presents
By James Daniel Lynch, ©1881
Submitted by Janice Rice
Mississippi Genealogy Trails
presents
By James Daniel Lynch, ©1881
Submitted by Janice Rice
AMOS R. JOHNSTON
Amos R. Johnston was born in the State of Tennessee. His scholastic advantages were scanty, and his early education was obtained principally in the office of a country newspaper ; but Bo vivid was his aptitude, and so strenuous were his diligence and application, that he was soon enabled to ascend the tripod; and having established a paper in a small village in Henry County, in connection with the afterwards famous General Zollicoffer as a partner, he became at an early age a political writer of repute in the Western District.
About the year 1830, Mr. Johnston emigrated to Mississippi and took up his residence in the town of Clinton, where he resumed his editorial pursuit, and at once achieved a prominent position. Clinton was at that time the center of wealth and influence, and from this point he effectively promulgated the staid and conservative doctrines which characterized through life his public conduct and political creed. Though originally a friend and supporter of General Jackson, he soon abandoned the Democratic party and became an energetic, determined, and uncompromising leader of the old Whig party.
In 1836 he represented Hinds County in the Legislature, in which he colleagued with Messrs. Prentiss, Guion, Tompkins, and other leaders of that party, and was one of the most efficient and influential advocates of its measures.
He served but one term in the Legislature, and about this time removed to Jackson, where he continued his editorial labors until the year 1839, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Hinds County, and from that time his connection with the press ceased. He then established his residence at Raymond, the seat of justice of the county, where he resided until the year 1865, when he again removed to Jackson, and there abided until the time of his death. Mr. Johnston served two terms as clerk of the Circuit Court, and was in 1845 elected Probate Judge of Hinds County, and held that office for three terms. It was during the period of his clerkship that he turned his attention to the study of law, and the legal proficiency which his genius and assiduity acquired during that time, burdened as it was with his official duties, was eminently indicated by the efficiency and popularity of his career as Probate Judge of the county, in which office his conscientious integrity and scrupulous exactness in the administration of matters pertaining to that court gave him a reputation for uprightness which was enlarged in every sphere of his life, and which grew with his advancing years. He was enterprising and determined in all his undertakings, open and avowed in creed and action, and detested even the appearance of equivocation. His mental character was fashioned in the mould of law, his moral in the cast of rectitude. No disorders of society or state of public moral declension could shake his firmness or lower the standard of his virtue, and throughout the vicissitudes which upheaved the social order of the country he was the same patriot, the same upright citizen, the same pure man, and maintained to his end an integrity of conduct and a calmness of spirit which reproduced and recalled the examples of the patriots of ancient days ; and at his death, which occurred in 1879, it was a universal sentiment that a great and good man had fallen in Mississippi.
WILLIAM A. LAKE.
William A. Lake, long a prominent member of the bar of Mississippi, was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, in the year 1808. His educational advantages were ample, and he was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. Two years later he was elected to a seat in the Legislature of Maryland, and at the expiration of his term, in 1834, he removed to Mississippi and resumed the practice of law in the city of Vicksburg, at first in co-partnership with Mr. William H. Hurst, and afterwards with Judge J. S. Yerger. He rose rapidly to distinction in his new home, and wrought his way to a merited position among the most eminent members of his profession.
But while he was learned as a lawyer and successful as an advocate, his varied accomplishments fitted him peculiarly for the position of a popular leader, and he was several times called to represent Warren County in the Legislature of the State, first in the lower House and then in the Senate.
He possessed in an eminent degree the qualities that gain the confidence of the public and insure popularity with the people. He was an eloquent speaker, enthusiastic in his partyism, bold, frank, and fearless in the avowal of his principles, yet courteous and gentle in his opposition. His character was a blended model of sensitiveness, honor, and magnanimity. His personal popularity was consequently great, and he was chosen in 1856 to represent the Fourth Mississippi district in the Congress of the United States, in which his course was marked with a fidelity that reflected credit upon himself, and with a dignity and ability that gave honor to his section and constituency. In 1861 he was a candidate for a seat in the Confederate Congress, and in consequence of some personalities or misunderstandings, growing out of the heated canvass, he was challenged by his opponent, Chambers, and fell upon the field of honor.
His death was greatly lamented, especially by the community in which he lived, and to which his useful talents and social virtues had endeared him to an extent equaled only by the pride which it felt in his genius.
Mr. Lake was gifted with intellectual powers of a high order, but his eminence at the bar was not alone the result of superior talents : it was due in a great measure to his assiduity, his capacity for labor, and his close attention to all the details of the profession. He omitted no test of patience, no tedium of investigation, and no item of labor necessary to advance the cause of his clients or promote the attainment of their rights.
From: The Bench and Bar of Mississippi, By James Daniel Lynch, ©1881 Submitted by Janice Rice
WALTER LEAKE
Walter Leake was, I believe, a native of Virginia; but I have not been able to ascertain anything as to his origin or early advantages. He made his advent into the Mississippi Territory at an early period, and in 1817 was chosen one of the first Senators in Congress from the new State. This position he held with distinguished ability and fidelity until the year 1820.
At the expiration of his term in the United States Senate, he was appointed a judge of the Circuit Court, in which position his career was marked by a thorough exposition of the law and a strict adherence to the principles of justice.
He presided in the Circuit Court until 1822, when he was elected to succeed Mr. Poindexter as Governor of Mississippi.
While Governor his messages were replete with sentiments of pure patriotism and with sound advice. He was a strenuous advocate of every measure that tended to elevate the masses of the people, and to nourish the spirit of independence and State pride. His knowledge of law, together with his keen and discerning judgment, enabled him to detect and suggest a remedy for many abuses in our system of judicature. In his message to the Legislature in 1825, he deprecated the practice of permitting the presence of young and unskilled district-attorneys in the grand jury rooms, where from ignorance or design they might, and no doubt often did, mislead the juries as to the law. He thought that the grand jurors should be chosen from the most intelligent and upright citizens, and should receive their instructions and advice directly from the judges, without being in any wise subjected to the influence of the district-attorneys.
At the expiration of his gubernatorial term, in 1826, Governor Leake resumed the practice of his profession. He was an erudite lawyer, and a man of stanch integrity; and if a sound judgment and a deep sense of patriotism characterized his public career, his professional was no less distinguished for the honor, industry, and ability, by which it was illuminated; while his private character was adorned with graces and virtues which rendered him a favorite of society, and a true type of the Southern gentleman. Governor Leake was a warm advocate of the cause of education. In one of his messages to the Legislature he said: " While we contemplate the condition of the different nations of the earth, it is a source of the highest gratification, and ought to excite our deepest gratitude to the Author of our being, that our lots have been cast in a land of freedom, where civil and religious liberty are fully enjoyed, and the rights of the people rest on a basis which can alone be shaken by their own agency. The people, being possessed of the physical power of the State, and all authority exercised by their public functionaries emanating from them, will maintain and protect their rights, so long as they possess that portion of intelligence which will enable them to know and understand those rights.
"How important, then, is it that every avenue of information should be kept open to them; that a general diffusion of knowledge should be encouraged by promoting and aiding the means of education throughout our State. "Without knowledge, republican virtue must dwindle to a shadow, and the people, in ignorance of their rights and privileges, will easily be made instruments by artful and designing men for the destruction of their liberties."
[From "The Bench and Bar of Mississippi" By James Daniel Lynch, ©1881]
EUGENE MAGEE
The subject of this sketch was born in Ireland, and had there received an excellent education in the best schools of the Jesuits, preparatory, it is said, for holy orders in the Catholic Church.
It is not known at what time Mr. Magee came to this country. In 1830 he was a law partner of Judge George Coalter, in Vicksburg, where he enjoyed a fine practice, and in 1835 represented the counties of Warren and Washington in the State Senate.
Mr. Magee was a man of powerful native intellect as well as of extensive literary acquirements; was well read in his profession, and possessed in a high degree that vivacity of intellect and store of humor so characteristic of an educated man of his nativity and race. His vehemence in debate, his aggressive zeal, caustic but good-humored wit, combined with no ordinary degree of eloquence, soon gained for him great popularity and success at the bar. He possessed vigor and winning manner that threw a halo of interest around his subject, and readily enlisted sympathy in his cause. This done, it was not difficult for him to gain the favor of prejudice, if not the conviction of judgment. He had, no doubt, studied thoroughly the intricate system of common-law pleading, and was remarkably acute and accurate in the preparation of his cases, and in the discussion of all questions arising from the pleadings. He was a man of a kind and generous heart, and his varied accomplishments rendered him a favorite in society. He lived but a few years after his appearance at the bar of Mississippi, and died of a pulmonary affection which had for some time rendered his health delicate. Mr. Magee was in many respects a man of note, and it is to be regretted that so little is known of his history.
SAMUEL P. MARSH
Samuel P. Marsh was born in South Carolina, and educated at the university of that State. He was the son of a Baptist preacher who emigrated to Mississippi and settled in the county of Amite, where the subject of this sketch began his career. Mr. Marsh was considered a superior lawyer, and achieved great success at the bar. He was deeply read in his profession, and indefatigable in the preparation of his cases. He often appeared before the Supreme Court of the State, and his briefs and arguments evince much learning and research. He was evidently a lawyer of vast resources, possessed of keen perception and logical powers of a superior order. His familiarity with reported decisions was amply verified, and he invoked them with much aptitude and force.
He was a stanch Carolinian in politics, and entertained the extreme tenets of that school; but his devotion to the duties of his profession precluded him from active participation in the political contests of the period, and the only record of his ability is the eminence which he achieved at the bar a characteristic which would present a wholesome example to those lawyers who dissipate their talents and achieve no eminence at all. While Sir Edward Coke boasted that his Institutes contained three hundred quotations from Virgil, their frequent inapplicability evinces the weakness of his literary vanity; and, while it is true that " A lawyer," as he says, " professeth true philosophy, and therefore should not be ignorant of either beasts, birds, creeping things, nor of the trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall," yet the proverb that " Lady Common Law must lie alone" will not permit it to be wedded with impunity to the absorbing abstractions of politics. While the law is the best and even necessary school for the politician, yet he must bid-adieu to the forum when he enters upon the hastings.
Mr. Marsh died in the meridian of his manhood and forensic success, and the monotony of his professional life was justified by his professional eminence.
JOHN H. MARTIN
The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia, and was born in the County of Albemarle in the year 1790. He was a descendant of a Huguenot family which came to the colony, perhaps in the number which flocked thither at the dispersion of that sect by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was a soldier in the army of General Jackson during the Indian wars, and was promoted to a majority for conspicuous services. He was also in command of Tennessee troops at the battle. of New Orleans. Soon after the termination of the war he began the practice of law at Glasgow, Kentucky, where he acquired prominence; but in 1826 he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and became associated with Hon. John Bell and Judge Henry A. Crabb. From this distinguished connection he no doubt received the confirmation of that lofty estimate of the dignity of his profession and the sanctity of the duties of an advocate, that calm self-possession, and refined and high-bred courtesy, which afterwards characterized his professional ethics.
When Judge Crabb was promoted to the supreme bench and Mr. Bell elected to Congress, Mr. Martin became the partner of George S. Yerger, and this firm prepared the volume of Tennessee Reports styled Martin & Yerger's, an elegant analytical presentation of the law, whose syllabi and compendium assert the ability of the authors. Mr. Martin afterwards held for a short time, under the appointment of the Governor, the position of circuit judge. In 1836 he removed to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and formed a copartnership with Judge Beverly Hughes. When this firm was dissolved he practised some time alone, and then became associated with Charles Scott, afterwards Chancellor of the State.
Judge Martin was a well-read lawyer, conspicuous for his application and devotion to his profession, and noted for his integrity and fidelity. He was a man. of modest and amiable deportment, bland and courteous in his bearing; and while he made no effort in his oratory towards ornation or display, his logical powers were prominent, and he was a clear, earnest, and persuasive speaker. His success at the bar was due more to the depth of his knowledge, his exact preparation, and conscientious dealing with the interest of his clients, than to any brilliant superficiality. He was a strict Presbyterian in religion and morals, and was at the time of his death an elder in that church. He died of yellow fever at Vicksburg in 1841.
DANIEL MAYES
Daniel Mayes was a native of Kentucky, and had achieved success and reputation at the bar of that State prior to his removal to Mississippi. He came to this State about the time of the exodus of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, an event which occasioned a renewed tide of immigration of all classes of persons to occupy the lands vacated by the Indians. He had also filled with distinction a chair as professor of law in the Transylvania University, and found at the bar of Mississippi many of the younger members whose legal knowledge was due to his instruction, and who entertained great respect for his personal qualities, and a profound reverence for his professional abilities. He established his residence at the capital of the State, and immediately entered upon a highly successful and brilliant career at the Mississippi bar.
His knowledge of law was scientific and thorough, and he was a master of the intricate system of common law pleading, which, notwithstanding the statutory simplification, afforded him great advantage in the preparation of his cases and in the presentation of special issues. His reputation, dignity of character, and urbanity of manners, soon engaged a confidence which caused him to be called in the most important cases, and to become involved in the most distinguished competition. Yet his learning and legal ability in every instance achieved the full measure of expectation.
As a man he was warmly sensible to the feelings of philanthropy and benefaction. He was kind, charitable, and benevolent, and always ready to aid any enterprise for the advancement of the public good or the relief of individual suffering.
That such a man should have enjoyed the highest esteem as a lawyer, a scholar, a citizen, and a man, and that he should have gone down to. his grave with .the regrets of his fellow citizens and the benisons of hallowed memories, is but in conformity with the experience of mankind, the dictates of humanity, and the will of Heaven.
JOHN T McMURRAN
The subject of this sketch was a native of Pennsylvania. After having received a good education he was sent to Chiilicothe, Ohio, where he read law in the office of his uncle, Judge Thompson, who then represented that district in Congress. Here he was thoroughly trained for the profession of law, and having obtained license to practise he came to Natchez, Mississippi, about the year 1828, bearing a letter of introduction from his uncle to General John A. Quitman, who had resided a short while at Delaware, Ohio, prior to his advent to Mississippi, but was now a member of the distinguished firm of Griffith & Quitman, in Natchez, the most successful firm at that time in the State. In consequence of his letter of introduction, Mr. McMurran was engaged in the office of these gentlemen as a clerk, in which position the extensive business of the firm afforded him an ample opportunity for perfecting his knowledge of law, and for familiarizing himself with all the details of practice. Of this advantage he availed himself to such a degree that, upon the death of Mr. Griffith from yellow fever in 1829, he became the partner of General Quitman. The career of the new firm was successful in the highest degree, and Mr. McMurran soon gained the ascendency of even his distinguished partner, and took his position in the very front rank of the profession.
Mr. McMurran possessed a vigor, perseverance, and inqnisitiveness of mind which permitted nothing to pass from under his observation without his thorough comprehension of its character and import; and to these trained habits of sensation and perception was added a cultured and well-regulated judgment. While such qualities assert their superiority in whatever sphere they may be exercised, the capacity of minute and accurate attention is of all others the most important qualification for success at the bar, and when it is nurtured and moulded into professional habit, it is to genius a sure passport to the sphere of eminence.
Mr. McMurran's knowledge of the law was profound and exact. He was methodical and laborious in the preparation of his cases, and always well armed with precedent and authority. While his oratory was void of ornamentation, it was forcible, logical, and laden with argument. He readily perceived the main points of a question, and addressed himself to the gist of the controversy a rule which commends itself both from its utility and the sound sense by which it is dictated, and which, if more universally observed, would greatly redound to the expedition of the courts and the attainment of justice, while it would often relieve a heavy burden from the patience of both judge and jury.
As a man, Mr. McMurran was mild, amiable, and conciliatory, and possessed a fund of quiet humor and anecdote, which rendered him highly interesting and pleasing to juries, and a most agreeable companion in social intercourse.
His wife was the daughter of Chief Justice Turner, a lady whose accomplishments were in every way worthy of the character of her husband, and who, no doubt, afforded him that encouragement, in his struggle with his extensive practice, which only the smile of loveliness can inspire.
While Mr. McMurran was a stranger to the sway of prejudice and passion, he was yet a man of strong convictions, firm in his embrace of principle, and open and candid in the expression of his opinion. But the law was his chosen sphere, and to that he devoted all the energies of his character. He seems to have manifested but little ambition for political preferment a field in which his marked executive abilities would have, doubtlessly, achieved an eminence fully commensurate with that he enjoyed at the bar, where his career was a model of successful, intelligent labor, and an exemplary exhibition of the shining virtues of industry, integrity, and truth.
His death was the occasion of general regret, and his loss, notwithstanding the exclusive privacy of his life, was viewed as a public calamity.
ALEXANDER G. McNUTT
Alexander G. McNutt was born and reared in the State of Virginia. His early educational advantages were, in consequence of the poverty of his parents, very limited, and he was at an early age consigned to his own resources; but buoyed by an ambition to achieve an honorable place among men, and seeking a more propitious field for the strife, he emigrated, in 1822, to Mississippi and settled in Vicksburg, where he began the practice of law, and soon attained distinction at the bar. Poor, friendless, and destitute of all resources save those with which nature had endowed him a sound head, an honest heart, and high resolves he came to this hospitable State, and by his industry, sterling honesty, and the vigorous exertions of a strong and practical mind, rose, first to a high rank in his profession, and then to the highest office in the gift of the people of his adopted State. He was for several years a member of the Legislature; in 1837 he was Speaker of the Senate, and in 1838 was chosen Governor of Mississippi, to which office he was re-elected.
While in the Legislature, Mr. McNutt distinguished himself by his powerful and successful exertions to secure to the new counties formed out of the Chickasaw and Choctaw cessions the exercise of the right of representation, which, on account of the motley and incongruous elements of their constituencies, was for some time vehemently opposed by the older and more stably settled counties of the State. This action greatly endeared him to the people of the new counties, and in his canvass for Governor they supported him with unanimity and zeal; but by this course he created enemies in other parts of the State, who assailed him with much virulence, among whom was the distinguished Sergeant S. Prentiss.
But it has been truly said that there are times when even the virtues of a man provoke hostility: as Tacitus has expressed it, " Nee minus pericrtlum ex magnafavia quam ex mala y" and, though bitterly assailed,, he did not swerve in the advocacy of his principles to conciliate his enemies or to soften opposition ; but with a conscious rectitude, based upon principle, not policy, he boldly proclaimed his views and fearlessly practised his precepts.
Governor McNutt was uncompromising in his opposition to all monopolies, and fiercely antagonized the loose system of banking at that time tolerated by the laws of Mississippi ; and he predicted, as with the tongue of prophecy, the bankruptcy and ruin that would inevitably follow the pledging of the credit of the State in maintenance of such institutions. Governor McNutt was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school : open, firm, and honest in his convictions, he boldly flung the banner of his principles to the public view. Indeed, it may be said that his election as Governor in 1838 was the first but lasting triumph in Mississippi of those pure principles of democracy, which have become so deeply imbedded in the political and civil fabric of the State. He was emphatically a man of the people. lIe knew what was conducive to their prosperity. The fortunes of the State were grafted in the depths of his heart, and no influence could induce him to swerve from the path of true patriotism. Plain and unassuming, he was great within himself, '' smiled superior to mere external show,'' and bore his talents and honors with modesty.
As a lawyer he was sagacious and true. While he never contracted those habits requisite for the acquirement of profundity in that fathomless science, he was thoroughly familiar with the great principles of law, and was always master of that which was applicable to his cases. This his sound judgment and intellectual energy enabled him at all times to convoke and apply with unerring precision and discrimination, and consequently he was always equal to any emergency that might arise in the management of a cause, which he often gained in the face of apparently insurmountable difficulties, and in defiance of all forensic ostentation. His oratory was plain, logical, and entertaining, and as a speaker he was a great favorite with the people. He acquired a large fortune by his practice, and by his sterling qualities and great services achieved a name that will forever shine in the annals of Mississippi. He died in the year 1848.
JAMES C. MITCHELL
James C. Mitchell was a native of Virginia, and was born near the celebrated Peaks of Otter, a circumstance to which in his joviality he attributed his lofty aspirations and untamable disposition, as well as his majestic stature. At an early age he removed to East Tennessee, and, having adopted the law as his profession, rose so rapidly in eminence and in popular esteem that, while quite a young man, he was elected to a seat in Congress, where the versatility of his genius, his unfailing flow of humor, and eccentric characteristics, procured for him popularity if not influence.
Mr. Mitchell, while eccentric in some respects, possessed the trait, unusual in such characters, of admiring that quality in others. While in Congress he was fondly intimate with the afterwards famous General Sam. Houston, whom he is said to have very much resembled and in whom he found an attractive congeniality ; and so often were these two together that they were designated as " the couple." But the future hero of San Jacinto, with his unpretending manners, is said to have often complained that his friend Mitchell was too much disposed to promote his own consideration at the expense of his colleagues, and as an evidence of which he related that on one occasion the Tennessee delegation in Congress agreed to pay their respects in a body to a distinguished foreign minister who had lately arrived in Washington, and when they reached the door of his residence, Mr. Mitchell stepped forward and handed to the janitor a card upon which was inscribed " James C. Mitchell and the rest of the Tennessee delegation."
But this blended trait of joviality and egotism contained no vein of envy or malevolence. He was fond of notoriety, and especially of distinguished compliment, an instance of which he is said to have often related with great pride and complacency. He had delivered an able argument upon the tariff question, and on returning to his seat passed that of John Randolph, who, rising and taking his hand, said : " General Mitchell, I thank you, in the name of Virginia, for your eloquent and noble speech. I have not heard the like before, since I came into Congress, and 1 regard you as one of our most precious jewels, yes, sir, one of our most precious jewels."
At the expiration of his term in Congress in 1828, he was elected to the circuit bench of Tennessee, and, as a judge, is said to have been zealous and efficient, and to have given grateful satisfaction to his constituency. On the bench his ambition and integrity of purpose were directed to the ends of justice, while his peculiarities were confined to a punctilious observance of propriety. His notions of judicial dignity and court decorum were rigid and .sometimes ludicrously exacting. It is related that on one occasion, when he was presiding in the trial of a case of great importance, a young man with creaking boots passed several times across the court-room greatly to the annoyance of his honor,' who finally, having exhausted his patience, exclaimed : " Mr. Sheriff, bring that young man before the court immediately ! " Which having been done, the judge addressed the astonished culprit thus : " Pray, sir, how much did your boots cost you ?'" " Ten dollars, sir," replied the young man. " Well," said the judge, " you will never be able to say that again. The boots shall cost you twenty dollars. Enter a fine of ten dollars against this young man for striding through the court room in creaking boots."
Judge Mitchell was the author of a work entitled " Mitchell's Justice," a supply of which he is said to have carried with him around the circuit, and to have taken occasion on the first day of each term to intimate from the bench that all who desired a copy could procure one by calling at his private room.
He came to Mississippi about the year 1837, and located in Hinds County. He was then advanced in years, but had lost none of his colloquial versatility and facetious humor, and soon rendered himself popular with his new associates. He was fond of relating stories of which he was the hero, and was always ready to entertain his brother members of the bar, who frequently convened in his room after the forensic labors of the day to listen to his amusing narratives of the ludicrous events of his experience or the wonders of his own personal performance, A short time before his death he was a candidate in Hinds County for a seat in the Legislature, and it is said that in a joint discussion before a large assemblage of the people of the county, Judge Mitchell, summoning his remarkable powers of ridicule, assailed his opponent with such a torrent of derision that the latter, losing all patience, exclaimed : " Judge Mitchell, when you descend from that stand I will whip you." '' That you may do," said the judge, "but it will not elect you ; for I remember that when 1 was a boy my father owned a bull that could whip all the other bulls in the neighborhood ; yet I never heard it urged that his bullyism fitted him for the Legislature."
Judge Mitchell died at his home in Hinds County in 1843.
ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY
The subject of this sketch was born and reared at Natchez, in the Mississippi Territory. He possessed a brilliant intellect, and after having obtained the best education that the schools of his native town could afford, he applied himself to the study of law, which he prosecuted with such diligence and thoroughness that he became one of the most learned and profound lawyers at the bar of Mississippi. He had a peculiar aptitude for his profession : a keen sense of duty, a natural energy of temperament, and an inquisitive turn of mind that always descended into the very depths of investigation. He was not so much distinguished for any one predominant quality as for a copious blending of all such as enter into the character of a justly eminent lawyer. He devoted all his mental and physical powers to his profession, and consequently his knowledge of law was deep, and his success was the merited reward of his industry. His powers of perception were rapid and acute, his judgment sound and penetrating, and his reasoning powers were blended with a glowing imagination.
To these intellectual traits Mr, Montgomery added the beauties of great moral worth. His integrity was superior to every influence, and his devotion to duty beyond the reach of all temptation. While his professional ethics were stern and dignified, his manners were softened by a complaisancy and' polish that betrayed the well-bred gentleman, and kind and amiable man.
In 1831 he was appointed to a seat upon the supreme bench of the State, but was superseded in 1832 by the provisions of the new Constitution, which introduced an elective judiciary. Judge Montgomery was an able jurist as well as an eminent advocate, and had he been retained upon the bench his career would doubtless have been as brilliant and exemplary as his success at the bar.
On retiring from the bench Judge Montgomery resumed his practice of law in Natchez, in connection with his former partner, the distinguished Samuel S. Boyd, and the firm was among the most celebrated in the State. He continued his practice to a great age, and died a few years since at the home of a relative in Warren County.
ISAAC R. NICHOLSON
Isaac R. Nicholson was a native of Georgia, whence he emigrated to Alabama, and practised law in the northern part of that State, where he achieved success and reputation. He then removed to Mississippi, and in its rich field soon rose to eminence in his profession.
He was a man of limited education, and was possessed of no remarkable natural endowment, unless it was that of an inexhaustible business capacity. For many years he represented the county of Copiah in the Legislature, and in 1827 was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. Here his official devotion and business tact served to promote his popularity and open the way to his judicial elevation.
In 1829 he was appointed to the supreme bench, but was superseded by the intervention of the Constitution of 1832, under which the entire judiciary system of the State was remodelled. He then resumed his practice at the bar of Natchez, where he resided until his death, which occurred at that place.
While Judge Nicholson might not have been a profound lawyer, he was a successful practitioner ; if not peritus jure, he was familiar with all the features of practice and the principles of justice, and superseded by a sound judgment and studious accuracy the advantages of greater depth and latitude.
As a judge his decisions are terse and forcible, firmly fixed upon the points in question, and logical to a certain intent. In consequence of his industry, his accurate perception, and his fidelity to his official duties, Judge Nicholson was called upon to decide many of the cases in our early courts, and in which many important questions were involved, some of which were then discussed, perhaps for the first time in this country.
EPHRAIM GEOFFREY PEYTON
This upright and eminent judge was born near Elizabeth town, in the State of Kentucky, on the 29th of October, 1802. To this place his ancestors had emigrated from Virginia, where they could trace their origin back to the earliest settlement of the Old Dominion, and indeed far away in the annals of English history. At an early age young Peyton was sent to the college at Gallatin, and was there joined by his cousin, the distinguished Colonel Bailie Peyton, who was a youth of about the same age.
At the age of seventeen young Peyton left college, and in company with an older brother emigrated to Mississippi in search of fortune and a home. His brother was ambitious of achieving distinction as a lawyer, but on reaching Natchez they found their means so nearly exhausted that they were compelled to seek a livelihood by different modes. Ephraim became a printer's boy, in which capacity he served until he had earned means sufficient to renew his search for more congenial and favorable prospects. This he soon partially achieved, in obtaining a small school in the forests of Wilkinson County, near Woodville. Here he maintained himself and at the same time studied law until, having acquired a sufficient knowledge of its principles, he proceeded, in 1824-5, to Natchez, where the Supreme Court of the State was then sitting, and after the most rigid examination of those times was admitted to the bar as one of three among twelve applicants. Having obtained his license he filled his saddle bags with law books, and going forth, penetrated into the wilds of the interior in search of a suitable location. In this plight he arrived at Gallatin, the seat of justice of Copiah County, where the court was held in a log cabin. Here he began his career as a lawyer, and soon afterwards, by means of his professional income, established a mercantile house at Grand Gulf on the Mississippi ; and while engaged in this dual vocation he married Miss Artemisia Patton, the daughter of a wealthy and influential planter of Claiborne County. He now settled permanently at Gallatin, and there were all his children born, fourteen in number, but nine of whom reached the age of their majority.
Mr. Peyton had also, prior to his marriage, embraced the error common to most young lawyers of ability and-promise, and allowed himself to be diverted by the allurements of politics.
" As I now recollect," says the Hon. Albert G. Brown, " I first saw Mr. Peyton on the 4th of July, 1826, more than fifty years ago. He was then a young and very handsome man. The occasion was the celebration of the national anniversary. The place was a grove, near the centre of where the old town of Gallatin once stood. The guests of note were the then candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. To my boyish mind he seemed to be a splendid specimen of humanity, and when in riper years I came to know him better, I found no occasion to change that opinion.
" Mr. Peyton was the orator of the day. All that I recollect of it is that his speech was highly applauded. The candidates and the people gathered around him, and seemed by their congratulations to indicate that he had made a great speech. In the evening he was hoisted by an enthusiastic multitude on a table, and announced himself as a candidate for the Legislature. When the votes were counted at the election, it was first supposed that he had been chosen, and his friends were wild with enthusiasm. But on a closer count it was found that he had been beaten by a tally of five votes. The next year he was a candidate again, and was chosen without serious opposition. He served a single term in the Legislature, and after that persistently refused to compete for any political office."
In 1839, however, Mr. Peyton was elected District-Attorney for what was then the fourth judicial district, and was re- elected several times to the same position, until, worried with the duties of the office, and desiring to return to general practice, he resigned in the midst of a term, very much to the regret of the people, who fully appreciated his efforts towards maintaining the dignity and efficiency of the laws, in the preservation of order and the prevention of crime. The election of Mr. Peyton from this district, which was intensely Democratic, was a noble tribute to his ability as a lawyer and his integrity as a man, paid him regardless of his political principles, which were those of the Whig party, and of which he was a warm and unswerving advocate.
He was bitterly opposed to the policy of secession, and his lifelong antipathy to the measures of Democracy arrayed him after the war in the ranks of the Republican party, in which his great abilities brought him at once to the front rank, and in 1868 he was appointed by Governor Alcorn a judge of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. In 1870 he was chosen Chief Justice of the State, which position he held until the expulsion of his party from power by the election of 1875.
After his retirement from the supreme bench, in the fall of 1875, he sought refuge from the rugged field of long labors and the asperities of his public life in a home sweetened with repose, but lighted only by the smiles of filial affection, his wife having died some years previous. Here he gave his time to parental devotion and to the examination of revealed truths, to which he gave his hearty assent. But old age and decrepitude had now laid their inexorable grasp upon his frame, and, gradually bending beneath their weight, he died in Jackson, on the 5th of September, 1876.
--------Source for the biography below is "Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935", By Dunbar Rowland, B.S., LL.B., LL.D., Press of Hederman Press, Jackson, Mississippi, 1935, pg97
Ephraim Geoffrey Peyton was born near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, October 29, 1802. When 17 he came, with an elder brother, to Mississippi, and worked in a printing in Natchez office for a short time. Later he taught school and read law in Wilkinson county, near Woodville, until the winter of 1824-25, when he examined at Natchez and admitted to the bar. He began his practice at Gallatin, then the county-seat of Copiah County, and soon established a mercantile business at Grand Gulf on the Mississippi in addition to his law practice. About 1830, he married Artemisia Patton, of Claiborne county. In 1839, he was elected district attorney of what was then the 4th judicial district, and was reelected several times, finally resigning to return to his general practice. As he was a pronounced Whig, his election in this strongly Democratic district was a well merited compliment to his ability and his reputation for integrity. He bitterly opposed secession, and after the war, became a Republican. In 1867 he was appointed to the supreme court (then the high court of errors and appeals) by the military authorities; and on the reorganization of the judiciary by the Constitution of 1869, he was commissioned, May 10, 1870, as chief justice, and reappointed in 1873 for nine years, but resigned May 1, 1876, and died at Jackson, September 5, 1876, honored by his associates. “His opinions as a judge are of the finest type,” wrote Edward Mayes. He was such a close student that A. G. Brown said that for fifty years he studied law each day as it he expected to be examined for the bar the next day. In his message of January 1877, Governor John M. Stone mentioned his death in the following tribute: “In justice to the worth and memory of one who was for many years an honored and conscientious public servant, and eminent jurist and a man of incorruptible integrity, who discharged the duties of the exalted and responsible position with honor to himself and the State.”
JAMES PHELAN
The father of James Phelan was a native of Ireland, and was a descendant of one of the ancient families of that country. Being well educated, and possessed of an ample fortune, he was ambitious of filling a higher sphere than he could hope to enjoy under the system of political exclusion maintained against Catholics, at that time, in his native country, and in 1793 emigrated to America. He resided for many years in New York and New Jersey, and during that time was an officer of the First United States Bank in New York, the Bank of Manhattan, and subsequently cashier of the Bank of New Brunswick in New Jersey. Having lost his property by an ill-advised land speculation in New Brunswick, he determined to seek the reparation of his fortune in the South, and removed to Huntsville, in Alabama, about the time of the admission of that State into the Union.
Here the subject of this sketch was born, on the 20th of November, 1820. His father, actuated, perhaps, by notions of primogeniture imbibed in his native country, bestowed all the means he could afford upon the classical education of his oldest son, while the subject of this sketch enjoyed but few educational advantages ; and, when about the age of fourteen years, with that self-reliance and spirit of independence which characterized him through life, he sought employment as an apprentice to the printer's art, in the office of the Huntsville Democrat. But so brilliant was his genius, and so conspicuous were his native talents, that he was soon enabled to exchange the stick for the quill, and his editorials attracted the attention of the leading men in the State. In consequence of his political acumen, and the incisive vigor of his editorials, he was afterwards called by the unanimous voice of the party magnates to take charge of the editorial columns of The flag of the Union, the central organ of the Democratic party, published at Tuscaloosa, the capital of the State. Through the columns of this journal he exercised, for many years, a controlling influence in the politics of Alabama, and in 1843 was elected State Printer.
In this double capacity his energy and business qualifications abetted the development of his talents, and having acquired a competency he determined to devote his future career to the law, and entered the office of his older brother, Judge John D. Phelan, at Marion, Alabama, where he soon prepared himself for the profession, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of his native State in 1846. He then returned to Huntsville, where he began his professional career, and in 1847 married Miss Eliza Moore, of that place?a lady noted for her accomplishments, and afterwards for her conjugal devotion.
In 1849 Mr. Phelan removed to Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he soon achieved a distinction of the first rank in his profession, and in 1854 formed a co-partnership with John B. Sale. This firm was justly regarded as one of the ablest in the State, and the association continued until the outbreak of the civil war. At the close of the war Judge Phelan found himself impoverished, and not even permitted to resume the practice of his profession, which constituted his only means for the support of his children. Under these circumstances he went to Washington to ask at the seat of Government for the removal of his disabilities. He was no stranger to the President, and although there were others on a like errand who had been waiting for an audience many days, Mr. Johnson, on receiving the card of Judge Phelan, directed that he should be shown in immediately, and inquired of him the object of his visit. Judge Phelan carried with him no papers ; he went there to make no plea in abatement or recantation of his opinions, and therefore answered merely, " I have come to get permission to work in order that I may support my children." To some remark of the President in regard to the conduct of the South, Judge Phelan promptly responded that he had followed his convictions of duty, and had no apology to offer. President Johnson, to his honor, respected the manhood of the answer, and influenced, perhaps, by the evident integrity of the speaker, referred him to the Attorney-General, who was instructed to prepare the necessary papers which would enable the Judge to resume his professional labors.
He returned to Aberdeen and revived his co-partnership with Judge Sale, which was afterward joined by Colonel William F. Dowd ; but the ravages of war had left but a remnant of the wealth which formerly abounded in the country in which he had made his home, and seeking-more encouraging prospects in the pursuit of his profession, he removed, in 1867, to Memphis, Tennessee, and became associated with Judges William L. Harris and Henry T. Ellet, both formerly of the High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi. This firm was characterized by transcendent ability, and enjoyed every prospect of a large patronage ; but was dissolved, on the death of Judge Harris, in 1868. Judge Phelan continued the practice of his profession in Memphis with success and marked distinction to the time of his death, which occurred on the 17th of May, 1873.
P. RUTILIUS R. PRAY
Mr. Justice Pray was a native of the State of Maine. He was well educated, and on removing to Mississippi began the practice of law in the County of Hancock, from which he was, in 1828, elected to the Legislature, and was placed upon the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives with William L. Sharkey and John A. Quitman, and even among those distinguished men acquired prominence for his ability.
He was president of the convention which adopted the Revised Constitution of 1832, and presided over that body with great dignity and parliamentary skill. As a lawyer Mr. Pray possessed qualities that enabled him to rise rapidly in his profession, and in 1833 he was elected by the Legislature to revise the laws of the State.
In the performance of this duty, he was required to prepare a Revised Code of the statutes, and report its completion to the Governor, who was requested to convene the Legislature for the purpose of its adoption. He was authorized to alter and amend the phraseology of existing statutes, and to prune, correct and arrange, alter and amend, the provisions thereof, so far as might be necessary to render the Code harmonious within itself, und consistent with the provisions of the Revised Constitution. This work he completed with great labor, but not in a satisfactory manner, and it was rejected by the Legislature. At the regular election in November, 1837, he was chosen a judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, which office he held until his death, which occurred in 1839.
It is not understood that Judge Pray possessed any pre-eminent qualities as a jurist, but he possessed qualifications that rendered him distinguished as a lawyer and eminent as a citizen.
SERGEANT S. PRENTISS
A few years prior to the period referred to, a pale and slender young man made his appearance in the town of Natchez. He was an entire stranger, and on his arrival had, it is said, but five dollars in his pocket, which he soon expended in endeavoring to secure the good wishes of his landlord and other inmates of the hotel. He did not think, as he afterward said to a friend, that his capital was sufficiently ample for investment in trade or speculation, and conceived that the best use he could make of it was to purchase, if possible, the kindness of his host. In this he succeeded, and obtained credit for his board until he could procure a situation as teacher. This purpose he soon achieved, and entered upon his duties as tutor to the children of Mrs. Shields, a widow lady residing in Natchez. This position he held about two years, and during that time devoted all his spare hours assiduously to the study of the law.
As a mere private tutor and a friendless and penniless stranger, he had but poor social advantages among the aristocratic circles of Natchez, and consequently his life was monotonous and retired. At the end of the second year of his experience as teacher he abandoned his tutorship, entered the law office of the distinguished Robert J.Walker, and, having soon acquired license to practise law, he immediately entered upon his profession. And now, with no friend but his resolution, and no fortune but his talents, he leaped into the forum, an armed knight, amid an almost unparalleled array of legal learning and forensic ability. The first sound of his voice in the halls of justice drowned every whisper of supercilious conjecture, and drew upon him the gaze of wonder and admiration from bench, bar, and box.
There he stood, the commissioned champion of destiny, the plumed hero of victory, the personification of knowledge without recognition, of eloquence without plaudit, of fame without a trumpet: an unheralded victor, he seized the reins of genius and dashed away to fields unfurrowed and unfought.
Sergeant Smith Prentiss was born in the State of Maine, and in the city of Portland, on the 30th of September, 1808.
The paternal branch of his family was of English descent, while that of his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Lewis, was of Welsh origin. This, he said, was the whole amount of his genealogical knowledge. It was thought, however, that his American ancestors came over among the Pilgrims ; and his father, William Prentiss, was a strict adherent to the stern doctrines and rigid principles of the Puritan creed.
Mr. Prentiss had two sisters, who alternately resided with him in Mississippi, and several brothers, one of whom he educated for the ministry at a German university. His noble and affectionate letters to these and to his mother constitute a diary of filial and fraternal devotion rarely equaled in the pages of memoir. He had lost his father when quite young, and in consequence of a severe fever had become, at an early age, an incurable cripple. This circumstance created that solicitude on the. part of his mother which, notwithstanding her slender means, resulted in affording him advantages which she was unable to bestow upon her other sons.
After the usual academical preparation, Mr. Prentiss was sent to Bowdoin College, which he entered at the age of fifteen, and graduated with distinction at the end of the usual term.
Thrown now entirely upon his own resources, yet undaunted by the frowns of circumstances, the young man determined to seek his fortune in the far West, and at the age of nineteen bade adieu to his widowed mother, his friends, and the scenes of his childhood, and turned his face toward the Ohio. Arriving in the flourishing city of Cincinnati, he determined to seek employment and a home there. In this he did not succeed ; and it was now that the finger of destiny touched him and pointed him to those sunny fields which were to afford a fit harvest for his genius, and turning his steps toward the great Father of Waters, he landed in Natchez in 1827.
Here, after the experience already mentioned, he formed, in 1829, a copartnership with General Felix Huston, then a distinguished lawyer, and afterwards famous for his part in the Texan War of Independence.
In 1832 Mr. Prentiss removed to Vicksburg and entered into a law firm with John I. Guion, a gentleman of the highest social and professional rank, and who had been the partner of William L. Sharkey until the latter was raised to the bench.
This firm, it is needless to say, became one of the most celebrated in the Union, and was continued until the year 1836, when Mr. Guion was made judge of the criminal court.
In gazing back upon the career of this remarkable man, it resembles the glare of some brilliant meteor that suddenly flashed along the horizon, and flamed toward the zenith with increasing glory, until, gathered into the bosom of the great orb of day, it forms a part of the light of the universe.
In 1839 Mr. Prentiss, at the request of the leading Whigs of Mississippi, became a candidate for the United States Senate, and entered upon a vigorous canvass for that office. But whatever may have been his chances of popularity with the people, had the election rested upon the popular vote, he was defeated before the Legislature. But he was not yet to retire from the political world. An event was now approaching which absorbed every other consideration, and engaged all the powers and energies, of his nature the Presidential election of 1840. Mr. Prentiss leaped into the canvass, and almost every city from New Orleans to Portland thundered with the applause of his eloquence.
It was during this canvass that he addressed for the first time the people of his native city. There, on the common where thirteen years before he had gambolled, a wayward and friendless youth, he now saw the rushing tread of thousands eager to do him honor and catch his words. His mother was present, and the old lady's heart must have swollen with pride as she caught the eloquent strains that gushed in living streams from his lips and rolled away amid gorgeous imagery, bearing upon their surface the minds and the hearts of the audience, until nothing seemed left to the people but the power to admire and applaud. But it is foreign to the features of this work to follow him farther in his political career. It belongs to the history of the country.
In the spring of 1842, Mr. Prentiss was married to Mary Jane Williams, daughter of James C. Williams, of Natchez. From this time it seems to have been his desire to eschew politics altogether, and devote himself entirely to his profession. He was a kind and devoted husband, and his private affairs seem new for the first time to have occasioned him any particular solicitude. His expensive political canvasses bad absorbed a large portion of his means, while his disappointment's and the treachery of political friends had created a feeling of disgust for the world, which he had never before experienced. The only question in the politics of the State that seemed to interest him after this was that of repudiation : this he denounced at all times and under all circumstances as a monstrum, horrendum, inform, ingens, a kind of moral and political malady which should be eradicated at all events. Such was the tenor of all his speeches of that period.
Notwithstanding his promptness to resent a personal insult, and his readiness to accept personal responsibilities when his honor was in the least involved, he harbored not a revengeful thought, and was as ready to forgive as to propitiate. But he was in disposition by no means a saint or puritan. He was more of a gay, dashing, reckless cavalier ; more of a Cosur de Lion than a John Knox, and more of a John Smith than a John Carver.
His beautiful letters to his mother and sisters have already been referred to. They breathe the very essence of genuine affection, and exhibit the poised scales of the inner man. His love for his wife and children seemed unbounded ; indeed, for many years before his death this seemed to be the only chain that bound him to the world, whose beauties he could so gorgeously depict. His health, which had long been feeble, became in 1849 so threatening as to occasion the utmost alarm to his friends. He became subject to a chronic dysentery, which was very much aggravated if not induced by his habits of life. This disease continued to grow at times more malignant until June, 1850, when he became so emaciated as to be unable longer to attend to any business, which he refused to abstain from so long as he was capable of the least exertion. His last effort at the bar was made in the defence of General Lopez, the Cuban patriot, before the United States court. In behalf of this individual, while he denounced his American abettors, his sympathies were warmly enlisted, and his exertions on the occasion utterly prostrated his last physical powers. He now consented to be carried with his family to Natchez. Here he continued to rapidly decline, until the 1st day of July, 1850, when his spirit soared away to those beautiful realms from which he had always drawn his noblest inspirations, and the conception of whose beauties had modeled his grandest images.
The burial service was impressively performed by the venerable Bishop Green, of the Episcopal Church, who is still living to pronounce that last sad requiem of humanity, " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." He was laid away by the side of the great river where he first stepped upon the shore of his splendid triumphs.
GEORGE L. POTTER.
George Lemuel Potter, long a distinguished lawyer at the bar of Mississippi, was born in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, on the 10th of November, 1812. His early advantages were liberal, and after a thorough preparation in the best schools of his native city he was sent to Yale College, from which he was graduated in the twenty-first year of his age. He then studied law, and, having obtained his license, emigrated to Mississippi in 1835, and located in the city of Natchez, where he pursued his profession until the year 1840, when he removed to the town of Clinton, in Hinds County, and there formed a co-partnership with Mr. H; E. Van Winkle. He remained in Clinton about three years, and then removed to Jackson, where he soon took rank among the first lawyers who practised at the bar of the High Court. For thirty-five years there was scarcely a lawyer in the State who appeared more frequently before that bar, and the reported decisions during that time abound with arguments made by him upon the most important questions, and which display a profoundness of research, powers of analysis, logical acumen, and a brilliancy of success that would perpetuate the fame of any jurist at any bar and in any age.
His intellect was subtle, penetrating, and profound, and was thoroughly trained and disciplined by severe, constant, and intense exercise, while his capacity for mental labor seemed to be of an exhaustless measure. He rarely spent an idle hour, but was ever busy either in the investigation of some abstruse legal question which was involved in his practice, or presented to his mind by his powers of analogy ; or he was actively engaged in the promotion of some scheme to advance the welfare of the community. The death of Mr. Potter, which occurred on the 6th of February, was shockingly sudden and unexpected. He had left his residence in Jackson on the evening before to attend the chancery court of a neighboring county, in which he was engaged in an important case. He had finished his argument and seated himself at a table in the bar ; he was engaged in writing, but before the document was finished he was suddenly stricken with apoplexy, and died immediately. It is somewhat a remarkable coincidence that the only law partner he ever had, Mr. Van Winkle, met with the same sudden death, who also was seized with apoplexy while standing in the vestibule of the Capitol, and, like Mr. Potter, died almost without a struggle.
The life of Mr. Potter was a beautiful commentary upon the calm and peaceful assurances of Christianity. He walked strictly in its paths, and plucked every joy of its promises. The last time his friends beheld him he was sitting in his accustomed pew, from which he proceeded to the train that bore him to the scene of his death.
JOHN ANTHONY QUITMAN
In attempting a sketch of the life of this distinguished gentleman, I shall not endeavor to follow him through the war of Texan independence and the Mexican war. In these his career forms one of the brightest pages in the history of the United States. It records his glowing patriotism, fiery valor, and unconquerable bravery, which form a part of our national pride and national glory.
His name is immortally linked with the glory of Monterey, Chepultepec, Contreras, Puebla, and other memorable fields of the Mexican war, from all of which he emerged with his colors sparkling with glory, and with victory perched upon his standard. His was the first American flag that floated over the Mexican capital, and he was the first civil and military governor of Mexico the only American who ever ruled in the ancient halls of the Montezumas.
His biography has been written in two volumes by the Hon. J. H. F. Claiborne, which, though I have not had the pleasure of seeing it, from my knowledge of the ability and eloquence of the distinguished author, I cheerfully recommend to the reader.
The following sketch of the life of General Quitman will be confined to his career as a citizen and member of the Bench and Bar of Mississippi. The facts have been culled chiefly from sketches published in 1848, during the life of General Quitman, by Ritchie and Heiss, and from the records of the period, which constitute an accurate synopsis of his professional and judicial career.
The grandfather of General Quitman is said to have held an important and responsible office under the great Frederick of Prussia, and is understood to have enjoyed the personal regard and confidence of that monarch. His father was also a native of Prussia, and was educated at the celebrated University of Halle, where he graduated with the highest honors of his class. The liberal principles and free sentiments common to that and other German universities were freely imbibed by the young student, and doubtless determined his settlement in America, the theatre upon which was to be solved the interesting problem of the capacity of man for self-government.
He arrived first in the Dutch island of Curayoa, in the West Indies, and while sojourning there married a daughter of the governor a lady distinguished no leas for her beauty and accomplishments than for her family and connections and was accompanied by her to the United States soon after the close of the Revolution. This gentleman, the Rev. Dr. Frederick Henry Quitman, was equally distinguished for his piety and talents and for his activity and energy of character. He had the pastoral charge of the two Evangelical Lutheran churches in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N. Y., and was for many years president of the General Synod of that denomination in the United States. He performed these various duties with exemplary zeal and ability, and died at the advanced age of seventy-two years, universally beloved and respected by all who knew him. His family included three sons and four daughters. John Anthony Quitman, the youngest of these children, was born at Rhinebeck, on the 1st of September, 1799.
From such parents the son could but derive very great advantages in natural endowments as well as in counsel and example. A vigorous frame, a well-balanced mind, a love of truth and honorable fame, undaunted resolution and industry, marked his early years; and his subsequent career but exemplified these traits upon a wider theatre of action, and in the practical and varied duties of life, showing how truly the boy is the father of the man.
At the age of ten years, young Quitman was placed at school in the town of Schoharie, N. Y., and at sixteen was transferred to the celebrated institution of Hartwick, near Cooperstown, in the same State, then under charge of the reverend and learned Dr. Hazelius. During part of his time at this institution he acted .in the capacity of tutor, and left it in his twentieth year, to accept a professorship in Mount Airy College, near Philadelphia, which he held for about fifteen months and until he attained his twenty-first year.
Considering the energy and vigor of his nature and the excellent opportunities he had enjoyed, it is not surprising that at this period his attainments were of the most thorough and varied kind, or that he was held at both of these institutions in the highest estimation for his talents and acquirements.
It seems that his venerable father had contemplated his son's embracing his own profession, that of the ministry; and that with this view, besides the usual academical course, including the classics and the French, Spanish, and German languages, his attention had been directed to the Hebrew, and to church history and biblical criticism, the knowledge of which he afterwards cherished and preserved by occasional study during the course of a busy and stirring life.
But his own predilection was early and decided for the law; and without interfering with the course of study prescribed by his father, he had already, and merely in those hours which others might have given to amusement, qualified himself for admission to the bar.
Thus having completed, at the same time, both his education and his minority, the time had arrived for young Quitman to launch his bark upon the ocean of life. Without either wealth or potent friends, his circumstances demanded that he should be the architect of his own fortune; and with an abiding confidence in his own energy and his own powers to compass and achieve it, he was buoyant with the hopes of the future. Having obtained the consent of his father, all that was now wanting was a suitable location for the practise of his favorite profession. This he determined should be in the far West, and, with an outfit in books and a small sum of money, he lost no time in entering upon his journey to the Ohio.
Arriving at Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, he found but a single line of stage-coaches running to Wheeling, and, unwilling to submit to the charge, $75 (the fare of a passenger, for every fifty pounds of extra baggage), he placed his books in a transportation wagon and pursued his journey on foot. At Chiliicothe, Ohio, the location he had in view, he found that a law had recently been passed requiring a residence of one year in the State before admission to the bar, and thereupon entered the law office of Messrs. Brush, eminent lawyers of that place. In the spring of 1821, Platt Brush, one of the firm, was appointed to the new land office established at Delaware, Ohio, then upon the Indian frontier. To this place young Quitman accompanied him as a clerk, and, while performing the duties of this office, acquired a knowledge of the land system of the United States which was not without its value in after years.
Having thus passed the year of residence required, partly in further preparation for practice, and partly in earning a moderate compensation for his services, he underwent a highly creditable examination before the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Delaware, and was admitted to the bar.
But the distressing condition of Ohio at this period arising from excessive and improvident bank issues, with the consequent inflation and? depreciation of the currency produced a state of things so inauspicious to the prosperity of .the community in which he lived, and to his own, that he determined to relinquish a position in other respects pleasant and encouraging, and once more to seek his fortune among strangers. He accordingly removed to the city of Natchez, in the State of Mississippi.
In Natchez, General Quitman's professional career may be said to have fairly commenced. Here he formed a copartnership with William B. Griffitih, then an eminent lawyer, and by applying himself to his profession with his characteristic energy and fidelity, he soon achieved, not only a lucrative practice, but a respectable rank among the prominent members of the bar.
At this period he also took an active part in the consideration and discussion of all the Important questions of the day especially those that concerned the general or local interest of the community in which he had established himself, and bore his full share in all the measures and movements tending to improve, harmonize, and ameliorate the condition of its society. He was consequently popular in the community, particularly with the other members of the bar and the fair sex.
In 1824 he married Miss Eliza Turner, the only daughter of Henry Turner, Esq., of Virginia, and a niece of Chancellor Turner, of Mississippi.
At the general election in the State of Mississippi, held on the first Monday in August, 1827, General Quitman was elected by a very large majority to a seat in the popular branch of the Legislature, as a representative from the county of Adams, and, as a member of the judiciary committee, soon became prominent for activity, sagacity, and ability, even among such men as afterward Chief-Justice Sharkey and Judge Pray, of whom the committee was composed.In 1834 General Quitman resigned the office of chancellor, which he had filled with so much honor to himself and with such general satisfaction to all branches of the community, for the purpose of devoting his time to his private affairs ; but he was not permitted to remain long in his retirement. In the following year he was elected as State Senator from the county of Adams. While a member of this body a vacancy occurred in the office of governor of the State, and the Senate was convened by proclamation of the acting secretary of State for the purpose of electing a president of that body, to perform under the constitution the duties of governor. The choice fell on General Quitman. He continued to hold the office of President of the Senate as long as he remained a member of that body.
It was thought that his decease was the effect of the National Hotel poisoning, having dined there on that fatal day which cost thirty-one persons their lives, and destroyed the health of a great many more. Be this as it may, from that time his health was greatly impaired, yet he clung to his duties until the adjournment of Congress.
General Quitman possessed a genius of the highest order, and of an exceedingly versatile character. Whether in the forum or on the bench; leading the dashing charge amid the thunders of battle ; issuing his decrees from the throne of the Montezumas ; resigning his gubernatorial chair to save the honor of his State ; pleading his innocence as a traitor at the bar of Federal prosecution ; defending the rights of the South in the halls of the national Congress ; citizen or soldier, judge or politician, he was always equal to whatever duties might devolve upon him. He was sincere, honest, and unchanging in his attachments ; lofty, open, and manly in his opposition. Chivalry and generosity were the ruling traits of his character ; the one baffled the envy of emulation, while the other conquered the bitterness of opposition.
General Quitman possessed a remarkably stalwart frame, and was capable of undergoing the severest labor. He had powerful fists, which, notwithstanding his natural amiability, he sometimes used in self-defence or in resenting an insult, and always to the discomfiture of his antagonist. It was said of him that he never struck a man without knocking him down, except on one occasion, and that, he claimed, was a glancing stroke.
As a lawyer, General Quitman had few superiors, and as a judge of equity but few equals ; his love of justice, keen sense of honor, and quick conscience, fitted him in a remarkable degree for the administration of the principles of equity jurisprudence ; and so long as the sword of Mississippi hangs in the temple of war, and her voice is heard in the halls of justice; so long as her niche remains in the shaft of fame, will the name of John A. Quitman live in the memory and the heart of her people.
CHRISTOPHER RANKIN
The subject of this sketch was born in Pennsylvania, and was educated at Cannonsburg. He then emigrated to Georgia, where he taught a village school and prepared himself for the bar. In 1809, he removed to Mississippi, and was for a long time an able and efficient member of the Territorial Legislature. He represented the county of Amite, out of which the county of Rankin was formed, and'named in his honor. He was also a member of the convention that formed and adopted the first constitution of Mississippi. He was an able and successful lawyer, a man of stern integrity and unswerving patriotism. He possessed in a high degree those qualities of mind and heart so necessary in the composition of eminence, a sound judgment, an unwearied energy, and an uprightness of character which commended him to the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He did much toward the establishment of that sound basis upon which the splendid fabric of our jurisprudence has been reared.
Mr. Rankin was engaged in some of the first cases argued before the Supreme Court of the State, and to the management of which he brought that skill and learning which had signalized his career before the courts of the Territory. He continued his practice with increasing reputation until the year 1821, when he was elected to a seat in the national House of Representatives, to succeed the gifted Poindexter. This office he filled with great credit and fidelity, though he was i\ot gifted with any eminent powers of oratory. He was more of a matter-of- fact advocate and legal logician than polished elocutionist. He remained in Congress until 1827, when he retired from political life, and died in Washington, carrying with him to his grave the unsullied laurels of a useful and successful career, both iu the council and the forum, and, it might be added, in all the relations of life.
THOMAS B. REED
Mr. Reed was a native of Kentucky, and had acquired some reputation as a lawyer before emigrating to the Mississippi Territory. He was remarkable for his laborious application and unswerving devotion to his profession, to which he adapted and devoted all the energies of his nature. To this feature of his character, and to the native vigor of his mind, was due that thorough mastery of the mysteries of the common law for which he became celebrated. His early education had beeij neglected, and his store of general learning was limited, hence he attempted no display of eloquence other than that which his thorough knowledge of the law evoked and his genius inspired. Though stiff and punctilious in his manners and bearing, he was a favorite among the members of the bar, especially the younger members, to whom he was ever ready to extend a lifting hand, and to whom he revealed beneath his seeming hauteur a kind and generous heart.
The reputation of Mr. Reed rose rapidly on his appearance at the bar of the Territory. The intricate questions arising from the variety of land tenures, and the difficult application of the common-law rules to the developing and multiplying concerns of the country, afforded an ample field for his genius and the exercise of his familiarity with the precedents and decisions of the common-law courts.
Mr. Reed made his appearance before the Supreme Court of the State in the first criminal case brought before that tribunal, the State vs. the Blennerhassetts, which he argued for the defence, at the June term, 1818. His reputation at the bar continued in the ascendency, and, in 1821, he was elected Attorney- General of the State, which office he filled for four years with great v ability. In 1827, he was elected to the Senate of the United States. His legal knowledge and familiarity with the fundamental principles of our Government soon attracted attention in that body of able lawyers ; and his speech upon what was known as the " Judiciary Question" gained for him the admiration of the Senate, and was highly commended by the press of the period. He died in 1829.
JOHN B. SALE.
John Burruss Sale was born in Amherst County, Virginia, on the 7th of June, 1818. He was the son of an eminent divine, Rev. Alexander Sale, and of Sarah Burruss Sale.
While he was a boy his father moved to Lawrence County, in the State of Alabama, and. there placed him in the college at Lagrange, where he was educated under the supervision of the now venerable Bishop Paine, who was then the president of that institution, and whose voice may have been to young Sale what that of the lady in white was to Hercules. And as the life of Hercules evinced the wisdom of a choice which enabled him under the sternest decrees of fate to glorify the teachings of virtue, so that of the subject of this sketch verified the power of those hallowed admonitions which he received from his pious father and sanctified preceptor.
On the completion of his collegiate course Mr. Sale read law under Judge Ormand, of Alabama, and was admitted to the bar of that State in 1837, at Moulton, when he was but nineteen years of age, and two years later was chosen judge of the Probate Court. His morality and close application, together with the eminent qualities of his mind, enabled him very soon to achieve the distinction of a young lawyer of much promise, and finally conducted him to the position of eminence.
In 1845 he removed to Aberdeen, Mississippi, where, two years afterwards, he formed a co-partnership with John Goodwin, Esq. This firm continued until 1854, when Colonel James Phelan, afterwards Senator from Mississippi in the Congress of the Confederate States, was admitted as a member, and on the death of Mr. Goodwin, in 1857, Messrs. Sale & Phelan continued their co-partnership until the outbreak of the civil war. In 1861 Judge Sale organized a company of volunteers, which was assigned to the 27th Mississippi Regiment.
He was first married to Miss Susan Turner Sykes, daughter of Dr. William A. and Rebecca Sykes, formerly of Decatur, Alabama, and afterwards of Aberdeen, Mississippi. She died in 1848. His next marriage was with Miss Nannie T. Mills, of Aberdeen, who died in 1857. In 1860 he married Miss Lou Leigh, daughter of the Rev. Hezekiah G. Leigh, formerly of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and the founder of Randolph Macon College. She died in 1863, during the absence of her husband in the army, and in 1866 he married Miss Annie Cornelius, of New Orleans, daughter of William Cornelius, Esq., a prominent lawyer of that city. This estimable lady survives him.
As a lawyer, Colonel Sale possessed many eminent qualities. While he may not have been distinguished for that coruscating brilliancy of imagination which Shakespeare characterizes as a " fine frenzy," he possessed an accurate perception, a sound and penetrating judgment, and an indefatigable power of application. Hence his knowledge of the law was deep and thorough, and his arguments lucid and logical. So careful was he of profound research, and so patient of investigation, that he never appeared in court without having made a thorough preparation, whatever may have been the nature of his case. The religious character of Colonel Sale was in the highest degree bright and exemplary. He had long been a strict member of the Methodist Church, and died, as he had lived, in the enjoyment of all the hallowed influences of Christianity. The lady in white attended upon the death of her votary.
CHARLES SCOTT
Chancellor Scott was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 12th of November, 1811. He was a descendant of a Virginia family, noted for its production of many distinguished soldiers and eminent statesmen. His father, Edmond Scott, was an eminent lawyer and judge, distinguished for his eloquence and ability, and presided for nearly thirty years as circuit judge of the Knoxville district.
Major Joseph Scott, the grandfather of Charles, was an officer under Washington in the Continental army ; was severely wounded at the battle of Germantown, and after the war was appointed Marshal of Virginia by President Jefferson. Major Scott's brother, General Charles Scott, was also a distinguished Revolutionary soldier, and afterwards became Governor of Kentucky.
Charles Scott first began the practice of law in Nashville, Tennessee, where he married, and soon afterwards removed to Jackson, Mississippi, and there pursued his profession in copartnership with George S. Yerger, who had married his sister. This firm was eminently successful, and enjoyed distinguished reputation ; and the ability and stanch integrity of Charles Scott, together with his high sense of honor and amiability of character, commended him so highly to the people that in a few years he was elected to the office of Chancellor of Mississippi, and long presided over the Superior Court of Chancery with great ability, and with the universal commendation of both bar and people.
It was he who first rendered the decree in the great case of Johnston vs. the State of Mississippi, establishing the liability of the State for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank, that case having been first instituted in the Chancery Court ; and. notwithstanding that the popular sensibilities were adverse to the result, the ability, purity, and sincere integrity, which characterized his decision, caused it to be generally received as a satisfactory emanation of conscientious duty. It was affirmed by the High Court of Errors and Appeals.
In 1859 Chancellor Scott removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where, he conceived, a broader and more prolific field was presented to the practice of his profession, which he there entered upon with the opening prospects of a brilliant career, but so soon as the clouds of war began to gather along the horizon he returned, in 1861, to Jackson, Mississippi, determined to cast his lot with his adopted State in the impending struggle. He had been a devoted friend of the Union, but when Mississippi seceded, he promptly yielded to the demands of duty, and his heart and hand became warmly enlisted in her cause. He lived, however, but a short time after his return to Jackson, where he died, and was buried by his beloved brethren of the Masonic fraternity.
Chancellor Scott was a most devoted Mason, and as such had a national reputation. He was the author of two Masonic works, which commanded attention not only from the members of the craft, but from the general public, being noted for the learning and research displayed by their author, and also for the chaste style in which they are written. These works, " The Keystone of the Masonic Arch," and " The Analogy of Ancient Craft Masonry to Natural and Revealed Religion," still find a place in the library of every learned brother of the ancient order. Their author was for many years Master of Silas Brown Lodge, in Jackson, and afterwards was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi.
Chancellor Scott was not only an ardent and thorough student of the law, but he was also a ripe classical scholar, and was familiar with the standard poets and writers of modern times, particularly surpassing most of his contemporaries in his knowledge of that greatest of all modern poets, Shakespeare. His researches had even extended farther, and much of his time was devoted to sacred writers, while his knowledge of the Bible was thorough and extensive. His studies in this direction had convinced him of all the truths of religion, and he was an exemplary Christian. This sentiment pervaded his whole nature, and quickened a tender conscientiousness and amiability, which not only rendered him an ornament to society, but especially fitted him for the high office of Chancellor. He was a man of noble candor and knightly courtesy, gentle and affable in his manners, devoted to his friends, unwearied in the performance of duty, and unswerving in fidelity to his high trust.
A bright Mason, he cherished the virtue of charity; a cultivated lawyer, he loved the principles of justice ; an able and upright judge, he promulgated the purest doctrines of equity ; and a good man, his heart flowed in sympathy and generosity toward his fellow men. Many of his comrades and friends are still living in Mississippi, and cherish his memory with feelings of sincere affection.
COTESWORTH P. SMITH
Cotesworth Pinckney Smith was a native of South Carolina, but removed to the Mississippi Territory prior to its cession by Georgia to the General Government, and resided in that portion which was afterwards included in Adams County and subsequently erected into the county of Wilkinson. Here his boyhood was passed, amid the wild scenes of the country, and in the enjoyment of such advantages as the state of its society afforded at that period ; but being endowed with great energy, natural talents, and more than ordinary ambition, Mr. Smith, on reaching his maturity, turned his attention to the law, which he practised for many years with success.
In 1826 he was chosen to represent Wilkinson County in the lower branch of the Legislature, and as chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements performed an active and laborious part in that body. In 1830 he represented the county of Wilkinson in the State Senate, and so greatly had his reputation as a lawyer increased, and his popularity as a man of energy, firmness, and uprightness enlarged, that in 1833 he was elected under the new Constitution one of the judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. His term expired in 1837, and in 1840 he was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy on that bench occasioned by the death of Mr. Justice Pray, but was succeeded during the same year by the election of Mr. Justice Turner by the people.
Returning to the-practice of law with a riper experience, and with his talents invigorated by the wide scope of their exercise upon the bench, Judge Smith stood among the most prominent of the Mississippi bar. But the popularity he had acquired as a judge of the High Court asserted itself in his being recalled to that bench, and on his election, in 1849, he was made Chief Justice of the State.
Chief Justice Smith was naturally endowed with talents of a high order. He possessed an eager appetite for knowledge, and extended his inquiries to every department of science; and this the brilliancy of his intellect permitted him to do without any apparent detraction from his legal ability. He was fond of miscellaneous reading, and was well versed in all the polite literature both of the past and of his day. He was consequently an agreeable companion, and one of the most interesting and accomplished conversationalists of his time. He was a man of great intellectual independence, and however well he might be acquainted with the opinions of others, he promptly subordinated every question to the dictates of his own views.
He delivered the opinion of the court in the famous case of the State of Mississippi vs. Johnson, which fixed the liability of the State for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank, and which he knew would place him in a hostile attitude to the party in control of the State Government, to a large majority of the people, and would cost him his seat upon the bench and perpetual exclusion from office.
In this case Judge Smith bases his conclusions upon the broad and solid ground that the same principles which govern in matters of contract between private individuals apply to all contracts to which the State has become a party. This rule is founded on the presumption that sovereign States, who are supposed to be always ready to perform their undertakings and to discharge their just obligations, could desire no better rules by which to ascertain their own obligations and rights than those according to which they dispense justice to their citizens.
He was deeply learned in all the branches of his profession, and seemed to comprehend its most subtle principles more by intuition than by laborious investigation. 'But his knowledge of the law was not more conspicuous than other traits of his character, which seemed to eminently fit him for the bench. He was candid, conscientious, and impartial ; firm in his opinions, fond of justice, and fearless in his denunciation of wrong. In this respect he very much resembled Sir Matthew Hale, with whom his uniformly conscientious and equitable administration of law entitles him very properly to be ranked. Judge Smith had but one aim, and that was duty ; and this purpose extended to all the relations of life. If the natural kindness and amiability of his disposition ever faltered it was because it conflicted with this ruling motive.
His manners were gentle, urbane, and conciliatory, and the honors bestowed upon him reflect the estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. He held the office of Chief Justice for nearly twelve years, with uniform ability, unflagging zeal, and unswerving fidelity to the principles of law and justice. He died in 1863. Born in Mississippi while yet under the territorial government of Georgia, Judge Smith grew with the growth of his State. Honored and trusted at all times by his fellow-citizens, he never sought rewards or honors from any other source, and never held an office not conferred by them. Endowed by nature with mental faculties of the highest order, with moral and physical courage which knew no fear, of humane and kindly disposition, and actuated by a conscientious rectitude of purpose and principle which nothing could swerve, Chief Justice Smith presented to the world the model character of a judge. Learned, conscientious, fearless, and upright, for nearly twelve years he presided in this court; and each and all of us can bear willing testimony that during all that time he administered justice without sale, denial, or delay ; knowing no man nor any party in his judicial action, but doing his duty in every case regardless of men or parties, and with an eye single to law and justice. " In the decease of such a judge the State mourns one of her worthiest sons. In the death of such a man the world has lost one of its noblest ornaments.
--------Source for the biography below: "Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935", by Dunbar Rowland, BS, LLB, LLD, Printed by Press of Hederman Bros., Jackson, Miss., 1935, pgs 92-94
Cotesworth Pinckney Smith, chief justice of the Mississippi High Court of errors and Appeals, was born in the district of Natchez, son of Peter Smith, a planter who came from South Carolina in 1785, and died in 1837, leaving a large estate. In early manhood he engaged in the practice of law. In politics he was a Whig. In 1826 he was elected representative of Wilkinson county and was chairman of the committee on internal constitution went into effect he was elected one of the three judges of the high court of errors and appeals. He served until 1837 by this election; for a month in 1840, by appointment of the governor, was the successor of Judge Pray, and in 1849 was again elected to the court for a full term, and in November 1851, was chosen chief justice, a dignity which continued to be his until his death, November 11, 1862. He delivered the opinion of the court in the famous case of Johnson vs. The State, sustaining the validity of the Union Bank bonds, in contradiction o the political decision on this subject. The resolution of the bar, presented by Hon. T. J. Wharton, February 23, 1863, recite: “Born in Mississippi while yet under the territorial government of Georgia, Judge Smith grew with the growth of the State. Honored and trusted at all times by his fellow-citizens, he never held an office not conferred by them… Learned, conscientious, fearless, and upright, for nearly twelve years he presided in this court.”Governor Clark wrote of him in a message of December 1863: “Sad as have been the inroads which death has made upon our State in the last twelve months, the demise of none of her sons has caused a wider or more heart-felt sorrow. Born upon the soil of Mississippi, devoted heart and soul to her interest, and watching with zealous care over her honor, Judge Smith spent a long and laborious life in her service. In the forum, in the senate chamber and upon the bench, he labored, with a zeal that knew no weariness, and with a purity of patriotism and loftiness of purpose that has had few parallels. In every position he occupied, his great talents, his profound erudition, his extensive legal attainments and the unquestioned purity of his character, shed unfading luster upon the annals of his native State.”
In winter of 1861 Judge Smith asked and was given a place on the staff of General Reuben Davis, in command at Corinth. “I considered this a very great honor to me,” Davis wrote, “as he was a gentleman of sixty-five years of age, of unusual dignity of character, a ripe scholar, and the ablest jurist in the State, excepting Judge Sharkey.” He was interested in the movement for the liberation of Cuba, in 1850, and while he was judge of the high court his name appeared on the bonds that were put in circulation by Lopez.
JAMES M. SMILEY.
James Malcolm Smiley was born in Amite County, Mississippi, on the 25th day of October, 1812. His early educational advantages were the best which the newly settled country could afford, and being of studious habits and ambitious disposition, he availed himself to the utmost of his opportunities. His parents encouraged his thirst for knowledge, and while quite young he was sent to Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the establishment of Oakland College, in Mississippi when he returned to his native State and entered that institution, which was then under the management of Dr. J. Chamberlain, and graduated there in 1834, being the only member of his class and the first graduate of the college.
He soon afterwards began the study of law in the office of William Dillingham, Esq., who was then a lawyer in large practice at Liberty, in Amite County. Here he pursued his studies one year, and then repaired to New Orleans, where he took a legal course under Hon. Alfred Hennen, and obtained license to practise under the laws of Louisiana. He then pursued a course of studies in the law department of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated there. Returning to his native county, he began the practice of the law by himself, in the year 1837, but afterwards formed a copartnership with Hon. Van Tromp Crawford, of Amite County, which continued until the latter was elected to the circuit bench, after which Mr. Smiley again practised by himself, doing an extensive and lucrative business in his own and adjoining counties.
In 1841 he married Mrs. Carroll, a most estimable lady of Amite County, and during the same year was elected to represent his county in the popular branch of the State Legislature. To this office he was twice re-elected, and closed his legislative career in the spring of 1846.
In the session of 1846, an act was passed by the Legislature organizing what was termed a " vice-chancery district," including all the counties lying south of the tier through which the Vicksburg and Meridian Railroad passes, and in the summer of that year, Mr. Smiley was elected vice-chancellor of this district, beating his popular opponent, Hon. Powhatan Ellis, by a large majority. The district was divided into sub-districts, and courts were required to be held twice a year at Natchez, Monticello, Mississippi City, and Paulding. The vice-chancellor, although comparatively a young man, was found to possess abilities equal to the position that he held, and in 1850 he was re-elected with very little opposition, and held the office until near the close of the year 1852, when he resigned and removed to the city of New Orleans.
He there opened an office, and was soon engaged in a lucrative practice in the State and Federal courts. He was employed by Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, widow of General Gaines, in the celebrated Gaines case then pending in the courts, and it was at his suggestion and mainly through his efforts that the important and indispensable step of probating the will of Daniel Clark, upon which the claimant's success depended, was accomplished ; so that to the skill and labor of Judge Smiley Mrs. Gaines is mainly indebted for all the benefits that have accrued to her in that case ; and it is singular that all the compensation he received for his services in the matter amounted to a mere trifle.
In 1853 he had the misfortune of losing his amiable and devoted wife, who died of yellow fever. He remained in New Orleans until the year 1859, when he returned to Amite County, and was married about this time to Mrs. Southgate, of Newport, Kentucky, who still survives him, and cherishes his memory with a fondness characteristic of the truest and noblest of her sex.
He resumed his practice in Amite County with flattering prospects, but the outbreak of the great civil war so paralyzed all business that there was but little transacted in the courts during its existence. In October, 1865, he was elected circuit judge of the district including the seven counties in the south-west portion of the State, and held the office under that election until he was appointed by the military authorities, from which time he continued as judge until the adoption of the new Constitution, when he was again appointed by Governor Alcorn in 1871, and again, by Governor Stone in 1876, and continued on the bench until January, 1878, when increasing ill-health and infirmities compelled him to resign. He continued to reside at Magnolia, in Pike County, until the 8th of April, 1879, at which time he died, and was buried in Amite County, near the place of his birth.
During the last two years of Judge Smiley's term of office, he ordered the release on bail of several prisoners who were charged with murder, for the conviction of whom there was a clamorous popular demand, and which subjected his conduct to a fierce animadversion. The feeling indeed became fiercely denunciative, yet Judge Smiley pursued the even tenor of his way, and was never known to take the slightest notice of the dissatisfaction. In every instance in which the bail was granted the parties appeared for trial, and not in a single case was there a conviction by the jury of murder.
In other instances he was censured for not bringing certain persons to a speedy trial who were accused of crime, and who were shielded behind the subtlety of appliances over which it is doubtful whether the judge could have'any control; but the censure was nevertheless severe, and he was even threatened with impeachment.
The main charge against Judge Smiley was that he had ruled that murder was bailable. The Constitution of Mississippi declares that all cases are bailable except in " capital offences where the proof is evident or the presumption great,'' and a law, passed in 1875, gave to the jury the power of fixing in their verdict the penalty of murder at imprisonment for life. But as capital cases are defined to he those in which the penalty is death, Judge Smiley, it seems, was of the opinion that, in view of this definition of the term " capital offenses," the verdict of the jury was necessary to determine the character of the crime, and that consequently all cases were bailable before conviction. And although the Supreme Court afterward declared that such a position was wholly untenable, yet it is difficult to see upon what grounds the opinion of the aged judge could be assigned as a feature of impeachable corruption.
He was also accused of fixing inadequate bail, and particularly was he censured in this respect in the case of the State vs. Bethea. In this case the prisoner was charged with murder, and Judge Smiley fixed his bail at two thousand dollars; but, while the sum seems small as a recognizance to hold one to trial for his life or perpetual imprisonment, in view of the just and equitable spirit which pervades the law of bailment, he was surely justifiable in taking into consideration the poverty of the accused and of the country. It may have been as difficult for Bethea at that time to procure satisfactory surety for two thousand dollars as for other men in other times to find surety for twenty thousand, and the weight of such considerations rests in the sound discretion of the judge.
In politics Judge Smiley was a life-long and ardent Whig, and prior to his promotion to the bench was a strenuous and active advocate of the measures of that party ; but when he ascended the tribunal of justice, he abated all political predilections and spirit of partyism, and devoted all his powers to a conscientious and equitable administration of the law, and observed that reticence in regard to politics traditionally cherished by the legal gentlemen of the old school.
His ability as a lawyer and his character as a learned, upright, and fearless judge are well known to the older members of the profession. He was a profound and polished judicial scholar, with a clear head and accurate powers of reasoning. His addresses as an advocate to court and jury, were characterized by clearness, elegance, and force, and his arguments were illustrated by the most lucid and incisive logic. His manner was kindly and conciliatory, and his voice and facial expression pleasing and persuasive. His oratory was usually plain and pointed, and if embellished with rhetorical ornament, it was only for the purpose of illustrating his thoughts. He was one,of those lawyers who brought to the Bench and Bar of Mississippi something of the prestige of olden times.
RICHARD STOCKTON
Judge Stockton was born and reared in the State of New Jersey, and received a finished education at Princeton, where he received the first honors. He belonged to the same family from which sprang the United States Senator of that name. Judge Stockton was an eminent lawyer and a man of ability. He was remarkably modest and unassuming in his manners. He became a judge of the Supreme Court of Mississippi in the year 1822, and resigned in 1825, when he was immediately chosen Attorney-General, and held that office two years. He delivered no opinion of the court while he sat upon the bench. His resignation took place under the following circumstances :
In 1824 the Legislature of Mississippi passed an act in the nature of a Stay-law, and entitled" An act for the further relief of debtors." This act provided that if property, taken in execution, should not, when offered for sale, bring two-thirds of its previously appraised value in cash, the sheriff should proceed to sell the same on one year's credit.
In pursuance of the provisions of this act, the sheriff of Clai- borne County had levied upon and caused property to be duly appraised, and failing to receive at the sale a cash offer amounting to two-thirds of the valuation, proceeded to sell the same on one year's time, taking bond and security, which he returned into court.
Upon this a motion was made before the Circuit Court, Judge Stockton presiding, to fine the sheriff for " undue return and false return." Judge Stockton declined to decide upon the legality of the return made by the sheriff, but referred the cause to the Supreme Court, which sustained the motion, and caused judgment and a fine of one hundred dollars to be entered against the sheriff for making " undue and false return."
Upon this the House of Representatives, at the next session, 1825, passed a resolution requiring the sergeant-at-arms to notify the judges of the Supreme Court to appear at the bar of the House and show cause why they should not be removed from office in consequence of their decision in regard to the " Debtor's-Act."
In obedience to this summons, Judge Stockton appeared at the bar of the House, begged leave to exhibit, in writing, a plain and succinct statement of the case as decided by the Supreme Court, and submitted the question to the determination of the House, whether the judges, in rendering their opinion, had been governed by impure motives, or had decided according to established law.
The position taken by the Supreme Court in this case was : That as the original execution was issued, levied, and executed, and a forthcoming bond taken and forfeited previous to the enactment of the " Debtor's Law," the sheriff should have sold upon the forfeiture of the forthcoming bond, according to the provisions of the statute ; that, by taking different security from the original security contained in the judgment, he violated the obligation of the contract, made a new one between the parties, not known to them at the time of the original undertaking, at the time of the judgment, at the time of the serving of the execution, and at the time of the forfeiture of the forthcoming bond taken, under act of the Legislature, on the first execution ; that, by giving an additional credit of twelve months after the first suit had been prosecuted to judgment, levy, and forfeiture of the forthcoming bond, and after execution had been issued according to law upon that forfeiture, and accepting as security the notes of persons different from the original contracting parties, he not only impaired the obligations of the contract, but entirely exonerated the original parties from any further liability.
JOHN TAYLOR
The subject of this sketch was a native of the State of Pennsylvania, He emigrated to Mississippi in the early days of the Territory, and settled in the county of Adams, which in 1814 he represented in the Territorial Assembly. He was also a member, from that county, of the Convention of 1817, which organized the State of Mississippi.
In 1818 he was elevated to the supreme bench, from which he retired in 1822.
It is difficult, if not impossible, at this day to ascertain more than the general character of many of the distinguished gentlemen who emerged from the dimly historic bar of the Territory into prominent places in the jurisprudence of the State ; and if Plutarch deemed it necessary to reside forty years in Rome to qualify himself for the task of writing the lives of some of its eminent citizens, surely the disparity of circumstances will avail as an excuse for the writer ; but from what we know of the eminent lawyers who were early attracted to this rich and blooming country, to achieve a prominent place among them required talents and learning of a superior order.
There are but two reported decisions known to have been delivered by Judge Taylor from the supreme bench?those of Delahuff vs. Reed, and Stockett vs. Nicholson (Walker's R., 74 and 75), neither of which contains any features of special interest ; but there is no question that he was a lawyer of ability, and enjoyed a high judicial character.
He seems to have possessed no political aspirations, and, although for several years a member of the Legislature, took no active or ardent interest in partyism or public affairs. He was thoroughly devoted to his profession, and, being a bachelor, his law books were the chief objects of his solace and companionship. He died in Natchez in 1823.
JOSEPH S. B. THACHER
Joseph S. B. Thacher was a native of Massachusetts, and was reared and educated in the city of Boston, where his father held an important judicial office. He was a descendant of Oxen bridge Thacher, who was employed, in connection with James Otis, by the merchants of Boston, in 1761, to defend them against the Write of Assistance, and whom, John Adams says, the advocates of the crown hated more than they did Otis or Samuel Adams. After having engaged in the practice of law for a short time in his native city, he removed to Mississippi, in search of those richer fields, which the fame of Prentiss, Walker, and other natives of the South, had clothed with dazzling inducements. Mr. Thacher settled in Natchez about the year 1833, where he enjoyed a thrifty practice, and in 1837 was elected to succeed John I. Guion as judge of the criminal court established by the Legislature in the counties of Warren, Claiborne, Jefferson, Adams, and Wilkinson. That office he held until 1840, when the Legislature abolished the '' criminal court."
In 1843, after a spirited political canvass, entirely incompatible with the nature and dignity of the office, Judge Thacher was elected one of the judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals for the term of six years. During his candidacy for this office charges of a serious nature were circulated, connecting him with some dishonorable transaction in the city of Boston prior to his emigration to Mississippi. These, after a series of criminations, recriminations, and a lengthy vindicatory correspondence, were finally cleared away.
At the expiration of his term, in 1849, Mr. Justice Thacher was a candidate for re-election, and during the canvass was charged with having procured, during his candidacy in 1848, the publication of articles highly disparaging to the character of his opponent, and savoring of a detestable egotism.
These articles appeared in an " Extra" of the Gallatin Signal, and were secretly circulated a few days preceding the election,' over the signature of the editor, who, during the canvass of 1849, upon application being made to him in regard to the matter by the gentlemen of the bar and others of Natchez, swore to the procuration of Judge Thacher, and disclosed his letter arranging the terms and suggesting a schedule for the circulation of the articles.
This unfortunate disclosure conduced, no doubt, largely to the defeat of Judge Thacher; for, being a Democrat, he was on the popular side of politics, while his opponent, Hon. Cotesworth P. Smith, besides being a Whig, was liable to the, at that day, further objection of being an avowed advocate of the liability of the State for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank. But it must be remembered also that Mr. Justice Smith had already served one term upon the high bench, and the manifest disparity in the ability of the two judges was decidedly in favor of the latter.
It cannot be claimed for Mr. Justice Thacher that he was a lawyer of comparatively much depth of professional learning. His talents were more of the literary order than professional. He was a strenuous advocate of the cause of education, was much devoted to science and the fine arts, and wrote literary essays of considerable merit.
His election to the high bench, in 1843, was due, no doubt, more to his position upon the bond question than to any recognized ability, or special qualification for the office, thus evincing the folly and absurdity of resting judicial promotions upon mere questions of politics and the prejudices of parties.
The career of Judge Thacher upon the bench was characterized by uprightness, impartiality, and integrity. His decisions manifest a laborious effort .to reach the utmost limits of justice. He was a close abider of precedent, and held fast to every constitutional feature. He was a man of pure morals, and in social life shone with a brilliancy which only the highest order of accomplishments could kindle.
PATRICK W. TOMPKINS
There is no trait of character which confers so much benefit upon its possessor which lops away so many brambles, levels down so many hillocks, and surmounts so many obstacles of life as that which we call amiability.
Power may reach the limits of its control; force may blunt its weapons against the tough hide of obstinacy ; reason may exhaust in vain its logic upon the dull ear of perversity, and the unction of suasion may congeal before the cold threshold of misanthropy ; but good-nature wields a soothing influence over the most obdurate circumstance, and binds the sternest fate a captive to its charms.
Notwithstanding its discountenance by the mock dignity of asceticism and the pharisaical gravity of the self-righteous, a merry humor rarely fails to find a kindling reciprocation in the
bosom of the most embittered misanthrope. It is indeed the most efficacious antidote to that more prevalent spirit which not only magnifies the real ills of life, but which even soars away upon the wings of excursion in search, not of the olive-leaf of hope, but of the rising peaks of sorrows which it knows not of.
The hilarious man dispenses a contagious cheerfulness which penetrates and often dispels the most settled gloom. He weaves the garlands of pleasantry of the very thorns of life, and hangs a rose upon every thistle. Such a man is truly a promoter of philanthropy ; and such was the character of the subject of this sketch.
Patrick W. Tompkins was a native of Kentucky, but was of Irish parentage, and possessed in a remarkable degree the wit and humor so characteristic of that good-natured race. His early education was limited, but his sprightly intellect and conscious talents led him at an early age to the study of the law. He was first admitted to the bar of his native State, where he practised for several years with a success which only ability, energy, and assiduous application, could achieve.
He removed to Mississippi about the year 1838, a period when so many afterwards distinguished gentlemen first made their appearance in this field of professional eminence, and here he entered upon a career of much brilliancy. He was particularly noted for his successful criminal practice, and was engaged in many of the most important cases of that character. His general knowledge of the law was extensive, and his familiarity with precedent sufficiently ample to meet the exigencies of any ordinary occasion; while his quick sagacity, incisive argumentation, and ready retort, greatly promoted the irresistible effect of his energetic and careful preparation.
His management of a case was astute and ingenious, and so conducted as to secure every advantage which the circumstances presented and the law allowed. But his main forte lay in his art of captivating the jury, an effect which his sparkling wit and abundant store of apt, illustrative, and pleasing anecdote rarely failed to accomplish. In vivacity of humor, graceful ridicule, and sparkling repartee, he was perhaps more like Cur- ran than any other member of the Mississippi bar. Yet his wit was not so elevated and polished as that of Curran. Where, indeed, in the history of the Forum could we find another Curran? From whom besides him could we, as a matter of course, expect the reply he made to Lord Robinson, when the latter threatened to commit him for contempt of court ? "If your lordship should commit me, both your lordship and myself may reflect, that I will not be the worst thing your lordship has ever committed.' And his lordship was so completely overwhelmed with the wit and boldness of the reply that, so far from committing him, he called upon the other members of the bar to restrain Mr. Curran within the rules.
Yet Mr. Tompkins possessed much of the same spirit and of the same vivacity of retort. As a political debater he had few superiors, and entertained a decided fondness for the contests and excitement of the hastings, which, together with his unbounded personal popularity, finally constrained him to turn his attention to politics.
In 1847 he was elected to a seat in Congress, and his career there was both brilliant and honorable, during which he engaged in all of the important discussions of the period. He was a stanch supporter of Mr. Folk's administration, and vigorously exposed and derided the grounds of opposition, on the part of the New England States, to the Mexican War.
Mr. Tompkins was a man of congenial and warm-hearted die position, sincerely philanthropic in sentiment, and a patriot of the purest type, and while he remained in Mississippi enjoyed a professional, political, and personal popularity of which but few men can boast. On the acquisition of California he removed to that State, and died a few years afterwards.
JAMES F. TROTTER
The subject of this sketch was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, on the 5th of November, 1802, but at an early age removed with his father's family to East Tennessee, where his education was obtained, mostly under the tuition of Rev. Mr. Doak, a pious divine, for whom his pupil ever entertained the greatest reverence. He was there prepared for the practice of law, and having obtained his license, removed in 1823-4 to the County of Monroe, Mississippi, and located at Hamilton, then the seat of justice of that county. Here he soon became the competitor and rival of Daniel W. Wright, which emulation continued as long as both remained at the bar.
As a lawyer the ability of Mr. Trotter was marked and well recognized. He was devoted to his profession, and brought to its study and exercises all the powers of his mind and all the energies of his nature. While he possessed no feature of remarkable brilliancy, the full round orb of his character and varied qualifications justly entitled him to the distinction, to which he attained. His intellect was acute and penetrating, and his powers of comprehension ready and conspicuous. He had an easy command of language, and, while the style of his rhetoric was without flash or studied ornamentation, his logic was characterized by its weight and solidity. He was a man of indefatigable industry and of stern morals: almost stoical in his aversion to idleness and intemperance. It was said of him that he was always in a hurry. Yet, notwithstanding the assiduity of his compliance with the demands of the most jealous of professions, which necessarily precluded him in a great measure from mere social intercourse, he was a man of great personal popularity, and was several times chosen to represent Monroe County in the State Senate.
On the reorganization of the courts under the Constitution of 1832, Mr. Trotter was elected judge of the Circuit Court of his district, and carried to the bench the same penetrating judgment and dispatch of business which had rendered him successful at the bar.
In 1838 Judge Trotter was elected to a seat in the Senate of the United States, to succeed Judge Black, who had resigned ; Just before taking his seat he resigned also, and, it is apprehended, upon the ground that the bench offered, as he conceived, a sphere more suited to his abilities and taste than the fickle arena of politics.
In December, 1838, he was appointed to the bench of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Justice Wright, and in November, 1839, was elected by the people for the term of six years, but resigned in 1842.
Mr. Justice Trotter delivered many important decisions while upon the high bench, and his opinions are noted for great strength and dignity of style, as well as for a penetrating discrimination, a sound judgment, and a profound knowledge of the law. Though gentle and affable in manners, he was stern in pursuit of justice; and, in integrity, courage, and firmness, his character is not inferior to that of Lord Chief Justice Holt, whom he also resembled in his manner of eluding all extraneous or collateral questions from the case under consideration, and carefully withholding an expression of his opinion upon any point not necessary to the gist and justice of the cause. On retiring from the bench of the High Court, Mr. Justice Trotter removed to the town of Holly Springs and resumed the practice of law, but, in 1855, was elected vice-chancellor of the northern district of Mississippi, which position he held until the separate chancery system was abolished by the code of 1857, when he again returned to his practice. In 1860 he was appointed professor of law in the State University, and occupied that position two years.
EDWARD TURNER
Judge Turner was a native of Virginia, and was born in the county of Fairfax on the 25th of November, 1778. When but eight years old he moved with his father's family to Kentucky, where, after attending for several years the common schools of the country, he was sent to the Transylvania University, which he attended at intervals, as his time and means would permit. At this institution he obtained a knowledge of the higher branches of an English course, but did not study the ancient languages, of which he was, throughout his life, totally ignorant. The assiduous and persevering character of young Turner soon attracted notice, and he was adopted into the family of the chief law professor of the university, and assigned to duty as a clerk in his office, in which position he began the study of law, and which, notwithstanding the death of his patron, which occurred soon after, he continued to prosecute with the most devoted application and untiring energy, until the year 1802, at which time he emigrated to the Mississippi Territory, and at once began the practice of law in the city of Natchez, where his genial disposition and cordial manners gained for him a kind reception and professional encouragement.
The Governor of the Territory became so much impressed with the worth of the young lawyer that he made him his aide- de-camp, and with this office he began those distinguished public services which rendered him so conspicuous in the annals both of the Territory and the State. He held this position but a short time before he was made clerk of the Territorial House of Representatives, but continued to act also as the Governor's private secretary. In the latter part of the year 1802, he married a Miss West, of Jefferson County, where he made his residence and became clerk of the county court, but continued his practice in other courts.
In 1803 Mr. Turner received the Federal appointment of register of the land office and commissioner of lands for the Territory. This office he held until 1805, when, on being superseded, he removed to the town of Greenville, in Jefferson County. Here he continued his practice of law until 1810, and then removed to Warren County, which he was elected, in the year 1811, to represent in the Legislature. About this time he lost his wife, but married again the next year. In 1813 he returned to Natchez and resumed the practice of law in that city, where he became also city magistrate and president of the board of selectmen.
In 1815 he was elected to represent the county of Adams in the Legislature, and was re-elected for several terms. In 1815 he was also appointed by the Legislature to prepare a digest of the statute laws of the Territory, which was completed and adopted in 1816. This digest contained all the statutes in force at that period, and was entitled " Statutes of the Mississippi Territory." This compilation was made in a masterly manner, and evinced on the part of the compiler a thorough knowledge of the Territorial laws, as well as judgment and skill in its arrangement.
Judge Turner was a member of the Convention of 1817, which framed the State Government, representing Adams County in that body, and in which he took an active and leading part. In 1818 he was elected to the first Legislature assembled under the State Government, and, with the exception of one year, continued a member of the House of Representatives until 1822, during which time he was twice elected Speaker.
In 1820 he was appointed Attorney General of the State by Governor Poindexter. This office he held but a short time, when he was superseded by legislative appointment.
In 1822 he was appointed judge of the criminal court of Adams County, and in 1824 was. without solicitation, made a judge of the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
In 1829 he became Chief Justice of the State, which position he held until superseded by the intervention of the amended Constitution of 1832.
In 1834 he was elected Chancellor of the State, which office he held until 1839, during which he greatly improved the chancery jurisprudence of the State. In 1840 he was again elected a judge of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Justice Pray, and at the expiration of the term, in 1843, he was chosen, at the age of sixty-five, to the State Senate, to represent the district composed of the counties of Jefferson and Franklin.
Through all this wide and varied theatre of public services and multiplicity of public duties, Judge Turner acted his part ably and faithfully. His superb patriotism was a constant incentive to all his energies ; and he possessed in a high degree those traits of character which engage confidence and respect. His industry was indefatigable, and so versatile was his capacity for usefulness that no sphere of public duty seemed foreign to its adaptation and perfect adjustment. He was a man of great integrity and purity of character, and his judicial career was marked with an uprightness, impartiality, and love of justice that invited a comparison to that of Sir Matthew Hale. Judge Turner was not a man of extraordinary natural endowments, nor were his general acquirements extensive. He was not considered a profound lawyer. His life was too checkered and varied by the abstractions of public services for the requirements of that jealous science. Yet his energy, integrity, and sound views of justice and equity, made him an excellent judge. While he possessed no one dazzling feature of character, he presented that full round orb of virtue and useful ness, which is rendered refulgent by its uniqueness and uniformity. He was a man of exemplary rectitude in all the relations of life : a kind husband, affectionate father, a warm friend, and a great favorite with the members of the bar. He was of a portly and commanding figure, and the qualities of his heart were vividly reflected in the kind and genial features of his countenance and in his affable manners. I will close this sketch of Judge Turner by introducing the following extract from the minutes of the Supreme Court. At the expiration of his second term as judge of the High Court, in 1843, he declined re-election, whereupon the members of the bar then in attendance upon the court held a meeting in Jackson, and, upon motion of Hon. William Yerger, resolved :
" That the State of Mississippi is under many obligations to the Honorable Edward Turner for the many years of arduous labor he has devoted to her service, and for the distinguished example of purity, integrity, and patriotism which he has afforded to her citizens.
" That the members of this bar entertain the kindest feelings of attachment for the honorable, for the upright, the pure and impartial manner with which he has discharged the duties of his station as a judge of this court.
" That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to Judge Turner, and that the same be published in the papers of this city, and of the cities of Natchez, Vicksburg, and Holly Springs, and that leave be asked to spread them upon the minutes of the High Court of Errors and Appeals."
WILLIAM VANNERSON
The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia; was born and reared in the county of Amherst, but resided some time in Lynchburg, where he married Mrs. Allen, a niece of Hon. William H. Crawford, of Georgia. He removed to Mississippi about the year 1825, and settled as a lawyer in Natchez, where he soon acquired great personal and professional popularity, and obtained a large local and circuit practice. He was several times a representative of his county in the Legislature, and in 1837 was Speaker of the House. He was also for several years on the circuit bench, and characterized his judicial career by a strictly conscientious adherence to law and justice. He afterwards located at Monticello, in Lawrence County, where he resided and practised to an extreme old age.
Mr. Vannerson was by no means a man of profound learning, either in law or any branch of erudition ; his early education was deficient, and he never acquired the habits of close and assiduous application. He was fond of society, and enjoyed its animated pleasantries too keenly to relish the anchoritic seclusion of profound legal study. Yet he was one of the most successful criminal lawyers at the Mississippi bar, and his practice on that side of the docket was large and lucrative. To this branch of the law his professional reading seems to have been chiefly directed, as it was more congenial to his taste and peculiar talents, and gave scope and occasion for the exercise of his emotional energy and the sympathetic elements of his nature.
He was remarkably expert in all the features of criminal practice, in the management of his cases, and in the examination of witnesses; and was astute in the methods of obtaining continuances, turns, and concessions favorable to his clients. But his greatest strength lay in his art of persuasion, and his remarkable efficiency before the jury. His appeals to the bar of humanity were pathetic and winning. He possessed a depth of conviction and a capacity to feel, which spread their contagion to the minds and feelings of his hearers, and often caused tears of sympathy to trickle down the cheeks of the most hard visaged juror. His sensibilities acted in concert with his mind ; and while the one penetrated to the depths of reason, the other stirred the soul of compassion.
As an orator Mr. Vannerson was fluent, logical, and, at times, eloquent. He had a fine command of language, an earnestness of manner, and a felicity of expression, which, united with a glowing imagination, a lively fancy, and a fine taste for imagery, commended his arguments to close attention and favorable consideration. His self-control and placid temperament enabled him at all times to command the full exercise of his powers, and his humorous tact clothed every incident in the colors of advantage.
He was not, however, altogether free from a vein of harmless egotism. Like Mr. Sergeant Cockle, who, in consequence of his great powers of persuasion and influence over the mind of juries, proudly received the appellation at the English bar of " the Almighty of the North," Mr. Vannerson wore with distinguished approbation and complacency the soubriquet of " the Napoleon of the bar." But the origin of these sounding epithets was somewhat different : that of Sergeant Cockle was fastened upon him by the following circumstance : A person who was a party to an action pending in one of the assize courts of the northern circuit of England, was in consultation with his counsel, and, notwithstanding their encouraging assurances and favorable views of his case, he listened with dolorous visage, and finally exclaimed, "I am much obliged to you, gentlemen ; I am much obliged to you ; but it won't do! it can't do! the Almighty is against me." " Are you mad, man !" exclaimed one of his counsel; " what has the Almighty to do with your cause?" " I don't mean Almighty God, sir," replied the client, " I mean Sergeant Cockle! he's o' t'other side." But the authority by which Mr. Vannerson held his title must be interpreted by the pride which he reposed in the claim.
It is said that on one occasion he entered the court-room where a case was awaiting his participation, and handed the opposite counsel a note stating that the " Napoleon of the bar" had arrived, but regretted to h'nd that he was to meet a Wellington. To which the gentleman replied that there was no danger that a Blucher would come upon the field with his fierce Prussians and turn the scale of the conflict.
Mr. Vannerson possessed great physical vigor and animation of spirits. Full of life and vivacity, it was with difficulty that he could preserve at all times, while on the bench, the dignity of a judge, and often manifested a pending conflict between the gravity of his position and a penchant to thrust good-natured ridicule at some luckless pleader or verdant witness. He was the soul of wit, and perhaps the most confirmed humorist that ever appeared at the Mississippi bar. But his ridicule and sarcasm, though pungent and scathing in the highest degree, were, nevertheless, always cast in the mould of good-nature. His fondness for jest was ever on the alert, and he never lost a suitable opportunity for its exercise.
But while Mr. Vannerson claimed to be in oratory " the Napoleon of the bar," he was certainly in his latter days its Nestor in respect to age. It is said that at the time of his death, in 1874, he claimed to be more than a hundred years old ; and at this remarkable age, the old hero went down upon that Waterloo field whose fiat no Napoleon could resist.
He left no family, but left a name full worthy of a place where the whale cannot be reduced in magnifying minnows.
GEORGE WINCHESTER
Judge Winchester was a native of Massachusetts, and was attracted, like many other young lawyers of talent and ambition, by the flush times that followed the admission of Mississippi into the Federal Union. He was well educated, having graduated at Harvard College ; a good linguist, possessed an attractive polish of manners, a prepossessing appearance, and a mild and genial disposition.
His assiduity and superb natural talents soon procured for him a high reputation as a lawyer. His polished elocution and urbanity gained for him great success as an advocate, while the subtle penetration and elastic vigor of his mind enabled him to anticipate and disarm his adversaries, and fortify his side of the question with ingenious applications and interpretations of the very law relied upon to confound him.
Judge Winchester was seated upon the supreme bench in 1826, and held that position until 1829. He then resumed his practice of law in the city of Natchez. He was an able and eloquent judge, fond of elaborating subtleties of law and fact, and of marshalling every feature of a case that entered into the formation of his opinion.
It is said that on one occasion, after he had retired from the supreme bench, he was engaged before that tribunal in a case involving a large amount, and which had been pending for many years, and after the arguments had been concluded the court decided in his favor, but not on the grounds upon which he had rested, whereupon he promptly moved the court for a rehearing.
He was not willing to accept the affirmance in his favor unless it was the result of what he conceived to be the proper views. In politics Judge Winchester belonged to the ultra State Rights school, and presided over the Southern Rights Convention, held at Jackson in 1849 for the purpose of adopting measures to resist the encroachments of the anti-slavery party, and was the author of the resolutions adopted by that body.
Judge Winchester was never married, and, like Judge Child, possessed many of the eccentricities of protracted bachelorhood. He had a most tenacious memory, and retained even in old age the results of the training of his youth. He died in February, 1851, old in years and full of honors -- the need of a well-spent and serviceable life.
At a meeting of the bar of Adams County, convened at the Courthouse, February 5th, 1851, on the occasion of the death of Judge Winchester, and for the purpose of paying a suitable tribute of respect to his memory, the following proceedings were adopted :
" Resolved, That the members of the bar attend the funeral of the deceased, to be solemnized this evening.
" Resolved, That a committee, to consist of five, be appointed to draft and report resolutions appropriate to the occasion.
" The chairman appointed Messrs. S. S. Boyd, J. T. McMurran, Thomas B. Reed, H. S. Eustis, and Ralph North said committee, to which the chairman was added, and which reported the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That we have learned, with feelings of the deepest emotion, the death of our friend and fellow-laborer, George Winchester. That, whilst the severe labor of a lifetime, guided by a calm, clear-sighted understanding, has built up for him a reputation as a lawyer to which we can add nothing by the public tribute of our respect, it gives us pleasure to bear testimony with one accord to his endearing virtues as a man?to the largeness of that heart, ever guileless and benevolent, which, in the familiar intervals of his life, was filled with good deeds and generous impulses.
" That it may profit us to remember that the same intellectual excellence which swayed the bench and ' propped the country's cause,' also reasoned out for him the truth of revelation, and enrolled our friend with the defenders of our faith, whose life ' allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.'
" That Messrs. Eustis, McMurran, and Hewett be and they are hereby appointed a committee to take the necessary steps for the erection of a suitable monument over the grave of the deceased.
" Which report was unanimously adopted ; and on motion it was then
" Resolved. That the proceedings of this meeting be reported by the chairman thereof to the Circuit Court of Adams County, at its next term, and that the chairman move the court to cause these proceedings to be spread upon the minutes of said court."
ROBERT J. WALKER
The subject of this sketch possessed par excellence one of the brightest intellects that adorn the history of the bar of Mississippi, and one that would have been an ornament to any bar, in any country, and in any age. Robert J. Walker was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in July, 1801, emigrated to Mississippi in 1826, and joined his brother, who had preceded him, in the practice of law in the city of Natchez. Mr. Walker's education was thorough and comprehensive. He was well versed in most of the schools of science, and prior to his study of law had graduated at the celebrated medical school in Philadelphia. He was a fine linguist, thoroughly familiar with classical history, and had acquired no little proficiency in the polite literature of the French language.
He soon achieved a high eminence at the bar of Mississippi, which he maintained with increasing lustre while he remained in the State. He was assiduous in the study of his profession, and became learned in all the branches of both the common and civil law : a knowledge of the latter being necessitated by the conflict of tenures which so much perplexed our early courts.
In 1828 he was appointed to report the decisions of the Supreme Court. This task he performed with fidelity and ability, and in 1832 presented the 1st Mississippi Reports, which embodied the decisions of the court from its establishment, in 1818, to that time. In this work he never failed to assail whatever he conceived to be an error of an important nature, and his reports are interspersed with many learned notes of this character.
In 1836 he was elected to succeed Mr. Poindexter in the United States Senate, for a full term from the 4th of March, 1835, and in 1841 was re-elected for a full term, from the 4th of March of that year. During his career in the Senate he was characterized by the same fidelity, intellectual culture, and eloquence which had rendered him so eminent at the bar, and during that time became particularly distinguished by his arguments on the " Mississippi slavery question." He was a warm and strenuous advocate of the independence of Texas ; and even after the fall of the Alamo and the butchery at Goliad, and when the Mexicans were apparently waging a war of extermination to all parts of that country, he did not for a moment despond or doubt the final result; and as early as the 22nd of April, 1835, he called the attention of the Senate to the struggle, and suggested that whatever surplus funds were in the treasury should be reserved for the purpose of acquiring Texas from whatever might remain of the government tie facto of that country, and declared that the people of the Mississippi Valley would never permit Texas to he again subjected to the dominion of Mexico.
In 1845 Mr. Walker was appointed Secretary of the United States Treasury by President Polk, from which he retired in 1849. He was the author and the most able and efficient advocate of the revenue tariff of 1846.
In 1857 he was appointed Governor of Kansas Territory by President Buchanan; but, having espoused the anti-slavery party, he resigned in 1858, in consequence of the adoption of the Lecompton Constitution, and its approval by the administration.
In 1861 Mr. Walker declared himself in favor of the preservation of the Union, and during the war resided in Europe as the financial agent of the Federal Government, whither he was sent chiefly to defeat the attempt of the Confederates to negotiate a foreign loan. This interception he effectuated by representing the Confederate President as being a citizen of Mississippi, and as having been a leader in its repudiation of the Union Bank bonds ; and as these bonds were held by European capitalists, they were not slow to be instilled with the fear that a like result would attend any loan made to the Confederacy. This representation, while it was without foundation in truth, by thwarting the efforts of the Southern people to obtain money abroad, was no less destructive to their cause than the fatal recoil at Gettysburg. Indeed, it was the poisoned arrow from whose wound the Confederacy never recovered, and by which it was, in the beginning, shorn of half its strength.
Mr. Walker was a lawyer of searching industry, and his success at the bar was due in a great measure to a careful and accurate preparation of his briefs. He left no leaf unturned that would enable him to sound his cases, and to anticipate and thwart his adversary, or strengthen the merits of his own side of the question; consequently he was never surprised or taken at a disadvantage. He was alert, discerning, and acute. His powers of perception could not easily be evaded, and his memory possessed a clearness and tenacity, which enabled him at all times to convoke the results of his extended culture. He was a fascinating and edifying speaker, clear and precise in his arguments, and strictly scholastic in his choice of language and mode of expression. He possessed in a high degree the vox argentea so much commended by Cicero.
He was kind and benevolent in his disposition, gentle and affable in his manners, generous and magnanimous in his professional deportment, benign and playful in his features, charitable and confiding in his nature, and gained the respect and admiration of all who came within the reach of his influence. He was of that type of character which never fails to win its way to an exalted estimate among men. He died in the city of Washington in November, 1869.
RICHARD H. WEBBER.
Richard H. Webber, a native of Kentucky, was a person of limited education. It seems that he had never devoted himself to the acquisition of a knowledge of any branch of erudition extraneous to his profession, but to this he had applied himself as- insidiously ; and while he was devoid, to a great extent, of that seemliness of bearing and polish of manners bestowed by general culture, there were few lawyers of his time at the Mississippi bar who could exert a more powerful influence by the mere force of argument. He was a profound lawyer and a skilful logician, and brought to bear upon his cases a depth of research, a breadth of "comprehension, and compactness of reason, which were often no less surprising than effectual.
But while he confined his studious thoughts and investigational labors exclusively to the law, he was by no means reclusive in his habits. He was fond of society and conversation, and his genial disposition rendered him popular with the people and a favorite at the bar. He settled in the piney woods district of Mississippi about the year 1825, and soon acquired a large practice throughout the counties of that section. His ungainly figure and uncomely manners, which bordered upon the ludicrous, so far from exerting a repellent influence, were rather an element of popularity with the rude clients who at that day besieged the courts in those piney settlements. Like the English advocate Dunning, Mr. Webber was an instance of the triumph of genius ever physical defects. The ardent congeniality of his disposition led him to an excessive participation in scenes of revelry, and sometimes in painful debauchery. Yet, such was the strength of his mental organization that, so long as his physical' powers sustained the combat with his excesses, his mind retained its balance and in a great measure its brilliancy. An amusing circumstance of this feature of his character is related.
Mr. Webber had a case in court which hung upon a demurrer, and, though deeply in his cups, awaited its call with the serenity and alertness of the most sober anxiety ; but when the case was taken up, the opposing counsel, whose copious potations had disarmed his mental faculties, arose, and in piteous strains alleged his indisposition and beseeched the court for a continuance. Mr. Webber, aware of his advantage, and eager for the forensic contest, objected to the postponement, and stated to the court that, while he respected the infirmities of his brother, yet he himself was in the same identical predicament, and that there was no telling when either of them would be in any better health. The court, comprehending the situation and relishing the amusement of the occasion, ordered the counsel to proceed with their arguments ; and in consequence of the peculiarity of his temperament, Mr. Webber, though he could scarcely maintain a respectable physical attitude and was at a disadvantage as to the merits of his case, gained an easy victory over his more besotted adversary.
But in spite of the depth and strength of his judgment, the astuteness and tenacity of his logical powers, and the command which he possessed over his intellectual resources, the faculties of Mr. Webber, both mental and physical, were greatly enfeebled by this bane of the legal profession, and enemy of all intellectual excellence, and while his usefulness was impaired, the number of his days was no doubt curtailed by his unfortunate excesses.
EDWARD C. WILKINSON
The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia, and emigrated to Mississippi in the year 1830. Judge Wilkinson descended from a good family, and was thoroughly educated before he entered the arena of the forum. Arriving first at Natchez, then the Athens of Mississippi intelligence, and long the seat of her legal renown, he found there no opening suitable to his aspirations ; hence, after also inspecting the prospects for a young lawyer in the city of Vicksburg, he visited Yazoo City, where he finally located and began the practice of his profession, in which he rapidly rose to distinction and eminence ; indeed, so brilliant was his career and so highly esteemed were his abilities and virtues, that in 1833, but three years after his advent to Yazoo, he was chosen a judge of the Circuit Court of that district.
The career of Judge Wilkinson upon the bench was characterized by a high degree of ability and an untarnished integrity and uprightness. He was the soul of honor and refined sentiment, to which was added the sanctifying influence of piety. Yet he was a man of a naturally impetuous and fiery temperament, and predisposed to the influence of present impulse. It was owing much to a momentary uncontrollable impulsion of this quality that he was precipitated into an unfortunate affray at a hotel in Louisville, in which it became necessary, in defending himself and brother, to slay one of his antagonists, and for which he was tried for murder before a Kentucky jury.
The affair occurred under the most trying and peculiar circumstances. Judge Wilkinson was in Louisville for the purpose of marrying a beautiful and accomplished young lady in that city. The marriage feast was prepared, and all things in readiness for the happy consummation, which was to have occurred on the next evening, when the demon of fate rolled his stone in the pathway of golden bliss.
On the night prior to that fixed for the wedding, Judge Wilkinson accompanied his brother to the establishment of a tailor. from whom the latter had ordered a suit of clothes; and the lit of the garments being bad, sharp words and finally blows were passed between the parties. The tailor, collecting his friends, followed them to their hotel, and a violent assault was made on Judge Wilkinson and his two companions as they descended from their rooms to the supper table. The result was the death of two of the assailants.
It was on the occasion of this trial that Sergeant S. Prentiss made one of his most powerful speeches in the defence. The particulars of this trial will be found in the sketch of Mr. Prentiss, to which the reader is referred. Judge Wilkinson and his friends were honorably acquitted, upon the ground of self defence, which was their only plea.
DANIEL W. WRIGHT
Daniel W. Wright was born in the eastern portion of the State of Tennessee, and was reared near Huntsville, Alabama, whither his father's family had removed. Here he prepared himself for the bar and began the practice of law, but in 1822-3 he emigrated to Mississippi and settled in Monroe County, at a place called Hamilton. Here he rose to eminence in his profession, and at the first election under the Revised Constitution, in 1833, was chosen one of the judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, for the term of six years. This office he held until 1838, when he resigned, and having lost his wife about this time he retired also from the bar, and made his residence with his daughter, in the town of Pontotoc, where he died a year or two afterwards.
Mr. Justice Wright was a man of a naturally strong mind, but in his latter days lacked somewhat the capacity of vigorous application. He never wrote an opinion during the five years he occupied a seat upon the high bench, which was not at all in conformity with his early vigorous career at the bar, and can be accounted for only upon the ground of an unfortunate conviviality to which he became addicted, and which impaired his energies. Judge Wright was undoubtedly a lawyer of ability and an orator of no ordinary powers. He possessed a close and comprehensive discernment, was a good judge of law, and saw at a glance its proper application. But it was as an advocate before a jury that Judge Wright exhibited his greatest powers. This was the sphere to which his genius seemed especially adapted. He was full of vivacity and good-nature, fond of humor and anecdote, and often wrested that from the good will of the jury which he could have scarcely obtained from its judgment. He was an exceedingly kind and generous man, and consequently possessed great personal popularity, which was no doubt the main cause of his success.
GEORGE S. YERGER
While Nature, in her partiality, designates here and there an individual as the favored recipient of her special endowments, and ordains him to a particular sphere of eminence, it is rarely that she groups such an array of special talents within the limits of a single family, and fashions the intellectual traits of so many of its members in the mould of greatness, as was vouch safed to that to which belonged the subject of this sketch. The Yergers seem to have been born lawyers. There were six brothers in this family, who attained to the highest rank at the bar, and the judicial records of both Tennessee and Mississippi bear everlasting testimony to their usefulness and their genius. Their characters glowed with a remarkable similitude, and they moved through their orbits of greatness with the uniformity and unison of a brilliant constellation.
George S. Yerger was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, about the year 1808. His father was of Dutch origin, and belonged to that sturdy yeomanry which gave early and lasting prosperity to the Middle States of the Union. With a large family and limited means, he emigrated, in 1816, to the neighborhood of Lebanon, Tennessee ; and it was there that his eldest son, George, found an opportunity to gratify his early aspirations, who, having obtained a tolerable education, turned his attention to the study of law, and was soon admitted to the bar. He then located in the city of Nashville, where he was for many years reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and became one of the most eminent members of that bar.
In the prime of a vigorous manhood and glowing reputation, he removed, in 1838-9, to the State of Mississippi, and located at Vicksburg. Here his reputation, which stamped itself upon his advent, soon spread throughout the State, and he took his position among the foremost lawyers of the country, a position which he maintained with a growing tenure and extending recognition to the day of his death.
Mr. Yerger was, in every sense, a thorough lawyer. He was master of the science of law in all its brandies, and his mind was richly stored with all manner of precedents, which he had thoroughly digested, and so stratified in the capacious chambers of his mind that, with the aid of a vivid memory, they furnished him unfailing resources in every emergency. If there was any decision which could by parity or analogy be brought to bear upon his view of a question, he was sure to invoke the comparison. But his genius depended not alone upon precedent: his penetrating judgment and keen understanding found a ready interpretation of the most marked features, and opened a path for justice through the most untrodden field, of circumstance.
About 1844 Mr. Yerger removed to the city of Jackson, and confined his practice mostly to the bar of the high court, where he gained his most brilliant professional trophies, the records of which bear a testimony to his genius and ability far more complete and satisfactory than could be wrought by the most gifted pen of metaphysical delineation. The calm and sedate quality of his mind led him to prefer the discussion of commercial questions and those of an equitable nature rather than those which spring from the ruder jarrings of society or from criminal infractions ; yet his learning and tact were admirably adapted to all the duties of an advocate and to the province of criminal practice. His defences, into which he entered with all the zeal of his nature, were stern barriers to the arm of prosecution, and his vindication of the afterwards distinguished General Dan. Adams, who unfortunately slew his antagonist in a personal conflict in the streets of Vicksburg in 1844, is said to have been a masterly specimen of criminal pleading.
In politics Mr. Yerger was a stanch advocate of the principles of the Whig party, and in the campaigns of 1840 and '44 took an active part in support of its Presidential nominees. But he never sought office; he had no relish for the clash and turmoil of public life, and his devotion to his profession was superior to any ambition which he might have entertained for political preferment. Indeed, of all the affairs of life, his nature seemed to have a clear-cut and well-defined shape for the legal profession ; to it he devoted his energies, and died only when he had achieved all that it could give of victory and of fame. His death, which occurred in April, 1860, was attended with somewhat remarkable circumstances. He had left Jackson but a few days before, buoyant with hope and the vigor of health, and, having shot a large buck, ran to secure the struggling animal, and fell dead upon the carcass from an affection of the heart produced by the excitement and severe exercise of the occasion. His death cast the gloom of deep regret over the entire State, and left a void in the ranks of the bar which time could conceal but never close.
Mr. Yerger reposed an unqualified faith in the great truths of Christianity. He was a devoted communicant and faithful member of the church. He had searched the Scriptures, and threw the weight of his great intellect in the scale with the wise of earth who have found there the promises of eternal life.
JACOB S. YERGER
Of all the varied characters of men there is no one whose traits are wrought to a higher standard of excellence, and whose composition is more devoid of the petty weaknesses as well as the grosser foibles of mankind, than that of a truly learned, just, and upright judge. His functions are among the most sacred and elevated that pertain to the affairs of humanity, and he feels the weight of that responsibility which incurs from a higher seat the same judgment which he has meted to others.
His mind is at once the sun and the moon of the law. It sheds its beams upon its obscure features, illumines without lensifying its stern aspect, and in turn reflects back its light upon the face of society, penetrates the dark confines of human depravity, and presents a beacon for the guidance of rectitude.
His heart is a tablet upon which are inscribed in mingled characters the rigid outlines of justice, the stern mandates of a jealous rule, and the smiling pictures of benevolence and philanthropy. He knows no passion but his devotion to duty ; he cherishes no motive but the attainment of justice ; he fears no displeasure but the reprimands of conscience, and seeks no applause but the benediction of right.
Jacob Shall Yerger was born in the town of Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on the llth of January, 1810, and in 1816 removed with his father's family to Lebanon, Tennessee, where he was reared and educated. He was one of eleven children, and in consequence of the poverty of his father his educational advantages were sparse and limited. Full, however, of the workings of an innate genius and the ambition of conscious talents, on attaining his majority he elected the profession of law, and began its study in the office of his brother, George S. Yerger. Having, after a thorough preparation, obtained his license to practice, he located in the city of" Nashville", and entered at once upon his prosperous and brilliant career. In this exacting field his talents were soon recognized, and he rose rapidly to the front rank of his profession. But in the midst of an extending practice and the most nattering prospects, he was enchanted with the flush times which then dwelt upon the banks of the great Father of Waters, and in the winter of 1837 he removed to Mississippi and established his office in Vicksburg.
This bar was at that time adorned with brilliant genius, and was justly regarded as one of the most distinguished in the South. It was there that the eloquence and tact of Prentiss, the logic and skill of Holt, and the astuteness and legal acumen of Guion, mingled in tides of genius which none but the highest order of talent could stem. But Mr. Yerger was fully equal to the task before him and to the expectations which his reputation engendered, and his ability soon gushed forth in streams that rivalled the overwhelming intellectual torrents of his new associates, and characterized him as one of the most profound lawyers at the bar of Mississippi. His practice in the Federal courts, in the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and in the Superior Court of Chancery, was perhaps the largest and most lucrative in the State, and which he retained until his election to the circuit bench in 1855.
Judge Yerger possessed in the concrete all the eminent qualities which enter into the composition of a great lawyer and great man, while in the abstract the characterizing features of his greatness were strongly asserted in a judgment cast in the mould of a deep and accurate comprehension, in a perception whetted to the sharpest edge of intuition, in a power of logic wrought of the most ingenious skill and the soundest reason, in a memory which embraced the scope of his observation, and in an ardor of application and a devotion to duty over which no circumstance or consideration could exercise a diverting sway. His capacity for close discriminations and subtle distinctions placed his positions in the management of a case beyond the reach and coping power of ordinary intellects, while the apt communication of his ideas, the purity and simplicity of his diction, and the pathos of his convictions, unfolded the most abstruse doctrines and lurking points to the view and understanding of common-sense. His position towards his clients was that of a faithful counsellor and friend. He deceived them with no apparitions of false hopes, and with no inducements to unjust and fruitless litigation; "but, candid and conscientious in all his dealings with them, he engaged their confidence, and they trusted him with an apostolic faith. In every sphere of life Judge Yerger maintained the same high character which embellished his career upon the bench. He was a true patriot, and though widely differing from a majority of his fellow-citizens on many vital issues of his day, so lofty was his integrity, so firm were his convictions, and so sincere his motives, that they wrenched respect from the fiercest opposition. He was in politics an active and devoted Whig, and his services to that party both in Tennessee and in Mississippi claimed the recognition of marked fidelity and efficiency. He was twice elected to represent the city of Vicksburg in the Legislature of the State, and while a member of that body in 1841 moved the rejection of the message of Governor McNutt, which suggested the policy of repudiation, as being unworthy of consideration and an affront to the Legislature ; and so vehement and able was his opposition that the message was received by a majority of only four votes, notwithstanding the popular majority known to exist in favor of the measure.
In 1845 Mr. Yerger removed to the county of Washington, and was returned to the Legislature from that county. In 1852 he was sent as a delegate to the Whig Convention at Baltimore, and on his return was made one of the electors at large for the State. In the canvass which followed, his vigor and eloquence added greatly to the strength of his party, and increased his reputation for consummate ability.
On taking his seat upon the bench, Judge Yerger discarded all his partisan enthusiasm, and carefully avoided all participation in politics ; but when the question of secession began, in 1860, to assume a serious aspect, he threw all his ability and influence in opposition to that measure. He considered it unnecessary, impolitic, and ruinous, and in the March convention of 1861 stemmed almost alone the revolutionary tide that swept over that body. While he felt deeply the wrongs of his people, he loved the Union, and was willing to rest satisfied with the obtaining of further constitutional guarantees of equality within its fold. But when the die was cast and the fatal consequences thronged upon the country, he sent three of his sons to answer the call of his State in 1861 for troops, and afterwards, so soon as he became of proper age, buckled on the armor of a fourth, who was killed in battle in 1864.
In 1865 Judge Yerger was unanimously elected as a delegate from his county to the convention for reorganizing the State government, and was chosen president of that body, over which he presided in a manner dignified, able, and satisfactory.
But if his official character was adorned with ethical traits which engaged the affection and esteem of the bar and of his political associates, his private life was no less embellished with the charms of social accomplishments. His conversation was edifying and entertaining, his manners affable and attractive, and he possessed a rich vein of polished humor, which gave him a fondness for ludicrous narrative and an aptness in the delineation of eccentricity. He was consequently popular among all classes of people, and to such an extent that on his re-election to the bench in 1861, he is said to have lacked but two votes of being the unanimous choice of the district. He was the friend of the widow and the orphan, and his charity was large and open-handed. He delighted in extending a helping hand to struggling youth, and was exceedingly kind and generous in his demeanor towards the young members of the bar.
Judge Yerger was married in 1833 to Miss Mary H. Bowen, of Smith County, Tennessee, and had nine children, only two of whom are now living. He was a tender husband, a kind father, a true friend, and a dutiful citizen. He died of congestion of the brain, in Vicksburg, on the 14th of July, 1867, and left a deep and universal regret for the loss of one whose life was spent in usefulness and ended in purity.
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