KFT '19 Qfartttll Cam Srljnnl SItbrarg 3 1924 024 707 170 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024707170 TtdE^ DIARY OF AN OLD LAWYER SCENES BEHIND THE CURTAIN, By JOHN HALLUM, Author of Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas. nashvihe, tenn.: Southwestern Pubwshing House, 189S. Bntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, bjr ME8.J0HN HALLUM, in the Office of the Librarian of Coagresa, at Washington. TO THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF TENNESSEE THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. A native of Tennessee, the Author loves with filial devotion all that relates to the achievement of her sons. A galaxy of noble and chivalrous characters, laborers in every department of human greatness, fill and crown the Pantheon builded by her sons, in every era since her " Com- monwealth Builder" crossed the mountains after the revolution and made Watauga a nucleus of men and principles, from which a great Commonwealth has sprung, second ^to none in devotion to those great fundamental principles which enfranchise, expand and ennoble man. In this Guild of Builders, her Bench and Bar have won renown. With her, as virith every people governed by liberty and law, the Bench and Bar have been the strongest pillars of State. Nashville, Tenn., May 1st, 1896. m INDEX. Page. A Ancestry ^ Andrews, John ,P '^^' A Condition Confronts Me. ^^ Admitted to the Bar ^^" B Bledsoe, Granville ^^ Birney , J.M ^ College, Wirt ^^ Chary bdis and Scilla, Steer- ing Between ^^' Courage of Convictions. . . . ^^'' Coleman, James M xxvii D Debt, A Heavy xi E Early Struggles With Pov- erty II Elected Principal of an Academy xiv F Friends xxiv Father's Surprise xxv H Hailam, Wm. and Henry. . i Hickory Grove m Holt, Prof . Joseph vm I Iroquois Steamer xn Insulted Grossly xxvi L Leaving Home xi Page M Malone, Wm iii Matriculation at College iv Medal for Oratory on Com- mencement Day Won v Mistake, My First xxii Murder Case, My First xxiv My Secret Kept xxv O On the Road Without Money xiii P Patterson Prof. W. K IV, viii, x Preacher's Wife Helps Me Load a Gun xix R Ralston, Wm iv Ring, Prof. PI. E xi Ray, J. Rich xrv Rogers, William, Difficulties With XVI, XIX S Slate, Robt. M iii T Thomas, Ferdinand P xv V Vattel's Law of Nations, Study of Ni W Wilkes, Uncle Jackey v Williams, Judge A. B x Y Yarboro, Wm XXVI Index. Page, A Author's Early Experience in Arkansas 117 Author's Capture of a Run- away Debtor 128 Ayres and Looney 203 Adams, Gen. Chas. W 277 A Fixed Policy 284 A Corrupt Judge Made to Discharge His Duty 330 A Brutal Judge 336 A Bear Interrupts a Court. . 367 Antelope Springs 399 Antelope Park 399 A Noble Woman 426 Address to students 453 Ayres, T.S. 94 Avery, Hon. Wm. T., 151 A Roland for an Oliver 216 An Adventuress Banished. . 256 Author, the Accused of Dis- banding the Citizen Con- scripts 314 A Heroine 333 American State Papers 350 Audacity Won 363 Assassins Hired to Murder the Author 376 Ascent at the Mountain 413-414 Address at the Dedication of a College 445 B Brooks, Elijah, Death of 46 Blythe, W. A 67,80, 94 Bolton, Dickens & Co 76 Bolton, John 77 Bolton, Isaac L 77 Bolton, Wade H 77 Bolton, Wade H., Murder of 82 Bailey. Judge Sylvester. ... 171 Battle, Naval in Front of Memphis 195 Bohling, Phillip R 225 Bartlett, Edward, Trial of, for the Murder of Obanian Celebrated Case 247 Blockade Running 305 Bey of Tripoli, Restored to the Throne 354 Boyles, George 362, 382 383,389 Baldwin, Wm 382 Beshoar, Dr. Michael 382 Bully of the Chucharis 388 Bruce, James, Hung by a Mob 420 Bedloes Island, Statue of Liberiy 431 Page Bankhead, Smith P., Assas- sination of 73, 75 Brett, James 161 Bank Failures — Heavy Loss- es 168 Beauregard's Idiotic Order to Burn Property 135 HisSuicidal Order to Float Confederate Currency at the Point of the Bayonet. Baptist, the old Hardshell. . 271 Burns, Pat, Extraordinary Nerve 340 Burns, Pat, Defies an Ille- gal Order 344 Butler, Gen. Benj. F 372 Brown, Webster 382 Baldwin, Ted 382 Burton, James 382-384 Beauties Above the Clouds. 412-414 Breedlove,Ford, Abandoned 424 Crockett, Robt. H 68 Catron, Judge, Appointment of to the Supreme Court U. S 106 350 Chalmers, Gen. James R 149, 255 Coe, Levin H 255 Oo^w^y, Hon. Joe D 211,213 Carr, Wm 219 Craft, Henry 222 Curran, David M 224,228 Court, Civil Commission . . . 258 Conscripted in Federal Mi- litia — Resistance 288 Confederate Soldiers Storm into Memphis 312 Corrupt Military Govern- ment i. 314 Crews, Gen. Johnathan, 350 Challenge, The Cartel 79 Childless Woman. The 108 Capture of a Stolen Steam- boat 110 Challenge to the Field 113 Oarmack,John M 182 Coulter and Stuart, Judges 210 Carrigan's Client Lynched. . 217-219 Clements, Hon. Jere 220 Olapp, J. W 222 Carpenters, The 240 Carr Thrown in Prison and Robbed 278 Confiscation of Money 307 Citizens of Memphis Con- scripted into the Federal Army 812 Index. Page. Catholic Priesthood 346 Code, Duello 35 Candldace for Office 35 Counterfeit Money 39 Caruthers, Judge John P. . . 56 Cushing, Dr. E. N 391 Cunningham Pass 401-2-3 Comanche Chief 404 Constitution, Centennial of 1887 Ohapline, Jake 432 Coffin Under our Door 434-434 Cypert, Judge 436 D Daniel, Lu W 37 Dunlap, Judge W. 51 Douglass, Judge Addison H . 52 Dickens, Thomas, Kills Bol- ton 82 Dismukes, Capt. E. E 125 DuBois, Dudley M 147 Dickey, Cyrus E 173 Dixon, Judge George 236 Detective, Roguery During the War 278 Destitute Confederates 304-305 Dismukes, Capt. Joseph 326 Dunton, Horatio 382 Del Norte 395 Dollarhide, Judge J. S 438 Dickens, Dr. Sam 84 Duncan,R. A. F 139 DuPree.L. J 156 Davidson Duel 256 Davis, Tried as a Guerilla, Hung 293 Davis, Miss Alice 296 Doss, Sam 378 Drennen, Pat .' 382 Dunton, Prank 382 Dome of the Continent . . . 401 Draughon , Prof. J. F 453 E Early Schooldays 19 Editors, Old of Memphis 156 Estea, Judge B. M 222 Escape of Dick Davis 298-300 Expediency Robs the Su preme Court of its Jewel . 349 Elkin, Stephen B 379 Extravaganza, The 419 Ewing, Parker C 434 Ethics, Professional 41-45 Eakin, Hon. John R 216, 441 442 Eddy, Capt 278 Page Discharged for $7,506 314 Exchange of Prisoners of War 300 Ernest, Fine 377-378 Elk, Killing the 400 Extraordinary Scene in Court 424 F Forrest, Gen 76,303 Frazier and Jones 76 Farrelly, John Pat, A Moral 92 Fraud, A Strange 164 Forest, John, Shoots a Fed- eral Soldier 190 Pinlay , Col. Luke W 233 Foote, Gov. Henry 8 239 Frank, Captain of Detec- tives 278 Fined $1,000 and Imprisoned for Thrashing Gen. Mc- Donald .1 318 Foley, John, Murdered 424 Foote, Henry S -77 Farington, John C 89 Finnie, John G 179 Forrest, Mother of the Gen. 191 Flippin, Hon. John R 199 Fraudulent Moves of an Ad- venturess — Young Man in the Toils 257-258 Followers of the Army 309 Fort Garland 395 Frightened Grizzly Bear 401 Fowlkes, Judge W. 241 G Goodall, Gen. John D 140 Glenn, Phil S5-77 Godden, Rev. C C 118, 122 Greenlaw, Alonzo — Duel 182 Galloway, Hon. J. S 269 Goldsmith, Oliver 343 Garner, Hon. Wm. S ... 362 Gantt, George 85,261 265,270 371 Grace, Col. W. P 134, isg Galloway, Col. M. C 157 Gause, Hon. Lucien C 246 Gold Screwed to Bottom of Steamers 309 Gallows Erected by a Brutal Judge to Intimidate a Prisoner 344-345 Index. Page. H Hoisted on My Own Pelard. 29 Humphreys, Judge John C. 33 Haskel, Wm. T 61 Hill.Hume F 61 Harris, Isham G 68-226 Harris, Judge Wm.R 138 Hamilton, Oapt 174 Hatch, Col., The Dude of the Army 192 Handworker 226 HoUoway, the Paramour and Murderer 263-264 265-266 Hurlburt, Gen 317 Horse Thief in the San Juan 412 Harpooning a Whale 441 Herron, Abe — A Moral 91 Harlow, John P 118, 223 Halliim, Charles 125 Hallum, George 125, 326 Heath, Judge ' 176 Hearne, Judge Euf us D 218 Helbing, Mrs .' 226 Humes, Gen. W. Y. C 232 Hanes, Landon C 276 Hallum, Henry, a Prisoner of War ' 300, 326 Half Way House 396 Harris, Jesse L 443 I Incipient Land Titles Under Laws of Prance and Spain 350 Incog 408 Indians, Removal of 18 Ind'ns , Surround My Family 392 Investment in San Juan 393 J Jackson, Gen 17 Jones, Dr 73 Jury. Packing 84 Jealous Wife in Male Attire 278 Judge Drunk on the Ben6h. 442 Jones,Met L 73 Jackson, Judge Howel E. . . 221 Judge and Jury Take Me for a Fool , 424 K Kiss, Tendered in Open Court 30 KingE. W. M 94,280 Kellar, Col. A. J 243 Knock Down in Court 444 Know Nothing Party 443 Knights of the Golden Circle 165 Kortrecht, Chas 235 Kleptomaniac and Jealous Wife 273 Kriger, Louis 382 L Love of Native Land 22 Lawyer Dying of Pride 87 Luster, John B 148 Lee, James 159 Lamar,L.Q.C 67 Looney and Ayres 203 Lamb, James , 209 Looney, Robt. F.. 237 Library Confiscated 280 Lissentaerry Put in Prison and Robbed by Army De- tectives 278 Lodge, Joseph G 338 Legislation of Congress — Confusion of Land Titles. 348 Leitensdorfer, Dr 353 Leitensdorfer, Eugene 355 Land Squatters in the West 357 Luellen, Jefferson 382, 486 407,413 Lay of the Last Minstrel 405 Loague, Hon. John 58 Looney, .James 94 Lyles, Col. Perry 120, 234 Leath, James T 172 Lanier, John C 202, 281 Leatherman, D. M 209 Logwood, Gen. Thos. H 234 Lindsey —Duel 256 Lasalle, Capt 300 Lawyer in a Rock Query 336 Landed Litigation 348 Litigation, Large Volume of 350 Law, Judge, and Son 351 Leitensdorfer, Thomas 355 Las Animas Land Grant 356 LeCarpenter, Dr 381 Lunar Rainbow 397 Lunch Above the Clouds. . : 417 M Memphis, R,ecollections of . . 14 McLemore, John C. ,. 17 Meigs, Return J .;.. 64 Marshall, John 64 McMillan Murdered 76 Moore, James 160 McOlanahan. John R 156 Massey, B. A. 181 McKissick, L. D., Military Governer 185 6 Indbjx. Page. McRea, Duncan K 256 Mulligan, Thomas C 252-253 265 Malone, James H . . ; 241 ■'Moses" Speculates in Ar- my Passes ; . . . 282 McDonald, Gen John 288, 315 Money Raised for Destitute Confederate Soldiers 305 Gen. Kirby Smith's Staflf Of- ficer in My Office in Dis- guise 325 McBride, Pat 359,383 Malone, Wm 24 Miser, The 45 McNutt Ill McKiernan, Judge B. F 140 Micou, T. B 148 McMahon, Jesse H 157 Messick, Wm 175 Morgan, E. D. F 183, 235 Mulvihill, Pat 204 Marriage of May and Deo . . 259 Marriage, Illegitimate, Most Remarkable Suit and Scene in Court 267-271 Military Court, Fair Trial.. . 291 Memphis After the Surren- der 304 Money, Large Amount Hid. 307-308 Money for Both Sides .... 321 McFarland, L. B 241 Masonic Order Defends a > Brother 339 McGrath, Pat 344 Mufti, Chief and Lord of the Faith 355 Mob to Hang the Author.. 360-382 More Trouble — As s a s s i n s Foiled 370 Move to Trinidad 330 Mining Camp 407-408 Malone James H 241 McCowan, Judge George W 447 Mob, Another and Failed . . 380 Mexican Jui'y 387 Mountain Summit. 393-394 Mob in Clarendon, Ark 432 N Nabors, Ben 244 " Nevermore," The Silent Woman 416 Narrow Escape From Death 436 Navajo Indian , Girls 404 Page. O OveJrton, Judge John 17 Obanion, James, the Gue- rilla, Killed by Edward Bartlett— Trial for Murder 247 Office Boy Finds Gold.... 289 Owner of $300,000 Denies Ownership 308-309 Ostracism by My Friends . . 248 Oath of Allegiance Pur- chased 282 Owen, James 307-308 Owen, Mrs. Minerva 307-308 Operatives of a Factory Raise a Fee 340 OrtontheSpy 385 P Pierce, President 62 Prentiss, Sargent S 86 Perrin, E. O 137 Pope, Leroy 178 Payne, E.G 225 Pickett, Ed Burke 242 Pike, Gen. Albert 275.332 Prim, Judge Wilson S66-348 Pathetic Scene 342 Caricature 347 Purchase of the Las Animas Land Grant 356 Penny, Stephen 382 Park, Stonewall 391 Peril, My Greatest 413-415 Post Mortem 83 Patterson, E. C 80 Payne, Robt 129 Poston.Wm. K 171 Private Property Destroyed at Memphis 186 Pickett, Ed Burke 201 Prentiss, S. S., Duel, Anec- dote 240 Packed Jury, Dangers of.. 254 Prison, Worse than Ander- son In the 320 Prior, Hiram A 339 Protestant Lawyer, Catholic Client 346 Romance of the Harem 355 Poker Game Protected by the Court 368 Pythian Brothers True and Faithful 380-382 Pythian Lodge, Trinidad No. 3 382-383 Peaks, Spanish 393 Page, James R 441 Indejx. Page. R Boster of Attorneys 9 Rogers, McGrilbra 29 Ray.J.E.R 68,208 Romance of a Will 71-73 Robinson, Capt'. 110 Randolph, Wm.M 139 Reeves. Judge Geo. W 249, 254 Refusal to Draft an Unjust Marriage Settlement . . 259 Romance of a Tyrolese Priest 353 River, Rio Grande 393 Remarliable Scene in Court 42, 439 Ramsey, Dr Frank A 83 Randolph, Wm. M 94 Rives, L. O. Episode 95 Poindexter 1 118 My Distant Relative 119 Royston , Gen . Granville D . 217 Rogers, Henry A 542 Rawlings, John, Tried as a Spy 290 Romance Found in a Record 340 Rififenberg, Watt 383 Raven on the Bust of Pallas 416-417 S Soldiers Hired to Guard Pri- vate Property 189 Slayery , Institution of 76, Sale, John F 84,86,97" 102-103 Smith, Judge Henry G. as a Jurist and Duelist 113, 116 Scruggs, Hon. Phineus T 152 Smith, Gen. Preston 115, 179 Sherman. Gen., protects a Widowr 187 Sherman, Gen.. orders Civil- ians as Breastworks to Protect His Soldiers 188 Small, Henry D ,210 Scipio, the Ex-Slave 213 Sykes, Joseph 238 Slate, Rev. W. R 262,267 Slate, Widovr, the Most Re- markable Woman Ever on the Witness Stand. . . . 262-3-4-5 Sent to Prison 318 Schoup.Col. J. C 847 Summer Vacation in 1869.. 369 Suydam, the Bully 388,407 Summer Outing in the Rookies 390 Source of the Rio Grande. . 402 SanJuan,The 403 Snake Fastened to His Shirt Tail 439 Pe Sigler, Albert 78 Southern Love of Oratory.. 86 Sending a Union Man North 112 Sneed, Judge John L. T 138 Stanton, Frederick P 172 Speculation — Confed e r a t e Money 184 Stop the Battle ,.. 189 Searcy, John^Bennett, Geo. 200 Stuart, Judge 210 Scott, W. L 232 Seay, Charley and Wm 243 Slate, Henry, Murdered 262 Scene, Extrao r d i n a r y in Court 264 Stricklin, Mrs 296,335 Scott, Sir Walter 343 St. Vrain 356 Sopris, Al 383 Stephens, Thomas ^88 San Louis Valley 393 Source of the San Juan 402 San Juan, Queen The 404-405 Soldiers, Vandalism in burn- ing houses T Trial of Cady and Stanton. . 189 38 Trezevant, John Timothy. . 69 Thornton, Dr., on the Field 116 Thornton, Col. Jas. B 115, 176 Temple, James E 162 Taylor, John A., Duel 182 Trousdale, Capt. Charley.. 220 To Be or Not to Be 283 Tripoli and the Barbary Povr ers 354 Terry, John W 350 Trout Fishing 391,396 399 Trimble, Hon. Thomas 419 Tables Turned 42 Trial, A Celebrated 90 Topp, Robertson 94 Totten, Judge 6f Arkansas. . 125 Thomas, Asa 174 Turley, Thomas J....' 197 Thompson, Gen. M. Jeff. . . . 196*197 Turley Thomas B 2.^8 Trinidad, Colorado Citizens 358. 380 Thompson Geo. W 359, 376 Turner, Trial of for Murder 418 Tugwell and the Mob U Unthank, J. H 434 238 Unexpected, The 403 8 Index. Page. TJ TTnion Men Supplying the Confederate Army 328-429 Uncompoggere, The 406-407 413 Vendetta, The 81 Volentine, Hiram 180 Vacation and Summer Out- ing of the Bar , 230 Vance, Calvin F 154 Venable, Judge 209 Veach, Gen ,. 259,288 Virtue Betrayed — Murder. . 341 Vighil, Col 356 W Winchester, Gen. James 17 Wynne, Col. Alfred 22 Wilkes, Uncle Jackie 24 Wife, The Devoted 49 Wheatley, Seth .v. . . . 65-66 Wiokersham, James , . 94, 127 143 Walker, J. Knox 94 Ware, Robert 128 Wynne, Val W 145 Woodruff 184 Williams, H. B. 8 206 Williams, Judge A. B 213-216 Wheeler, A. J 256 Whisky and Blcfckade Run- ne? Captured 309-310 Page Women in Prison 333 Winters, Miss Addie 390 Wright, Gen. Luke E 241 Wife Makes Her Husband Shoot at Me 426 Webber, Hon. T. E 445 Wiseman, Eev. Johnathan . . 24 Wallace. Gen 81 Watson, Sidney Y 94, 175 Wilson, Moses, TJ. S. Mar- shal Ill Winchester, Geo. W 14$ Williams, Col. Kit 181 Wilson, W.P 207 Woman in Man's Clothes Fires My Office 273 Washburn, Gen..; 313 Williams, Col. Sam W 365 Wagon Wheel Gap. 394-398 Wife Wants "Hubby" to Whip the Author 420 Y Yerger, Edv?in M 54, 89 127,177 Young, Hon. Casey 150 Yates, Lieutenant 192 Yell, General, Remarkable Death of 135 Yelverton, Lady '. . 163 Your Ox or Mine 271 ANCESTRY. lILLIAM AND HENRY HALI/AM, brothers, immigrated from Engfland, under the patronage of one of the Lords Baltimore, g-bout 1760, and settled at Hagerstow^n, Maryland, both being men of resolute purpose, marked individuality, and pos- sessed of the courage of their convictions in an eminent degree. Sturdy Englishmen from Hallamshire, where their ancestors had lived loyal . to their king for many genera- tions, they did not approve the encroachments of the crown on the rights of the colonies, nor did they join the rebellion against it, but maintained a strict neutrality, and were honored and respected for it. General Vein Rensalier, of the revolutionary army, was their warm personal friend, and often visited them after Washington became President. William Hallam was in the vicinity of Germantown when that battle w^as fought-, was taken by scouts and carried to a British officer, who accused him of being a spy, which he vehemently denouncedv as false. The offi- cer then drew his sword and slapped him in the face, and he shot the officer dead on the spot, and made his escape to South Carolina, where he became the owner of a large plantation and numerous slaves, and the ancestor of nu- merous descendants. His sons, William and Henry, emigrated to Tennessee in 1790, bought lands and opened farms near Carthage, in Smith county, Tennessee on the Cumberland and Caney Fork rivers. William is the grandfather of my wife, and Henry is grandfather of the Author, my wife and self being related in the fourth de- gree. Hallam is the correct authography of the name ; the a, (I) II The Diary of, an Old Lawyer. in the last syllable was substituted by the u, which is a corruption attributable to the illiteracy of early fron- tier conditions. Gov. Helm, of Kentucky, is a worse cor- ruption. All their descendants were ardent supporters of General Jackson. EARI^Y STRUGGEES. Poverty is a fruitful stimulant, unknown and unfelt by the boy reared in the lap' of wealth, and supplied from sources not created by himself. EJarly knowledge of the practical affairs of life is gen- erally a sealed book to him, and he knows nothing of the stern, heroic virtues which are the surest foundations on which to build robust manhood. Poverty in the lexicon of ' aspiring youth, is often a blessing in disguise, when wealth is an effeminate poison, a upas tree, under whose fatal shades mistaken parents raise mournful failures. The history and destiny of the world have ever been, and always will be, made and moulded by men who learn to grapple with, and master diffictdties in the early forma- tive period of life. Wealth has made a thousand drones and fools of young men, to every one it has lifted and advanced to the nobler plains of true manhood. The age preceding, and succeeding the revolutionary period, was eminently calculated to mould and elevate man to the higher standards. Our fathers were strangers in those pioneer times, to that sordid and corroding ava- rice, which drives men to crowd and elbow^ each other in the race for wealth, and power, and place. Their lives, habits and wants were few and simple, and the great ma- jority were hopest in all the relations of life, whether private or public; they were hospitable, noble, and gen- erous. Their dangers were common, wants few, and they were true to themselves and fellow-men. Then that was the rule, now it is the exception in all classes. Want, during the early days of the commonwealth, was a Spar- tan nursery for the heroic and social virtues. Since 1861, Ancestry. Ill war and avarice have driven tHe people mad, and drifted them hellwards from primitive moorings. My father ,had nine children, of whom I was the eldest — he w^as poor — there were no public schools then, none in the vicinage, but the old log school house, with indif- ferent teachers whose methods were as primitive as the log house. Make a crop and then go to school, were alter- nate employments' until I was fifteen years old, wiiih no prospect disclosing a brighter horizon; a yearning for what seemed impossible of fruition, an opportunity to learn; insatiate desire, only gratified partially by reading all I could get my hands on. But fortuitous circum- stances, not in the least expected, sometimes rise up in our pathway, and open desolation with a rainbow of promise and fruition. > . Two of the greatest surprises of my long and eventful life were in store for me. There was a man "who went about the wdrld doing good," who knew me, had watched over all the boys in the vicinage. Hickory Grove adorned a charming landscape neai: the old homestead in Sijmner County, where men worshiped God in the purity of primi- tive simplicity, and when " Simple faith was more than Norman blood." Barefooted at fifteen years of age, I attended- these meetings, a rustic plow boy in honest pqverty and garb. ' ' Uncle Billy Malone ' ' was a tower of moral strength and grandeur at these meetings. He " Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." At one of these meetings he announced to the people that he wanted fifteen hundred dollars subscribed to be paid in installments, for the purpose of classically edu- cating two bbys at Cumberland University for the min- istry, without naming the, boys. The money was raised before the meeting adjourned, and he then announced that Rorbert M. Slate and myself were the boys. IV The Diary of an Oi^d Lawyer. The first great embarrassment then almost over- whelmed me, and for a few moments I knew not what to say, but recovering, I told him and the people , I could never be a preacher, and for that reason declined the offer; that I had something else in view for which I hoped some day to educate and prepare myself. My good mother was greatly disappointed; her anguish and sorrow greatly disturbed me, and it required much firmness to resist her appeals, but I was resolute. To have accepted the charity without living the life it imposed, would have been, deception and larceny of the funds. My resolve w^as to become a lawyer, but my father was so opposed to the profession, I did not disclose the fact to him. The secret was locked in my heart; I was too mod- est and bashful to disclose it to the most intimate friend, for fear of being laughed at ajid ridiculed beyond the endurance of a sensitive nature. In less than two weeks another event occurred. Wirt College, then a flourishing seat of learning, was but one mile from my father's house and could be seen from the porch. Prof. W. K. Patterson was President. He came to father's with William Ralston, a local merchant, and they all retired to a shade near the orchard, and ■ after a while called me from the plow. To my inexpressible joy, delirious ecstacy of delight, words can never paint, the kind Professor told me that he and the merchant and my father had arranged for me to matriculate at that College at the approaching session [fall of 1848]. But I knew father was not able to send me and defray the heavy expenses, and mentioned it. When this seemingly insurmountable object was mentioned, the kind Professor, with a smile as gracious as a sunbeam, said: "John, that is all arranged in this way: I will furnish you all the books you need and wait with you for j'our tuition and all other College expenses until after your education is com- pleted, and Mr. Ralston will furnish all the goods you need on the sattie terms. After you get through college, I Ancestry. ' V will find you a good school to teach, and you can thus pay us, and not be dependent on anybody for your education. Your father will board you. " That was the proudest moment I ever felt. I cannot conceive that human happiness could be greater. I had dreamed of this entry at College as a goal far beyond the reach of my poverty; the crown of an empire with all the honors man can confer on his fellow-mortal, could not have added an ioto to the transport of that de- licious hour. My little cup was full and running over. I had been a spectator at College commencements, and shed tears because of the poverty which shut out those riches. I was more sensitive than wise, and did not have ken enough to divine the ruse resorted to to make me feel that I was educating myself. Noble and generous men, they respected a foolish boy's pride, and that independence of ■character that can alone make a man. The idea that I was to be qualified to enter a sphere of life where I could ' honestly earn and pay the charges, lifted me above the clouds, and I did earn and pay every dollar, a sum little less than eight hundred dollars. ' My father gave me three acres of tobacco ground the next year, and I cultivated it in tobacco, and often worked in it until the moon went down, and then when I became sleepy over my lessons, bathed my head in cold water to drive off sleep, and thus kept up with my classes and made two hundred dollars, every cent of which I gave my cred- itors. The highest prize on commencement day was a medal for oratory; one hundred boys competed for it, including myself, the second session. I had not the remotest idea of winning the prize, but entered the contest for the ben- efit the exertion would impart, and to my surprise, the Faculty and Board awarded me the honor. Here gratitude inspires a vivid recollection of another good nfan, "Uncle Jacky Wilkes," of the vicinage. I VI Thk Diary of an Ot,D Lawyer. needed some money to send to Nashville for a new coat for commencemeint day, and after much hesitation, went to his residence to ask a loan, but my heart failed me, and I returned home without making my busi- ness known, sad and sorrowing. I wished for a less conspicuous place which my humble garb would' bet- ter become. I had no security to offer, poverty and the prospects for a better day for a boy already in debt, made me tremble at the idea of asking such a favor. But after thinking over the matter, I summoned enough cour- age to go again to "Uncle Jacky; " and after much hesi- tation, asked for the loan of ten dollars; and the good old man said, "yes, John I will let you have all you want," and handed me a roll of bills and said: "You need at least fifty dollars, take all you want, I am not afraid of losing it, unless you die, and then I would only regret your death, not the money." Good old man in Israel — his soul sped the astral depths many years ago. I paid him out of my tobacco crop, and he said, ' ' always come to me when you want help, and you will never fail whilst ' Uncle Jacky ' lives. ' ' Typical of a generation now past the Old South, all honest men and boys then had credit, and it was rare to hear of its abuse. No distrust then, no cut-throat mortgages, no stratagem and treason for spoils. I took no vacation during terms, but worked hard on the farm every day, and thus kept up at healthy equi- pois that healthy inter-dependence between the mental and physical man, without which neither can attain max- imum strength. There were many wealthy young men at " Old "Wirt " from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana and Mis- sissippi, and not one of these high-born young men ever offended my pride because of my poverty. Vattel's Law of Nations was one of the advanced stud- ies at College, and I was eager to devour this book, but was a green Freshman, and it was at least a year before Ancestry. VII I could reach that goal, and g-et into that guild of College lore. I therefore resolved to study it privately at odd times which could be spared from other studies; John Stark, an heir of great wealth for that day, gave me the book. That volume was a treasured jewel of the highest import to me, and I devoured it with ravenous hunger. My father caught me with it one day and shook his head ominously, as though the omen was a bad one from his standpoint, and I prevaricated about my intentions, by telling him that it was a school book which I would soon be required to study, and my boyish rainbow was thus disguised. When the time arrived to take up this study, the Pro- fessor was glad that I had already accomplished that task, and after examining, passed me. The vicissitudes of time sweep all things onward and away. Not many years ago I bent my pilgrim feet to that hallowed and sacred College ground, so full of loved and cherished memories. I went alone, and gazed in soli- tude, and meditated like Marius over the ruins of Car- thage. There stood the ruins of ancient Wirt, like some maedevil castle mournfully attesting the perished hopes and memories of departed years. . Kven the spring in the Beech wood Valley, where so many boys laved their thirst 'neath the widespread foliage, had sank into the earth and gone, as if nature had shrank at the appalling disso- lation. What a panoramic crowd of blessed memories, now fringed with time's dessolation, come in solemn proces- sion, proclaiming the mutability of all things. I was glad to be alone, so no tempest of feeling, no storm of thought, could shake no heart and dim no eye but my own. How awfully sad it is to gaze on the ruins of time, the mausoleum of hope, the silent, yet eloquent tomb of cherished idols. How many boys came in re- view? Hundreds from the spirit land,, but few among the living. VIII The Diary oe* an Old Lawyer. There was John P- Andrews, the senior of all, the Nestor of the Campus, whom all respected for his accu- rate learning- and high moral worth, but John maintained with rigorous exactness the privileges of seniority, and an exalted dig-nity far beyond the comprehension of the average college boy. In fact, it was universally conceded that John had the "make-up" of a courtier of the Chesterfield school^ and that his polish, and exquisite dignity, would have im- parted luster to any Court of Europe. He was the par- agon, the Beau Brummel of College, without any of his infirmities. He was the ideal of integrity, but too ex- alted to ever enter into the sport and hilarity of the campus. John was another one to the "manor born," and yet lives to enjoy the honors of a well spent life in a fine mansion near Hartsville, on his "native heath." He was a Captain in the service of the South in the late rebellion, and many a bloody field attests his martial bearing as a dauntless soldier. There was Joseph Holt, born in the icy embrace of honest poverty, with a lofty ambition to scale the rugged heights of Parnassus, and he toiled "with an eye that never winked, and a wing that never tired." Never was mind better balanced. His was a lovable character, pure, and true to all the demands of life. Born in Be- lote's Bend, on the banks of the Cumberland, in Sumner County, a few miles from the College. Here is another example of the good accomplished by W. K. Patterson, the President, and one of the founders of the college. Through his nobility of character and generous aid. Holt achieved a classic education, taught school, and repaid every farthing. A long roster of noble boys were thus educated by Prof. Patterson. The, good, this man has achieved for society, reaches out to the bosom of the Infinite, like the child with uplifted hands, extended for the embrace of its mother. Yet, who of all these boys who have drank so deep at Ancestry. IX the fountain of his blessings, have stopped a moment in the onrushing ebbs and stormy currents of life, to record the untold deeds of this good Samaritan, who stopped by the wayside, picked up many a waif, lifted them to the higher planes of manhood, and gave them as blessings to the world. One such man is worth more to his fellow- men than all the Goulds since the days of Croesus. Holt graduated several years before I .matriculated, married a good and beautiful woman, Jane Davis, the sister of my mother, and died a few weeks after his marriage, in Hartsville, while principal of the Male Academy at that place. His extraordinary thirst for knowledge and severe application undermined his health, and led him to an early grave. He had been my teacher. I loved him, and was with him when he died in the house of Dr. Dyer, on the hill, my wife's father. Had he lived long, he would have become one of the most learned ornaments of the Bar, a goal to which he aspired, and was fast laying deep foun- dations. There was Granville Bledsoe, another classmate, born in the neighboring county of Macon, who was as beauti- ful as sculptured marble, the perfection of physical sym- metrj'.and noble bearing, with an eye as quick and keen as that of an eagle, and an aptitude for learning and com- prehension rarely equaled. Granville was one of the idols of the school^no lesson was too severe, no task too difficult to master. When he "unbent the bow" for recreation, for hilarity and innocent mirth, he became the center of attraction, the soul of wit; none surpassed him in the display of that rare combination of wit, mirth and dignity. He had no enemies, all loved and admired him for his noble worth. Granville "pointed his arrows to the sun." To be a great lawyer and jurist was the goal of his ambition, and he toiled to lay deep and strong the foundations on which to build his ideal of honorable fame. O^ many lines he was the parallel of ' ' Bob Duncan. ' ' He read law , was ad- X The: Diary oe* an Ol,d IvAwyer. mitted to the Bar, and chose Louisville, Ky., as the field for his triumphs, and was fast climbing the ladder in a field which brought him in contact with rivals and ' ' foe- men worthy of his steel," but consumption seized and carried him to an early grave, before Tie had reached and achieved that splendor which was so enticing and dear to him. Judge' A. B. Williams, of Arkansas, graduated at Old ' ' Wirt, ' ' in 1847. He was raised in Hempstead and Pike Counties, Arkansas, has served his state ably in the halls of legislation, on the Bench, and later the United States, as a member of the Utah Coinmission. He is an able lawyer and jurist, and a perfect cyclopedia of the events, men and history of the State ; and no man could write a history of the State and times in which " Baz Williams" lives, equal to him, if he would only perform that office. Prof. J. M. Birney, one of the "old boys " who gradu- ated at Wirt College, in 1848, died in Prairie county. Ark., fifteen years ago. He was my client many years ago, and was a gentleman in all the relations of life. President Patterson studied law under Judge Ridley, his father-in-law, and in 1853 settled at Jackson Port, Ark., where he became very popular and successful at the Bar, and was, in 1854, elected to the legislature. He declined a re-election, but made a successful race for the lucrative office of Prosecuting Attorney for the third Judicial Circuit, to which he was elected in 1856. At that time his grateful pupil was in the full tide of success at the Memphis Bar, where we frequently met in that attic communion of congenial spirits, which is much easier felt than described. We called over the ]ong ros- ter of the College, and discussed with tenderest fidelity, of purest friendship, episodes of college life, and the pros- pects of each who had drank at that shrine of Minerva. He possessed magnetic force of character, was a charm- ing conversationalist, and as pure in diction as the most refined lady. Ancejstry. XI Prof. H. E. Ring, of Ohio, succeeded him at the Col- lege. He was a very strict disciplinarian, rough and brusque with his pupils, but for all that, a pure diamond of inestimable value, but the contrast between him and Prof. Patterson was too great to prevent invidious com- parisons. During these school years a mountain of debt accumu- lated, and I felt overwhelmed at its contemplation, al- though not one of my creditors had asked for pay, find 1 urged the President to send me to the next applicant for a teacher, and one soon came from patrons of Bar's school house, in Wilson county, Tenn. , offering board and fifteen dollars per month for a trial of three months, with the promise of a six months school and eighty pupils, if the community was satisfied with the trial teacher. I ac- cepted the propiosition, and went to w^ork determined to command approval, and on the first of October the pay roll of my roster of girls, boys, young ladies, and young men, in this school of co-education commenced with eighty pupils. There were no free schools in the State at that time. It was w^hat we now call a "pay school" in dis- tinction from free schools. At the end of the session I paid every dollar of my debts, and had $2.50 left, to which my mother added her mite of $2.50. The moun- tain of debt, now paid off, had greatly distressed me, though no creditor had ever presented his bill, and I felt a horror of going in debt. I had a change of clothing, a small trunk, and some school books, and five dollars; and although I could have borrowed any reasonable amount for a poor boy, I pre- ferred getting' to Memphis on the five dollars, if I could. Before starting I gave my life secret to my mother, and exacted a promise to keep it from all the world, until I could redeem it on my next return to the old homestead, however long that might be. I told her my intention was to' return to her with authority to practice law in the Courts of my country, and that I did not want my XII The Diary of an Old Lawyer. father to know it, because lie would oppose it, and a knowledge of tlie fact would distress him; that I did not want the outside world to know it, because the prospects for success was so remote, the attempt would excite de- rision. She kept that secret as sacred as a shrine, until the world knew it, two years later, from other sources. It was ten miles to Gallatin, my trunk was light, and I carried it on horseback, a younger brother riding be- hind me. I would have walked from there to Nashville, but was compelled to take the stage because of the trunk. That reduced my funds to $3.50, and a night's lodging took another dollar. The steamer Iroquois, a Nashville and New Orleans packet, was anchored at the landing, and was advertised to leave that evening. Cabin fare to Memphis was ten dollars, and deck passage four dollars. Here was a di- lemma. I sought the kind-hearted Captain, showed him my election as teacher, and some books with my name written in them, to identify me and remove any suspicion of my being an imposter, and asked him if he would take two dollars and credit me for the remainder until I could teach school and pay him; and told him that only left me fifty cents to subsist on, until the boat reached Memphis, and he kindly assented. I bought sortie cheese, crackers, and a piece of dried beef with the fifty cents, and carried my trunk on my shoulder to the boat, and put it in a con- venient place under the boilers. It was a cold March, and I slept under the boilers to keep warm. The steamer was heavily laden with tobacco, pig Jron, and cotton — the cotton extended up to the cabin guards. The boat stopped at every landing, and made very slow progress, and was four days reaching the Ohio river, and my provisions gave out. I had a fine pocket knife, and traded it to a "roustabout " for crackers. At the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers the sun was warm and bright, and I crawled out on top of the cotton bales to enjoy it. I knew deck passengers Ancestry. XIII were prohibited the freedom of the cabin, and did not go in. I sat on the cotton in front of the boat, and I sup- pose looked in a serious mood, I certainly felt so. A dozen or more well-dressed passengers eyed me rather closely, and to escape their supposed criticism I started below. They hailed me to come to them. I reminded them that the regulations did not permit me to come either in or on the upper cabin, because I had not paid for, and was not entitled to such privileges. "Yes," said the leader, in a kind, gentle voice, ' ' we have come to the con- clusion that you are a Southern college boy, and by some misfortune — ^we do not care to know — have lost your funds ; here is fifty dollars, take it and come into the cabin, you are evidently a gentleman. ' ' I admitted the latter conclusion, but told him briefly the facts, thanked him courteously for the kindness which prompted the offer of assistance, but resolutely declined it, and told them the Captain of the boat knew my con- dition, and had generously extended all the aid I asked. AU'then crowded around me and strongly urged me to accept their hospitality and generosity, and it was with embarrassment and difficulty I made my escape to the lower deck. A few minutes after all these gentlemen came down, bringing the Captain with them, who kindly took me by the arm and said: "I am commander of this boat, and have authority to put down any insubordination on board; come with me, young man, without rebellion or resistance. ' ' I was thus kindly forced, to accept a stateroom the re- mainder of the journey, and a seat by the Captain at the table. I was never treated more courteously in my life. Fortunately the steamer landed at Memphis after dark, and thus saved me the humiliation of being seen much, in the role of butler carrying my trunk. I went to a boarding house, at the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets, on the opposite corner of which I had an office some years afterwards, and was in the full tide of success. XIV The Diary of an Old Lawyer. The Academy to which I had been elected as Principal at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month, was twenty miles from the city, near Morning Sun. I had an uncle, Ferdinand Thomas, husband of my Aunt Betsy, my father's sister, who lived in the vicinage, and was in fine circunistances ; the stage fare to that point was two dollars, of which I was conspicuously minus. Here was another difficulty, the wind was to be raised before I could proceed any further, and I knew of but one man in the city on whom I could call for assistance; J. Rich Ray, who knew my parents, and was born in Cairo, where they were married, in 1832, and where I was born. He was a very prosperous merchant at that time, but I was two days in finding him, and bpgan to feel hungry. When I approached and made known my condi- tion, he pulled out a large roll of bills, but I took but three dollars. He remonstrated, and insisted that I should accept not less than one hundred dollars, but I de- clined, and said three dollars is much easier to pay than a much larger sum, I can get along on that very well. But, to my horror, the landlord charged me for meals I did not eat, and more than the sum I had borrowed. The stage coach was at the door, and iiiy little trunk had already been strapped on behind. When the coachman found I was "strapped " he took my trunk ofF. Then the land- lord took compassion, and loaned me two dollars to pay the fare. Before daylight I was at my destination, nearly famished, but did not make that fact known. But a still greater difficulty awaited me, the keenest disappointment, challenging my pride and manhood. The Trustees, who had elected me at a salary of $150 per month, were composed of a Board of five gentlemen, and my election had been unanimous. But after I had, under so many difficulties, got there, William Walsh, one of the Trustees, reconsidered the matter and with- drew his support, without stating his reason or objec- tions, but I knew the source of his wounds full well. Ancestry. XV He had had a persoaal difficulty with my father, who was a very resolute and firm man, and revenge was to be taken out of the son, to soothe enmity which his ma,nhood denied" at the hands of my father. Thomas B. Crenshaw, a wealthy planter, and a gentleman of the ' ' Old South, ' * who dispensed his hospitality with the courteous bearing of a prince, together with the other Trustees, vehemently insisted that four to one was ma- jority enough, and that I ought to disregard "Bill Walsh's" desires. But I resolutely declined to take charge of the school, on the ground that no consideration on earth could induce me, to seemingly become under ob- ligations to an enemy of my father, whose good name and honor I loved and cherished above all the possessions of earth. In such a juncture, to even hesitate would have been to dishonor my father and degrade myself. My four supporters were more chagrined than I was, but on reflection they approved my course, and to-day (now they are all long since dead), it is one of the dearest memories of my life, to know they were my warm friends and unswerving supporters when I came to the Bar and ever afterward. Ferdinand P. Thomas was my uncle, and he never had a dollar or credit that I could not bank on. Thomas B. Crenshaw, as the years rolled on, bringing the losses and misfortunes of war, came to me when I had it ifi my power to be of great assistance to him, and it w^as the greatest consolation to render it without re- ward. J. Rich Ray, who loaned me the money when penniless and hungry, lost nearly all in the vortex of war; and just after its close, came to me with almost a worthless claim for $4,-000, and offered me one-half of any part of it that might be collected. I offered to lend him any reasonable sum he wanted, and reminded him of his kindness to me, but he declined it. I made no reply to his offer of so large a fee. It so happened that I was the only man pos- XVI The Diary of an Oi^d Lawyer. sessed of information and power to collect it, and in time succeeded, sent my office boy for him, handed him every dollar, and said nothing about a fee. He divided the pile and handed me half. I threw it back in his lap, and told him I lamented his misfortune, but was glad of the opportunity to serve him — that my recollections of him and his noble generosity to me, when I was in distress, made me a better man. Whilst teaching school I employed every leisure hour in reading law — night, morning, noon, and Saturdays. I bought several reams of paper, and made rude and copi- ous notes of all I read. When I became drowsy or sleepy at night, I bathed in cold water and aroused myself up five hours was my allotted time for sleep — ^and it was enough. Whilst teaching my last school, a series of conflicts be- gan, which have followed me at intervals through life, always unsought and wholly unexpected. I had been raised by the gentlest of devout mothers, and in refined society, free from broils and fights and bullies, and looked on the world as a gentle carpet, spanned by a rainboWi where denials and honest toil are rewarded without unpleasant strife. But I was now en- tering on man's estate and a new life, in a country where frontier conditions had not passed away, where the ruder phases of life had to be met and confronted. All people had been kind and considerate with me, and I thought this smooth sailing would last forever, with- out storms to ruffle the placid waters of life. I had never indulged the slightest inclination to invade the rights of others, nor had I ever given occasion or foundation to encourage or provoke such feelings towards myself. One William Rogers sent his daughter, Mary, to my school. She was near sixteen years of age, and thought herself about grown, and too large to submit to mild school discipline. She Was insubordinate, and her ex- Ancejstry. XVII ample was exerting- a bad influence. I remonstrated with lier in vain. She was too large to subject to ordinary pun- ishment, and my g-entle reproof inspired laug-hter and derision utitil patience ceased to be a virtue. As a last resort I wrote the kindest of notes to her father, and in-^ formed him of my inability to g-overn Mary, and advised him to keep her at home. To my ama2;ement, and terror of the school, within thirty minutes Rogers took a seat in ten paces from the school door, with a double-barrel shotgun in his lap, to await the dismissal of the school, and settle with me. This looked critical, and necessi- tated my being placed on a war footing as soon as pos- sible. There was a fine double-barrelled gun at the place where I boarded, and within a walk of ten minutes of the schoolhouse, and I sent one of the students for this in haste, and he made a quick trip. When Rogers saw him ap- proaching with the gun, he divined the import, and left with a double-quick step, and with much better judg- ment than he came. This was as gratifying to me as it w^as ludicrous, serio-comic, and all laughed at his sudden exchange of gun for legs. He was a giant in physical proportions, an overseer of negroes by occupation, and naturally overbearing from his calling. I thought this ludicrous episode an end of the matter. The next day, being Saturday, I went with one of my school boys on a fishing expedition, through a lane, where this overseer was watching negroes at work. The gentleman with whom I boarded begged me not to go, and said Rogers would kill me if I passed along the public road where he was. I replied that my engage- ment to go that way was made before the trouble arose, and that I never had, and never intended, to break an en- gagement, to keep out of the way of a blustering bully, or any type of ma,n, and declined to put a pistol in my pocket, saying that it ill became a teacher, and was cow- ardly in any man, except on urgent necessity. But the gentleman, W. H. Sheed, followed me quite a XVIII The Diary oe* an Old Lawyer. distance, and vehemently insisted that I was in great danger, and finally I consented to put the pistol in my pocket, but felt humiliated by the act. Sure enough, Rogers sat on his horse awaiting my approach with the school boy, and angling rods, and as I was passing his horse he cursed me, lit oflf on the opposite side, and rushed at me with uplifted Bowieknife. But I had cocked my pistol, and as he approached, rammed it in his mouth, cutting his upper lip severely, and breaking two teeth out. He was paralyzed with fear, dropped the knife out of his powerless hand, and ran in the yard of a neighbor, Monroe Coleman, and asked for a gun. Coleman berated him for his cowardice, and ordered him out of his yard. I thought the matter surely ended there, and went on about my fishing, with the little school boy. But some three hours after, the constable of the township came to the creek, with a posse and warrant, charging me with assault with intent to kill. By this time excitement was running high, and every man in the community was my friend, and many went with me to Raleigh, the county seat, to see me through. I employed George Bayne to defend, and demanded a trial, which lasted late in the night. Rogers employed Jesse L. Harris to prosecute. The lawyers came to blows, and Harris drew his pistol on Bayne, who was unarmed, but put up his pistol when he looked down the mouth of mine. The Court discharged me. My friends were armed, and if Harris had fired, an awful tragedy would have been enacted in that Court room. In the meantime I had denounced Rogers as a base coward, and said I could run him in Wolf river with a goose quill. He heard the denunciation, and did not re- sent it, and I regarded the matter as ended, but he owed me, would not pay, and I brought suit to recover the debt. Many predicted serious consequences on the day of trial, but I did not, and went to the trial, at Raleigh, Ancestry. XIX unarmed. The Court room was full of spectators, wko expected trouble, but I had no apprehension whatever because' of his previous cowardice of pronounced type. My friends came to me and asked if I was armed, and told me that Rogers was going to shoot me as soon as the Court adjourned, and James M. Coleman, iny brother- in-law, put a derringer pistol in my pocket, and told me to look out. The Court gave judgment in my favor, and as soon as I stepped out of the room, Rogers followed and fired at me before I could get my pistol out, but missed me, and wheeled to run into a saloon. As he en- tered the doQr I ran up on him, and fired as he closed the door, but the ball only cut through his clothing. He was the worst alarmed man I ever saw; ran through the salqon into a ten-pin alley, burst through the end of it into a garden, knocked off the palings and ran around to where his horse was tied. While he was engaged in this chivalric perfor'mance, I was , loading an old muzzle- loading shotgun, handed me by Mrs. Bolt, the wife of a minister of the Gospel; shetianded me powder, ball and caps. By the time my gun was loaded. Quince Cannon, the constable, had arrested Rogers; the fight w^as on now to the finish, and I intended to end it then and there, and drew down on him, but he made breastworks of the con- stable, and shouted murder as loud as a calliope, to the infinite disgust and derision of the crowd. I threw away my gun, and walked off, and and let him go home. Paradoxical as it may seem, to me, Rogers was an evangelist, preaching in the wilderness, teaching that there was either some fighting, or a great deal of unpleas- ant running to be done, and that one horn or the other of the unpleasant dilemma had often to be quickly taken and promptly met, from which there was not likely to be any honorable avenue of escape under the social condi- tions then prevailing. It was a revelation, teaching that cravens and cowards XX The Diary of an Oi^d Lawyer. are gcenerally the men who insult gentlemen, and the first to run from the danger they i provoke, and that a truly courageous man will never intentionally give offense in the absence of well considered and honest conviction that it is merited. It was "a condition that confronted " me; growing, to a great extent, out of the peculiar structure of Southern society, at that time and place, since ujiuch modified by patent causes, which I will not here discuss. At that time gentlemen were often compelled to conform to the established order of things by defending their integrity, or submitting to humiliations intolerable to a proud spirit. The Code Duello was recognia^^ed as part of the lex non scripta of gentlemen. I was then preparing to enter on a profession, \y^hich, above all others, demands the exposition and probing of fraud and crime, an office, an offense, jiever forgiven when robust Saxon is indulged in exposing it. I realized that a negative, passive character, who wires and worms and edg"es his way through life, without contact with its rough and rude phases, is incapable of coping with the great emergencies of life, in society as then organized and dominant. , Here was ' 'a condition confronting me, ' ' at the threshold of a profession which was the idol of my boyhood dreams, the inspiration to arduous toil. To follow it up with that sense of self-respect, which had been imparted by educa- tion add association, would certainly 'change that line and mould of character, which the simplicity of boyhood, with- out any knowledge of the practical affairs and stern rela- tions of life, had marked out. What was I to do, now the rainbow had faded in'the dawn of a new existence, a new life; meet or shrink from its demands? Not one moment of hesitation, with that consoling philosophy of Socrates, ' ' do the best you can and let con- sequences take care of themselves," I " plunged into the Rubicon," realizing and, knowing full well, that the first Ancestry. XXI chapter in my life was forever closed, and that its beau- tiful rainbows were a thing of the past. , And I realized that there are two characters equally detestable — the bully and the coward — from both of which the, true gen- tleman instinctively shrinks. The true analysis is each of these characters resolve themselves into one, and I realized that the occasion would be rare, when two gen- tlemen come into irreconcilable conflict, and that such radical difficulties could only occur where both were hon^ est and sincere in maintaining their self-respect; also that acute sensitive natures, of all others, ought td be cautious in fixing standards and making demands — that to steer between " Charybdis and Cylla '' would of ten be difficult, requiring the finest discrimination to be decided and acted upon instantly, and herein lies the chief difficulty wi^h all men, when compelled to act in emergencies, generals in the field, as well as men engaged in the private affairs of life. During the crysalis and formative period of most lives, it is easy to commit, and hard to avoid errors, and every life is moulded to a greater or less extent by the circumstances, influences, and condition of society which •surrounds it. Society is a revolutionary, vacillating pendulum, which oscillates in sentiment, and the periods marking these rev- olutions are measured by short decades and cycles. What , ispopular to-day in science, literature, art, philosophy, nay religion, and Government, may be the reverse to-morrow. The man of great popularity to-day in politics, Govern- ment, literature, or religion, may be dashed to pieces as an idol to-morrow, and become a living " back number." This is the rule, rather than the exception. Look down the ages, scrutinize the records of time and facts in con- firmation of this. These infirmities influence the great majority of "men to desert deliberately formed convictions, "that thrift may follow fawning," politicians to become knaves and sycophants, ' ' bending the pregnant hinges o£ the knee " to popular ebbs, tides, and currents. XXII The Diary ■ob' an Old Lawyer. "Wliat is a young noviate starting out in life to do, but fix his own standards on the best and highest foundations his judgment and surroundings per^iit, and work with the covirage of his convictions to attain the summit, re- gardless of the whims and caprice of that sometimes worst of all tyrants, public opinion. The highest functions of capable men are to lead and mould public sentiment, to scorn the "political tramp," that parasite on the body politic who, knowingly, encour- ages a false sentiment to promote self interests. Such are the prevailing conditions now in the organizjed ele- ments of power, represented by an aggregation of vast capital in the hands of a few, from which the liberties of the people are in greater danger than from all other sources. The Government of the Roman people existed for centuries before it finally developed into a tithe of the corruption we now find in the administration of pub- lic affairs, apparently without the power to prevent it. ADMITTEP TO THE BAR. In May, 1854, I was admitted to the Bar by Judges John C. Humphreys and William R. Harris, at Raleigh, and immediately opened an ofl&ce in that now ancient town. I had then been married six months, to Virginia W. Sneed, the daughter of a prosperous planter living in the vicinage. The first ofi^ce I performed as an attorney was to write a bill of sale, conveying twelve likely negro men of the value of $18,000, on the day I was admitted to the Bar, from my brother-in-law, Captain Angus Greenlaw, to his wife, E^lenora. The Captain had just lost the Mary Agnes, a fine, new, palatial steamer, of the value of $80,000, running in the cotton trade between Memphis and New Orleans, and shortly before that had lost another steamer on Red river, without insurance in either loss. Ten weeks before my admission, he in- structed me to draw a conveyance of these negroes to his wife, to the exclusion of the husband's marital rights, as Ancestry. XXIII he desired to protect her in the money she had invested in those negroes and boats. Court was in session, and my office was full of friends when the Captain called for the instrument, and in the confusion I drew the bill of sale without excluding- the marital rights of the husband. This oversight in drafting my first instrument the day my license was signed, caused me infinite trouble, three years afterwards, when the negroes were attached, in New Orleans for the debts of the husband, before Judge King, of the Fourth District Court. Local attorneys were employed, who informed me that the rights of the wife depended altogether on the construction to be given the instrument, under the law& of Tennessee, where the conveyance was made. As I was unavoidably a witness in the case, I declined-the relation of attorney. A commission issued to take my deposition, with more than two hundred interrogatories attached to the cross- examination, which for a while perplexed me very much, and Imposed much labor. A thorough investigation of the origin and introduction of slavery into the United States, the colony of North Carolina, thence into Ten- nessee, which once formed an integral part of North Carolina, and the laws governing the sale and transmis- sion of title to slaves in North Carolina and Tennessee, were extensively investigated. It required much investi- gation to answer these questions intelligently and cor- rectly, and I devoted two months to it. Had the Inter- rogatories been properly framed, ten or twenty at most could have been made to cover the whole ground. After all, the statutes of three years' limitation gave the slaves to the wife, and saved the negroes. After writing out this voluminous deposition, I sub- mitted it to Judge Archibald Wright, a very eminent lawyer, and took his deposition, which corroborated and confirmed my statements. When the deposition was read, to my infinite joy. Judge King gave judgment for the wife. The case was so plain XXIV The Diary o^ an OivD Lawyer. that it was not argued by either side. From that, to this day, I have never drawn an instrument that did not effect the objects designed, save one assignment in bankruptcy, hereafter explained. On the fourth of July, 1854, an immense barbecue was given at Raleigh, and I was the orator of the occasion; near the close of my address, and almost under the ros- trum, John Branch plunged a carving knife into a negro man, who had wiped a greasy knife on his coat, and I was engaged to defend him at the following September term of the Court. Clients poured in on me from the day I opened an office, not Ibecause of my ability by any means, at that time, but a large number of them had known my father, who lived there in my early boyhood; he was a man of much reading, engaging conversational powers, and had many friends, many of whom had grown to be wealthy. Then I had an uncle living in the county, Ferdinand Thomas, who married Betsie, my father's sis- ter; he was an influential man, and one of the best friends I ever had. His purse and name were always at my command. These fortuitous circumstances gave me a large prac- tice, and I realized four thousand dollars cash the first year of my practice. " Kind hearts are more than Coronets And simple faith than Norman blood." But it is a great mistake in a young man to desire a large patronage at the beginning. A very few, well studied and argued cases at the beginning, is far more conducive to a solid and lasting fame. Lord Fldon achieved national fame in the argument of one case, Ark- royd against Smithson. Many of the ablest men at the Bar in both hemispheres served long probations. This large practice caused me to labor at the start almost be- yond the powers of mental and physical endurance, and prevented that concentration of time and thought on a few well considered cases. Ancestry. XXV At the September term, 1854, in the defense of Branch on indictment for assault with intent to kill a slave, I made my maiden speech. This case I had mastered thoroughly. I announced this proposition: that less prov- ocation from a slave to a white man, than from one white man to another, justifies violence. This was in the language of the South Carolina cases. The Court denied, and argued the point with me, before I produced the authorities in answer to a statement that no such authority could be found. This was what I ex- pected, a triumph over the Court and the Judge's admis- sion that he was wrong. This was the pivotal point in the case, and, after a lengthy argument to the jury, a verdict of acquittal was rendered. The Appeal contained a flattering account of my defense and address to the jury, and I sent a copy of the paper to my father-, and he said to my mother: " I have never heard of that Hallum before, do you know who he is?" "Don't you know your own son ; have you forgot- ten John?" And he replied with his favorite exclama- tion of surprise: " Goodly God! I was afraid that boy was going to read law. I caught him with a law book when he was at College, but the rascal made me believe he had to study that book at school; I was afraid some bad end w^ould come to him. when I saw him with that book, andi sure enough it has ; but it did not happen whilst he was under me. A poor father can't tell what his children will bring him to. ' ' Then he asked my mother: "Minerva, did you know that boy was studying law?" "Yes, sir," she said. • ' Then why did you not tell me ? " " For the best of all reasons; he confided his secret to me under promise that I would keep it, because he did not want to give you any pain, and he had obstacles enough to overcome without your opposition. I encouraged him all I could, and I have no fears that he will, dishonor his parentage." For an allwise purpose, the Creator has made the XXVI The Diary oe* an Old Lawyer. mother the guardian angel of her children, arid her heart goes out to them through storm and sunshine ; she never deserts them ; no matter how great the calamity which overtakes them, whether they adorn a throne or swing from a gallows, they are still her children, and nothing can destroy her love. The little bird that sings on a limb, and flits through the air, an emblem of innocence and purity, will strike at hawk or eagle when it swoops down on her young. Lit- tle mother fish will strike at a snake when it invades the spawning nest. In due time, my father condoned the offense, and gave me his pardon, when he learned that there is nothing in the character of the true lawyer to mar the fame or cloud the loftiest aspirations of man. llv.ery relation of life, every calling of men, may be abused, are abused, but be- cause some are derelict, it is the crystalization of cruelty to charge odium on all. I have ever labored to keep my feelings green and fresh towards my fellow-man, and do not want to survive the hour when I must suspicion all. Immediately after the trial of Branch, Wm. Yarbrough retained me in many cases on the criminal docket against him. He was large in physical proportions; had been an overseer of slaves, which occupation of itself brutalizes the nobler elements of manhood. He had been engaged in many fights and broils, and was considered a desperate and dangerous man, and the people were afraid of him. Many submitted to his tyranical and overbearing invasion of their rights, at the expense of their manhood. He had run a long career, and had an established character as a bully, and thought that every man must quietly submit to his insults. It was notorious that he always carried a pair of pistols and a bowie knife, and a large roll of money on his per- son. After trying many of his cases, and being his attor"- Ancestry. XXVII ney for more than one year, I presented my account for the small balance of ten dollars, during the session of the Circuit Court at Raleigh, ]ji 1856. At the time he was sitting in the grand jury room, all the sixteen jurors being present, but not in session. Judge Humphreys was holding his Court in the room above. To my surprise, he assumed a contemptuous scowl, and asked me if I wanted to know his opinion of me, to which I replied that I wanted the ten dollars he owed me, but if he was anxious to express an opinion, he was at liberty to do so; and he said, "I think you are ad — d rascal." To which I replied: "You have deliberately and wantonly insulted me. I will immediately go across the street and get Jim Coleman's pistols and return, and if you do not apologize one of us must die." I secured the arms from James M. Coleman, who was my brother-in-law, and while I was gone for the pistols, Yarbrough moved from the jury room, and took a posi- tion at the entrance to the open hallway leading through the basement story of the Court house, and stood up against the wall, facing me as I hastily approached him. By this time the large crowd of men was intensely excited, but all moved off a short distance out of range of pistols. I walked up to him and demanded an instant retraction and apology, and he said, " I am not armed ;" and I said, "You are lying, you cowardly cur; but here are two pis- tols, take your choice. I did not load them." And handed him both weapons to choose from. He refused to take either, but retracted and apologized, _ and paid my bill, and his knees ^mote each other like Belshazzar's. Another Rogers, another bully, another lesson. All bullies are arrant cowards, and one don't exist, never did exist, who will fight on equal terms at short range. His cowardice, when the mask was torn off, was a revelation to the community, as w^ell as myself, and the insight it gave me into character, has been of infinite service and has served me many times. XXVIII The Diary of an Old Lawyer. Yarbrou^h, after that, demeaned himself well, but sold out in the fall and moved to Crowley's Ridge, in St. Francis county. Ark., where he now lives, with grown sons and grandchildren around him. , Here was an ordeal forced on me, without the slightest provocation. Nothing could be more foreign to my edu- cation, associations, and desire. "Will any gentleman — Christian, Heathen, or Pagan — tell me how I could have avoided that collision, or rather prospective clash, in a better and more satisfactory way? Some would advise, resort to the law, a suit for slan- der for instance, and, if I was afraid of a thrashing, a peace warrant — heroic remedies, infinitely worse than the disease and far more disgraceful." Peace warrants and slander suits are sometimes appropriate, but these remedies did not apply to this sort of case. If General Jackson had relied on such remedies, his name would have been a buzzard's roost. , If a man's honor is not worth defending, his life is not worth living. I know many ministers of the gospel in the West who would face the cannon's roar, and rattle of musketry, rather than "swear out a peace warrant," and they are good and true men. "NO ROSTER KEPT OF THE MEMPHIS BAR," Writes the accomplished Miss Maud ' R. Layton, to whom I am indebted for assistance in getting up this Roster. I have added one hundred and fifty names from memory alone, and am conscious that many have been forgotten. I have indicated the nativity as far as my memory serves me. The capital letter, S., indicates born in the South, and the capital letter, N., born in the North. "When I glance down this column a thousand memories elbow their way for recognition. Memories long in abey- ance come to the surface, like the faint outlines of a cloud on the distant horizon, until they assume vivid outline and form. Roster of the Memphis Bar from 1835 to 1870. Avery, W. T., 1846, S. Ayres,T.S., 1846,8. Ayres,. John, 1857, S. Anderson, James A., 1857, Tenn. Anderson, B. P., 1867. Bailey, Judge Sylvester, 1835, S. Barry, Judge Valentine, 1838, Ireland. Brovra, Judge W. T., 1840, Tenn. Blythe, Wm. A., 1845, Tenn. Bankhead, Smith P., 1849. Barry, Henry, 1848, S. Beecher, Ed. A., 1854, N. Y. Brown, B. C, 1855, Md. Baine, Geo. W., 1853, Tenn. Brett, James, 1857, S. C. Brooks, John Mc, 1857, Tenn. Anderson, Van A. W., 1865, Miss. Adams, John T., 1859. Adams, Gen. Ohas.W., 1865, Mass. Adams, W. 8. J. Barries, D. B., 1857, S. Beard, Judge W. D., 1857, Tenn. Belcher, E. L. , 1860, N. Bland, Peter, 1865, Mo. BuUock, John, 1865, N. Y. Brown, T. W., 1865, 8. Black, J. 8., 1865, 8. Brizzalara, James, 1869, Italy. Bigelow, 1865, Mass. Bigelow, 1865, Mass. Burglehaus, E. J. 1869, Germany. Buttinghause,F.W., 1857, Germ'y. Coe, Levin H ,1840, S. 2 , Cummings, 1859, Miss. 10 T-HEj Diary of an Old Lawyer. Curran, David M., 1847, Ky. Coleman, Walter, 1847, Tenn. Oaruthers, Judge John P., 1848, Tenn. Oarmack, John M., 1849, Tenn. Carr,Wm., 1852, Tenn. Carr, Lewis, 1856, N. C. Collins, Richard, 1853, Miss. Crockett, Eobt. H., 1853, Tenn. Carpenter, L., Ky. Carpentei:, 1858, Ky. ) _ ^, /-!„ 4. -ioKo -rr f Brothers. Carpenter, 1858, Ky. ) Clements, Hon. Jere, 1858, Ala. Craft, Henry, 1856, Miss. Carrol, W. H., 1867. ' Dunlap, Judge W. 0., 1835, S. Douglass, Judge Addison H., 1840,8. Daniel, Lu. W., 1840, S. Davidson, 1850, S. Delafleld, 1845, N. Y. Dickey, Cyrus E., 1858, 111. Dashiel, Geo. T., 1858, Tenn. Duncan, Robt. A. F., 1855, Tenn. Eldridge,T. S., 1848, Tenn. Estes, Judge B.-M., 1854, Tenn. Edrington, T. B., 1868, Ark. Farrington, John C, 184^, S. route, Jadge.Green P., 1848, S. Prazer, Selem B., 1848, S. Prazer,O.W., 1857,8. Prayser, R. Dudley, 1857, S. Powlkes, W.C, 18e8,Va. Pinnie, John G., 1857, N. Y. Parrelley, John Pat., 1854, Ark. Pinlay, Luke W., 1858, Miss. Goodali;Gen. John D., 1848, Tenn. Gregory,;. M., 1857, S. Gammon, Sam, 1857, Mo. Gilliam, George, 1857, S. Greer, Hugh, 1857, Miss. Gause, Hon. Lucicn C, 1859, Tenn. Glisson, W. B., 1865, S. , Hurlburt, Henry, 1845, 8. I-Ierron, John, 1845, S, Cooper, Henry, 1858, Tenn. Crockett, Robert H., 1853, Tenn. Carter, 1859, Tenn. Conde, H. Clay, 1865, N. Y. Combs, M., Jr., 1865, N. Craig, W. M., 1867, N. Castles, L. C, 1868, Chambers, T. P., 1865, Miss. ' Chalmers, Gen. Jas. R., 1865, Miss Cameron, Chas., 1865, N. Cherry, John H., 1865, N. Cook, G. W. T., 1865, N. Choate, C. A., 1865, N. OpUins, Charles, 1869, Tenn. Duff, W. L., 1857, 8. C Dixon, L. v., 1865, Miss. Dixon, Judge George, 1847, Ky. DuVal, W. J., 1867, Tenn. Dix, H. P., 1866, N. Dyke, Van W. L., 1866. DuBois, Dudley M.. 1854, Tenn. Dunlap, W. A., 1866, Tenn. Ethridge, Hon. Emerson, 1868, Tenn. Ellett, Judge Henry T., 1866, Miss. Plournoy, 1858, Va. Flippin, W. S., 1850, Tenn. Flippin, Judge John R., 1856, Tenn- ' Flippin, Judge Thos. R. , 1856 , Teiin. Poote, Gov. Henry S., 1856, Va. Foote, 1858: Pelton, 1850, Va. Pentris, P., 1866, Tenn. Griffin, Gerald L., 1868, Ind. Green, John, 1868, Tenn. Gantt, George, 1865, Tenn. Galloway, Judge J. 8., 1866, Tenn Geomano, 8. P., 1869. Gallagher, James, 1866, Ireland. Glisson, Rufus, 1865, 8. Haynes, Hon. Lanon C, 1866, Tenn. Hawkins, Gov. Alvin, 1866, Tenn. Roster of the Memphis Bar. 11 Harris, Judge Wm. E., 1847, Tenn. Harrisi Gov. Isham G., 1847, Tenn. Haskell, Wm. T. 1846, Tenn. Harris, Jesse L., 1853, Tenn. Harris, Howell E., 1853, Tenn. Halluni, John, 1854, Tenn. Hamilton, Capt., 1858, Tenn. HarlovV, John P., 1858, Canada. Heath, Judge R. R., 1858, N. 0. Hammond, Judge E. S., 1858,Tenn. Haynes, A. B., 1858, Tenn. Humes, W. Y. C, 1858, Tenn. Hunter, Judge Wm., 1863, N. Hatch, 1865, Mo. Haynes, Robert, 1866, Tenn. Jarnagin, Hon. Spencer, 1846,Tenn. Jones, 1849, S. Jarnagin, Milton P., 1866, Tenn. King, Judge Ephraim H., 1842, S. Kortrecht, Charles, 1846, N. , Kerr, John S., 1858,Tenn. Hart, Henry N., 1866, Mo. Hart, Ne\iP^ton, 1866, Mo. Horrigan, L. B., 1866, N. Hill, M. P., 1866. Hutchinson, Robert, 1866, N. Heiskell, Gen. J. B., 1866, Tenn, Heiskell, Judge C. W., 1866, Tenn. Halsey, Irvin, 1866, N. Hudson, H. E., 1866, N. Heathman, J. M., 1866. Hermans, 1868. Henry, D. L., 1866. Hanson, George, 1866. Hanes, Milton A., 1857, S. Jackson, Judge Howell E.., 1854, Tenn. KeUar, Col. A. J., 1856, Ohio. Kelley, John E., 1868, D. C. Kitridge, A. S., 1866. Leath, Jas. T.,1848. Looney, James, 1845, Tenn. Looney, Robert F., 1845, Tenn. Leatherman, D. M., 1847, S. Lamb, James, 1847, Tenn. Lindsey, 1848, 8. Lanier, John C, 1848, 8. Lyles, Col. O. P., 1850, 8. Lee, James, Jr., 1854, Tenn. Logwood, Gen. T. H., 1856, Tenn. McKiernan, Judge B. F., 1846. Massey, B. A., 1848. McKissick, L. D., 1851, S. Morgan, Judge R. J.,'l859, Ga. Morgan, E. De F., 1859, Pa. Micou,T.B., 1859,8. McRea, Hon. Duncan K.,N. C. Moore, James, 1858, Tenn. Messick, Wm., 1857, Tenn. Martin, Hugh B., 1857, 8. McConnico,~L. D., 1859. Mulligan, Gen. Thos. C, 1866, Ky. Metcalf,C. W.,1866. Luster, John B. 1858, Tenn. Loague, Hon. John; 1860, Ireland. Lewis, Judge Barber, 1863, N. Lewis, 1866. Lehman, L., 1866. Lehman, Eugene. Lee, Pollock B., 1858', Va. Lee, H.S., 1866, Va! Lowe; Thomas, 1857. McDowell, Judge E. C, 1866. Matthews, 1866. Marye,L. S., 1866, S. Morgak, W. H., 1867. Martin; A. J., 1866. Miller, U. W., 1867, 8. Minnis, T. 8., 1867, S. MoFarland,L.B., 1868,8. McSpadden, Jasper, 1859. Megenxien, Ben. D., 1868. Moyes, 1,859, La. McDavit, J. C, 1858, Tenn. Mallory, T. 8., 1868, Tenn. 12 The Diary of an Old IvAwyer. Miller, R.B., 1866, Ohio. McHenry, P., 1866. Myersj D. E., 1866. Noe, Judge John A., 1857, Ala. Neal, John T., 1857, Tenn. Orne, W. T., 1857. Pope, Leroy, 1845, Ga. • Preston, 1845, Ky. Perin, E. O., 1845, N. Y. Poston, W. K. 1847, S. Pettit, Judge J. W. A., 1850, Ga. Paine, E. G., 1857, Tenn. Peyton, James T., 1858, Tenn. Parham, Richard, 1858, Tenn. Putnam, 1857, Mass. Porter George D., 1858, Tenn. Pickett, Ed. Burke, 1858, Tenn. Pickett, Ed., Jr., 1858, Tenn. Richards, L. R., 1840. Ray,.Hon..J.E. R., 1847, Tenn. Ralston, John, 1856, Tenn. Rives, ii. O., 1857, Tenni Rogers, Henry A., 1857, Tenn. Rose, John, 1858, Tenn. Rowell, C H., 1858, Ala. Searcy, John Bennett, 1840. Smith, Thomas -G., 1843, N. Stantonj Frederick P., 1843, Ky. Searcy, George D., 1843. Smith, Gen. Preston, 1847, S. Sneed, Judge John L. T., 1847, S. Sale, Gen. John F., 1847, Ky. Small, Henry D.,1848, Tenn. Swaine, Judge John T., 1847, Ohio. Stewart, M. D. L., 1854, S. Stovall, W. H., 1854, S. Scales, Joseph W., 1854, S. Stockton, 1856, Tenn. Scott.W.L., 1857, Tenn. Scruggs, Judge Phineas T., 1858, Miss. Sullivan, T. L.-, 1858. Seay, Ohas., 1857, Tenn. ) 'Seay, W. A., 1857, Tenn. ) °^' Scott, Chancellor Edward, 1857. Mulvihill, Pat, 1866, Ireland, Malone, James H. , Ala- Nabors, Ben., 1857, Miss. Oiiley, John A., 1858, Tenn. Pike, Gen. Albert, 1865, Mass. Pierce, Judge James 0., 1865, N. Pike, Ham, 1865.. Ark. Poston, D. H., 1868, Tenn. , Perkins, M. L., 1868, Tenn. Peebles, J. C, 1858. Purviance, J. W., 1868. Pillow, Gen. Gideon A., 1866", Tenn. Patterson, Hon. Josiah, 1868, Ala. Phelan, Hon. James, 1866,'Miss. Phelan, Hon. Geo. R., 1866, Miss. Rainey, W. G.^ 1859, S. Randolph, W. M., 1866, Ark. Robertson, J. R., 1855, Tenn. Raney, T. A., 1866. Reeves, Willis G., 1856, Tenn. Rogers, W. F., 1866, Ky. Richards, Ohanning, 1865. Sykes, Joseph, 1866, Tenn. Stephens, W. H., 1866, Tenn. Stephens, Charles M., 1868, Tenn. Stephens, A. M., 1S68, Tenn. Sharp, 1863, Mo. Smith John M., 1867. Smith, Judge Wm. M., 1866, Tenn. Sale,H.T.,1868,Ky. Swingley, A. L., 1866. Smith, Thomas fe., 1865. Smith, Canning, 1866. Stahl, Geo.E., 1866, N. Stockton, P. D., 1866, Tenn. Somerville, J. A., 1866, Tenn. Sneed, W. M., 1866, S. Swan, "Wm. G., 1856, Tenn. Sanford, Val., 1866, Tenn. Sanford, R. A., 1866, Tenn. Serbrough, Thos. G., 1867. Roster of the Memphis Bar. 13 Tuley, Thomas J., 1835, Va. Topp, Eobe^tson, 1840. Turnage, E. K., 1847. Temple, J. E., 1847. Trezevant, John Timothy, 1847, Tenn. Thompson, Wm. G., 1849, Tenn. - Thompson, Philip, 1856, Tenn. s Taylor John A., 1854, Miss. Unthank, J. H., 1852, Ga. VoUentine, Hiram, 1850, Tenn. Vance, Calvin F., 1853, Miss. Williams, Henry B. S., 1840, Tenn. Wickersham, James, 1840, Ind. Wheatley, Seth, 1845, S. Williams; Kit, 1848, Tenn. Wright, Judge Archibald, 1850, Tenn. Wright, Gen. Marcus J., 1852, , Tenn. Walker, J. Knox, 1849, Tenn. White, Moses, 1853, Tenn. Waddell, B. B., 1854, Tenn. Welch, M. D., 1855. Watson, Sydney Y., 18^6, S. Woodward, J. B., 1866, N. Williams, C. H., 1855, S. Yerger* E. M.,Teiin., 1847. -i.^ Yerger, Orvill, Tenn., 1850. i " 'Tis weary watching, wave by wave. And yet the tide heaves onward. We climb, like corals, grave by grave. Yet beat a pathway sunward. We're beaten back in many a fray, Yet ever strength we borrow, And where our vanguard camps to-day Our rear shall rest to-morrow." — Gbbald Massey Thornton, Col., 1852, Va. Thomas, Asa, 1857, Pa. Trousdale, Chas., 1858, Tenn. Turley, Thos. B., 1866, Tenn. Thurmond, T. B. M., 1865, Mo. Thurmond, 1865, Mo. Thompson, Judge Seymour D., 1865, Ohio. Townshend, Hosea, 1866, N. Vaughn, Gen., 1867, Tenn. Venable, Judge S., 1857, Tenn. Wilson, W. P., 1855, Tenn. Waddell, V. B.,1880, Tenn. Winchester, Hon. Geo, W., 1866, Tenn. Wynne, Val. W.„ 1868, Tenn. Washington, Geo., 1868, Ky. Wright, Gen. Luke E., 1869, Tenn. Wood, 1866, Tenn., ) „ ^, „ ■nr J 10QQ rr V Father & son. Wood, 1866, Tenn., ) Warriner, H. C, 1866, Mo.' Walker, Judge S. P., 1867, Tenn. Westcott, J. W., 186Q,,N.' Webber, W. W., 1867. Wallace, Gen., 1867. RECOLIvBCTIONS OF MEMPHIS. in the month of January, 1833, at Cairo, on the Cumberland river above Nash- ville, Tenn., where my parents, Bluford and Mi- nerva Hallum, and maternal grandparents, John Davis and Sarah his wife, with their eleven children lived. My father was born in 1806, in Smith coui^ty, Tenn., where he grew to manhood, when frontier conditions still obtained. He was one of the best gunsmiths and marks- men In the world. I have often seen hini shoot matches for a thousand dollar stake, and he won four fifths of all hp shot. One hundred yards "off-hand" was his fa- vorite distance. It required steady nerves, and his were as near iron as human organism permits, in every emer- gency of life. . He passionately loved beautiful streams, wild forests, and majestic mountain scenery. The Cum- berland mountains were a "joy forever" to him, and he was one of the most industrious readers I ever saw in every field of literature and science. His mother, Jennie Hallum, was born in the territory of Alabama, on the Tombigbee river, and was a woman of extraordinary en- ergy and will power. My grandfather, Hal Hallum, had the will power, without the energy, and sometimes ' ' rode a high horse. ' ' All of my other grandparents were born in North Carolina. . Grandfather Hallum came in his youth to the Cumberland Valley in that living stream which poured its flood across the Alleghanies after the Revolution, and was an humble factor in the guild of "Commonwealth Builders," under John Sevier and Wil- liam Blount, when the inspiration of liberty and law radi- ated the frontier from "Watauga. In the summer of 1837 my father and grandfather, Henry Hallum, built a float- Recollections oe Memphis. 15 ing house on the Cumberland river, which some would call a flatboat, but it was divided into six comfortable rooms, with all the conveniences and comforts of a dwell- ing. In this they embarked late in the fall with their families, in all consisting of eleven persons, my father, mother, and thi;ee children, of whom I am the eldest, my father's apprentice, Robert Brown, Grandfather and Grandmother Hallum, and Aunts Patsey, Minerva and Ivuamma. Father and grandfather were of the best river craftsmen, having often descended to New Orleans w^ith keel boats loaded with produce, which was ex- changed for merchandise, and the reloaded keel boats were cordelled up the river to Nashville and upper Cum- berland ports. Six months was the usual time occupied in the up river trip. The embarkation was impressive, many gatherings and dinings with kindred and friends preceded it, and finally a dining on board the craft. My maternal grand- father, John Davis, and grandmother, Sarah Davis, with many kindred and citizens, stood on the banks of the Cumberland and bade the voyagers farewell; many tears attested hallowed associations, and my mother was incon- solable^she said it was the last time she would biehold her mother on earth— and the prediction was true. As. the craft floated around the island below the town the last handkerchief waved in pathetic farewell. I felt as though my heart would burst in sympathy with my weeping mother, and my sympathetic father could not restrain his emotions. I paid little attention to the others. My mother was a deVoted Christian, of ortho- dox Methodist faith; one of her favorite hymns was that good old devotional song that yet stirs a thousand mem- ories in my soul — "I would not live alway." After the shades of night gathered over that frail craft, the social circle was formed around the family altar as it floated down that loved stream, and my mother and aunts 16 The Diary of an Old Lawyer. sang that hymn and others that yet ring- in my ear and heart like the voice of angels. , The frail craft swept by Nashville one October even- ing, Avith the onward flood, and the first sight of the city left a' photograph yet vivid in outline. At night they generally tied up the boat, and ifter passing out the Cumberland often stopped several days at a time; w^ild game was found in great abundance, bear, deer, turkey, squirrels, ducks and wild geese, and our table was boun- tifully supplied with meats, vegetables, and delicacies. I remember one time seeing a large deer with antlers peering high above the water, swimming the Mississippi river just below the bpat — father and grandfather entered the skiff, chased and caught it. A few steamboats were then navigating the river and were always a source of alarm to my boyish heart, w^hfen they came near the craft, as they often did, seemingly in a spirit of mischief, our boat would rock and ride the waves, and dip and plunge as though it would go to the bottom every moment. After a voyage of six weeks our craft w^as moored in Wolfe river, near Memphis, where we remained three months .prospecting for a location in the new country. Father located on the Memphis and Summerville road, twenty miles from Memphis, where he remained until 1840, after which he removed to w:hat wa^ then known as the Mississippi Hills, eighteen miles north of Memphis, where he improved a farm, leaving it in 1844 to return to Sumner county, Tennessee, at the urgent request of my mother. Grandfather moved to Mississippi, and located on the Yocnapatawka, where Aunts Patsy, Luamma and Minerva were married respectively to James Davis, Wm. Morrison, and James Owens, planters. My grandparents died there in 1846 and 1848. Mem- phis was then a very small village on the bluff — the ex- change of produce and merchandise was almost exclu- Recol,Iv15ctions of Memphis. 17 sively confined to trading boats anchored at the wharf. The city was laid oflE in 1826_by General JaCkson, General Winchester of Craigfont, Judge John' Overton, and John C. McLemore, who were proprietors of the " John Rice Grant" of 5J000 acres granted by the State of North Carolina in 1786, and by him coveyed to the grantees' above named, who also owned the adjoining grant of 5,000 acres, on which Jackson Mound and Fort Pickering' stands. Gen. Jackson was the moving spirit in this land enterprise and location of the town. He always had an eye to business. At that time he owned a large trading post or mercantile establishment in Mississippi, on the Yazoo river. Randolph, sixty miles above, was then thought to be the successful rival of ■ Memphis for com- mercial honors, and but for the sagacity and enterprise of Gen. Jackson and co-owners of the third Chickasaw Bluffs would to-day have been the great commercial mart between St. Louis and New Orleans. In 1838 a large number of Indians were removed from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to the Indian Terri- tory, and were camped fbr fifty niiles at intervals out along the Memphis and Sommerville road and Memphis and Hernando road, and on the Pigeon Roost road., They were the first Indians I ever saw. My father, in pros- pecting for a location, carried me w^ith him for company — ■ in fact I w^as more of a companion than a child to him. My Grandmother Hallum, nee Jennie Gillespie, was born on the Tombigbee river in Alabama, and when three years old was captured with others by the Indians and held in captivity for many months before the whites sur- prised and routed the Indians and rescued her. She had an inveterate dislike to the Indians, from whom I , really imbibed her feelings, and yet appreciate that memorable saying of -the celebrated Kit Carson : "I never knew but one good Indian, and he was dead." I have since seen many thousands of various tribes ex- 18 The Diajky of an ^ Oi,p Lawyer. tending from California to the Mississippi river, and am not yet much improved in this opinion. The Indian has an inborn hatred for the white man, whom he regards as a usurper and robber — restraint and fear are the only agencies which, quiet the torch, tomahawk, and scalping knife. Let moralists in their easy chairs write and de- claim until Gabriel blows his trumpet, but the fact re- mains. One rifle is worth a ton of Bibles in the march ,of civilization and empire, and has been the only evangelizer as yet. In March, 1838, the steamer Fulton was lying at the wharf at Memphis to transport these savages to the Indian Territory ; after receiving her cargo of human freight she steamed up the river a mile, cracked on a good head of steam, turned and came with flying colors at the masthead, and when opposite the- wharf every In- dia;i leaped into the stream and swam ashore. I was looking qn, with my hand in my father's, the chiefs with clubs in hand made the blood fly from the recalcitrants and forced them to re-embark on the steamer. Forty-eight years after this incident a very tall old Creek Indian came to my office and employed me to de- fend him against an indictment for larceny in the Federal Court at Fort Smith. He was a minister of the gospel, well educated, and spoke Fnglish perfectly, his name was Chickatubby. I mentioned the incident above re- lated, he laughed heartily and told me he was one of the number that swam ashore. He was acquitted of the charge of larceny. At that tiine and up to the advent of plank roads in 1852 the . dirt roads leading to Memphis were almost im- passable in the winter season, cotton for a hundred miles in the interior was hauled principally by ox teams to Memphis. I have seen t-rains of these teams several miles in length, with wagons stalled and broken down at every mile of the road, and often oxen either dead or worn Recollections op Memphis. 19 out and abandoned on the roadside. Plank roads were, afterwards in 1850, extended out to the county line, with toll-gates every five miles, but they did not last long and were ultimately abandoned. I filed a quo warranto in 1857, and had the charter of the Memphis and Sommer- ville Plank Road Co. declared forfeited for noncompliance with the charter. This had to be done before a ferry over Wolf river at Raleigh could be established, and hands appointed to work the road. In 1840 'Memphis began to grow rapidly and to assume metropolitan airs, and the old commercial and common law court, a chancery court and a criminal court were established at Memphis in the decade between 1840 and 1850, with many changes and modifications sinte to meet ,the growing demands of the city. The Appeal, a democratic paper, and the E^agle and Enquirer, a whig paper, were both published in Mem- phis, and were the first newspapers I remember to have seen. I learned the alphabet, and in fact learned to read quite well from the old Appeal, sitting on my anxious and patient father's lap, to whose memory I can never estimate the standard of obligation. In 1839 I went to my first school, when but six years old, and was regarded ,as a prodigy because I could read w^ith great facility, all the New York series of readers^ and spell every word in Webster's spelling book. Jarrett Edwards, one of the world's best men, was my teacher, and when I was admitted to the Bar was fetill my very kind and affectionate friend, a word, of encouragement from him was worth a coronet to me. The first political speech I ever heard was delivered at Green Bottom by Frederick P. Stanton, afterwai:d a member of Congress from the / Memphis district, and Governor of the Terri- tory of Kansas under Buchanan's administration. The next political speeches I ^heard were delivered in ' ' the 20 The Diary of* an Oi,d Lawyer. Mississippi Hills," by Tom Avery "the dray driver," who, I think, succeeded Stanton in Congress, and Thos. Turley, the able lawyer, father of Thos. B. Many of the men in Shelby county whom I knew in early boyhood grew to he wealthy, and with rare exceptions were my strong friends, when I returned to them in 1852, after an absence of eight yeai^s. ' It has been my fortune in life to have strong friends and aggressive enemies, aggressive because my profes- sion made it an imperative duty to unearth and expose fraud. A negative, passive, character is not adapted to , cope with the emergencies which often arise in the dis- charge of professional duty, particularly as society .w^as then organized, every getitleman was expected to resent any imputation of his courage or integrity, and the man who disregarded these primal laws became at once a back number. When the glove and gage of laattle was thrown in his face, there were but two ways to meet it, bravely like a man, or coweringly like a cur. / E^very age arid people admires one, despises the other. I Ornithologists and the 'sailors of the sea tell us of the brave little petrel that plumes its wing and rides the 'storm wjien larger birds hie away to the windward is- lands. We w^ere still near frontier conditions. Perhaps the chivalry of those days can -be better illustrated and understood by stating an incident or two in the life of one of the ablest lawyers of Mississippi, the Hon. Reuben Davis, cousin to. President Davis. . In 1842 Judge Howry was holding court at Athens, Mississippi, and during' the argument of a question of law arising in the progress of a trial the Judge, without justifiable cause or provoca- tion, fined Davis fifty dollars. He was amazed and thunderstruck, and in a. blaze of indignation drew his knife and threw the point in the table — it quivered and vibrated ominously — his object was to force the Judge to order him to jail to complete his arbitrary action, but the Recollections of Memphis. 21 foresight of Xu^ge Gholson, in moving an adjournment, prevented a death scene in court. (Recollections of Mis- sissippi and Mississippians, by Reuben Davis, 144.) In 1844 Judge Gholson of the Federal Court of Missis- sippi, adopted the arbitrary, rule of not permitting law- yers to argue their cases in his court. Davis had an im- portant case pending in that court, and rose to argue it, and was ordered to take his seat, which he declined to do, upon the ground that he was only demanding a right in the most respectful terms. The Court again ordered him to take his seat, and stated that if obedience was not yielded he would send him to jail.-, Davis said: "You have the arbitrary power to make that order, but execute it if you dare." The Bar stood up and crowded around Davis, and the Court receded. An attempt to execute such an order would have resulted in instant bloodshed. He proceeded with the argument. With all this, I never knew a more chivalrous and courageous gentleman in my life than Reuben Davis, none more cautious of invading the God-igiven preroga- tive of his fellow men, and none quicker to repel their in- vasion. His daughter Bessie lives here,in the, city where, I live, came here a stranger several years ago (1890) to take charge as principal in a Conservatory of Music, for w^hich she was splendidly equipped. He left her in my charge, and the last time I ever met him he grasped my hand, spoke of his great affection for his daughter, and with tears streaming down his cheeks bade me farewell. Within a year from that, time he passed away at his home in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He presented me the book, of which he is the author ; it is a work of much interest and I prize it as I do the poems of Gen. Albert Pike. LOVE OF NATIVE LAND. jfOVE of native land is a primal law w^ith all races of men. The Laplander, with his dogs and deer and vast solitudes of snow and ice, thinks his ^■41^ home the chosen spot of earth ; the Bedouin in the desert loves his native waste of sand and cloud ; the Esquimaux, in his snow hut, surrounded with eternal fields of snow -and glacier, feels the inspiring touch of love for the everlasting solitude of his arctic surround- ings no less than he who comes into life surrounded by a wilderness of tropical splendor. The Irish pilgrim loves his Erin. The Swede his native Alps. So I love every hill, valley, stream and purling rivulet that adorns and abides my "native heath," where the mind first unfolded its petals and flowers and drank the glories of nature and life' on a vivid landscape painted in fresh and fadeless col- ors that knows no guile. And I love all the good people that swarm in the front and background of that hallowed landscape who comforted and made glad my boyish heart, and planted so many flowers in its virgin soil, when hope and aspiration, stimulated by a father's counsel and a mother's prayers, reached forth and looked upward with tenderest yearnings, like the tendrils of the ivy, for sup- port while it climbed higher. There was Col. Alfred Wynne a mile down the pike, wealthy in this world's goods, but with a far greater wealth of head and heart, the son-in-law of Gen. James Winchester, with broad acres of field, and pastures filled with lowing herds and fine horses, he so much loved, stretching away to the old baronial iCragfont, tha^^- tow- ered like a medieval castle on the Rhine or Mosei over- looking Bledsoe's creek, that famous stream that came Love of Native Land. 23. pouring" its crystal waters from the spurs of the Cumber- land mountains. A house full of noble boys and girls, the richest heritage of the State, a fine library of choice literature and science, and the best periodicals of the day. My father's friend in all the term implies in those good old days when head and heart w^ere the standards of man- hood. The postof&ce was a few rods away from that old hospitable mansion, the old stage coach came and went, the driver sounded his bugle a mile away coming and go- ing, its shrill and tuneful notes echoed through valley aijd glen. I, my father's barefooted postboy, with a heart as lithe and light as the bird that sang in the foliage'. A thousand times the "Colonel," as we called him, filled my arms with books and papers ' ' for Bluf ord, " my father and his boy, and made me feel as comfortable and happy as his own dear girls and boys. What a charm he threw around and over- the social circle. Integrity- was the standard by which he measured men. He came often to my father's — father as often went to him, they w^ere great talkers, both of Jackson's faith in politics — they had a rule to divide time in social converse. Social caste, that corroding curse which measures men by dol- lars and cents and teaches a shoddy and effeminate off- spring that God exalted them above all who have less of spoil and plunder, never tainted their hearts. His sons, Bolivar and Val. W. , became lawyers — the latter is on the Roster. Two brothers, the "Gillespies," my father's relatives, lived near by in the valley of Greenfield, at the foot of the Cumberland spurs, near Hopewell church, with two fine, handsome sons, Graham and Marion, my boon com- paniohs. ~ I loved to steal away at the end of the week from the husbandry of the fields and g-o to them. Forty and five years have come and gone since then, but Miss Belle, the daughter of Marion, often picks up a racy pen and writes 24 The Diary of an Oi,d IyAwyee. me a bonnie letter. On the way hither I often stopped at Jerry Belotes' to see Miss Betty, the happy and beau- tiful blonde, who acknowledged that she liked me, but there was an ocean before me with stormy breakers to be crossed, with a poor bark, too frail to risk the fortunes of such a g-irl in such a craft. In the vicinage lived "Uncle Jacky Wilkes,'' deeply imbued with that practical religion that lifts and, makes man great in the light of apostolic creeds. When the professors gave me first place on Commencement day, he volunteered to loan me all the money the occasion re- quired. May the sod rest lightly on his grave, and God bless all his descendahts. There was "Uncle" Billy Malone, who "went about the world doing good?" One of his sons became prominent in the legal guild, and Bet- tie, the bright flaxen-haired little girl, my classmate when we were children, married Mr. Wray, a prominent law- yer in the Lone Star State, and Mildred, that princess of beauties, my boyish love,' ' ' who weighed the world as a feather" against her girlish troth. At that lordly man- sion hospitality weLs only limited by the horizon. On the adjoining f a^rm lived Jonathan Wiseman, a Bap- tist /minister, who practiced the rieligion he taught. " Tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." Over the hill from the old homestead, beyond that statfely grove of poplar forest with its burthen of fra- grance in the spring, lived ' 'Uncle Johnny Shaver, ' ' the prototype of all that is true and good in man. To the northwest of the old home, across that sylvan scene of woodland forest, lived Gen. William Hall, who spent a long life doing as he wished to be done by. He came in the early days with ax and rifle and cleared the wilderness of Indians, and could "shoulder his crutch and show how fields were won." Bushrod Thompson, whose kind and amiable nature Love oe* Native Land. 25 was only exceeded by the best of wives, with a house full of boys and girls. Ike, George, Willis, Davis, Umily and Martha, all schoolmates in the pioneer log house, near the rocky spring and Hawthorne grove. Martha would risk her life for a practical joke. All the boys wore the gray, and George and Davis fell in Shiloh's battle. "Uncle Davy Chenault," on Greenfield's fat lands, with a fine farm for each of his many children, the best of farmers, the kindest of neighbors, would send his car- riage for "John" to come and dine with him. His sons "w^ore the gray," and after Appomattox came to me. What a delight it was to serve them, and when I , once more met ' ' Uncle Davy ' ' he gave me his blessing. Ad- dison Jones lived half way between the old homestead and the college — his banquet hall wag always open to the college boys — and lad and lassie were lavishly enter- tained by his hospitable wife and beautiful sisters. "Uncle Billy Reed" came over the Cumberland moun-' tains when the virgin forest was full of buffalo and In- dians, and helped build blockhouses and forts to protect the early settlers from Indian depredations. The Misses Neely, twO' brunette queens of beauty, his granddaugh- ters, gave many entertainments to the college boys. ' ' Uncle Jimmy Harrison, ' ' with his laoys Nat and Tobe and Tup, lived on the hill to the west. He 'preferred Clay to Jackson, and about that he and father never could agree. They called each other "Jim" and "Hlu- ford," and walked over Stoner's Hill, that looked down on the valley over the old homestead, and walked and talked over the battleground where this Indian fell, and that one died, and where the rescued women and children sat and prayed when the rifle was cracking and pealing through the forest, and where old , Tom, the slave, per- formed prodigies of valor in hand-to-hand contests with the Indian. He, too, was fighting to rescue his son. Within the radius of a few miles lived many families, 26 The Diary of an Oi,d Lawyer. early settlers in Sumner county — the Mentlows, Harlans, Morgans, Winchesters, Jamisons, Crenshaws, Laudet- dales, Seays, "Wiustons, Wrights, Hibbets, Pattersons, Bushes, Bates, Heads, Tyrees, Youries, Turners, Ma- lones. All the elder members, and ninety per cent of their children are dead, the ceaseless waves have ' ' swept them onward." All of these people were as kind as kin- dred to me, and but one lived in the circle whose name is not in this little Roster, was ever unkind to me. I went to his house, was his guest, solicited his patronage to a school I was competent to teach, and he rudely drove a thorn where a rose might have been planted, ' ' I will rub my head against the college wall and qualify myself for something great." At 'that time it was the rudest blast that had ever shocked my sensitive nature. Years rolled away and the Civil War piled him up in the debris where opportune aid would have saved him. When on one of my annual visits to the old homestead, where many friends of my boyhood congregated on these attic occa- sions to thrice welcome me, he came and solicited aid, which I could have easily then extended, just as he could have done when I wanted and needed his patronage to a little school. It was not a Christian spirit in me to remind him of the bread which he could have cast upon the waters, but I did it, and told him I was not a Christian in that spirit which returned good for evil. Read the Saviour's parable of the sower. I cannot em- brace that injunction which commands us when one cheek is slapped to turn the other. The theory of religion is much easier acquired than the practiqe of precepts; the mote is easier discerned than the beam. Many a note came from, and went to, Hawthorne Hill, where the Misses Turner entertained youth and beauty in sight of the old homestead. The body grows old, the limbs weak, but the mind, the memory, ever drinks at the fount of youth. THE CODE DUELLO. ~^HE Code was part of the lex non scrvpta of gen- Hw ^ tlemen when I came to the Bar, and with no class ^^^^ or profession was it of more primal force than with lawyers, the army not excepted. It was a condition confronting society and had its advocates and opponents. Those who provoked, yet denied its obliga- tion, were regarded as piseudo moralists and their sin- cerity and courage were alike doubted. S. S. Prentiss, from Maine, General Albert Pike, from Massachusetts, General Jackson, Robert Crittenden, the Conways, from Tennessee, the Rectors from Virginia, with their num- erous descendants of public prominence in the "West, Governor Henry S. Foote, a native of Virginia, Henry Clay, John Randolph, Thomas H. Benton, Charles Lu-' cas, Governor B. Gratz Brown, Governor Reynolds, Davidson, Lindsey, Nolan, Pope, Graves, Cilley, Henry G. Smith, a-fterwards Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, John Taylor, of Memphis, General Preston Smith, of Memphis,' to which might be added a long ros- ter of prominent and noted men, recognized and fought ■under the rules and requirements of the Code, and all, w^ith two exceptions, were members of the Bar. It was of primal obligation with a class of chivalrous men, who adorned the highest class of society. Humanitarians and theologians and professed Christians, who are more con- versant with theory than practice, may preach and teach until Gabriel sounds his trumpet, that when one cheek is slapped we must 'turn the other in meekness, and yet there always has been and always will be a chivalrous class of men who will fight upon terms of equality in de- fense of their reputations and honor. Nations equally as advanced in civilization as our own, the highest classes of ■ (2T) 28 The Diary of an Oi,d Lawyer. France^ Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, recognize and enforce the rules of the Code regardless of all penal laws that can be spread on the statute books, and public senti- ment in all these countries frowns on the enforcement of penalties against duelling. So far as these penal laws are concerned they belong to that clasa of dead letter law which lie buried under the frowns of public opinion, and justly so. When gentlemen go to the field they are on terms of absolute equality, and nothing can be devised by man fairer and more equitable. Nerve and will forces may be unequal but nothing else. No street broils endanger the lives of innocent people ; when gentlemen are governed by the high punctilious laws of the Code encounters are not near so frequent. The percentage of death by conflicts vastly decreases, the bully and braggart and spaniel are never found on the field where terms of equality prevail. These were the considerations addressing themselves to every young man entering the profession, he could choose for himself, and had it to do. > As for myself I recognized the obligations of the Code, always believed in it, and al- ways will. And with all the changes the supposed ad- vance in civilization has made, I would, if my life were to be acted over again, act on the same conviction, with the same conditions confronting me. Rainbows are nice things to talk about, but they fade frorti the college boy's lexicon when he enters- the field of practical life in a law, ofl&ce w^here his chief occupation is to checkmate and ex- pose fraud. EJvery man's life is to a greater or less ex- tent moulded by conditions which confront him in action. During the formative period of character it is difficult to avoid, easy to commit error, and- every man must fix his own standard in the best foundations his own judgment admits. His highest function is to first mould his own guides on a correct basis, then to lead and mould public opinion without being led by it, because it is sometimes the worst of all tyrants. HOISTED ON MY OWN PETARD. WELL remember tHe first shot of sarcasm and biting" irony thrust at me like a javelin sent home ^ by Ithureal. Mr. MeGilbra Rogers, a well-to-do f planter living near Cpllierville, had subscribed ten dollars to build a Baptist church. When it was fin- ished he made some objection to the cornice, refused to pay his subs.criptioii, and the church brought suit to recover. It came on appeal from the Justice to the Cir- cuit Court at Raleigh, and the congregation retained me. Many witnesses were in attendance, and the cost amounted to^ten times the amount involved. I made a five minutes' talk in a conversational tone, and told' the jury that it had become a notorious fact that Mr. Rogers, although possessed of ample means, was piteously af- flicted with a disposition to dispute all claims against him, however just and honest, so much so that all demands against hiinwere finally collected by an officer of the law, and that it ill became juries to encourage such 'petty litiga- tion, and then took my seat. The jury decided against him, and I thought no more about it. Coming up the steps leading up to the court room after dinner, I met him, and he stopped me, with an angry scowl on his face, set off with an angular hawk-bill nose, which gave him' a formidable appearance, and I expected some trouble. He said with a sarcastic grin, "You say no little suits ought ever to be brought to this court. If there were no little suits, how in the h — 1 would you ever get anything to do? " I ought to have laughed and enjoyed it, as I do now, the insult was more in the manner than the words. I caught his Roman nose and pulled it until the blood spurted all over my shirt bosom. He did not resent it, (29) ' 30 The Diary oe* an Oi,d Lawyer. but stepped back and gave me an example of Christian f orbeatance that cut deep and made me feel penitent in a moment. "Why, John, I was only joking-." I expressed much sorrow at not having interpreted him correctly. I was retaihed by him in all of his litigation from that day until his death. A KISS TENDIJRBD IN OPE)N COURT. ^^flT is said the law is a dry subject. I dieny the al- H III legation, and cite the following precedent : ®I^S There was a beautiful young widow, living in Shelby county, on whom the law cast the adminis- tration of her husband's estate. I was retained and she attended court and made oath that she would lawfully administer the estate and account for all the assets. In those days deponents were required to place their hands on the Holy Bible and kiss the book when an oath w^as administered. Most all ladies are epibarrassed when they first attend court. She stood up by the clerk's desk when the oath was administered ; the clerk told her to kiss the book ; she seemed dazed and amazed and stood motjonless. The invitation was repeated the third time, when with trepidation she turned and said, " If I have to kiss anybody I will kiss Mr. Hallum." AN UNEXPECTED STRANGER IN MY OFFICE. |N 1855 a gentleman of tall, commanding and ma- jestic mien, dalled at my ofi&ce quite early in the day, of whom I had heard and read much but had never met him. With a princely salutation which of itself told that he was no ordinary man, he said : "Mr. Hallum, I presume?' ' His personnel was such that I could not possibly mistake the man, and I said, "Yes, General, I will salute you by that title though I know not which of your many great titles you prefer, but to a young man whose kindred have followed a hero to victbry and empire there is no greater title than General. San Jacinto was to you what Waterloo was to Wellington. Thrice a member of Congress, Governor of two States^ President of a ^Republic, and Senator in Congress are illustrious titles, but that of hero of San Jacinto in its vast results is greater than all. If I am not mistaken I have the honor of General Houston's presence. " That little speech touched a tender- spot in his heart. That curious com- pound of dress imparted an individuality as striking as that of his life, which had been one of frailty and great- ness. Holding me by both hands he asked, ' ' Whose son are you? William's, Robert's, Andrew's or Henry Hal- lum's?" I said,- " The grandson of Henry, and the son of Blufbrd. You will perhaps better remember my Uncle Henry Hallum, and Cousin Ranee Hallum, who footed it from Tennessee to share with you the dangers and glories of San Jacinto. My Uncle Henry's body rests in an un- known grave in Texas, and though no marble shaft marks the spot, we know it is consecrated ground to a soldier's rest. You see. General, my family have a pride in your name, and interest in your fame, and inheritance in (31) 32 The Diary of an OivD' Lawyer. your renown. Remote and humble it is true, but none the less cherished by them." A tear came to the eye of that unique character which towers in the solitude of its own originality. I was but twenty-two years of age ; he put his hand on my head and gave me his blessing. He was to speak that night in Odd Fellows Hall. His brother's wido"\y, with whom I was well acquainted, then lived in a fine mansion at the northwest corner of Madison and Third streets. His business w^as to' have a land title investigated for her, and he charged me with the commis- sion. I wanted to call in the local gentry and introduce th^m, but he was in no humor for that and declined. When I finished the work in hand, he asked my fee, and when told that I made no charge, he said, "No, sir, you are just commencing in life and can't afford that," and laid a ten dollar gold piece on my desk, I rode w^ith him from Raleigh to Memphis and drank deep at the fount of his animated and magnetic inspiration. He would have me sit on the platform from which he spoke, and although an older and abler man had been selected to introduce him to the audience, he requested that honor should be con- "f erred on me, and I introduced him to th^t^vast auditory. His speech was one of the most impressive and impas- sioned pieces of oratory and eloquence I ever heard. He said : "I have won an empire, and like a dutiful son, laid it in the lap of my mother, and I have won a name that will survive long after my traducers are forgotten. ' ' He spoke two hours, and held a levee after the speech was over. Then taking me by the arm he insisted that I should go with him to his sister-in-law's and stay all night with him, which \ d-id. JUDGE JOHN C. HUMPHREYS. |HE Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Tennessee was K" at that time, 1854, composed ' of the counties of Shelby, Eayfette, Hardemscn, and Tipton. John C. Humphreys, of Payette county, was, Judge. He was first elected under the old system by the Legis- lature, and after vox -pofuli, vox Dei supplanted that method, was elected by the people. He was a pure man, an able, upright Judge; in person tall, and of delicate mould, with a tendency to consumption, which ultimately carried him oflf . Usually he was very sedate, and' digni- ' fied, and inclined to be, austere, not fraternizing much with the Bar, but I have occasionally seen him carried oflE his feet in a paroxysm of mirth at Some outburst of wit or repartee. He viewed it as a great and unpardonable in- fringement on his judicial dignity to ask him a question, even at chambers, on an application for an injunction. If an injunction was applied for during a session of his court, the attorney could hand him the bill and say what it was for but not one word more touching that case, sin- less he was on the bench in open court. He threatened to send me to jail once because I asked hini what conclusion he had come to on my application for an injunction, after he had had it for several days, "When court opefis I will tell you all about it, sir, but , ought to send you to jail for thirty days for asking me that question when off the bench,, and I only excuse you because you are a mere boy, and evidently quite a fool." I was greatly shocked, and my first impulse was to knock him down and learn him some extra judicial ethics, but before I could catch my breath or speak he said, "Come on into court and I will tell you my conclusion." The application was for an injunction restraining the sheriff from selling quite a va- > CSS) 34 Thi5 Diary of an Old Bawyer. riety of personal property, including cows, bulls, sheep, rams, and a stud horse; He granted the injunction as to every thing except the stud horse, the reason for the ex- ception I did not then perceive, nor have I ever discovered it since. After writing his fiat and handing it to the clerk, he raised up and said : ' ' Brother Hallttm, have you not yet learned that the law does not permit injunctions against stud horses?" I said: "No, sir, I have not so discovered, although your Honor so holds. You must ex- cuse me for not believing your ruling to be good law, but if you will further excuse me — now you are on the bench — I will say that I have discovered you are very partial to stud horses, and draw invidious distinction between that noble sire and bulls, and rams, animals equally under the protection of the law." "Sir," he said, "are you deter- mined on a jail sentence for contempt? " " No, your Honor, I think perhaps as much of studs as you do, but cannot throw aroimd them the same protec- tion you do, ,but let us get to something more pleasant. I hold in my hand. Judge, one of the finest w^itticisms I ever read, and am sure it will relieve me from servitude in jail and restore you to your normal good humor," and proceeded to read what always amuses me. It was a let- ter from a raw son of E^rin to his brother in Ireland, and ran thus : ' ' ' Dear Pat — Potatoes in this country are tWo bits a bushel, and whisky the same, and one man is as good as another, and sometimes a damn sight better. ' ' This restored the statu quo and he roared, and said, ' 'I see the application, I guess I'll not send you to jail this time. " Judge Humphreys was universally beloved by the Bar, these little sallies of occasional temper were over in a mo- ment, and always ended in closer relations. He was em- inently an upright man, and I have often thought the ablest nisi frius Judge I ever appeared before. I have ar- gued a thousand cases before him, and I revere his memory. A CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE. The "Snoi; He "was as in4ignant as we were, and forcibly so expressed himself. He always fought with a keen polished blade. When the argument commenced the large court room was densely packed with eager listeners, a large number of ladies being present. It vsras the custom of those days. The elevating and refining influence of cultured ladies al- ways lends a charm, an inspiration to these forensic con- tests. The argument continued through four days.' Col. Gantt closed the argument for the defense. He is always eloquent, but on this occasion was grandly, majestic-^ ally eloquent. And no one in that vast auditory of wit, wealth, talent and beauty felt the sublime inspiration' 86 The Diary of an OivD IvAwyer. more than lie did. He moved along in cadence of rhythm and beauty, like the muse of the Grecian Isles sweeping- the harp of irnmortal song, until he fainted under the glory of his pwn inspiration and fell to the floor. I rushed to him and threw a pitcher of water in his face, which re- vived him. He lifted and carried that audience with the power and splendor of his' polished genius to the height of intellectual rapture. None but a genius could have en- thralled that audience with the magic of his own splendor. Twice I have seen him faint under parallel circum- stances. Sargent S. Prentiss in a great speech in Nashville, in the presidential campaign of 1844, fainted from the same ' cause, when Gov. James C. Jones, lifted by the most ex- alted enthusiasm, dropped to his knees, raised Prentiss' head dnd exclaimed, "Die, Prentiss, die, it is the best op- portunity you will ever have." Gen. Sale made one of his characteristic and powerful arguments, many passages of which equaled the great masters. Notwithstanding our success in emptying one panel of jurors, he firmly believed Dickens had succeeded in organizing the jury in his interest, and plainly indica- ted his belief in his argument, in one of the finest phillip- ics I ever heard. The appalling scenes in Dante's Inferrio are not more harrowing than his description of the crime against society involved in the pollution of the Temple of Justice. The divinity of God in man, flash of the immor- tal soul. I closed the argument for the prosecution, and the scene closed with a verdict of not guilty. The Southern people, whose hearts and Matures are as warm and genial as the^ sunbeams that dance in the foliage around their homes, have always loved and admired intel- lectual conflicts, true eloquence, chivalric manhood, re- fined and noble womanhood, and these traits will continue to distinguish them as long as the sun exerts climatic in- fluence over physical and mental organism. A STARVING LAWYER DYING OF PRIDE. ^OW infinite the springs of human action. What delicate touches may shut off the machinery or set ^ ^^ft ^^ ^^ motion and change, destroy, or ci;eate char- »