, demanded 
 that all "rebels" be punished. In matters relating 
 to the general policy of its party, this Court often fol- 
 lowed the party, but in other respects it displayed not 
 a little of the proper judicial spirit. A distinguished 
 Democratic lawyer was heard to say not long ago, 
 that many cases might be cited in which this Court 
 had been a bulwark of protection to Southern sympa- 
 thizers against those who sought to oppress them. 
 Examples of the most objectionable classes of its decis- 
 ions are the cases of Ridley vs. Skerbrook, 3 Cold- 
 well, 569, in which the franchise Acts of 1865 and 1866 
 were declared constitutional; and Potts vs. Gray, 3 
 Coldwell, 468, in which it was held that a note given 
 for the consideration of Confederate treasury notes 
 was illegal and void, and the Courts would not lend 
 their active aid to enforce its collection. 
 
 It has been hard for the majority of the people of 
 Tennessee to forgive these decisions, and others like 
 them. Persistent partisanship might still condone the 
 Ridley case, but for the Potts case, and all others on 
 which there were similar holdings on Confederate con- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 325 
 
 tracts, there would seem to be no excuse. It is impos- 
 sible, however, for any except those who participated 
 in the affairs of that troubled and unhappy time to 
 know the pressure that was constantly upon this Court. 
 Only they can fairly judge it who can put themselves 
 in its place. 
 
 The present generation knows nothing, by experi- 
 ence or observation, of the conditions that existed in 
 Tennessee during and just after the war. Certain 
 phrases begotten in those ugly times, and embodying 
 its prejudices, have come down to us. There are some 
 absurd persons who still speak of the SDUthern people 
 as "Rebels." On the other side there are a goodly 
 number of people in Tennessee who speak of Brown- 
 low as the Scotch Highlanders speak of Dutch William, 
 and as the Irish Catholics speak of Cromwell. 
 
 But after all there is not much of this sentiment left 
 ■ on either side, and one may safely say now, that there 
 was much that was good in the reconstruction Court, 
 and that what we cannot approve we can pardon, ad- 
 mitting the while that our own judgments are not 
 infallible. 
 
 One of the best lawyers, and one of the best men 
 that ever lived in Tennessee, was George Andrews. 
 He was a native of A^ermont, and was born at Putney, 
 December 28, 1826. His father, the Rev. Elisha D. 
 Andrews, removed to Macomb County, Michigan, 
 when George was fourteen years of age. The son was 
 thoroughly educated, and having studied law began the 
 practice in the city of Detroit. In 1S56 he was mar- 
 ried, at East Saginaw, to Miss Mary Lathrop. In 
 1865 he came to Knoxville, Tennessee, and opened a 
 law office. He resided at Knoxville for the remainder 
 
326 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 of his life. In 1868 he was appointed by Governor 
 Brownlow to a vacancy upon the supreme bench. 
 This office he held for two years, and his opinions prove 
 his thorough competency as a Judge. They rank 
 among the best in our State Reports, and are highly 
 esteemed by the profession and the Courts. 
 
 After his retirement from the bench, he was United 
 States District Attorney for East Tennessee. For the 
 last twelve years of his life he was the senior member 
 of one of the most successful law firms in Knoxville. 
 His death occurred August 32, 1889, in the terrible 
 accident on the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap & Louis- 
 ville Railroad, in which so many valuable and prom- 
 inent citizens of Knoxville lost their lives. This road 
 had just been built, and a number of gentlemen from 
 Knoxville were invited to make the first trip over it in 
 cars specially provided for the occasion. Judge An- 
 drews was included in the invitation. The train fell 
 from a trestle, and Judge Andrews and several other 
 members of the party were killed, or died within a few 
 hours, while many more were terribly hurt. It was 
 one of the saddest days in the history of Knoxville, 
 and none of the victims of the disaster was more gen- 
 erally or more sincerely mourned than Judge Andrews. 
 Memorial meetings were held by the bar, and by 
 citizens, and the sentiments of respect and admiration 
 expressed were the most cordial and the most sincere. 
 
 Judge Andrews was a man of extraordinary intellect 
 and versatility. As a lawyer he was thorough to the 
 last degree. He worked incessantly, not confining 
 himself, however, to his cases, but reading widely in 
 the general literature of the la\\'. Always methodical. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 327 
 
 he preserved in convenient form all the important re- 
 sults of his investigations. 
 
 He studied also, with enthusiasm, more than one 
 branch of natural histor)-, and his wife, a lady of 
 culture, having similar tastes, the two enjoyed together 
 many excursions among the hills and mountains of 
 East Tennessee. 
 
 Judge Andrews was a member of the Board of 
 Trustees of the University of Teimessee, and was for 
 several years the Chairman of its Executive Commit- 
 tee. He was peculiarly adapted to this place, and was 
 of great service to the University. He was a devout 
 Christian, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 For some years before his death, he held, probably, 
 the first place at the Knoxville bar, and no safer or 
 more thorough lawyer could have been found in the 
 State. He was not an attractive speaker, and made no 
 effort to declaim. So widely and so thoroughly 
 learned was he in the law, however, that he was a mine 
 of information, especially to the 3'ounger members of 
 the bar. Whenever a young lawyer was puzzled, or 
 was at a loss for authority, he did not fail to go to 
 Judge Andrews. Hardly a day passed wherein an 
 appeal for information was not made to him by some 
 lawyer. He was always ready to help, and would stop . 
 in the midst of the most important work to answer 
 questions or produce authorities. He had a common- 
 place book, which was the best law book in Knoxville. 
 He submitted to interruption and gave assistance to 
 others with marvelous patience and kindness. 
 
 In his practice, he upheld the highest standards of 
 the profession. He resorted to nothing but honest 
 effort, and any unprofessional conduct excited his in- 
 
328 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 dignation. It need not be said that he exerted a 
 salutary influence upon the bar of East Tennessee. 
 He exempHfied in his professional life, everything that 
 the highest standards of the profession demand of its 
 members. 
 
 The Milligans are of Irish origin. John Milligan 
 came to America from Ireland, in the last century, 
 settled first in Pennsylvania, and came thence to Vir- 
 ginia. The next generation came, in part, to Ten- 
 nessee. Samuel, the son of John, settled in Greene 
 County, Tennessee, where he married Sarah Reynolds. 
 Of this union was born a second Sam Milligan, 
 the subject of this sketch. It should be said that he 
 denied the full name Samuel, and declared that he 
 had been christened ''Sam." 
 
 The elder Samuel Milligan appears to have lived 
 in narrow circumstances, and to have been able to 
 give his son only very limited advantages of education. 
 At the age of sixteen, however, the young man was 
 far enough advanced to become a teacher. In 1839 he 
 entered Tusculum College, which, under Samuel W. 
 Doak as President, then enjoyed an excelkut reputa- 
 tion. In ISil, while he was in College, he was elected 
 to the Legislature. Having completed h.s public ser- 
 vices, he returned to college and gra lnated in 1843. 
 
 Soon after his graduation he was again elected to the 
 Legislature. Returning from his second term in the 
 Legislature, he began the study of law in the office 
 of Robert J. McKinney. He was again elected to the 
 Legislature, and having completed his law studies, was 
 admitted to the bar at Nashville in 184.5. He began 
 the practice at Greeneville. 
 
 When war was declared against Mexico, he was 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 329 
 
 made Quartermaster with the rank of Major, and was 
 stationed at A^era Cruz, and afterwards at Jalapa. At 
 the close of the war he resumed his professional work. 
 In 1849 he married Miss Elizabeth Howard, of Greene- 
 ville, Tennessee. 
 
 At this time William G. Brovvnlow was publishing 
 a paper at Jonesboro, called the Whig, and the Demo- 
 crats of upper East Tennessee, feeling the need of an 
 organ, established the Greeneville Spy; and Milligan 
 became the editor. When the controversy arose, or 
 was renewed, in regard to the boundary between Ten- 
 nessee and Virginia, Milligan was one of the Commis- 
 sioners from Tennessee to settle the dispute. 
 
 When the secession agitation began, he arrayed him- 
 self promptly on the side of the Union. He was a 
 member of the well-meant but ineffective Peace Con- 
 gress at Washington. ^Vithin a month after the inau- 
 guration of ]\Ir. Lincoln, he was tendered the office 
 of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Ter- 
 ritory of Nebraska, but declined it. 
 
 In 1864:, Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of 
 Tennessee, appointed him a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court. He resigned in 1867, and was re-appointed 
 by Governor Brownlow. In July, 1868, without soli- 
 citation, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of 
 Claims at Washington, and served until his death, 
 ^\•hich occurred at Washington, April 20, 1874. 
 
 The time of his service upon the supreme bench of 
 the State was a troubled and trying one, and, as already 
 stated, the conduct of the Court has been severely criti- 
 cised and many of its opinions overruled. From this 
 criticism, however, Judge Milligan has been in large 
 
330 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 measure exempt. His integrity and his ability are 
 both conceded. 
 
 Landon Carter Haynes was born at Klizabeth- 
 ton, Carter County, Tennessee, December 2, 1816, and 
 died at Memphis, Tennessee, February 17, 1875. He 
 was named for General Landon Carter, the son of 
 Colonel John Carter, of Watauga. He was educated at 
 Washington College, East Tennessee, and graduated 
 at the age of twenty, with the first honors of his class. 
 After leaving school he read law in the ofhce of 
 Thomas A. R. Nelson, and was admitted to the bar in 
 1840. 
 
 At school he had been distinguished as a brilliant 
 declaimer and as a polished rhetorician. Ambition 
 and a love of public affairs were inherited traits, and 
 his natural and cultivated powers as a speaker quali- 
 fied him eminently to follow the line of his aspirations. 
 In 1844 he was a Polk Elector in the First Congres- 
 sional District. This district was, at that time, a very 
 large one, but Haynes canvassed it thoroughly and 
 with great benefit to his party and to his own repu- 
 tation. In 1847 he was elected to the lower house of 
 the Legislature, from a district composed of Johnson, 
 Carter, Sullivan and Washington Counties. In 1849 
 he represented Flawkins, Washington and Greene 
 Counties, and was elected Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives. , 
 
 In 1859 he became a candidate for Congress in the 
 First District, against his law preceptor, Thomas A. 
 R. Nelson. The canvass between these distinguished 
 orators has been referred to in the sketch of Judge 
 Nelson. Nelson was the older man of the two, and 
 his name carried greater weight of reputation and ex- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 331 
 
 perience. In addition to this, he was himself one of 
 the most powerful and eloquent speakers the State has 
 produced. Nevertheless, Haynes came out of the con- 
 test not only with credit, but with great increase of 
 reputation. He was defeated, but it was justly said of 
 him that he had proved himself a foeman worthy of 
 the steel of his distinguished competitor. 
 
 In 1860 Haynes was a Breckenridge Elector for 
 the State at large, and in the exciting canvass of that 
 year, made for himself additional reputation as an 
 eloquent speaker and a ready and effective debater. 
 It was largely to his services in this canvass that he 
 was indebted for his election to the Confederate Senate. 
 This election occurred October 9A. 1861. Haynes 
 was elected for the long term with Gustavus A. Henry 
 as his colleague. Both served to the close of the war. 
 
 After the war Haynes removed to Memphis, where he 
 made his home and engaged in the practice of law 
 until his death. In 18T2 he was a candidate for Con- 
 gress on the Democratic ticket, having received the 
 nomination of a convention. He was defeated, and 
 did not again seek to enter politics, although he was 
 mentioned in connection with the United States Sena- 
 torship in 1875. 
 
 His reputation is distinctively that of a brilliant 
 speaker. He possessed unlimited command of lan- 
 guage, a fine voice, and a graceful delivery. He had 
 also humor and sarcasm, both of which he made effect- 
 ive before juries and before popular audiences, 
 
 John A. Gardner was born in Robertson County, 
 Tennessee, in 1809, and was educated in the common 
 schools of his native county. In 1827 he removed to 
 Paris, in \\'e.=t Tenne.^scc, where for some time he con- 
 
33 2 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 ducted a newspaper known as the West Tennessean. 
 Having studied law, he obtained a Hcense in 1829, and 
 opened an office at Dresden. 
 
 In 1841 he was elected to the State Senate without 
 opposition. The Democrats had a majority of one 
 in the Senate, and the Whigs a majority of three 
 in the House. Two United States Senators were 
 to be elected, and it had been the custom up to 
 that time, as it has been since, for the two houses 
 to meet in joint session to elect Senators. If that 
 custom had been followed, the Whigs would have been 
 able to elect both Senators. But the Democratic ma- 
 jority in the Senate refused to meet the Whig majority 
 in the House, and was persuaded to that course very 
 largely by a strong legal argument made by Senator 
 Gardner. It is said that Judge Catron was present 
 when Gardner made his argument, and declared its 
 conclusions to be irresistible. The Democrats con- 
 trolling the Senate proposed to the House that each 
 party elect a Senator, but the proposition was declined, 
 and Tennessee remained until 1843 without represen- 
 tation in the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Gardner was re-elected to the State Senate in 
 1843, and again in 1845. In the Legislature of 1845 
 the Senate was composed of thirteen Democrats and 
 twelve Whigs. Gardner was the Democratic nominee 
 for Speaker, but on account of the intense opposition 
 of the Whigs, was unable to secure more than twelve 
 votes. He therefore withdrew from the race, and 
 nominated Harvey M. Watterson, who received the 
 votes of the Democrats and of one Whig, and was 
 elected. 
 
 In 1847 Gardner became a candidate for Congress, 
 
OF TENNESSKR. 33^ 
 
 although his district had a Whig majority of twenty- 
 five hundred. His Whig competitor was the incom- 
 parable orator, William T. Haskell, who had then just 
 returned from the iMexican war. Haskell was elected, 
 but Gardner succeeded in reducing the majority nearly 
 one-half. 
 
 In 1S4S he was District Elector for Cass. Soon 
 after the close of this canvass, he formed a partnership 
 with Emerson Etheridge, who had read law with him 
 and who had resided in his family. 
 
 In his efforts to secure stock for the Nashville Ik 
 Xorthwestern Railroad, Gardner was active and suc- 
 cessful, and was elected the first President of the Com- 
 pany, and was several times re-elected. In 1856 he 
 voluntarily retired from the position and resumed the 
 practice of law in connection with his son-in-law, \V. 
 P Caldwell, who has since the war been twice a mem- 
 ber of Congress, and who is at present one of the 
 prominent men of West Tennessee. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Gardner was elected to the Constitu- 
 tional Convention from Weakley County, and served 
 as Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Taxa- 
 tion. In 1878 he was nominated and elected to repre- 
 sent W^eakley County in the lower house of the Legis- 
 lature. In the same year he was a candidate before 
 the Democratic State Convention for the nomination 
 for Governor, and received the largest vote that was 
 cast, until the name of Albert S. Marks was presented. 
 
 This was his last appearance in politics. His pro- 
 fessional life covered a period of fifty years. His 
 favorite forum was the Circuit Court, and he excelled 
 greatl}' as a jury lawyer. Pie was a specialist in land 
 law. Although his early edtication had been imper- 
 
^;^^ BENCH AND BAR 
 
 feet, he was a student, and manifested, especially in his 
 later life, a fondness for philosophical reading. The 
 closing years of his life were darkened by financial 
 reverses, and eventually he was compelled to leave his 
 native State and take up his residence in Texas. He 
 died at Gainesville, in that State, in 1892. 
 
 Probably no man of his time had the esteem and 
 confidence of the people of West Tennessee more thor- 
 oughly than Mr. Gardner. 
 
 In a lecture delivered in Tennessee soon after his 
 own unwilling retirement from the United States Sen- 
 ate, John J. Ingalls, of Kansas, referred with feeling 
 to the "unprecedented political longevity" of Isham 
 G. Harris. Many another statesman of the last two 
 decades, suffering the pains of political extinction, re- 
 garded with surprise, not tmmixed with envy, the bet- 
 ter fate of the Tennessee Senator. 
 
 Isham G. Harris was the most competent and skill- 
 ful political leader in the history of Tennessee. An- 
 drew Jackson was a greater man, and was indebted 
 for his influence in Tennessee to the great qualities 
 which made him in many respects the first man of 
 his time .in our country. He had many qualities of 
 political leadership, but did not primarily owe his suc- 
 sesses or his influence to them. He was so great a 
 man that none of his time in Tennessee approached 
 him in stature. During the political life of Isham G. 
 Harris, extending through half a century, beginning 
 in 1847, there were many men in the State who were 
 his equals intellectually, and some who were his supe- 
 riors, but not even Andrew Johnson or John Bell was 
 his peer as a political leader. Others performed great 
 political feats, notably John H. Savage, in promoting 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 335 
 
 the readjustment of the State debt, but none displayed 
 equal capacity in the active and sustained leadership 
 of a political party. 
 
 This does not imply that Harris was merely a poli- 
 tician. He was indeed a politician, a prince among 
 politicians, but he was also much more than a politi- 
 cian. Considered in relation to State affairs, he is 
 probably of more importance historically than any 
 other Tennessean who has lived in the last half century. 
 
 The history of his life is full of interest, and from the 
 first it is clear that the key-note of his character was 
 force. He was one of the rare men in whom nature 
 now and then compresses manifold the ordinary supply 
 of energy of mind and of will. Intellectually he was 
 an extraordinary man,' but did not surpass John Bell, 
 nor John Marshall, nor A. O. P Nicholson. What 
 we ordinarily call the moral faculties, were not con- 
 spicuously developed in him, but he was by nature, as 
 well as by practice, an honest man. And this consti- 
 tutional honesty, constantly displayed in fidelity to 
 his friends, as well as to his public duties, was the 
 second great cause of his extraordinary successes. 
 
 That he was brave is necessarily true, for courage 
 is a part of that energy which was his dominant char- 
 acteristic. The cardinal points of his character, then, 
 were intellectual energy, courage, fidelity. His history 
 abounds in proofs of this. 
 
 He was a native of Tennessee, and was born in 
 Franklin County, in 1818. The exact date of his birth 
 is said to have been February 10 of that year, but 
 this is not stated positively. 
 
 The family had not been one of note in previous 
 -generations. The father and grandfather both bore 
 
336 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 the name Isham Green, and by the former it was 
 bestowed upon his youngest son, the future Governor 
 and Senator. The circumstances of the family were, 
 at first, fairly good. There was a plantation of a 
 thousand acres, worked by a dozen or more slaves, 
 and the sons of the family, including the youngest, 
 received academic training. 
 
 The father seems, however, to have been lacking in 
 thrift, and gradually his affairs became disordered. 
 Mortgages upon the plantation, made necessary by 
 indifferent management, caused much distress in the 
 family. When the first of these dreaded instruments 
 was executed, the future Senator was a student in the 
 academy at Winchester. He felt that the time had 
 come for him to earn his own living. With character- 
 istic promptness he communicated this opinion to his 
 parents, who refused to allow him to leave home, and 
 required his unwilling attendance at the Academy for 
 another year. At the end of this time his purposes had 
 become fixed, as had also a second mortgage, and the 
 parents no longer resisted. An elder brother, who 
 afterwards became a Judge of the Supreme Court, 
 and met a tragic death, as already related in these 
 Sketches, was practicing law at Paris, Tennessee, and 
 thither the young adventurer first turned his steps. 
 It had been his intention to travel on foot, but parental 
 solicitude and generosity supplied him with a horse, 
 and thus mounted, he rode away into the Western 
 wilderness, without other purpose than to seek, and 
 find, somewhere, a fortune. He did not intend to re- 
 main at Paris, but allured by the munificent ofifer of 
 board and lodging and an annual salary of one hundred 
 dollars, became a clerk there in a country store. At 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 337 
 
 the end of one year, his salary was increased to three 
 hundred dollars. And now fortune signally favored 
 him with an opportunity to display intelligence. The 
 merchants of that remote region received their goods 
 from the .East by boats passing down the Ohio and 
 Mississippi Rivers, but no boat made the entire trip, 
 and in the course of the journey the freight was many 
 times trans-shipped, at much expense of time and 
 money. It befell in the third year of our hero's life 
 in Paris, that one of his employers, whose duty it was 
 to go East and buy goods, became ill, and so Harris, 
 much misgiving, was sent upon this important errand. 
 
 Having made his purchases, and having conveyed 
 them to the banks of the Ohio, he was suddenly in- 
 spired to a great deed, which was no more nor less 
 than to charter a boat for the entire river trip, and 
 thereby avoid the transfers which ordinarily protracted 
 the journey through many months. Like all re- 
 formers, he encountered difficulties, but his successful 
 arrival at home three months ahead of time, brought 
 to him great increase of reputation, and to his employ- 
 ers gratifying profits. 
 
 The details of the immediately succeeding years of 
 his life need not be given. His brother, the lawyer 
 of Paris, impressed by his energy and intelligence, ar- 
 ranged with him for a mercantile partnership at Ripley, 
 ^lississippi. In two years the firm earned about 
 twenty thousand dollars. This great success was due 
 to the ability of the junior member. But now the 
 junior member became dissatisfied. The powers that 
 were in him yearned for expression. Ambitions that 
 reached beyond a country store were asserting them- 
 selves. And so the young man, to the dismay o£ his 
 
338 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 partner, declared his purpose to retire from commerce 
 and to enter upon the law. A settlement of the firm's 
 business yielded to each member ten thousand dollars. 
 Of his portion, the junior member placed seven 
 thousand in a Mississippi bank, which ere long was to 
 demonstrate to him and to many others, the hazards 
 that beset indefinite expansion. With three thousand 
 dollars he returned to Paris, whence, after greeting 
 his friends, and providing himself with an imposing 
 wardrobe for the benefit of certain acquaintances, who 
 had scoffed at his home-leaving, he went to Franklin 
 County. With the three thousand dollars the family 
 estate was freed from incumbrance and was sold. The 
 entire family then went to Paris, where the proceeds 
 of the plantation secured a comfortable home. This 
 most worthy purpose accomplished, and all within six 
 years, the dutiful son entered upon his student life, 
 but only to be rudely interrupted at the very outset. 
 The Mississippi bank, having continually and inordi- 
 nately expanded, now finally reached the limit, ex- 
 ploded and collapsed. Seven thousand dollars thus 
 vanishing suddenly, Harris found himself under the 
 necessity of resorting again to some pursuit which 
 would yield prompt returns, as the law would not. 
 
 A generous friend. Colonel Tharpe, of Paris, had 
 once offered to lend him the money to buy a stock of 
 goods. To him the young man, now in deep dejection, 
 resorted. The response was not less generous than 
 the original offer. Twenty thousand dollars promptly 
 placed at his disposal, enabled him to open a business 
 which proved so profitable that in three years the loan 
 was repaid. Meanwhile father and mother had died, 
 and the will left everything to Isham, repaying his 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 339 
 
 filial devotion. But he called his brothers together, 
 and with their consent the will was burned, and the 
 property all made over to their sisters. 
 
 In 1841 things came right at last, fortune was re- 
 trieved, and the young merchant became a lawyer. 
 
 In 18 IS he was married to Miss Martha Travis. 
 
 In 1847 two Democrats and one Whig were candi- 
 dates for the State Senate from Henry, Weakley and 
 Obion Counties. Harris was one of many Demo- 
 crats who endeavored to make an adjustment between 
 the two candidates from that party. These proving 
 intractable and unreasonable, at last his patience was 
 exhausted, and he resorted to a fine and characteristic 
 stroke of audacity, became a candidate himself, and was 
 elected over Democrats and Whig. Thus opened his 
 great political career. 
 
 In IS'lit he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, 
 and re-elected in 1851. The nomination being ten- 
 dered him in 18.")3, he declined, and partly in order to 
 avoid importunity, went to ^Memphis to practice law. 
 He was not again in public life imtil 18.)(i, when he was 
 a Buchanan Elector for the .State at large. In this can- 
 vass he gave his party great satisfaction. He was a 
 vigorous and earnest speaker, a skillful debater, and in 
 all things bold and resolute. Abominated for Governor 
 in 1857, he defeated Robert Hatton, the Whig and 
 American candidate, by a majority of eleven thousand. 
 The competitors had been well matched. At Fayette- 
 ville they had a personal difficulty, and at the end of 
 two months' constant speaking, both were exhausted, 
 and many appointments were recalled, to the great 
 regret of a speech-loving public. 
 
 In the race for Governor in 1859, Harris was pitted 
 
340 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 against John Netherland, a very popular man, and one 
 of the most noted jury lawyers of East Tennessee. He 
 was not a match for Harris, however, and was dis- 
 tinctly worsted in the debates. 
 
 The two ensuing years were full of great events. 
 The Whigs had elected the Governor of Tennessee in 
 1851 for the last time. Thenceforth the Democrats 
 had held the State by a majority of about ten thousand. 
 In the Federal election of 1860, only three of the four 
 candidates were considered in Tennessee. The Whigs 
 were solid in support of John Bell, the Union candi- 
 date. The extreme Southern wing of the Democratic 
 party, asserting the constitutional right to secede under 
 proper conditions, voted for Breckenridge, while the 
 Conservatives, or Union Democrats, supported Doug- 
 lass. The "Little Giant" received enough votes to give 
 the State to Bell, and the supporters of Bell and Doug- 
 lass together outnumbered the Breckenridge men 
 largely. It was clear, therefore, that a majority of the 
 voters were opposed at that time to secession. Gov- 
 ernor Harris was a pronounced States' rights man, and 
 ^was in sympathy with the secession leaders of the other 
 Southern States. December 8, 1860, a month after 
 Mr. Lincoln's election, a special proclamation con- 
 voked the General Assembly to "consider the present 
 crisis." 
 
 The Assembly met January 7, 1861, and on that 
 day received the Governor's message, an elaborate and 
 vigorous document, containing a clear and strong 
 statement of the grievances of the South, predicting an 
 armed conflict between the sections, and urging that 
 the State be put into a condition which would enable 
 her to protect her rights. Five amendments to the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 34I 
 
 Constitution of the United States are advocated, pro- 
 viding for an equitable division of the unsettled terri- 
 tories between the sections in the matter of slave-hold- 
 ing, for the more explicit recognition of the right of 
 property in slaves, and for adequate guarantees of that 
 right. 
 
 The John Brown raid is denounced, and it is de- 
 clared that sectional feeling in the North "has, in the 
 person of the President-elect, asserted the equality of 
 the black and white races." 
 
 At this session was passed a resolution submitting 
 to the people the question whether or not they would 
 hold a Convention to consider the subject of with- 
 drawing from the Union, and also providing for the 
 election of delegates to the Convention. The election 
 was held February 8, and the vote was, for Convention 
 57,798, against it 69,675. A better test of public sen- 
 timent, however, was in the vote for delegates. The 
 aggregate vote for Union delegates was 88,803, and 
 for disunion delegates, 34,749. 
 
 It is certain that many electors voted for the Con- 
 vention who were opposed to secession. 
 
 This election was accepted as conclusive evidence 
 that Tennessee would not secede, and it may be as- 
 sumed that but for the events of the ensuing Spring, 
 such would have been the case. There was probably 
 no one in Tennessee who was a disunionist for the sake 
 of disunion — not even Governor Harris, who was after- 
 wards denounced as the arch-traitor and original apos- 
 tle of "rebellion." Harris believed that there was 
 cause for secession, and was not actuated, as has been 
 charged, by a resentful or malicious desire to disrupt 
 the Union. 
 
342 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 In the interest of truth, it must be said further 'that 
 Governor Harris has been credited with a larger in- 
 fluence in causing the withdrawal of the State than he 
 or any one else possessed. The public men of Ten- 
 nessee had a surprisingly small part in directing the 
 course of events at that time. The great currents of 
 conflicting sentiment that were sweeping over the 
 country, carried all men, large and small, one way or 
 the other. That there were potent leaders is true, 
 of course, and none was more potent in Tennessee 
 than Harris, bitt if he had opposed secession to his 
 uttermost, the State still would have seceded. The 
 leaders of the other side were Bell and Johnson. Mr. 
 Bell, probably the most intellectual of the three, was 
 not specially fitted for leadership in times of revolu- 
 tion, and Johnson was out of the State attending to his 
 duties in the Senate. When the final test came,_ Mr. 
 Bell went with the tide, not to win favor, but because 
 he believed it was right to do so. A majority of the 
 more prominent Whig leaders, such as John C. Brown, 
 Marshall, Hatton, Henry and Neill S. Brown, likewise 
 followed Tennessee out of the Union. Moreover, 
 without intending that result, a number of the Union 
 leaders in the State, Mr. Bell being one of them, had 
 indirectly encouraged secession by issuing a joint letter 
 just after Mr. Lincoln's call for volunteers, in which 
 they advised that Tennessee, without attempting to 
 leave the Union, should establish an army and thence- 
 forth maintain a position of armed neutrality. It was 
 the vain hope of Union men, like Governor W. B. 
 Campbell, in all the border States, that they might 
 arbitrate between the North and the South. 
 
 This joint letter, despite its express declaration to 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 343 
 
 the contrary, was an implied endorsement of the doc- 
 trine, or rather the right of secession, as the proposed 
 action of the State was to be independent and not 
 under the authority of the Federal government. Its 
 publication has been denounced bv Northern histori- 
 ans as an act of treason. Balie Peyton and certain 
 other signers of the letter persisted in opposition to 
 secession, but the majority of them went with the 
 Confederacy. It has been shown that this letter denied 
 the right of the government to subjugate the seceding 
 States. 
 
 Early in April, 1861, Fort Sumpter was attacked. 
 On the 15th of that month, j\Ir. Lincoln issued a call 
 for volunteers. Tennessee was included in the call, 
 and Harris sent a spirited refusal. April 25, the Leg- 
 islature met again in special session. The Governor, 
 in the most important paper that he ever wrote, boldly 
 advocated the withdrawal of Tennessee from the 
 Union, and an application for admission into the 
 Southern Confederacy. The ordinance of secession 
 was passed May 6, affirming not the constitutional 
 right, but the revolutionary right of secession. The 
 following is the language in which the declaration is 
 made: "We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiv- 
 ing any expression of opinion as to the abstract doc- 
 trine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and 
 independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish, our 
 form of government, in such manner as we think 
 proper, do ordain," etc. 
 
 The people were to vote on this ordinance June 8, 
 following. A resolution had been passed May 1, au- 
 thorizing the Governor to enter into a military league 
 with the Confederacy. Cnder this resolution, Gusta- 
 
344 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 WIS A. Henry, A. W. O. Totten and Washington Bar- 
 row were made Commissioners. These Commission- 
 ers met Henry W. HilUard, the representative of the 
 Confederate States, during the first week of A^ay, and 
 on the 7th of that month the agreement made by them 
 was ratified by the Legislature. An Act was passed 
 providing for a provisional army of 55,000 men, and 
 appropriating $5,000,000 to arm and equip it. 
 
 May 9, the Legislature confirmed the executive ap- 
 pointment of a long list of Generals. 
 
 The course of the Governor and of the Legislature 
 in the interval between the passage of the ordinance 
 of secession and the June election, has been most 
 severely criticised. Space would not permit the dis- 
 cussion here of the legal and other questions involved, 
 even if such a discussion were desirable. It is clear, 
 however, that the policy was in accord with the senti- 
 ment of the State, for when the vote was taken, June 
 8, it stood for secession 104,913, against secession 
 47,838, more than half the opposing votes having been 
 cast in East Tennessee. The ordinance also submitted 
 the question of representation in the Confederate Con- 
 gress, and the vote was 101,701 for, and 47,3G4 against 
 representation. 
 
 June 24, the Governor issued his proclamation form- 
 ally dissolving the connection of Tennessee with the 
 United States, and July 2, by proclamation of Presi- 
 dent Davis, the State became a member of the Southern 
 Confederacy. August 1, 1861, Tennessee voted to 
 adopt the permanent Confederate Constitution, and on 
 October 24, elected G. A. Henry and Landon C. 
 Haynes, Confederate State's Senators. 
 
 Thenceforth great events came in quick succession. 
 
OF TF.NNESSEE. 345 
 
 The Governor encountered many difficulties in organ- 
 izing the army of Tennessee, and never were his extra- 
 ordinary energy and executive powers better displayed 
 than in the successful accomplishment of this great 
 undertaking. In a message sent to the Legislature 
 in November, 1861, he reported that he had turned 
 over to the Confederate government thirty-eight regi- 
 ments of infantry, seven battalions of cavalry and six- 
 teen artillery companies. During the war Tennessee 
 gave to the Confederate army about 115,000 soldiers, 
 and to the Union army 30,000 white and 20,000 negro 
 soldiers. 
 
 In 1861 Harris was again a candidate for Governor, 
 and was elected. William G. Brownlow was at first 
 a candidate against him, but withdrew in favor of Wil- 
 liam H. Polk, whose canvass was extremely aggres- 
 sive. 
 
 The Legislature elected in 1861, being the 34th, met 
 at Nashville in December, and adjourned to January 
 20, 1862. It was in session at Nashville till February 
 15, 1862, when on account of the approach of the Fed- 
 eral army, it adjourned to meet at Memphis. This was 
 the day before the surrender of Fort Donelson. 
 March 3, 1862, Andrew Johnson \^as commissioned 
 Military Governor of Tennessee, and on the 12th of 
 that month entered on his duties. 
 
 Harris was the Confederate Governor until the in- 
 effectual election of Robert L. Caruthers in 1863. But 
 he was a Governor vvithout a government, and was in 
 the field upon the staff of the Commander of the Army 
 of Tennessee during the last three years of the war. 
 He was with Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh, when 
 that great General was killed. 
 
346 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 When the war ended, Harris was one of a company 
 of Southern men that sought refuge in Mexico. He 
 now became the subject of consideration at the hands 
 of the reconstruction State government. Reward was 
 ofTered for his capture, and a proclamation by Gov- 
 ernor Brownlow described him in terms the most un- 
 complimentary. Leaving Mexico he went to Europe, 
 and finally returned to Tennessee in 1867. He had 
 been denounced not only for treason, but also for theft. 
 Probably a more honest man never lived. His ene- 
 mies confidently affirmed that he had appropriated 
 public money which he had carried away with the 
 State's other portable property, in the flight from 
 Nashville. 
 
 Since the letters of Junius provoked the curiosity 
 of the literary world, probably nothing has induced 
 more surmising than the history of the public funds 
 of Tennessee, from 1862 to 1865, especially the school 
 fund. The most contradictory statements are made 
 most positively. The writer does not assert exact 
 knowledge of the facts. It may be assumed, safely, 
 however, that Governor Harris did not have the school 
 fund attached to his person during three years, and 
 it is certain that he was not guilty of any appropriation 
 or misapplication of public or private funds. 
 
 For ten years he again practiced law at Memphis. 
 In 1876 he was nominated one of the Democratic 
 Electors for the State at large, but the cautious policy 
 of the National party disapproved the selection of so 
 conspicuous and odious a "rebel," and he resigned, 
 During the campaign, however, he made a number of 
 speeches in the State. These speeches were full of 
 energy and spirit, and everywhere were received with 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 3-|7 
 
 enthusiasm. He was easily the first man in his party, 
 and it was conceded long beforehand that he would be 
 elected to the United States Senate in 1.ST7. 
 
 In the Senate he greatly disappointed his enemies. 
 He was called a "fire-eater," not without justification, 
 and it was confidently hoped by the Republicans that 
 he would adopt a policy of furious aggression. 
 
 But never did a public man display more consum- 
 mate tact. Xo doubt the fires still burned in his heart, 
 but he allowed no one to look into his heart. A man 
 of the strongest convictions and prejudices, of quick 
 temper and a ready and bitter tongue, he spoke in the 
 Senate but rarely, and then always with moderation 
 and wisdom. And this \\as not merely a selfish per- 
 sonal policy. His sense of public duty was high, and 
 he realized that he could best serve his people b\' ac- 
 cepting the situation without complaint or uscle:~s re- 
 sistance. And so it happened that by his self-control 
 and sagacity, this most obnoxious of "rebels" !-'crved 
 the South better l)y far than all the declaimers that she 
 has sent to the Senate in the last twenty years. 
 
 \Mien the Democrats controlled the Senate, he was 
 elected to the temporary Presidency, and within a few 
 years it was known everywhere that he was the best par- 
 liamentarian, and most influential man among the 
 Democratic Senators, and that he was but little less 
 esteemed by the Republicans than by the Democrats. 
 
 Xo surprise, therefore, was occasioned when it be- 
 came known that Harris and Hoar, of Massachusetts, 
 had established an intimacy. The ofhce seekers 
 learned that Harris was the most valuable and the 
 staunchest of friends. When the Democrats went into 
 power, he was embarrassed by the fact that he could 
 
348 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 not help many to office, because he had secured for his 
 constituency nearly its full quota, under the Repub- 
 licans. With President Cleveland he was never, or at 
 least not long, on cordial terms. Especially were their 
 relations unsatisfactory during Mr. Cleveland's last ad- 
 ministration, on account of the divergence of their 
 opinions on the silver question. It was in this matter 
 that Harris gave the last proofs of his great ability as 
 a party manager and organizer. He was the real head 
 of the movement which resulted in the adoption of the 
 silver platform at Chicago in 189G. It is said that he 
 was not greatly pleased by the nomination of Mr. 
 Bryan, but however that may be, to him more than to 
 any other man is due the overwhelming success of the 
 silver men in the Convention. His health did not 
 permit an active participation in the campaign, and 
 continued steadily to decline. He died in Washing- 
 ton City, July 8, 1897. 
 
 Harris was the last of his race of public men in this 
 State. In him, as in Jackson, there was something of 
 the fierce energy and determination of the frontier. 
 There was, in old times, a school of Tennessee states- 
 men, marked by a likeness of mental and moral, and 
 even of physical characteristics. Physically they were 
 lean and angular, mentally they were keen, aggressive, 
 unrelenting in dislikes, faithful in friendships, and de- 
 termined to a fault; morally they were not always 
 above reproach in their private lives, but in public 
 relations they were, almost without exception, sound 
 to the core, and absolutely trustworthy. They were 
 dangerous and often implacable enemies, the most 
 faithful friends, and the sincerest patriots. 
 
 For forty years Harris lived in incessant political 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 34<> 
 
 Strife. Xo man in Tennessee ever made more enemies, 
 but he died having the respect of enemies as well as 
 of friends. His faults were not unknown, but what- 
 ever they may have been, as to his ability and as to his 
 personal and political integrity there can be but one 
 opinion. 
 
 Albert Smith Marks was born in Daviess County, 
 Kentucky, October 16, 1836. He was descended from 
 a A'irginia family of good standing. 
 
 The father, Elisha Marks, died when Albert was 
 fourteen years of age, and just fairly beginning his 
 education. The management of a moderate family 
 estate then fell upon the boy, interrupting his school- 
 ing, and imposing large responsibilities. The parents 
 being of a pious turn, had designed him for the min- 
 istry, but he preferred the law. He was admitted to the 
 bar, at Winchester, in 1858, and became a member of 
 the firm of Colyar, Marks & Frizzell. 
 
 Mr. Marks was a Democrat, and in 1860 supported 
 Breckenridge and Lane, but was a Union man. AVlien 
 the war began, however, he went with the State, 
 entered the Confederate army, was elected Captain, 
 and within a short time rose by promotion to the Col- 
 onelcy of the Seventeenth Tennessee Regiment. He 
 was a gallant soldier and a capable commander, and 
 was highly esteemed in the army. At the battle of 
 Murfreesboro he was severely wounded in the foot 
 while leading a charge. An amputation was nec- 
 essary, and he was for a long time physically in- 
 capacitated for active service, but being determined 
 not to quit the army, he returned to the field, was 
 made Judge Advocate on the staff of General For- 
 rest, and held that place till the end of the war. 
 
3SO BENCH AND BAR 
 
 He was a strict disciplinarian, and the Seventeenth 
 Tennessee, while he commanded it, was regarded as 
 the best drilled regiment in Bragg's army. 
 
 In 1870 Colonel Marks was elected Chancellor for 
 the Fourth Chancery Division. This position he filled 
 with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the 
 bar and to litigants. 
 
 In 1878 he was the Democratic nominee for Gov- 
 ernor, and was elected. 
 
 His term of office covered a disturbed period in 
 the history of Tennessee, and of the Democratic party 
 especially. The State debt question had been for sev- 
 eral years threatening the harmony of that party. 
 
 The position of Governor Marks on this vexed sub- 
 ject was clearly defined, but he did not seek re-nomin- 
 ation in 1880, for the reason that he believed that 
 some one should be chosen who had had no prominent 
 connection with the question. He favored what was 
 known as the fifty and four plan of settling the State 
 debt, but that plan was defeated, and he then assented 
 to the settlement at fifty and three. Indeed, he was the 
 leading spirit in the Convention of 1882, and probably 
 did more than any one else to bring the two wings of 
 the party together. 
 
 Afterwards Governor Marks was a candidate for the 
 United States Senate, but was defeated by William 
 B. Bate. He continued the practice of law with his 
 office at Nashville, but was much sought after in im- 
 portant cases in other parts of the State. In 1888 he 
 was a Cleveland Elector for the State at large. He 
 died at Nashville, November 4, 1891. 
 
 Governor Marks lived and died with an unblemished 
 reputation and with a high degree of public esteem 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 35 I 
 
 and confidence, '^s a lawyer he was unquestionably 
 one of the best in the State. As a public speaker he 
 excelled greatly. He spoke with deliberation and 
 accuracy, and with great force, and in his later years 
 was probably the best political speaker and debater in 
 the Democratic party in Tennessee. 
 
 His death occurred when he was in the prime of 
 life. His position in the Democratic party was such 
 that it is certain that if he had lived he would have 
 been chosen again to high position. It is hardly to 
 be doubted that he would have been sent to the United 
 States Senate, a body in which he was Cjualified as a 
 lawyer, and as an orator and debater, to take high rank. 
 
 Within a few days before his death, he argued two 
 important cases with even more than his usual mental 
 and nervous vigor, thus fatally exhausting his vital 
 forces. 
 
 As Chancellor he had a remarkable record. He 
 found the dockets of his Division crowded with old 
 unsettled cases, the accumulations of many years. He 
 at once gave the lawyers to understand that their 
 cases must be tried. Diligence became the order of 
 the day, and in a remarkably short time the dockets 
 were cleared, and justice was no longer delayed. 
 
 Although his education had been interrupted, he was 
 a diligent student and reader, so that after all he was 
 one of the best educated men in the State. To his 
 last day he was a laborious student of the law, and 
 there was no better read lawyer in Tennessee. 
 
 Joseph Benjamin Palmer was born in Bedford 
 County, Tennessee, November 1, 1825, and died No- 
 vember 4, ]890. 
 
 He was educated in the primary schools of the 
 
352 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 neighborlicod, and was afterwards, Ifor two years and 
 more, at the Union University, Murfreesboro, Ten- 
 nessee. Leaving tlie University, probably in 1846, he 
 studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1 848. He 
 was a Whig, and took an active part in politics from 
 1851 to 18<)1, standing fast for the Union until Mr. 
 Lincoln's call for volunteers was made. Like Bell, 
 and Hatton and Marshall, he believed that his first duty, 
 was to the people of Tennessee. He therefore raised 
 a company and afterwards a regiment of infantry for 
 the Confederate service. This regiment was the 
 Eighteenth Tennessee, and he was unanimously elected 
 Colonel. At Fort Donelson, the ill-fated, he was cap- 
 tured with his regiment. Sentj a prisoner, to Fort 
 Warren, in Boston Harbor, he was exchanged in May, 
 1862, and was at once re-elected Colonel of his old 
 regiment. In the fighting around Murfreesboro in 
 the succeeding winter, he was dangerously wounded, 
 and was unable to return to his command until April, 
 1863. 
 
 On the first day of the great battle of Chicamauga, 
 he led a gallant and successful charge of his regiment, 
 in which he was desperately, and to all appearances, 
 fatally wounded. The writer once succeeded in secur- 
 ing from General Palmer a very modest account of 
 his experiences at Chicamauga. For the remainder 
 of the day on which he was wounded, and during the 
 succeeding night, he lay upon the battle-field, 
 neglected, and at the very point of death. His body 
 was cruelly torn and mutilated, and his vital forces 
 almost destroyed by the shock and by loss of blood. 
 Added to all this he suffered intensely from a sickness 
 which had recently come upon him, and which now 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 353 
 
 attacked him with great violence. No effort is made 
 here to portray the horrors of that night, but it is safe 
 to say that in all the four years of the war, no man suf- 
 fered more than Colonel Palmer suffered as he la}' 
 shattered, bleeding, sick and all but dead on the iielcl 
 of Chicamauga. In time he recovered, but his right 
 arm was permanently paralyzed, and his constitution 
 irreparablv injured. Nevertheless he rejoined the 
 army, and in July, 1864, was made a Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral, richly deserving the promotion, and was assigned 
 to the brigade formerly commanded by John C. Brown. 
 He was at Franklin and at Nashville, following Hood's 
 gallant but fatal lead. Holding together the remnants 
 of his brigade, he retreated with others, after Hood's 
 last disastrous defeat, through Mississippi, and then, 
 proceeding by way of Mobile and Augusta, joined 
 General Joe Johnston. 
 
 The re-organization of the residuum of Hood's army 
 being necessary, Johnston placed all the Tennesseans 
 together and gave the command of them to General 
 Palmer. Under him they participated gallantly in 
 the final battle of Bentonville, March 20, 1865. 
 
 They surrendered with Johnston, and were paroled 
 ]\Iay 2, 1865. General Palmer, still faithful to his 
 duties, led them home to Tennessee and dismissed 
 them. 
 
 There were other Confederate Generals from Ten- 
 nessee who reached higher rank and became more 
 widely known than General Palmer, but there was 
 none who rendered better service, or suffered more, 
 or displayed more courage, fortitude and fidelity. No 
 soldier ever gave stronger proofs of courage and de- 
 votion. 
 
354 liENCH AND BAR 
 
 After the war General Palmer returned to his pro- 
 fession, and continued to have an active interest in 
 politics. He was not a good politician, because, if 
 it may respectfully and safely be said, he was too 
 modest and not sufficiently artful. He was recog- 
 nized, however, as one of the foremost and most de- 
 serving men in the State, and more than once his 
 friends made the efifort to induce him to seek the 
 Democratic nomination for Governor. 
 
 As Governor he would have honored himself and 
 the State. He was a man of ability, of courage and 
 of convictions. His whole life was clean and admir- 
 able. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 355 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Howell E. Jackson— Neill S. Brown — Henry Cooper — 
 B. J. Lea— W. C. Folkes— 8. W. Cochran— R. P. Caldwell 
 —A. W. Campbell— W. Y. C. Humes— W. C. Whitthorne 
 —J. M. Thornburgh — L. C. Honk— W. V. Deaderick— 
 Alfred Caldwell. 
 
 Howell Edmunds Jackson was born at Paris, Ten- 
 nessee, April 8, 1832. Of the family of Judge Jackson 
 little can be said beyond the fact that his parents were 
 from Virginia, and that his father, Alexander Jackson, 
 v/as a physician, and a man of culture and refinement. 
 Beine a A^irginian, well-to-do, and having a son to 
 educate. Dr. Jackson, of course, turned to the Univer- 
 sity of Virginia. 
 
 Howell E. Jackson, after receiving such training 
 as the academies of West Tennessee could afford, was, 
 in 1850, sent to Charlottesville, and there received his 
 degree. Thus, thoroughly founded, he entered the 
 law department of Cumberland University, at Leb- 
 anon, Tennessee, and took the full two years' course, 
 graduating in 1856. He began the practice at Jack- 
 son, Tennessee, in 1856, but in 1858 changed his domi- 
 cile to Memphis. 
 
 He was twice married, first, in 1859, to Miss Sophia 
 Malloy, of Memphis, and second, in 1874, to Miss 
 Mary E. Harding, of Nashville. 
 
 At the beginning of the war he was already recog- 
 
356 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 nized as a lawyer of ability and as a man worthy of 
 trust. He was, therefore, appointed to the responsil>le 
 position of receiver of property sequestered under the 
 Confederate Confiscation Acts. The office was one of 
 importance and of responsibility, but its duties were 
 intermittent, and he had frequent intervals of leisure 
 Mhich he diligently employed in the study of the law. 
 
 At the end of the war he returned to the practice, 
 first at Memphis and later at Jackson, and in a few 
 years rose to a position of great prominence at the 
 bar of West Tennessee, and gradually acquired repu- 
 tation throughout the State. 
 
 He was repeatedly called to fill temporary vacancies 
 on the supreme bench of the State, and in 1878 was a 
 candidate before the Democratic State Convention for 
 nomination to one of the judgeships of that Court. 
 
 In 1880 he was nominated against his wishes, or 
 at least without solicitation, for the lower house of the 
 Legislature, by the Democrats of Madison County. 
 In the party divisions of that time, he was what was 
 known as a State Credit Democrat. The Legislature 
 met in 188] . Factional strife in the party had reduced, 
 dangerously, the Democratic majority, and at one 
 time there seemed to be a possibility that the skillful 
 and persistent efforts of the Republicans would secure 
 the election of Horace Maynard to the United States 
 Senate. The balloting was long, and the uncertainty 
 protracted and trying. At last the dead-lock was 
 broken by the unexpected and tmsolicited election of 
 ]\Ir. Jackson, of Madison, to the coveted office. The 
 Democrats of the State, without regard for factional 
 differences, were greatly relieved and pleased. Sena- 
 tor Jackson was known to belong to the State Credit 
 
OF TENNESSEE. T,^J 
 
 wing of the party, but he was a Democrat. In the 
 Senate he commanded respect from the first. It is 
 said that the principal committee to which he was 
 assigned had delayed the investigation of certain 
 difficult matters that had long been before it. With 
 prompt and pleasing generosity it gave the new mem- 
 ber the opportunity to distinguish himself, Ijy referring 
 these delayed matters, or some of them, to him. The 
 results exceeded their expectations, and Jackson tools- 
 place at once among the best lawyers in the Senate. 
 His abilities being demonstratecj, he was cordially and 
 respectfully received by the leaders of both parties. 
 On all questions of law he was thenceforth heard atten- 
 tively and profitably. Beyond doubt he was the equal 
 as a lawyer of any man that Tennessee has ever sent 
 to the Senate. 
 
 • His courtesy and his attractive personality made 
 him a favorite. 
 
 \\'hen, in 1882, the second great fight over the State 
 debt question came on in Tennessee, Senator Jackson 
 adhered to his original position, and opposed the com- 
 pulsory re-adjustment of the debt. When the "Sky 
 Blue" Convention met, a committee of that body was 
 charged with the selection of a candidate for Governor. 
 The firmness with which Senator Jackson stood to 
 his position, will be shown by the statement that after 
 tendering the nomination to James E. Bailey, whose 
 feeble health forbade his acceptance, and to others, 
 who for various reasons declined it, the committee 
 received assurances from a trustworthy source that 
 rather than have the movement fail. Senator Jackson 
 would resign from the Senate and become the candi- 
 date for Governor. This would, of course, have been 
 
358 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 political suicide, as there was no possibility of electing 
 the nominee of the Convention. 
 
 The election of Mr. Cleveland greatly advanced 
 Jackson's position and influence in the Senate. His 
 course in public affairs commended him strongly to 
 the President, and it was known at Washington, in 
 1885, that he earnestly desired to have the Tennessee 
 Senator in his Cabinet. High considerations of policy, 
 suggested by prevailing conditions, alone prevented it. 
 
 The death of Judge Baxter, United States Circuit 
 Judge for the Sixth (^ircuit, in 1886, opened to the 
 Democratic lawyers of that Circuit, a long closed way 
 to high position. From Tennessee, and from the three 
 other States composing the Circuit, went to Washing- 
 ton a flood of applications, many of them from men of 
 indisputable worth and competency. The President 
 was greatly embarrassed and perplexed. Instinctively" 
 he turned to Jackson, whose fitness for the place was 
 conspicuous. But Jackson was advocating the claim 
 of another, and felt himself bound in honor to his 
 friend, who was one of the best lawyers in the South. 
 The President struggled long with his perplexities. 
 Finally, in a letter which is preserved, he demanded 
 that Jackson take the office. 'Reluctantly, though by 
 no means insensible to the honor he was receiving, 
 he consented. The President knew his Cjualifications 
 for the place, and knew that in appointing him he could 
 make no mistake. Mr. Cleveland's acquaintance with 
 public men was at that time limited, and under the 
 circumstances, it was Jackson's duty to accept. If 
 there had been any doubt of the wisdom of the selec- 
 tion, it would have been dispelled by the ability, 
 firmness and tact which, from the very first, distin- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 35c) 
 
 guished Judge Jackson's administration of the office. 
 He lacked no good quality as a Judge. He was pro- 
 foundly learned in the law, was a diligent student, abso- 
 lutely fair and impartial, prompt, though careful in 
 decision, and combined with unfailing courtesy and 
 consideration for the feelings of others, an unyielding 
 firmness. It was a pleasure and not a task to practice 
 before him. Business was dispatched and justice done 
 at the same time. Though positive in conviction and 
 quick to make his opinions known, he heard argument 
 patiently, and if convinced that his own position was 
 wrong, never failed to admit the fact. He was too 
 large a man to need the affectation of infallibility. It 
 is very certain that no Federal or State Judge ever 
 gave more satisfaction than did Judge Jackson to the 
 bar of Tennessee. 
 
 And now, having been elected to the Legislature, 
 and to the United States Senate without effort on his 
 part, and having been appointed Circuit Judge against 
 his will, he was destined to be yet more signally 
 honored under the most exceptional circumstances. 
 
 His appointment to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States by President Harrison, in 1893, was 
 unprecedented in our political history. He was a 
 Democrat, and had been a loyal supporter of the 
 Southern Confederacy. Mr. Harrison was a Republi- 
 can, had been a General in the Union army, and had 
 never been conspicuously liberal. It was held by 
 some that dissatisfaction with the leaders of his own 
 party prompted the President. Others, not being 
 friendly to Jackson, said that he had been appointed 
 because he was a Federalist. Some support for this 
 last assertion apparently was found in the fact that in 
 
360 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 writing- to Judge Jackson, the President said: "I have 
 beheved from my knowledge of you, and representa- 
 tions of others that you were a believer in the nation, 
 and did not sympathize with the opinion that a United 
 States Marshal was an alien officer. 
 
 It is submitted that a Judge might hold these 
 opinions without indulging Federalism of a virulent 
 type, but it may be said that Mr. Harrison was justi- 
 fied in believing that Judge Jackson held opinions 
 not unlike his own upon the subject of the relative 
 powers of the State and the Federal governments. 
 That these opinions were neither extreme nor danger- 
 ous, even in the judgment of Democrats, will abund- 
 antly appear, if proof be necessary, from Jackson's 
 dissenting opinion in the income tax cases, and could 
 otherwise be clearly shown. 
 
 His term of service in the Supreme Court was, un- 
 fortunately, not a long one. Soon after his appoint- 
 ment, symptoms of pulmonary disease made their ap- 
 pearance. His friends were dismayed by this unex- 
 pected danger. The fatal malady would not be stayed. 
 Every effort was made, but in vain. He traveled far 
 in search of favoring climates, and for a little while 
 hopes of his recovery were entertained, but for these 
 there was no foundation. The great income tax cases, 
 attracting the attention and interest of the whole coun- 
 try, were coming on to be heard before the Supreme 
 Court. There was feai- that Justice Jackson would 
 not be able to be at the hearing. At the first hearing 
 he was absent, but at the second he was present and 
 delivered a dissenting opinion, which closes with the 
 following strong and sound words: 
 
 ''The practical operation of the decision is not only 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 36 I 
 
 to disregard the great principles of equity- in taxation, 
 but the further principle that in the imposition of taxes 
 for the benefit of the government, the burdens thereof 
 should be imposed upon those having most ability to 
 bear them. This decision, in effect, works out a di- 
 rectly opposite result, in relieving the citizens having 
 the greater ability, while the burdens of taxation are 
 made to fall most heavily and oppressively upon those 
 having the least ability. It lightens the burden upon 
 the larger number, in some States subject to the tax, 
 and places it most unequally and disproportionately 
 on the smaller number in other States. Considered in 
 all its bearings, this decision is, in my judgment, the 
 most disastrous blow ever struck at the Constitutional 
 power of Congress. It strikes down an important por- 
 tion of the most vital and essential power of the gov- 
 ernment in practically excluding any recourse to in- 
 come from real and personal estate for the purpose of 
 raising needed revenues to meet the government's 
 wants and necessities under any circumstances. 
 
 "I am therefore compelled to enter my dissent to the 
 judgment of the Court." 
 
 This opinion was his last work. He died .\ugust 
 8, 1895. 
 
 His career is unique. There has been nothing like 
 it in our history. A State Credit Democrat, he was 
 elected to the Legislature at a time when his opinions 
 were offensive, perhaps, to a majority of his party, and 
 distasteful to nearly all its active leaders; a Democrat, 
 he was elected to the Senate largely by Republican 
 votes ; he was appointed to the bench when he did not 
 seek the place, and finally, being still a Democrat, and 
 having been a supporter of the Confederacy, he was 
 
362 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 nominated to the supreme bench of the United States 
 by a RepubHcan President and confirmed by a Repub- 
 lican Senate. 
 
 With such a record, he needs no eulogy. 
 
 Neill S. Brown was born in Giles County, Ten- 
 nessee, in 1810, and grew to manhood there. 
 
 For two terms he attended an academy in Maury 
 County. This was in 1831. In 1833 he began to 
 study law at Pulaski, in the office of Chancellor Bram- 
 lett, and in ISo-t was admitted to the bar, and opened 
 an office there. In 183.") he sought a better field of 
 practice in Texas, but being disappointed, returned to 
 Tennessee. In 1836 he enlisted for the Seminole war, 
 entering Armstrong's brigade as a private, and was 
 promoted to the office of Sergeant-Major of the First 
 Tennessee Regiment. 
 
 While serving in Florida, he was nominated District 
 Elector, on the White ticket, in Tennessee, and ren- 
 dered acceptable service on the stump. He was called 
 to the same duty in 1840, and again in 1844, and gradu- 
 ally rose to a prominent position in the Whig party. 
 In 1837 he was a member of the Legislature. In 1843 
 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress against 
 Aaron V. Brown. The canvass made by the two 
 Browns became famous, and was very fortunate in its 
 results upon the career of the young Whig champion. 
 
 Aaron V. Brown was elected Governor by the 
 Democrats in 1845, defeating Ephraim H. Foster. As 
 the State election of 1847 approached, there was an ac- 
 tive rivalry for the Whig nomination between Meredith 
 P. Gentry, Gustavus A. Henry and Neill S. Brown. 
 
 Brown was finally chosen for the race, and had his 
 revenge upon his late successful competitor for Con- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 363 
 
 gress. In 1849 fortune again favored the Democrats, 
 and Brown was defeated for re-election by William 
 Trousdale, who was in turn defeated, in 1851, by X-Vil- 
 liam B. Campbell, the ^^^^ig candidate, and the last of 
 the ^^ hig Governors. 
 
 In 1850 Governor Brown received the appointment 
 of Minister to Rvissia, and served in that capacity for 
 more than three years. 
 
 Returning to Nashville in ISoo, he was elected, in 
 1855, to the lower house of the Legislature from Dav- 
 idson County, and was chosen Speaker of that body. 
 In 1S56 he was a candidate of the Whig party for 
 Elector for the State at large. 
 
 He took no part in the war, but sympathized with 
 the South. 
 
 In 1870 he was a delegate from Davidson County 
 to the Constitutional Convention, and was an active 
 and influential member. 
 
 He held no other office, and took no active part in 
 politics, except to declare himself publicly, on certain 
 occasions, in favor of an adjustment of the State debt 
 by contract with the creditors. He was one of the 
 greatest of the Whig leaders and one of the best and 
 purest of our public men. He has not left so great a 
 reputation as a public speaker as his famous Whig 
 contemporaries, Henry and Gentry, but he is said to 
 have been not less effective or popular than either. 
 His devotion to politics prevented the full development 
 of his powers as a lawyer. That he had the ability, 
 the industry, the perseverance and the devotion to 
 duty which are the prime qualities of a la^'ver, is 
 certain. 
 
 An ardent Whig, so long as that party existed, he 
 
364 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 cast his fortunes with the Democrats after the war, and 
 was prominent and influential in their councils. 
 
 He was married in 1839.to Miss Mary Ann Trimble, 
 daughter of Judge James Trimble. Eight children 
 were born of this marriage, one of whom is the Honor- 
 able Tully Brown, of Nashville. 
 
 Governor Brown died-in 1886, at Nashville, where 
 the closing years of his honorable and useful life were 
 passed in dignified and tranquil retirement. 
 
 Henry Cooper was born at Columbia, Tennessee, 
 August 22, 1827. He was the son of Matthew D. 
 Cooper, of Maury County, Tennessee, who for many 
 years was engaged in important commercial enter- 
 prises at New Orleans. 
 
 Henry Cooper was thoroughly educated, and was a 
 graduate of Jackson College in the class of 1847. He 
 read law at Shelbyville, Tennessee, in the office of 
 Frierson & Cooper, and was admitted to the bar in 
 1849. In January, 1850, he entered upon the active 
 practice with his brother, Edmund Cooper, at Shelby- 
 ville, under the firm name of E. & H. Cooper. He 
 rose rapidly at the bar, being industrious and studious, 
 and having a fine gift of speech. In 1853 he was 
 elected, as a Whig, from Bedford and Rutherford coun- 
 ties, to the lower house of the Legislature. In 1857 he 
 was elected to the same position from Bedford County. 
 
 Like nearly all the Whigs, he was opposed to seces- 
 sion, but unlike most of them he refused to go with the 
 State in seceding. 
 
 He continued in partnership with his brother at 
 Shelbyville until April, 1862, when he was appointed 
 Judge of the Seventh Circuit by Andrew Johnson, Mili- 
 tary Governor of the State. This office he held until 
 
OF TENNESSEE 365 
 
 January, ISGH, when he retired in order to accept a pro- 
 fessorship in the Law School at Cumberland Univer- 
 sity. Here he remained until June, 1867, when he 
 went to Xashville and formed a partnership with his 
 brother, Judge William F. Cooper. In 1869 he was 
 elected to the State Senate from Davidson County, 
 and in ISTO was elected by the Legislature, of which he 
 was a member, to the United States Senate to succeed 
 Joseph S. Fowler. His term as Senator expired March 
 3, 187?. His Democratic competitor for the United 
 States Senatorship was Andrew Johnson. In the 
 Senate Mr. Cooper had few opportunities to prove 
 his abilities. His party was a hopeless minority in 
 that body, and hardly able to make its influence felt 
 in opposition to Republican measures. 
 
 His fortunes seem to have suffered during his poli- 
 tical career, and seeking to better them, he associated 
 himself, after retiring from the Senate, with his brother, 
 Colonel Duncan B. Cooper, and Mr. \'an Leer Polk,. 
 in mining operations in Alexico. 
 
 February 7, 1884, en the highway between El 
 Cuervo and Culeocan, he was attacked and murdered 
 by Mexican banditti. 
 
 He was an able lawyer, a sound jurist, and an incor- 
 ruptible statesm.an. 
 
 Benjamin James Lea, Attorney-General for the 
 State, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was 
 born in Caswell County, Xorth Carolina, January 1, 
 1833, of English and Scotch-Irish parentage. His 
 father was Alvis G. Lea, and his mother, whose name 
 was Xancy Kerr, was of a prominent X^orth Carolina 
 family. He graduated at Wake Forest College in 
 Jime, 1852, and soon afterwards removed to Haywood 
 
366 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 County, Tennessee, where he became a school teacher, 
 studying meanwhile to prepare himself for the bar. 
 Procuring a license, in 1856, he opened an office at 
 Brownsville. 
 
 In 1859 he was elected to the lower house of the 
 General Assembly from Haywood County. While 
 a member of the Legislature he was appointed to the 
 office of Commissary, with the rank of Major, in the 
 Provisional Army, and a few months later was elected 
 Colonel of the Fifty-second Tennessee Confederate 
 regiment. Upon the re-organization of the regiment 
 he was retained in his position by unanimous vote, and 
 served until the end of the war. Early in 1865 he was 
 captured, and remained on parole until after the sur- 
 render. 
 
 In 1876 he was appointed by Governor Porter 
 Special Judge of the Supreme Court to take the place 
 of Judge Freeman, whose health required a temporary 
 retirement from the bench. 
 
 In 1878 the Supreme Court elected him Attorney- 
 General and Reporter for the State. He served in this 
 capacity for the full term of eight years, and published 
 sixteen volumes of Reports. Retiring from this posi- 
 tion in 1886, he practiced law until 1889, when he was 
 elected to the State Senate. He was elected and served 
 as President of the Senate. 
 
 In 1890, upon the death of Judge W. C. Folkes, of 
 the Supreme Court, Judge Lea was nominated and 
 elected to fill out the unexpired term. His majority 
 in the election exceeded sixty thousand, and was the 
 largest ever received by any Democrat in the State. In 
 April, 1893, the Honorable Horace H. Lurton, Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court, was appointed Judge of 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 367 
 
 the Circuit Court of the United States, and Judge Lea 
 was elected Chief Justice in his place. 
 
 About this time his health began to fail, probably as 
 a result of the excessive work undertaken by the Su- 
 preme Court. For several months he was unable to 
 be upon the bench, and in his earnest desire to dis- 
 charge his duties, took them up before he had fully 
 recovered, thereby hastening his death, which oc- 
 curred March 15, 1894. 
 
 William 0. Folkes, a Judge of the Supreme Court 
 of Tennessee, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, June 
 8, 1845, and died at Memphis, Tennessee, May 17, 1800. 
 His death, in the prime of life, was caused by overwork 
 upon the supreme bench. 
 
 Very little can be found concerning the early life of 
 Judge Folkes. It is recorded that he joined the Con- 
 federate army in 1861, and was severely wounded at the 
 first Battle of Manassas. He recovered in time, how- 
 ever, to take part in the desperate fighting at Malvern 
 Hill, where he lost a foot. Despite the fact that he was 
 seriously disabled, he did not retire from the army, but 
 remained in the field in active service until the end of 
 the war. He then entered the Law School of the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia, where he graduated in 1865. In 
 the next year he came to Memphis and entered upon 
 the active practice of the law. 
 
 He married Miss Mary Wright, daughter of Judge 
 Archibald Wright, and practiced law in partnership, 
 first with Judge Wright, and afterwards with his son, 
 Luke E. Wright, until he was elected Judge of the 
 Supreme Court in August, 1886. 
 
 When Judge Folkes went upon the bench, the 
 dockets of the Supreme Court contained a multitude of 
 
368 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 delayed cases that had been accumulating for man}^ 
 years. It had been the habit of the former Court to 
 write its opinions, which was in literal compliance with 
 a Statute, though unfavorable to the dispatch of busi- 
 ness, but the newly-elected body, which was composed 
 of young men, with the exception of Judge Turney, 
 entered upon its duties with enthusiasm and with a 
 determination to write less, and to clear the docket. 
 The amount of work undertaken and accomplished in 
 pursuance of this resolution will be shown elsewhere 
 in these Sketches. It need only be stated here that this 
 work exceeded anything ever undertaken by any other 
 court of final resort in the United States. The physi- 
 cal disability of Judge Folkes made it impossible for 
 him to take active exercise in the brief intervals of 
 labor. Therefore, as he was a laborious man, and ex- 
 ceedingly conscientious in the discharge of his duties, 
 his health failed rapidly, and he survived his election 
 not quite four years. 
 
 The record of his life is brief, but it is altogether 
 honorable. He was a thoroughly equipped lawyer, 
 and was one of the most amiable and attractive of men. 
 If his life had been spared he would have won a high 
 position among the Judges of the State. 
 
 Solomon W. Cochran was born in Portage County, 
 Ohio, March 20, 1808. His father was a farmer, and 
 had been a soldier in the war of 1812. The son was 
 reared on the farm, and sent to school when there was 
 no work to be done. 
 
 In 1832 he began the study of law in the office of 
 Samuel Starkweather, at Cleveland, Ohio. He ob- 
 tained his license in 1835, and in 1840 removed to 
 Henry County, Tennessee, where he taught school 
 
NATHAN GREEN. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 369 
 
 for two years, and then went to Troy, in Obion Count)-, 
 where he resumed the practice of law, and where he 
 resided until his death. 
 
 In 1848 he was a member of the Democratic National 
 Convention which met at Baltimore. AMien the war 
 began he sided with the South, and it is stated that in 
 ISni Governor Harris appointed him a Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral in the Army of Tennessee, and that he raised a 
 number of companies and mustered them into service. 
 Xo record is found to show that he served in the field. 
 
 In February, iST-f, he was appointed by Governor 
 John C. Brown, Judge of the Circuit Court for the 
 Twelfth Circuit, and served until September of that 
 3'ear. 
 
 When the first Court of Arbitration for \\'est Ten- 
 nessee was created, he was made one of the Commis- 
 sioners, his associates being Howell E. Jackson and 
 L. D. McKissick, and in 1S77 he was appointed to the 
 same office, his associates then being J. L. T. Sneed and 
 Joseph B. Heiskell. He was a member of the Demo- 
 cratic Convention that nominated Mr. Tilden, at St. 
 Louis, in 1876. In November, 1880, he was elected 
 on the Democratic ticket to represent Obion and Lake 
 Counties in the Legislature. He died at Troy, Octo- 
 ber 14, 1888. 
 
 He was thoroughly equipped in all branches of the 
 law, and a successful practitioner in all the Courts, 
 but especially he was admitted to be the best, land 
 lawyer in West Tennessee. 
 
 Robert Porter Caldwell was born in Adair County, 
 Kentucky, December IG, 1821. His parents removed, 
 while he was a child, to Henry County, Tennessee, 
 whence, after a few years they went to Obion County. 
 
370 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 The father was a substantial farmer, and the son had 
 the usual experience of farmers' sons in that time. In 
 Summer he worked and in Winter went to school. 
 The limited schooling which he thus received appears 
 to have been exceptionally inferior. It was, therefore, 
 with a very imperfect preparation, though with a fine 
 natural endowment, that the young man, about the 
 time of his majority, began the study of law at Troy. 
 
 Early in his professional life he discovered a liking 
 for politics, and in 1845 was elected, as a Whig, to 
 the lower house of the General Assembly from Obion 
 County. After completing his term of service, he 
 entered the Law School, at Lebanon, Tennessee, where 
 he remained for a year, and then resumed the practice 
 at Troy. About 1851 he removed to Trenton, in Gib- 
 son County, where he entered into partnership with 
 Thomas J. Freeman, late a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of the State. 
 
 In 1855 he was elected to the State Senate from a 
 district composed of Gibson, Dyer dnd Carroll Coun- 
 ties. In 1858 he was elected District Attorney for the 
 Sixteenth Circuit, and served until the Courts were 
 suspended by the war. 
 
 Like most of the Tennessee Whigs, he was a Union 
 man until it became apparent that war was unavoidable, 
 but when the crisis came he declared for the South 
 and raised a company for the Confederate army. He 
 was elected Captain of the company, which became 
 a part of the Twelfth Regiment of Tennessee Volun- 
 teers. When the regiment was organized he was 
 elected Major, and served gallantly at Belmont and at 
 Shiloh. He was wounded at Shiloh, but did not leave 
 the field. In May, 1862, his regiment was reorganized, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 37 I 
 
 and the condition of his family affairs demanding his 
 attention, he resigned and went home, where he re- 
 mained until early in 1864, being engaged meanwhile 
 in recruiting for the Confederate cavalry service. In 
 the Spring of 1864 he rejoined the army, and served 
 in Forrest's command on the stafif of General Bell to 
 the end of the war. 
 
 When the war was over, he returned to Trenton, and 
 resumed the practice of the law in partnership with 
 Judge J. T. Carthel. 
 
 The Whig party having been dissolved, Major Cald- 
 well became a Democrat, and in 1871 was nominated 
 and elected to Congress. With this term of service in 
 Congress his public career ended. For the remainder 
 of his life he practiced law at Trenton, where he had 
 formed a partnership with Waller C. Caldwell, who 
 since 1886 has been a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Major Caldwell was essentially a man of the people, 
 with a fine social turn, but was not a learned lawyer 
 nor a student. 
 
 The deficiencies of his education were apparent, but 
 he never failed to impress one as a man of strong in- 
 tellect. 
 
 He was a man of sound principles and of correct 
 and blameless life, and was cordially liked and sincerely 
 respected. The kindliness of his disposition attracted 
 every one to him, and his sterling qualities commanded 
 respect. 
 
 Alexander W. Campbell was born in the city of 
 Nashville, June 4, 1828, and died at Jackson, June 13, 
 1893. As his name indicates, he was of Scotch descent, 
 and his family formed a part of the Scotch migration to 
 Ireland and of the Scotch-Irish migration to America. 
 
372 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Alexander W. Campbell was educated at an academy 
 at Jackson, and in West Tennessee College. After 
 completing his academic course, he took a degree in the 
 Law Department of Cumberland University. He was 
 married in January, 1852, to Miss Ann Dixon Allen, 
 of Nashville. 
 
 In the same year he opened an office at Jackson and 
 entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1854 
 he was appointed by President Pierce, United States 
 District Attorney for West Tennessee, and was re-ap- 
 pointed in 1856 by President Buchanan, and held the 
 position until 1860, when he resigned. 
 
 In politics he was a Democrat, and held the State's 
 rights doctrines of the Southern wing of his party. 
 On the first call for volunteers for the Provisional 
 Army of Tennessee, in 1861, he enlisted as a private in 
 a company of independent guards raised at Jackson, 
 and afterwards incorporated into the Sixth Regiment. 
 Before his regiment was mustered into service, how- 
 ever, he was appointed by Governor Harris, Assistant 
 Inspector-General of the Provisional Army, and was 
 active in organizing the army in West Tennessee. In 
 June, 1861, he was appointed to the staff of General 
 Cheatham, and in October of the same year, was elected 
 Colonel of the Thirty-third Tennessee Regiment. He 
 led his regiment at the battle of Shiloh, and was 
 wounded in the shoulder by a minnie ball, but did not 
 leave the field. 
 
 He was again wounded at the battle of Perryville. 
 At the battle of Murfreesboro he served on the staff 
 of General Polk, as Assistant Inspector-General. Af- 
 ter the battle he was placed in charge of the conscript 
 bureau for portions of Middle and West Tennessee, 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 373 
 
 with head<inarters at Fayetteville. When Bragg re- 
 treated to Chattanooga, he was sent to West Tennessee 
 to organize the Confederate cavalry in that section, and 
 while engaged in that service was captured and sent to 
 Johnson's Island, where he remained until September, 
 1.^64, when he was exchanged. While in prison he 
 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. After 
 his exchange, he commanded a brigade under General 
 Forrest, until the surrender of that gallant leader. 
 
 After the war he returned home and practiced law 
 for the remainder of his life. 
 
 In 1868, and again in 18T(i, he was a delegate from 
 Tennessee to national Democratic Conventions; in 
 ISTO he was a delegate from Madison County to the 
 Constitutional Convention, and served on the Judiciary 
 Commiittee. In 1880 he was an unsuccessful candidate 
 before the Democratic State Convention for the nom- 
 ination for Governor. 
 
 W. Y. 0. Humes was born at Abingdon, Virginia, 
 in June, 1830. He came of a prominent family which 
 has an honorable record in Virginia, Tennessee and 
 Alabama. The father had been at one time a man of 
 wealth, but had suffered reverses. The education of 
 his son, therefore, was secured by his own efforts. 
 He attended the Virginia ^Military Institute upon bor- 
 rowed money, and, after graduating, taught school 
 and with his first earnings repaid the loan. He after- 
 wards read law, and began the practice at Knoxville, 
 Tennessee, where he had relatives, one of them being 
 the late Dr. Thomas W. Humes, who was for many 
 years President of the University of Tennessee. He 
 resided at Knoxville until 1858, or about that time, 
 when he removed to Memphis, where he practiced 
 
374 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 with great auccess until the outbreak of the war, when 
 he entered the Confederate service as a Lieutenant 
 of Artillery. By promotion he became subsequently 
 Captain and Major of Artillery. He was captured 
 at Island No. 10, and taken to Johnson's Island, where 
 he was confined for nearly a year and then exchanged. 
 After his exchange, he was assigned to duty at Mobile, 
 where he was made a Brigadier-General in Wheeler's 
 Cavalry Corps in the Army of Tennessee. A little 
 while before the surrender he was made Major-Gen- 
 eral, and was wounded near Greensboro, North Caro- 
 lina, in the last battle of the Army of Tennessee. His 
 army record was a very creditable one. Keating, 
 from whose history of Memphis the facts here related 
 are largely taken, declares that he was ''a born leader 
 of cavalry." There is no doubt that he was a capable 
 and gallant soldier. Keating further says of him: 
 "As a lawyer he was still a cavalry leader, carrying to 
 the forum the tactics of the field. His manner in law, 
 as in battle, was to meet a charge with a charge. 
 When he engaged in the preparation of a case he gave 
 his days and nights, and his whole soul to it. He 
 worked as laboriously, but far more impetuously than 
 Judge Arch Wright. He was known to scarcely eat 
 or sleep for days and nights when preparing a case. 
 When he came to speak, he had no time for words, 
 mere words, or thoughts for the elegancies of manner 
 or graces of diction. He went directly to the points 
 of his case, and showered his blows as if they were 
 saber strokes. He stormed, as if a fort were to be 
 taken; marshalling his words sometimes so closely 
 as to prevent their utterance. His vehemence and 
 enthusiasm had so much of self-conviction, that it be- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 375 
 
 came contagious to jury and judge, and made him the 
 most dangerous of antagonists." 
 
 General Humes died at Huntsville, Alabama, in Sep- 
 tember, 1883, from overwork and the persistent effects 
 of his imprisonment during the war. 
 
 Washington Curran Whitthorne was born in 
 Lincoln County, Tennessee, April 19, 18'25. At the 
 age of fourteen he was sent to an academy in William- 
 son County, and thence to the Campbell Academy, at 
 Lebanon. This last named institution was the germ 
 of the present Cumberland University. He remained 
 there two sessions, then entered the University of 
 Nashville, and finally matriculated at East Tennessee 
 University, at Knoxville, where he graduated in the 
 class of 1843. 
 
 In 1843 he began the study of law, one of his pre- 
 ceptors being James K. Polk. He was called to the 
 bar in 1845. Soon afterwards he was appointed to 
 a clerkship in the Sixth Auditor's office, whence he 
 was promoted, and remained in the service of the gov- 
 ernment until he had saved enough money to begin 
 the practice of his profession. Then, upon the Presi- 
 dent's advice, he resigned. In July, 1848, he married 
 Miss Jane Campbell, and began the practice of law in 
 Columbia, Tennessee. 
 
 He was naturally inclined to politics, and entered 
 upon that absorbing pursuit in 1852, as an advocate 
 of the Democratic candidates. In 1853 he was de- 
 feated for the Legislature, but in 1855 and in 1857 
 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1859 was 
 elected to the House of Representatives from the dis- 
 trict in which he had been defeated in 1853. 
 
 The Legislature of 1859 was called upon to decide 
 
376 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 the question whether or not Tennessee would leave 
 the Union. Whitthorne was elected Speaker of the 
 lower house, and was, therefore, in a position to exert 
 great influence. He was in thorough accord with 
 the policy of Governor Harris, and in the Summer of 
 1861 was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of the 
 Provisional Army of Tennessee, with the rank of Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel. After Tennessee entered the South- 
 ern Confederacy, he was made Adjutant of Anderson's 
 brigade, and was with it in the West Virginia cam- 
 paign. 
 
 In November, 1861, Governor Harris appointed him 
 Adjutant-General of Tennessee. 
 
 After the departure of the State government from 
 Nashville, in February, 1862, Governor Harris was in 
 the field as a volunteer aide, and General Whitthorne 
 served in a like capacity. He was, at different times, 
 under Generals Hardee, Anderson and Marcus J. 
 Wright. 
 
 After the war he returned to Columbia, and in 1865 
 received a pardon from Andrew Johnson. In 1870 he 
 was elected, as a Democrat, to the Forty-second Con- 
 gress. As a member of Congress he rose rapidly to 
 'a position of distinction and influence, and during 
 a great part of his term of service was Chairman of 
 the Committee on Naval Affairs. He became unusu- 
 ally familiar with the methods and needs of the Naval 
 Department, and frequently was mentioned for the 
 position of Secretary of the Navy, when the Demo- 
 crats were in power. 
 
 In 1860 he was a delegate to the Charleston Demo- 
 cratic Convention, in which he was, in a sense, the 
 personal representative of Andrew Johnson. In the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 377 
 
 same year he was Elector for the State at large on 
 the Ereckenridge ticket, and made a thorough canvass 
 of the State. 
 
 Upon the resignation of the United States Senator- 
 ship by Judge Howell E. Jackson, in liSSO, General 
 \\'hitthorne was appointed by Governor Bate to the 
 vacancy, and served as Senator until the next meeting 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 He died September 21, 1891. General Whitthorne 
 possessed an active, highly cultivated and strong mind. 
 His adaptation to public affairs was exceptional, and 
 he was a polished and effective public speaker — one of 
 the best of his time in Tennessee. 
 
 Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh was born in 
 Jefiferson County, Tennessee, July 3, 1837. He was 
 the son of Montgomery Thornburgh, a prominent 
 lawyer of East Tennessee, who served several times 
 in the Legislature, and held the office of District At- 
 torney. 
 
 In 18G1 the subject of this Sketch crossed the 
 mountains into Kentucky, and enlisted in the Union 
 army as a private soldier. The details of his early 
 military life cannot be given, but July 11, 1863, he was 
 commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth Ten- 
 nessee Cavalry, and took command of the regiment. 
 
 Colonel Thornburgh led his regiment in the battle 
 of JMurfreesboro, and afterwards accompanied Gen- 
 eral Smith's command into Mississippi, where he took 
 an active part in the battles of West Point and Oko- 
 lona. In January, 1864, while stationed at Memphis, 
 he was placed in command of a brigade consisting of 
 the Second, Third and Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, and 
 marched to Nashville. Upon reaching Nashville his 
 
378 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 regiment was put into the Plrst Brigade of Tennessee 
 Cavalry and stationed at Decatur, Alabama, where, 
 in July, 186i, he was again placed in command of the 
 brigade, and remained in command until it was divided, 
 part being sent with General McCook in the cam- 
 paign South of Atlanta. Colonel Thornburgh con- 
 tinued in the field in command of his regiment until 
 it was mustered out in Nashville, July 6, 1865. 
 
 He had been licensed to practice law a few weeks 
 before his escape to Kentucky. With the return of 
 peace he began the practice in Jefiferson County, but 
 soon afterwards removed to Knoxville, where he re- 
 sided until his death. In 1866 President Johnson 
 appointed him Alajor of the Seventh Cavalry Regi- 
 ment of the regular army, but he declined the ap- 
 pointment. In 1869 he was elected District Attorney 
 for the Third District; was re-elected in 1870 and 
 served until 1873. In November, 1872, he was elected 
 to Congress from the Second District, and was re- 
 elected in 1874, and again in 1876. 
 
 Soon after retiring from Congress, he established a 
 law partnership with the late Judge George Andrews, 
 which continued until the death of Judge Andrews. 
 
 Colonel Thornburgh's energy was greatly in excess 
 of his physical strength, and by persistent attention to 
 business when physically disqualified, his vital forces 
 were entirely destroyed, and he died at Knoxville, Sep- 
 tember 19, 1890. He had certain rare qualities which 
 made him a popular man, and an exceptionally valu- 
 able citizen. He possessed great courage, industry, 
 and determination. As a soldier he was a gallant and 
 hard fighter, but he was by nature generous and tol- 
 erant. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 379 
 
 At the close of the war, social conditions in East 
 Tennessee were greatly disturbed. Some among the 
 adherents of the successful party were excessively bit- 
 ter against their late antagonists. Reference has been 
 made elsewhere in this volume to the persecution of 
 Southern sympathizers for treason and for murder, 
 and to the preacher whippings, for all of which a few 
 malignant and vindictive men were responsible; but 
 these men had a certain following and influence which 
 made them dangerous, and this following would have 
 been increased by the active resistance of those against 
 whom their malignity was directed, but there were 
 among the unionists of East Tennessee, many gen- 
 erous and brave men who did not hesitate even to 
 imperil their own lives in defense of the oppressed and 
 persecuted. Among the most active and fearless of 
 these was Colonel Thornburgh, and for his conduct at 
 this time he received, and was richly entitled to have 
 the good will and gratitude of every .Southern sympa- 
 thizer in East Tennessee. His brave and generous 
 conduct at this time cannot be too highly praised. 
 
 Leonidas Campbell Houk was born in Sevier 
 County, Tennessee, June 8, 1836, and died in Knox- 
 ville, ^lay 25, 1891. 
 
 In August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the First 
 Tennessee Infantry, which was organized and incor- 
 porated into the Federal army in the State of Ken- 
 tucky. The regiment was composed entirely of East 
 Tennessee loyalists who had fled across the mountains 
 from East Tennessee to Kentucky. He was after- 
 ward Lieutenant and Quartermaster, and in February, 
 1862, was elected Colonel of the Third Tennessee In- 
 fantry. Colonel Houk's health failed in 1863, and he 
 
380 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Avas compelled to retire from the army. From 1866 
 to 1869 he was a Judge cf the Circuit Court for the 
 Seventeenth Circuit; from 1873 to 1875 a member of 
 the lower house of the Legislature from Knox and 
 Anderson counties, and was elected to the Forty-sixth 
 Congress, and re-elected successively to the Forty- 
 seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first 
 and Fifty-second Congresses. His death occurred in 
 the midst of his seventh term. The life of Judge 
 Houk strikingly illustrates the advantages of our free 
 institutions. His birthplace was a log cabin in the 
 mountains of East Tennessee, and his parents, though 
 correct and honorable in their lives, occupied an hum- 
 ble station, so that his early life, was passed in poverty, 
 obscurity and hardship, and without any opportunities 
 of education. While yet a boy he learned the trade cf 
 cabinet maker, and it was while carrying on this occu- 
 pation that he began the course of self-improvement 
 which made him one of the most notable men of his 
 time in Tennessee. It is said that he declared more 
 than once that three months would cover the entire 
 time of his schooling, and the writer of this Sketch has 
 heard him say that while carrying on his trade during 
 the day, he read law by the light of blazing pine 
 knots at night. He was admitted to the bar shortly 
 before the war, and took an active part in the Presi- 
 dential campaign of 1860 as an advocate of Bell and 
 Everett. In 1861 he was a delegate to the two East 
 Tennessee Union Conventions. 
 
 In 1864 he was district Elector on the Lincoln and 
 Johnson ticket. He took part, in 1865, in the revision 
 of the State Constitution, and was a delegate to the 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 381 
 
 Chicago Convention of 1868, which nominated Gen- 
 eral Grant for the Presidency. He was a delegate to 
 every National Convention of the Republican party 
 from 1868 until his death, with one exception, and in 
 1880 was one of the 306 delegates who supported Gen- 
 eral Grant for a third nomination. 
 
 Tennessee has produced few men who possessed in 
 a larger measure the faculty of winning and retaining 
 public favor. In politics he was a pronounced par- 
 tisan, and his public speeches were always aggressive, 
 and not infrequently offensive to his political oppon- 
 ents, but his private relations with those who dififered 
 with him in politics were generally cordial, and it is 
 a noteworthy fact that, while he was regarded as one of 
 the bitterest and most uncompromising of Republi- 
 cans, there were hundreds of Democrats in his district 
 who repeatedly voted for him. He was an ambitious 
 man, and a hard worker in Congress. As a political 
 manager he was skillful, shrewd and successful, but 
 personally he was absolutely honest. At the bar he 
 was one of the most successful advocates in East Ten- 
 nessee. It is worthy of mention that a Judge 
 of the Supreme Court, at the time when Judge 
 Houk was practicing in that Court, declared that his 
 briefs were not surpassed by any others that were pre- 
 sented to the Court. He was essentially a self-made 
 man, owing nothing to birth, having no advantages 
 of education and no influential friends. Even in the 
 midst of his remarkably successful career in public life 
 he could rely only upon himself and upon the cordial 
 support of the common people, to whom by his origin, 
 by his thorough sympathy with them, and his perfect 
 knowledge of their character and needs, he endeared 
 
382 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 himself as few men have been able to do. But it was 
 not alone to the common people that he was attractive. 
 He had the indefinable quality, which, for want of a 
 better name, is called personal magnetism. He was 
 liberalized and improved by contact with the great 
 men of the republic, and grew year by year in intellect 
 and in culture. So firmly was he entrenched in the 
 affections of the people of the Second Congressional 
 District, that nothing but death or voluntary retire- 
 ment could have removed him from Congress. 
 
 It is stated by trustworthy persons that probably 
 the first public utterance by a Republican in favor of 
 enfranchising the Confederates of Tennessee was made 
 by Judge Houk in a speech delivered in 1866. While 
 on the bench he held that the State government of 
 Tennessee ceased to exist May 6, 1861, and ordered 
 all treason cases to be stricken from his docket at a 
 time when convictions for treason were of constant 
 occurrence in adjoining circuits. 
 
 William V. Deaderick was born at Jouesboro, 
 Tennessee, in August, 1836, and died September 23, 
 1S83. He was the son of J. F. Deaderick, who was 
 for many years the Clerk of the Supreme Court at 
 Knoxville, and was the nephew of Chief Justice James 
 W. Deaderick. 
 
 He was educated at Martin Academy, at Washing- 
 ton College, Tennessee, and at Dickinson College, 
 Pennsylvania. The moral and religious atmosphere 
 of the old town of Jonesboro was pure and refined, 
 and the young man grew up surrounded by the best 
 family and social influences. 
 
 His first appearance in public life was when he was 
 elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 383 
 
 ISTO. In that body of able men he held an honorable 
 position. 
 
 After the war he was a Democrat, and unfortunately 
 for his personal aspirations, his party was in the 
 minority in upper East Tennessee. It cannot be said 
 that he aspired to political position, but he was ambi- 
 tious of distinction in his profession. In politics, how- 
 ever, as in everything else, he was actuated by a con- 
 viction, and remained true to his principles. The 
 singular purity of his character and the popular favor 
 in which he was held, would certainly have secured 
 him promotion if he had belonged to the dominant 
 party. As it was, he held no other office, except that 
 in 1879, when it became necessary to devise means 
 for relieving the overburdened docket of the Supreme 
 Court, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Court 
 of Arbitration for East Tennessee. His associates 
 were Judge Henry H. Ingersoll and Judge Samuel J. 
 Kirkpatrick. 
 
 At the end of his services upon the bench. Judge 
 Deaderick returned to his home in Jonesboro, and for 
 the remainder of his life followed his profession. 
 
 As a lawyer he was in the highest degree careful 
 and painstaking. He was known to be a thorough 
 student, and to be entirely conscientious in his 
 opinions, and therefore his judgments were accepted 
 with great confidence by all who knew him. His 
 mind was clear, discriminating and quick to act. Hav- 
 ing once reached a conclusion he was firm in support ' 
 of it, for both physically and morally he was a man 
 of unswerving courage. Personal danger, which in 
 the troubled times succeeding the war he not infre- 
 quently encountered, never deterred him or swerved 
 
384 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 him from the performance of duty. He upheld con- 
 stantly the highest professional standards, and was in- 
 capable of commercial methods for the procurement of 
 business, or of trickery or deceit in the practice. He is 
 entitled to a place among the prominent lawyers of 
 Tennessee, not so much by reason of actual accom- 
 plishment as of a capability for the highest order of 
 professional work and professional success. 
 
 About the year 1786, Anthony Caldwell, son of John 
 Caldwell, came from Virginia to East Tennessee. 
 Many members of his family had participated as pa- 
 triots in the Revolution, and the family records show 
 that Anthony Caldwell was present at the siege of 
 Yorktown, although he was then less than eighteen 
 years old. 
 
 He was of Covenanter stock, and was for many 
 years a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church. 
 The first Sunday-school in Tennessee was held in his 
 house. 
 
 John Caldwell, son of Anthony, was born in ITOO, 
 and was the principal pioneer in the development of 
 the mineral resources of East Tennessee. He was not 
 a college man, but was both theoretically and practi- 
 cally a genuinely learned and enthusiastic geologist. 
 Nearly all the principal mineral deposits of East Ten- 
 nessee were discovered by him. Especially was he 
 active .in developing the copper mines at Ducktown, 
 in Polk County. He was also a practical philanthro- 
 pist, and his life abounded in benevolent works. 
 
 He was the first in his county to enlist for the war 
 of 1812, and was throughout his life a lover and a 
 staunch supporter of the Union. Pie held no office 
 except that of Pension Agent, at Knoxville, under 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 385 
 
 Andrew Johnson. Like his ancestors, for many gen- 
 erations, he was a strict Presbyterian, and was an 
 Elder for half a century. 
 
 His son, Alfred Caldwell, was born in Jefferson 
 County, Tennessee, July 5, 1839, and was reared in 
 a home not of luxury, but of comfort, amidst the most 
 excellent and refining influences. His family was one 
 of those of the Covenanter stock that abounded in 
 ministers of the Presbyterian Church. At one time 
 half a score of his close kinsmen were of this sacred 
 calling. He grew to manhood on the farm, develop- 
 ing a splendid physique, and displaying qualities of 
 mind that gave promise of success and usefulness in 
 the world. Being self-helpful, he became in early life 
 a school teacher, and earned the money to complete 
 his education. He graduated at Maryville College, 
 having taken the Junior and Senior class studies in 
 one year. 
 
 In 1854 he graduated at the Lebanon Law School, 
 and at once entered upoh the practice of law at Athens, 
 in East Tennessee, where he formed a partnership with 
 the late Milton P. Jarnagin. In the same year he was 
 married to Miss Jane Ewing, daughter of Dr. Joshua 
 Ewing, of Rose Hill, Virginia. 
 
 At the bar he was at once successful. Thoroughly 
 educated, and having a mind of unusual acuteness and 
 power, he found the study of law entirely congenial. 
 His great gifts as a speaker made him an exceptionally 
 successful advocate, and his logical habit of mind and 
 mastery of the law commanded the respect of the 
 Courts. 
 
 In 1859 he was elected, as a Whig, to the Legisla- 
 ture from McMinn County, and was one of the parlia- 
 
386 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 mentary leaders of his party in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. This was the General Assembly that voted 
 Tennessee out of the Union. He was originally a 
 Union man, and opposed secession until war became 
 inevitable, when he declared himself for the South. 
 He was offered a commission in the Confederate army, 
 but in a command where official associations were not 
 acceptable. He therefore declined, and remained out 
 of the army until 1863, when he attached himself 
 to the East Tennessee brigade of General John C. 
 Vaughn, and served as a private soldier until he was 
 captured in December 1864, and sent as a prisoner of 
 war to Camp Chase. He was exchanged a few weeks 
 before the surrender. 
 
 In 1860 he was the Bell and Everett Elector for his 
 district, and in 1861 was an unsuccessful candidate 
 for the Confederate Congress. After the war he 
 moved to Knoxville, and practiced law there until 
 his retirement from business in 1882. 
 
 In 1872 he was the Democratic nominee for Con- 
 gress in a district which had been so shaped, it was 
 hoped, as to overcome the strong Republican vote of 
 Knox and other East Tennessee counties. But by 
 reason of the fact that he had been a Southern man, 
 and on account of party defections caused, in part, 
 by the independent candidacy of Andrew Johnson for 
 Congress from the State at large, he was defeated. In 
 1878 he was a candidate before the Democratic State 
 Convention for the nomination for Governor. He 
 died November 6, 1886, after a long and painful sick- 
 ness. 
 
 Although he was a man of amiable disposition and 
 great personal popularity, and' was among the most 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 387 
 
 pleasing and effective public speakers in Tennessee, 
 he was not a successful politician, because he had con- 
 victions and would not forego them for the sake of 
 position. 
 
 At the Knoxville bar he was one of the acknowl- 
 edged leaders, and was 'habitually chosen special Chan- 
 cellor when one was needed. He was thoroughly 
 equipped and efificient in all branches of the law, and 
 his practice in the higher class of cases was always 
 large and remunerative. He was one of the original 
 counsel, upon the winning side, of the famous Jolly's 
 Island case, the most noted land Suit in the history of 
 East Tennessee, and was exceptionally learned in land 
 law. While he accumulated a considerable estate, he 
 was indifferent to money and inexpert in the use of it. 
 
 As a speaker, he was earnest, impressive and often 
 eloquent. In diction he was copious, but always ac- 
 curate, rich without turgidity, and forcible without 
 exaggeration. In his home and social life he was 
 affectionate, amiable and gentle. Of the wilful inflic- 
 tion of pain or injury he was. incapable. The kindli- 
 ness of his nature made the conflicts of the bar often 
 distressing. Having only kindness for others, criti- 
 cisms by his brother lawyers and the harsh methods 
 of politics, wounded him deeply. In all his life he 
 did no act, uttered no word to the wilful or gratuitous 
 injury of any man. Like all other men, he had ene- 
 mies, but not by any fault of his own. He was inca- 
 pable of hatred, and ready to forgive any injury. 
 Others may have sought to injure him, but in all his 
 days he wronged no man. A kindlier, gentler soul 
 never dwelt in human form. A natural diffidence, 
 which all his experiences at the bar, and in public 
 
388 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 affairs could not overcome, gave him at times the 
 appearance of reserve, but he loved his fellow men and 
 craved their sympathy. 
 
 Failing health and financial reverses deeply 
 shadowed the closing years of his life, but accumu- 
 lating misfortunes and the intensest physical sufferings 
 did not impair the sweetness and gentleness of his 
 disposition. The tender love of a family that knew 
 his merit and goodness, and saw with infinite grief 
 the sure coming of the end, comforted him in these 
 last sad days. After many days of anguish, borne 
 without complaint, and with unfailing serenity and 
 resignation, he died peacefully and without fear. 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 389 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1870 — 
 The Efforts to Relieve It— The Federal Judges of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 When the Constitutional Convention of 1870 met, 
 the dockets of the Supreme Court were much crowded. 
 The war had suspended the Court, and the accumula- 
 tion of business was so great, when its sessions were 
 resumed, that the three Judges provided by the Con- 
 stitution of 1834 were unable to try all the cases 
 promptly. It was therefore ordered in the schedule 
 of the new Constitution, that at the first election there- 
 under, there should be chosen six Judges of the Su- 
 preme Court, two from each grand division, but any 
 vacancy occurring after January 1, 1873, was not to 
 be filled, so that the occurring of this contingency 
 should reduce the Court to five Judges. So long as 
 the Court should consist of six Judges, it was author- 
 ized to sit in two sections, but not in different grand 
 divisions. This plan was in actual operation from 
 1870 till the death of Chief Justice Nicholson, March 
 23, 1876. 
 
 The members of the Court elected in 1870 were, 
 Thomas A. R. Nelson and James W. Deaderick from 
 East Tennessee, A. O. P. Nicholson and Peter Turney 
 from Middle Tennessee, and John L. T. Sneed and 
 Thomas J. Freeman from West Tennessee. Judge 
 
390 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Nelson resigned December 5, 187], and was suc- 
 ceeded by Robert McFarland. Judge Nicholson was 
 Chief Justice from 1870 till his death, and was suc- 
 ceeded by James W. Deaderick. 
 
 In 1878 Judges Deaderick, Turney, Freeman and 
 McFarland were re-elected, but Judge Sneed failed 
 of re-nomination, and the place went to William F. 
 Cooper, of Middle Tennessee. These five Judges 
 served the full term without change. Judge Deaderick 
 being Chief Justice. 
 
 In 1886 the following were chosen: for the State 
 at large, Peter Turney and W. C. Caldwell; for East 
 Tennessee, D. L. Snodgrass; for Middle Tennessee, 
 Horace H. Lurton, and for West Tennessee, W. C. 
 Folkes. Peter Turney was elected Chief Justice. 
 Upon the death of Judge Folkes, in May, 1890, W. D. 
 Beard, of Memphis, was appointed to the vacancy, 
 and served until the election of B. J. Lea, in August, 
 1890. In January 1893, Judge Turney resigned, hav- 
 ing beein elected Governor, and was succeeded as Chief 
 Justice by Horace H. Lurton, who served till April, 
 1893, and then resigned to accept the United States 
 Circuit Judgeship for the Sixth Circuit. He was suc- 
 ceeded as Chief Justice by B. J. Lea. Upon the death 
 of Chief Justice Lea, in March, 1894, Judge Snodgrass 
 became Chief Justice without opposition. Meanwhile 
 Judge Turney's place on the bench had been filled 
 by the appointment of John S. Wilkes, of Giles County, 
 January 16, 1893, and Judge Lurton's place by the 
 appointment of W. K. McAlister, April 1, 1893. Judge 
 Lea died March 15, 1894, and his unexpired term was 
 filled by A. D. Bright, by appointment.' 
 
 In 1894 was elected the present Court, consisting 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 39 I 
 
 of W C. Caldwell and W K. McAlister, for the State 
 at large; D. L. Snodgrass, for East Tennessee; John 
 S. Wilkes, for Middle Tennessee, and W. D. Beard, 
 for West Tennessee. Judge Snodgrass was re-elected 
 Chief Justice, without opposition. 
 
 The Attorneys-General for the State since the war 
 have been, Joseph B. Heiskell, from ]870 to 1878; 
 B. J. Lea, from 1878 to 1886; George W. Pickle, from 
 1886 to 1894, and from 1894- to the present time. 
 
 Soon after the adoption of the Constitution, it be- 
 came apparent that even the enlarged Supreme Court 
 could not dispose of the arrears of cases on the docket, 
 and, therefore, as early as 1873, temporary Courts of 
 limited powers were created to assist in the work. 
 The first of these was the Arbitration Court for Mid- 
 dle Tennessee, in 1873, consisting of Chief Justice 
 A. O. P. Nicholson, who was detained at Nashville by 
 inability to travel, and of John W. Head and James E. 
 Bailey. This Court expired by limitation, September 
 1,1873. 
 
 In 1875, and again in 1877, the experiment was re- 
 newed for Middle Tennessee, and was extended to 
 West Tennessee. Those who sat in these subsequent 
 Arbitration Cou,rts for Middle Tennessee, at different 
 times, were J. J. Turner, John W. Burton, E. L. Gar- 
 denhire, W. P Hickerson, John E. Garner and T. M. 
 Jones. For West Tennessee were B. M. Estes, J. T. 
 Carthel, Henry Craft, Howell E. Jackson, L. D. Mc- 
 Kissick, S. W. Cochran, J. L. T. Sneed and J. B. 
 Heiskell. In 1879 a like Court was created for East 
 Tennessee. Its members were Henry H. Ingersoll, 
 J. B. Cooke and William V. Deaderick. 
 
 All these Courts were composed of excellent law- 
 
392 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 yers, and did acceptable work, but the results were not 
 so satisfactory as had been expected. The inability 
 to render and to enforce final decrees, against consent, 
 seriously impaired their usefulness. 
 
 In 1883 were created the Courts of Referees, com- 
 posed of nine members, three from each grand division, 
 appointed by the Judges of the Supreme Court. The 
 Courts of Referees were authorized and instructed to 
 report in writing upon the facts and the law of each 
 case, except revenue cases, filed before January 1, 1885. 
 in the Supreme Court for their respective divisions. 
 The term of the Middle Tennessee Court was after- 
 wards extended to April 1, 1886. The members of the 
 Court who sat in East Tennessee were, John Frizell, 
 J. L. T. Sneed and S. J. Kirkpatrick; in Middle Ten- 
 nessee, W. C. Caldwell, W. L. Eakin and John Tinnon; 
 in West Tennessee, D. L. Snodgrass, A. D. Bright, and 
 for a time, John E. Garner. After a while, Judge 
 Garner was succeeded by E. L. Gardenhire. 
 
 The reports of the Referees were final, unless ex- 
 cepted to in writing, with assignments of error, within 
 fifteen days after they were filed. 
 
 The extraordinary energy and enthusiasm of the 
 Supreme Judges elected in 1886, resulted in a mar- 
 velous facilitation of the business of the Court, and if 
 the number of appeals had not increased, it is probable 
 that, at the cost of an occasional death from overwork, 
 as occurred in the cases of Judge Folkes and Judge 
 Lea, the Court might have kept up with the business, 
 but upon the contrary, the appealed 'cases have stead- 
 ily grown in number, especially in East Tennessee. 
 From an average of a little over two hundred, the 
 East Tennessee docket has increased to an average of 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 393 
 
 five hundred. In Middle Tennessee, also, there has 
 been a steady increase. For this reason it became 
 necessary, in 1895, to devise some additional means 
 of clearing the dockets. It was considered best to 
 create a permanent Court, which should have the 
 power to render decrees that, within proper limita- 
 tions, should be final, and be enforceable by the Court. 
 
 The result was the Court of Chancery Appeals, 
 composed of three members, one from each grand 
 division. This Court hears such Chancery causes as 
 may be assigned it by the Supreme Court, but can- 
 not determine causes affecting State revenue. It must 
 make all its findings in writing. It has only appel- 
 late jurisdiction, and upon all questions of fact its 
 findings are conclusive. On questions of law, an ap- 
 peal in the nature of a writ of error to the Supreme 
 Court may be taken within ten days after decree. 
 
 The Court may sit at Knoxville, Nashville and Jack- 
 son; and also, in its discretion, at Memphis and Chat- 
 tanooga. 
 
 The Judges of this Court, appointed by Governor 
 Turney, in 1895, were, R. M. Barton, Jr., from East 
 Tennessee, S. F. Wilson, from Middle Tennessee, and 
 M. M. Neil, from West Tennessee. They were all 
 elected by the people in 1896. 
 
 This Court has given great satisfaction to the bar. 
 Its labors have been exacting and burdensome, but 
 have been diligently and ably performed. It gives 
 full time to the argument of cases, and the most care- 
 ful consideration to them afterwards. It has greatly 
 aided the Supreme Court, not only by the number of 
 cases that it has finally determined, but more especi- 
 ally by the simplification of the work of that body. 
 
394 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 While it has necessarily increased the labors of coun- 
 sel, it has amply compensated them by reducing the 
 work of the Supreme Court, thereby invaluably aiding 
 the dispatch of business. 
 
 The Court of Chancery Appeals is certainly the 
 most satisfactory of all the experiments that have been 
 made in aid of the Supreme Court, and unless the 
 Legislature shall, in a mood of self-sacrifice, enact 
 a law limiting appeals, this Court must be retained, 
 or increasing and most vexatious delays of justice 
 will result. As a high and proper regard for their 
 own interests is not less characteristic of the public 
 rrien of Tennessee than of those of other States, the 
 most sanguine will hardly expect a limitation of the 
 right of appeal. 
 
 It is extremely interesting to consider the work 
 done by the Supreme Court Judges since 1886. 
 
 The Court elected in 1886 held its first session in 
 Knoxville, in the Autumn of that year, and in nine 
 weeks disposed of four hundred and thirty-three cases. 
 Sitting at Nashville that Winter for fourteen weeks, 
 it decided eight hundred and twenty-three cases, and 
 concluded its first year's work in a term of nine weeks 
 at Jackson, during which it disposed of five hundred 
 and sixty-six cases, making in all for the year, 1,823 
 cases — nearly five times as many as were decided by 
 the nine Judges of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States in the same year. 
 
 The number of cases heard the next year was, at 
 Knoxville, 351; at Nashville, 733; and at Jackson, 
 333, in all 1,417. The third year, 1,163 cases were 
 tried. The first two years' work practically cleared 
 the dockets of all the grand divisions, and they were 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 395 
 
 kept clear until the last four years. These stupen- 
 dous results were accomplished by the most incessant 
 hard work. The procedure of the Court was modified 
 in important respects. Saturdays, which had been 
 formerly days of recess, after the delivery of opin- 
 ions, were utilized in the hearing of cases, assignments 
 of error, and full briefs were required, and the number 
 and time of arguments limited. Many cases were de- 
 cided from the bench, and most of the opinions were 
 oral — it being the rule not to write except in cases 
 which, in the judgment of a majority, required it. All 
 these things helped, but the real cause was the hard 
 work of the Judges. A Judgeship of the Supreme 
 Court is an office of great dignity, artd carries with it a 
 social prominence and a corresponding social obliga- 
 tion, but the Judges have, for the last eleven years, 
 voluntarily subjected themselves, so to speak, to an 
 official servitude. For several years the Court met 
 at eight o'clock in the morning, and three nights in 
 everv week were given to consultation. Now it meets 
 at nine o'clock, and there are only two consultations 
 a week. This change gives more time for preparation 
 of opinions. 
 
 The Judges have no time for relaxation. Their 
 life is one unbroken, interminable round of toil. It is 
 a hard, unhealthy, unnatural life. It has killed two 
 Judges, and it is remarkable that it has not killed more. 
 
 Xo doubt the Court would be criticised if it should 
 return to the more leisurely methods of its predeces- 
 sors, but neither official obligation nor public opinion 
 can properly demand such strenuous and extraor- 
 dinary labor. Probably no other Court of last resort 
 dees more than half the amount of work performed 
 
396 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 by our Supreme Court. But the pace has been set, 
 and there seems to be no prospect of change. It is 
 even probable that more deliberate methods would 
 cause discontents, but that does not change the fact 
 that the labors of the Court are excessive. 
 
 The writer does not share the desire, expressed by 
 some members of the bar, for more written opinions. 
 The case law and literature of this country have at- 
 tained the most gigantic and confusing proportions, 
 and a lawyer's brief, nowadays, is made up too often of 
 long lists of cases, drawn from encyclopedias, universal 
 digests, and the thousands of State, Federal and Eng- 
 lish Reports. 
 
 In cases involving new questions, the Court writes 
 opinions, and this is all the bar should ask. We do 
 not publish annually more than half as many volumes 
 of reports as the other States, and this is distinctly 
 to our advantage. Where so many volumes are 
 published, they necessarily contain much that has 
 been already declared and established; the publish- 
 ers are benefitted, and the lawyers are taxed, and 
 it may be confused. We do not need more writ- 
 ten and published opinions. Certainly we cannot 
 consistently ask that the Supreme Court continue the 
 tremendous labors that it has been performing for the 
 last decade, and add to them the writing of many 
 opinions. The Court cannot do more work. To ask 
 it would be in the highest degree unreasonable. It 
 is the plain duty of the bar to do everything in its 
 power to lessen the labors of the Court — to reduce 
 them to the point where they may be performed by 
 reasonable diligence, and shall not demand such sac- 
 rifices as are now required. An office of so much dig- 
 
OF TENNESSEE. 397 
 
 nity ought not to be one of unremitting drudgery. In 
 term time the Judges are literally confined at hard 
 labor, are practically inaccessible to the bar, deprived 
 of all social pleasures, and cut off from all affairs out- 
 side the strict routine of their purely official duties. 
 This is not true of any other Court of equal dignity 
 in the United States. 
 
 The present methods of the Court, however neces- 
 sary or commendable from the Tennessee litigants 
 point of view, cannot be maintained without injury 
 to the high standing of the Court. A Court of final 
 resort should proceed with deliberation. The finality 
 of its decisions is reason for demanding the most 
 careful and thorough consideration of every case pre- 
 sented to it. To bestow such consideration upon its 
 cases is not always in the power of our Supreme Cotirt 
 under present conditions. It is true, also, that the im- 
 pression is being created in other States, that the 
 Court is too hasty in its work. We know, as a matter 
 of fact, that its decisions command, at home, as much 
 respect as those of preceding Courts, but we should 
 have reasonable regard for the standing of the Court 
 abroad, and should, if possible, remove the causes of 
 criticism. 
 
 The Judges of the Federal Courts in Tennessee 
 have been, without exception, good lawyers and faith- 
 ful and competent officers. It has been stated 
 in the Sketch of Judge McNairy, that Tennessee was 
 made a Judicial District by an Act of Congress ap- 
 proved January 31, 1797, and that McNairy served 
 as District Judge from that date until 1834. His suc- 
 cessor was Morgan W. Brown, who served till 1853, 
 and was succeeded by West H. Humphreys. In 18G1 
 
398 BENCH AND BAR 
 
 Judge Humphreys accepted the office of Confederate 
 States Judge for Tennessee, whereupon he was im- 
 peached by the House of Representatives, at Wash- 
 ington, and convicted and deposed by the Senate. 
 Connally F. Trigg was appointed in July, 1862, by 
 President Lincohi, and served until his death in 1880. 
 August 25, of that year, D. M. Key resigned from the 
 Cabinet of President Hayes to accept the position, 
 and held it until his retirement, January 26, 1891:. His 
 successor was the present most efficient incumbent, 
 Charles D. Clark. 
 
 There were two divisions in the District at first, and 
 the Court sat quarterly at Knoxville and at Nashville. 
 In 1838 Congress passed an Act, providing for a Court 
 at Jackson, in West Tennessee, which was to be held 
 annually, in September. The three districts were pre- 
 sided over by one Judge until 1877, when a separate 
 Judgeship was created for West Tennessee, and E. S. 
 Hammond was appointed to it. He is still incumbent. 
 
 The contributions of Tennessee to the higher grades 
 of the Federal Judiciary have been of great value. 
 John Catron served on the supreme bench from the 
 close of Jackson's administration to the end of the war. 
 John Baxter was appointed Circuit Judge by Presi- 
 dent Hayes in 1877, and at his death, in April, 1886, 
 was succeeded by Howell E. Jackson, who retained 
 the office until March, 1893, when he was promoted 
 to the Supreme Court. Again the Circuit Judgeship 
 came to Tennessee, by the appointment of Horace H. 
 Lurton, March 23, 1893. It is highly complimentary 
 to the lawyers of Tennessee that three Circuit Judges 
 of the United States were thus successively chosen 
 from among them for a circuit composed of the 
 
OF TENNESSEE, 399 
 
 States of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan, 
 and that one of the three was advanced to the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the 
 Sixth Circuit is now composed of Circuit Judges Taft 
 and Lurton, and the several District Judges of the 
 States composing the Circuit. Three of the Judges 
 are residents of Tennessee, and another, Judge Ricks, 
 had his training as a lawyer in this State. 
 
 It is an opinion, widely entertained, that the Court 
 of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit is the strongest Court 
 of its grade in the United States. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Alexander, Ebenezer 263 
 
 Anderson, John 6 
 
 Anderson, Joseph 8 
 
 Anderson, Robert 251 
 
 Anderson, Samuel 251 
 
 Anderson, William E 249 
 
 Andrews, George 325 
 
 Arnold, T. D 278 
 
 Bailey, J. E 275 
 
 Barry, Thos 245 
 
 Barton, R. M 398 
 
 Baxter, John 270 
 
 Beard, W. D 390 
 
 Bell, John 203 
 
 Benton, T. H 29 
 
 Blount, Willie 30 
 
 Bowyer, Luke 2 
 
 Boyd, Geo. C 107 
 
 Bramlett, L. M 201 
 
 Bright, A. D 390 
 
 Brown, Aaron V 183 
 
 Brown, John C 291 
 
 Brown, Neill 8 362 
 
 Burch, JohnC 314 
 
 Burton, J. W 391 
 
 Caldwell, A 385 
 
 Caldwell, R. P 369 
 
 Campbell, A. W 371 
 
 Campbell, David 7, 13 
 
 Campbell, Geo. W 83 
 
 Campbell, Wm. B 190 
 
 Carter, John 1, 6 
 
 Carthel, J. T 391 
 
 Caruthers, R. L 144 
 
 Caruthers, Abraham 146 
 
 Catron, John 85 
 
 Chancery Court 163 
 
 Claiborne, W. C. C 60 
 
 Clark, C. D 398 
 
 Cochran, S. W 368 
 
 Cocke, John 27 
 
 Cocke, William 24 
 
 Cooke, J. B 391 
 
 Cooke, W.W 62 
 
 Cooper, Henry 364 
 
 Cooper, W.F 390 
 
 Craft, Henry 391 
 
 Cumberland Notables... 4 
 
 Court — Chancery 163 
 
 Chancery Appeals.... 393 
 
 Circuit 69 
 
 Federal 397 
 
 Superior 67 
 
 Supreme...69,322, 389, 391 
 
 Deaderick, Jas. W .307 
 
 Deaderick, W. V 382 
 
 Dickinson, John .32 
 
 Dunlap, E 3 
 
 Dunlap, R. G 101 
 
 Early State Courts 67 
 
 Eaton, John H 99 
 
 Emmerson, Thos 16 
 
 Estes, B.M 391 
 
 Folkes,W. C 367 
 
 Foster, E. H 198 
 
 Frankland Constitution, 5 
 
 Frauklin, State of 5 
 
 Freeman, T. J 309 
 
 Frizzell, John 392 
 
 Garner, J. E 391 
 
 Gardenhire, E. Jj 391 
 
 Gardner, John A 331 
 
 Gaut, John C 319 
 
 Gist, Joshua 6 
 
 Green, Nathan 139 
 
 Grundy, Felix 58 
 
 Guild, J. C 297 
 
 Hamilton, Joseph 102 
 
 Hammond, E. 8 398 
 
 Harris, Isham G 334 
 
 Harris, Wm. R 159 
 
 Haskell, W.T 236 
 
 Hatton, Robert 257 
 
402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haynes, Landon C 330 
 
 Haywood, John 33 
 
 Head, John W 391 
 
 Henry, G. A 231 
 
 Heiskell, J. B 391 
 
 Hickerson, W. P 391 
 
 Hill, M. R 289 
 
 Houk, L. C 379 
 
 Houston, Sam 96 
 
 Humes, W.Y.C 373 
 
 Humphreys, P. W 17 
 
 Humphreys, W. H 397 
 
 Hynds, R. H 171 
 
 IngersoU, H. H 391 
 
 Jackson, Andrew 17 
 
 Jackson, Howell E 353 
 
 Jarnagin, Spencer 223 
 
 Johnson, Cave 187 
 
 Jones, Thomas M 286 
 
 Key, D. M 398 
 
 Kirkpatrick, 8. J 392 
 
 Lea, B.J 365 
 
 Lea, Pryor 234 
 
 Lurton, H. H 390, 398 
 
 Lyon, T. C 302 
 
 Marchbanks, A. J 167 
 
 Marks, A. 8 349 
 
 Marshall, John 218 
 
 Maynard, Horace 265 
 
 McAllister, W. K 390 
 
 McCampbell, Andrew 252 
 
 McFarland, Robert 311 
 
 McKinney, R. J 155 
 
 McKissick, L. D 391 
 
 McNairy, John 10 
 
 Meigs, R. J 92 
 
 Miller, P. M 63 
 
 Milligaa, Sam 328 
 
 Mitchell, James C 105 
 
 Neil, M. M 393 
 
 Nelson, Thos. A. R 282 
 
 Netherland, John 279 
 
 Nicholson, A. O. P 227 
 
 Notables, of Cumberland 4 
 
 Outlaw, Alexander 64 
 
 Overton, John 77 
 
 Palmer, J. B 851 
 
 Peck, Jacob 62 
 
 Peyton, Balie 241 
 
 Pickle, G.W 391 
 
 Polk, James K 174 
 
 Powell, Samuel 17 
 
 Reese, W. B 152 
 
 Rhea, John 15 
 
 Ridley, B. L 165 
 
 Roane, Archibald 19 
 
 Scott, Edward 104 
 
 Sneed, J. L. T 389 
 
 Bneed, W. H 2ii9 
 
 Snodgrass, D. L 390 
 
 Superior Court 67 
 
 Supreme Court — Created 69 
 
 Of Recons truction 
 Times 322 
 
 Under Constitution 
 of 1870 389 
 
 Efforts to Relieve 391 
 
 Tatum, Howell 16 
 
 Thornburgh, J. M 377 
 
 Tinnon, John 392 
 
 Totten, A. W. 154 
 
 Trigg, C. F". 305 
 
 Trimble, James 82 
 
 Turley, W. B 150 
 
 Turner, J. J 391 
 
 Turney, Peter 390 
 
 Walker, Elijah 169 
 
 Watauga Court 1 
 
 Wilkes, John S 390 
 
 Wharton, Jesse 83 
 
 White, Hugh L 109 
 
 Whiteside, Jenkin 52 
 
 Whitthorne, W. C 375 
 
 Whyte, Robert 62 
 
 Williams, John 45 
 
 Williams, T. L 50 
 
 Wilson, 8. F , 393 
 
 Wright, Archibald 160 
 
 Yerger, E. M 257 
 
 Yerger, Geo. S 255 
 
 Yerger, J. S 257 
 
 Yerger, W 257 
 

 
 V 
 
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