USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 29
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revolt at the idea of subjugation. He condemned disunion and secession as a constitutional heresy, to beadmitted on no principle known to the compact between the States. On the other hand, he equally condemned northern disregard of constitutional re- straints and obligations, and as a dernier resort maintained the right of revolution, not as a latent disorganizing vitality in the constitution, but as an inherent right in all people and above all constitutions.
With these qualifications in view we will better understand the consistent action of General Adams, from the inception to the close of the late war for independence, or, as Alexander H. Stephens calls it : " The war between the States." On the 18th of February, 1861, an election was held in Arkansas for the election of members to a constitutional convention to convene on the 2d of March, to take into consideration the relations of the State to the Federal Union. General Adams was accredited to that convention and was a prominent actor in that body, which contained many able and prominent men. But before we follow up his record in this momentous era any further it is necessary to survey the political crystallization in other sections of the Union, because they are determinate factors in shaping the course of General Adams, both in the civic and heroic walks which he followed to the end. On the invitation of Vir- ginia, the celebrated peace congress, representing twenty-one States, convened in Washington on the 4th of February, 1861, to take into consideration the condition of the Federal Union, and if possible to save it from dissolution. All eyes were turned to this convocation of notables ; in it the forlorn hopes of many millions centered. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was a member of this congress, and it was then understood that he was to be in the cabinet, and the Ajax of the coming administration. He had long been one of the most distinguished anti-slavery agita- tors in congress, and all he said in the peace congress was re- garded as foreboding the policy of Mr. Lincoln's administra- tion. On the 6th of February, Mr. Chase took the floor to advise the peace congress. Perhaps no speech of ancient or modern times drew after it so much interest, followed by so much bitter disappointment. He declared emphatically to ,the southern members that the northern States never would fulfill
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that provision of the constitution requiring the surrender of fugitives from service ; that the election of Mr. Lincoln was a triumph of the principles cherished in the hearts of the people of the free States, and that these cherished principles would never be surrendered or modified to accommodate the slave- holding States. This speech was concurred in by a large majority of the northern delegation, and it widened and deepened the gulf between the States. They would not obey their acknowl- edged obligations under the constitution of the United States, nor the decision of the supreme court on the slavery question. It was also then well understood, that Mr. Seward, the apostle of the higher law doctrine, would be Mr. Lincoln's secretary of state. The triumph of a sectional faction who regarded the constitution in its relation to slavery as a "league with hell - a covenant with the devil," justified great alarm in the slave- holding States. And when this was followed up by an avowed determination on the part of the leaders to trample the Federal compact under foot, a vast number of able, thinking men at the south, who had hitherto looked with forlorn hope for a res- toration of the Federal equilibrium, now gave up all hope and appealed to arms as the final arbiter. General Adams was of this number. On the 8th of March, 1861, he offered the fol- lowing resolution to the convention : " Resolved, That the committee on ordinances be, and they are hereby instructed to prepare and report to this convention at the earliest practical moment, an ordinance providing for an immediate and uncon- ditional secession of the State of Arkansas from the Federal Union of the United States of America." The convention at this period refused to retire the State from the Union, but submitted the question to a vote of the people, to be taken in August, and adjourned until the result could be known, unless sooner convened by the president of the convention.
In the mean time the tramp of hostile armies were hurrying and converging to the field of combat, both in the east and in the west, and every hour added confirmation to the realities of war, until every hope for a peaceful solution was regarded as visionary and Utopian.
The president of the convention reconvened it on the 6th day of May, and before the setting of the sun on that day the
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convention adopted the ordinance of secession, with but one dissenting vote -- that of Isaac Murphy, afterward one of the Federal war governors of Arkansas.
General Adams accepted the war with all its results, and adhered to the south with no stinted hand. He entered the service as quarter-master, with the rank of major on the staff of General Thomas H. Bradley, who was authorized by the mili- tary board of the State to organize an army. After thor- oughly organizing the department over which he presided, he resigned and recruited the Twenty-third Arkansas infantry, of which he was elected colonel, Governor Hughes being elected lieutenant-colonel. As soon as his regiment was equipped for field service, he was ordered to join the army of Tennessee at Co- rinth, Mississippi. On the reorganization of the army he was or- dered to report to General Hindman, in the trans-Mississippi department, as chief of staff, which he did. When General Hindman was assigned to a command in the army of Tennessee he accompanied him in the same relation, and was in all the en- gagements participated in by his division until after the battle of Missionary Ridge, where his conspicuous gallantry on the field won him a brigadier-general's commission. After this he was assigned to the northern subdivision of the trans-Missis- sippi department, in which he continued until the final sur- render. General Adams was a slaveholder and large cotton- grower up to the commencement of the war, and lost all in the conflict save his landed property. After the conclusion of hostilities, he returned to his home at Helena, and attempted to practice law, but the petty military authorities prohibited him, unless he would subscribe to an "iron-clad" oath of alle- giance, which was inconsistent with his agency in the war.
He declined to purchase the right at such a price, and retired to his farm near Ilelena, until the fall of 1865, when he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he became associated in the rela- tion of partner with that grand and noble old Roman, General Albert Pike. This partnership continued until the removal of General Pike to Washington, in 1869. Their office and the anthor's were located in the same building, and the author enjoyed their friendship and confidence, and every facility to judge them correctly. But of General Pike we speak else-
ELECTRO LIGHT ENG. CON
HON. SAMUEL W. WILLIAMS.
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where. General Adams loved his profession for its lofty and noble ends as passionately and devotedly as any man I ever knew, and he brought to its pursuit untiring energy, coupled with fine discriminating powers and great ability. Nothing afforded him so much mental enjoyment as measuring lances in the forensic arena with brothers . possessed of equal ability with himself. His ethical standard was the highest known to the profe-sion. He was modest and unassuming, but with his intimate friends he was one of the most genial and companion- able of men.
He was a bold and original thinker, and never a slave to the dogmas of either religion or politics. To his brothers of the bar and bench he was always as courteous and dignified as if in the presence of refined ladies, and to his younger or weaker brothers he always extended the full measure of his abilities when desired. He was stricken with yellow fever on the 6th, and died on the 9th day of September, 1878, at his residence in Memphis.
HON. SAMUEL WRIGHT WILLIAMS, LITTLE ROCK.
Samuel Wright Williams was born in York district, South Carolina, on Broad river, August 23, 1828, and is descended from revolutionary stock, and soldiers in both the paternal and maternal lines. His maternal grandfather, George Davis, fought under General Green at the battle of Guilford Court House, where Cornwallis was compelled to abandon his south- ern campaign and retreat north, which opened up the possi- bilities, and led to the fruition at Yorktown. ITis paternal grandfather, Moses Williams, was a soldier in the revolution in the army commanded by General Lincoln, and was disabled in the defense of Charleston.
These ancestors in both lines came from Wales, and are alike distinguished for integrity, strong common-sense, and great tenacity of purpose - well-defined outlines in their descendants. His father, the Reverend Aaron Williams, in the language of Lord Byron, " lifted the latch and forced the way," over all . the impediments a meager exchequer is supposed to entail. He was pre-eminently a self-educated and self-made man ; with . proud and honest poverty he inherited high resolves and noble 40
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desires, and by the force of strong native talent and great energy of purpose, accomplished a thorough literary and class- ical education, graduating in 1813 from Washington College, East Tennessee. His vocation through life was that of min- ister in the old-school Presbyterian faith and educator.
The family came to Arkansas in 1842, and first settled in Washington, Hempstead county, but in the spring of 1843 settled in Little Rock. Our subject had several younger brothers, and as they approached that age when Roman youth assumed the toga virilis, the father wisely judged the unosten- tatious purity of country life more favorable to the healthy development of moral growth than towns and cities, and moved to the country and opened up a farm near the site where Lonoke now stands. The old man of God led a trio of bright boys in this conspiracy against the primeval forest ; and the fond mother led two beautiful daughters and installed them as queens in the pioneer's log cabin built by the boys. Here in the wilderness, when the day's toil was over, all met beneath the cottage roof, where,
"The priest-like father read the sacred page, Then kneeling down to Heaven's eternal King, The saint, the father and the husband prays; Hope " springs exulting on triumphant wing," That thus they shall meet in future days, No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs,
- That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad. Oh, Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent, Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
Be blessed with health, peace and sweet content. And, Oh! may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile, Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,
A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle."
BURNS.
When Caledonia's immortal bard tuned his lyre and sang to the world. "The Cotter's Saturday Night," he touched and thrilled the tenderest emotions of the heart, and taught us
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where to expect emancipation from vice and the temptations of luxury : where virtue attains a robust growth and becomes "its own reward."
Such were the advantages enjoyed by Brother Williams, without over-estimating their value at the time, supplemented by that vigorous and splendid mental training imparted by his father, both in and out of the school-house. He was taken into the confidence of his father and became a companion to - him -the purest, the noblest, the holiest and highest relation between son and sire. In this way his mind was disciplined into a vigorous growth, and gradually spread over a great field of learning, aided by one of the best memories ever given to man, which is, next after a well-organized brain, one of the most powerful factors a man can possess. Many warm per- sonal friends to Judge Williams, who know his early and manly struggles with poverty, take rather a superficial view of his growth and mental development, and regard him more in the light of a prodigy than as the necessary outgrowth of the iufluences which surrounded his boy and early manhood.
He had two brothers, E. M. and W. L. D., who were sub- jected to the same influences and training, and they ripened into brilliant inen, but died early in life. We often regard as misfortunes what are frequently " blessings in disguise." The Williams brothers (all able lawyers), without that lesson of practical life, enforced by the rigid demands of necessity until the principle involved became an abiding conviction, might haveinherited vast finances and been dwarfed into insignificance in their relations to society. Where the stimulant is wanting or withheld the production is not likely to follow. Wealth is oftener a curse than a blessing and stimulant to intellectual growth. The ardent desires of his own nature led him to em- brace all the aid his father placed at his command in the acqui- sition of an education, and he acquired it with classical polish and finish. Early in 1849 he borrowed some books and read law with avidity at spare times when not engaged on the farm. Light wood and pine knots served the purposes of the modern chandelier and gas-jet. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar, and soon after entered the law office of Judge Totten in Brownsville, the county seat of Prairie county, as the junior of
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the firm of Totten & Williams. He was associated in practice with his brother, W. L. D., from 1853 to the latter's demise in 1860. His rapid advancement attracted the attention of Judge English, and when he went on the bench in the fall of 1854 he transferred his large docket to Mr. Williams. This occa- sioned his removal to Little Rock, where he has continued to reside. Governor Elias N. Conway, in 1855, appointed him attorney-general to fill a vacancy, and he argued many import- ant questions in that relation before the supreme court, which augmented the growing reputation of the young man.
In 1856 he was seduced by the know-nothing party and suffered his name run on that ticket for the legislature, and de- feated the democratic candidate, an act he still finds leisure to repent. He was born and reared in the lap of democracy, and has never again kicked out of the traces. The convention of 1861, that severed the relations of the State to the Federal Union, created a military board and devolved on it vast power - the raising, equipping and control of a large army, with all the incidental and implied powers necessary to military rule. Governor Henry M. Rector was ex-officio a member; the con- vention elected two more advisory members in the persons of Judge Williams and his old law partner, Judge B. C. Totten. The board raised, equipped and put an army in the field, and then turned it over to General Hardee, the representative of the Confederate government, for that purpose. After this, the business of the board was perfunctory, and Judge Williams re- signed and recruited the Seventeenth Arkansas infantry, of which he was elected lieutenant-colonel, yielding the colonelcy to George W. Lemoyne, on personal grounds. In the succeed- ing spring Colonel Williams was prostrated with hemorrhage of the lungs and general ill-health, in consequence of which he was compelled to resign his command in the army. In the summer of 1863, Pleasant Jordan died, and Judge Williams succeeded him as prosecuting attorney and attorney-general. After the war he resumed the practice of his profession, in which he still continues.
In 1876 he desired a little diversion from professional labor, and accepted the office of State senator, an office, ten years later, filled by his talented son, John Edwin, from the same dis-
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trict - Pulaski and Perry counties. He has, a great number of times, served as special judge, both on the circuit and supreme benches of the State, and has, by talents there displayed, lodged the conviction, in the minds of a great number of competent judges, of his eminent qualifications for the bench. In 1878 he was the leading candidate for the democratic nomination for associate justice of the supreme court until the last ballot, when he was defeated by the late Hon. John R. Eakin by a majority of three. 'Tis said "everlasting things sometimes hang on slender threads," and in this instance it was verified.
When pressed by brothers at the bar, he is not noted for graceful submission ; thus circumstanced, he sometimes rivals Juvenal in satire; at others he throws "Parthian arrows " in prodigal profusion, and in this way, without intending it, some. times inflicts a wound that never heals. Some of these wounded forensic warriors, to use a western vulgarism, "got in their work " in this convention and defeated him.
No man bears less malice than he. The friction and asperi- ties of the intellectual conflict with him pass away with the hour in which they arise, but this is not true of all men. Away beneath the volcanic exterior which he sometimes turns to an opponent, there are tons of the milk of human kindness. The author has known him long, has met him in many con- tests, and has sometimes been warmed up to welding heat, but no sear was ever left. In every case he tries, whether of major or minor consequence, he brings all of his. energy and talent to bear, and sometimes reminds the auditor of a whale trying to ascend a spring branch. His great mem- ory imparts a wonderful facility as a ready debater; in this respect he has few equals, no superiors. He has always been ambitious to write a legible hand, and is vain of attain- ments in this direction ; yet for the production of illegible chiro- graphic wonders stands unrivaled either in ancient or mod- ern schools. In the years gone by, when the author knew him less than now, I filed a motion in all seriousness to compel him to file his pleadings in a legible hand, and to my amazement was held personally responsible for the supposed outrage on the object of his life long ambition. Horace Greeley, in his best days, would have blushed to compare his great attainments in
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this line with Judge Williams. Judge Compton says: " When he writes to me I send a messenger to take down his translation." He possesses a high order of courage. When quite a young man at Brownsville, he openly accused a desperado of stealing his money, and the latter put a pistol to his head and demanded instant retraction, but was foiled and greatly surprised with a repetition of the charge coupled with the declaration, "you can kill me, but I will die in the belief you stole my money." He has been an earnest and zealous advocate of the railroad system of the State since 1850, and was long attorney and direc- tor for several lines in the State. IIe was an important actor in thwarting the conspiracy of Powell Clayton, Joseph Brooks, John McClure, and others, to overthrow the Baxter government in 1874. With Governor Garland, Judge English and others, he was called into consultation by Governor Baxter, after he was driven by force from the State House on the 15th of April, 1874. Great interests depended on the line of policy adopted or recommended by that conclave of notables. A single false step at that critical juncture might have visited the people with a bloody revolution and lost to them indefinitely the right of self-government. In this council Governor Garland advocated the re-capture of the State House by force of arms, but Judge Williams strongly advocated a peaceable and conservative solu- tion of the momentous problem then pressing for solution, and he advised the governor that he could as well exercise the functions of the executive office at St. John's College or the Anthony House as at the State House, and this counsel wisely prevailed. He is an able lawyer in every department of his . profession, but his attainments are not confined to these limits ; his reading has been extensive, and with the aid of his power- ful memory he has compassed a wide field of knowledge.
As this work goes to press his friends are urging the presi- dent to appoint him to the supreme bench of the United States; a position he would honor.
HON. FREEMAN WALKER COMPTON, LITTLE ROCK.
Judge Compton was born in Orange county, North Carolina, Jannary 15, 1824. He was educated in the English branches in the common and academic schools of the county, and in the
ELECTRO-LIGHT
FREEMAN W. COMPTON.
. . ..
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Latin classies by a private tutor. His father was an Englishman and British officer during the revolutionary period ; his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent, that vigorous cross which has given America more brains than any other cross of the hardy European races. His legal education was founded on a basis different from that taught by most law schools of the present time, and was more thorough, not from the circumstance that it differs from the more modern plans, but because his teacher - was a painstaking jurist.
The late Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson of North Caro- lina for many years taught quite a select law school at Maxville, North Carolina, and none could enter therein but able-minded youth possessed of irreproachable character. Young Compton possessed the necessary qualifications, and was admitted to this school at the early age of eighteen. The freshman class at this seat of learning was required to read : first, Blackstone's Commentaries thoroughly ; then Coke on Lyttleton, in con- nection with Blackstone. The next book placed in the fresh- man's hands was that thoroughly technical, abstruse and black- letter production, "Fearne on Contingent Remainders " -- a work as clear, analytical, philosophic and satisfactory as the Egyptian worship of storks and onions. The next book given him was an English work on executors and administrators, and this completed the freshman's course. The second course embraced Kent's Commentaries, Chitty on Pleading, Story's Equity Jurisprudence and Equity Pleading. This completed the students' curriculum at Judge Pearson's law school.
In 1820 there was but one law school in the United States, it was taught by Tapping Reeve and James Gould at Litch- field, Connecticut, and was the pioneer law school in this country. Judge Compton left the law school in 1844, and settled at Greenville, in east Tennessee, the home of Andrew Johnson, and was there admitted to the bar by means of a pious sin of omission before he was twenty-one years of age. He practiced his profession in this old historic town of Ten- nessee, until 1849, when he came west and settled in Prince- ton, Dallas county, where he soon entered on a prosperous professional career, the reward of fine abilities and close appli- cation. His professional income, added to the dowry his wife
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. brought him, enabled him to become a large cotton planter long before the civil war. He left Princeton and moved to Camden in 1852. In 1857-8 he was appointed special judge of the supreme court in the Swamp-land cases then pending ; his clear and lucid opinions in these cases attracted the attention of the bar throughout the State, and laid the foundation of his promotion and fame. In 1858 the legislature, under the old constitution of 1836, elected him associate justice of the supreme court to fill an unexpired term, and this without his being a candidate. His friends, when the legislature con- vened, wrote to him at Camden, urging him to come to the capital to promote his elevation to the bench, but he declined on the ground that it would be indelicate to seek or electioneer for a judicial office. In 1866 he was elected for a full term to the supreme bench by the people under the new constitution of 1861, but in 1868 he was disfranchised and ousted from office. Judge Compton's reported opinions were very care- fully prepared, and they are the best monuments to his fame. He has a large, well-developed brain, but is sometimes inert, perhaps lazy, and like all big guns or ships has to be put or towed into position before ready for action, but when thus prepared he displays great ability .. He is social with his brothers of the bar and has an inexhaustible fund of anecdote. One of his favorite stories is founded on the defense of a young man indicted and convicted in the Federal court before that stern judge, H. C. Caldwell, on a charge of robbing the mail. Conviction closed every avenue of escape, save that always doubtful hope for executive clem- ency, which was based on a very narrow margin. All the merits of the application were formulated in a very narrow compass, viz .: " The young man's moral development did not invite a critical analysis of the crime involved." Judge Comp- ton, armed with many signatures to the application for execu- tive clemency, posted off to Washington in great haste. He stopped at the International, and after patronizing the bath and dining-rooms with unstinted liberality, for there was great need for the one and great capacity for the other, he hied away to the office of a prominent local lawyer and posted himself as to the best way to strike the red-tape ordeal on which he was
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