USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume I > Part 24
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Phil. White, as he was familiarly called, was also a duellist, but a man of great suavity of deportment and of mirth-provoking qualifications. His stories were inimitable, and there was no scantiness of supply. Those who once heard him can never forget the voice, the looks, the whole reality which made his entertain- ments so amusing. No stage representation was so true to nature. In high life, in all classes,-among the learned and the illiterate, the sprig of fashion or the country clown, the man of common sense or the stupid dolt, men wise or humble in their own esti- mation,-nothing came amiss with him. He set before you the originals in comedy as Booth did in tragedy. Mr. White was not then a rigid temperance-man. It is said that he has since acquired considerable celebrity and been extensively useful as a travelling lecturer .*
And here the author makes no apology for introducing in this memoir John Taylor, Esq., whose acquaintance he formed in 1829, at Thomas Superior Court, through the politeness of Mr. Coalson. Mr. Taylor was a Virginian, -a highly-educated man, his genius sparkling before a jury, his action graceful, and his style ornate,- between the melting compactness of Erskine and the rich drapery of Phillips. Let not this comparison raise a smile. There are witnesses now living in the southern counties of Georgia who will
* Mr. White has resided in Philadelphia since 1841. He first held the office of Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance of the State of Pennsylvania, and then Most Worthy Patriarch of the Order for North America. He visited every State and all the principal cities and towns in the Union, delivering temperance addresses amid the greatest public enthusiasm, -from the Park in New York, before forty thousand people, down to country villages, -inducing over two hundred thousand persons to take the pledge of total abstinence. He also extended his triumphal visits to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and other sections of the British Provinces. During his Temperance campaign from 1843 to 1855 he was everywhere received with the highest honors, and has been met by processions of four or five hundred Sons of Temperance in full regalia, on horseback, with bands of music, and escorted in a carriage drawn by six horses. His likeness has appeared in several costly annuals, and memoirs of him have been published establishing his reputation as one of the most effective orators that ever advocated the temperance reform. By special invitation he has addressed several State Legislatures on the subject of prohibitory laws.
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sustain any amount of eulogy or any extravagance of description as to his gifts, his stirring cloquence, his deep pathos, his scorn of mankind, and his marked severity. He was a compound of flaming passion, pure rhetoric, haughty bearing, sarcastic words, and, when he chose to be so, was gentle and persuasive in argument. IIe treated the members of the bar generally with civil coldness, and kept to himself. He sought no companionship; but, if by accident he was drawn into conversation, he was decorous and agreeable, yet evidently reserved.
Mr. Taylor was mostly employed in cases sounding in damages,- slander, malicious prosecution, and the like. In these he put forth his extraordinary powers of declamation. IIe was attentive in preparing his cases, in securing the necessary proofs, and was always master of the business in hand. He had some pretty good recoveries. If he could find a rich man-such as the late Lewis Bond, Esq., worth half a million-prosecuting some poor individual for supposed trespasses on his large stocks of cattle in the wire- grass region, Mr. Taylor was then in the only paradise carth afforded him. On such occasions he rose to the sublime of ma- lignity and abuse. Mr. Bond was in the habit of visiting his stock- range every spring and calling on his herdsmen for an account of their flocks. Where depredations or ugly mistakes had been com- mitted, he generally preferred bills of indictment and turned the matter over to the court and jury. Mr. Taylor was frequently of counsel for the accused. On such occasions Mr. Bond quietly took his seat by the solicitor-general, gave the names of witnesses, suggested questions, and-listened to Mr. Taylor. What Burke said about Warren Hastings's administration in India was tame and complimentary alongside the comments Mr. Taylor made on the character and conduct of Mr. Bond. The author remembers one case where Mr. Taylor's client not only had a verdict of acquittal, but a malicious prosecution taxed. He also remembers that Mr. Taylor brought an action for damages against Mr. Bond in Wilkin- son Superior Court; but he believes it was never tried. The counsel, perhaps, found it inconvenient to attend, or, if he attended, was discouraged by public opinion, and the action died for want of nursing. This was about the close of Mr. Taylor's professional career in Georgia. He thence departed westward.
Some years ago a very romantic story was circulated in the newspapers, in which Mr. Taylor was the leading hero. The scene was laid in Arkansas or Texas. It appears that a rich planter had insulted the wife of his overseer. She made it known
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to her husband, who took the liberty of caning his employer on sight. The planter some days afterward shot the overseer, killing him instantly. He was prosecuted, but his money saved him from conviction. In the mean time he had spoken slanderous words concerning the widow, who brought her action for damages. The day of trial arrived. Sargeant S. Prentiss and Albert Pike appeared of counsel for the defendant. The case was called in its order; and such was the array of influence, the great wealth of the defendant, the ability of his lawyers, and the humble condition of the plaintiff, that even the young attorney who brought the action shrank from it and abandoned his client to her fate. The judge sounded the case again : no one responding, he appealed to the gallantry of the bar. There was walking in the lobby of the court-room a slender, woe-begone-looking personage, with a high forchead, pensive features, thin, compressed lips, and wandering blue eyes,-his visage of sandy complexion. He heard the appeal, and, advancing within the bar, modestly informed the court that he would represent the plaintiff. All eyes were turned on the stranger. No one knew him.
This was a perplexing moment. The judge remarked that no gentleman could be permitted to act as counsel without a com- mission to that effect. The stranger drew from his pocket divers pieces of parchment bearing signatures and court-seals from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and probably from other States, conferring on JOIN TAYLOR the privileges of counsellor and attorney-at-law, and solicitor in chancery. His name was then entered on the docket, and, asking a short indulgence, he found some one who kindly gave him the names of the witnesses, who answered to the call. He opened the case by reading the declaration and proving the words. He said but very little more, and gave way to the defence. Prentiss made one of his fine speeches, expended his wit freely, and also aimed a sneer at the plaintiff's counsel, whom he described as a reckless adventurer, unable to live by his profession in any one of the States in which he had been incautiously licensed. It was hardly worth the labor to trample upon such a pitiful case, supported by counsel who was himself an object of pity.
The learned Pike, with the garlands of poetry on his brow, rose to continue the argument of his friend Prentiss. The character of the plaintiff was denounced and that of the defendant extolled. The obscure attorney who had volunteered came in for a share of
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his piercing wit and mischievous humor. Here the speaking for the defence closed with a flourish of exultation.
John Taylor stood before the jury. With his clear, piping voice, distinct in every syllable, and full of feeling and intellect, he took up the evidence, applied the law, and then made himself known. He ridiculed the false wit and vulgar impudence of the opposing counsel, until even the gallant Prentiss and the manly Pike felt themselves as children in the hands of a giant. Court, jury, spec- tators, bar, all gazed with wonder. Taylor rose higher and higher in his flights, until he had the audience spell-bound. He saw his advantage, knew his powers, and felt assured that the jury would give all the damages claimed in the declaration. He then turned to the spectators, who were much excited, and implored them not to lay violent hands on the defendant, -not to ride him on a rail. They must forbear doing what justice prompted on the occasion. Fifty thousand dollars would be some punishment to a creature so sordid, and let him live to endure the scorn of all honest men. The jury retired, and soon gave in a verdict for fifty thousand dollars ! Taylor was immortal.
The author does not vouch for the correctness of this story ; but, from his own knowledge of Mr. Taylor and the inspiration under which he often spoke, he is inclined to believe it. This remark- able man practised law several years in Southern Georgia. He would have electrified even the Senate of the United States ; and yet all his gifts were marred by a spirit of misanthropy which rendered him miserable, an exile in the midst of society.
While sketching with a free hand, the author will venture to relate a very laughable scene which occurred on the road from Franklin (the old county site of Lowndes, to Thomasville,-the like of which is not on record. Travel on the circuit, in the days referred to, was altogether in sulkies or on horseback. There were no buggies in use then. On a bright Sunday morning, as half a dozen sulkies and two or three outriders, forming the main column of the Southern bar, were proceeding on the march, all the wayfarers fresh and cheerful, a large fox-squirrel was seen to cross the road and ascend an old pine stump ten or fifteen feet high. Here was an opportunity for sport ; and with a simultaneous leap from their sulkies came the men of law to chunk the squirrel from his retreat,-the horses being left alone, without any fasten- ing, in the road. From the discharge of pine-knots at the squir- rel, and the hollering to boot, one of the horses got alarmed and set off briskly without his driver. All the other horses followed
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the example; and 'such a race of sulkies had never been, and never will be again. Away they sped in the open pine-woods. Occasionally a wheel would strike a stump or a large root, and then there would be a rattling, as if to stimulate the horses to their utmost diligence. The race drew gradually to a close,-or, at least, the sulkies were smashed and scattered about, some against sap- lings, some against large trees, and one was shivered into fragments on a log. Here the vehicles retired from the contest. Not so the horses. They kept on, seriously terrified, with harness flying in all directions.
While this movement was in full blast, the gentlemen of the law stood their ground. They saw it was a grand ruin, and that their only consolation was to be revenged on the squirrel, the innocent cause of their misfortune. The attack was renewed more fiercely than ever. Pine-knots and a prodigious expenditure of lungs on the part of his assailants brought down his squirrelship, bleeding and lifeless, at their feet. One of the party gathered up the trophy, and they all proceeded to view the race-track. Here one would pick up an overcoat, another an umbrella, one a whip ; several identified their cushions ; and at decent intervals spokes and segments of a wheel, portions of the seat, a loose dashboard, pieces of shaft, and other relics, were strewed along to show the battle-ground. Then sulky after sulky-some capsized, others resting with one wheel in the air, others so badly crushed that the owners could scarcely recognise them- would appear, until the whole number was answered. The trunks generally retained their strapping without material injury.
The law-travellers walked to a farm house, where they reported their difficulty, and asked for a wagon and team to take them and their baggage to Thomasville, some twenty miles. The request was readily granted, and in this conveyance the judge and his bar drove up to the hotel after nightfall. Their detention was explained amidst roars of laughter, in which our Florida brethren joined heartily. In the course of two or three days the horses were all brought in, and the remains of the sulkies taken to the carriage-shop, where there was a general fixing up,-the harness- maker also receiving his full share of patronage. Such was the squirrel-frolic of the Southern bar. Nothing of the kind has occurred since. At each subsequent riding, the ground has con- tinued to be pointed out, with divers localities well remembered by the participants in the sport, though more than twenty years have
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intervened. The adventure will pass as a tradition sacred to more primitive times.
This digression will be forgiven; nor will it be considered in- applicable in a memoir of this kind. The members of the bar are well known for their cordiality with each other on the circuit, especially when, in other periods, such as are now touched upon, they were together six or eight weeks continuously on a single riding.
From what has already been said of Mr. Coalson, it must appear that he was entitled to that warm love of his friends, that respect of his fellow-citizens, which it was his good fortune to possess. A gentleman* very competent to judge states, in a letter to the author respecting Mr. Coalson :-
He possessed in an eminent degree all the attributes of a good man. He was modest and unassuming, honest and honorable, candid and con- scientious. When an application was made to him to engage his pro- fessional services, he never failed to make a close and scrutinizing inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the case he was expected to advocate. If he found it to be wrong in principle or oppressive to the weak and defenceless, he never hesitated at once to refuse his services. If he found it to be even of doubtful policy, or uncertain of its successful prosecution, he always made a plain and candid exposition before he would undertake it. In his intercourse with men, his conscience was his guide, and up to the time of his death he enjoyed the full confidence of all his friends and acquaintances. He was emphatically an honest man. I might relate some anecdotes which would more fully exemplify the traits of his cha- racter; but your intimate acquaintance with him will enable you to do so better than I can.
Mr. Coalson was a man of princely heart, and, however zealous in the court-house, he never carried outside of it the least unkind feeling toward any of his brethren ; nor could they be so unmindful as to act coldly toward him for any sparring at the bar. He was indeed a delightful companion, and died too soon for his family, his friends, and his country.
The proceedings of the bar on the occasion of his death are here subjoined :-
GEORGIA, THOMAS COUNTY .- Superior Court, Muy Term, 1830.
Wednesday evening, May 5, 1830 .- The members of the Southern bar convened in Thomasville on the 5th inst., for the purpose of paying a suitable tribute of respect to the memory of PAUL COALSON, Esq., a highly-respected brother of the profession, whose death has been an- nounced during the present sitting, when his Honor Thaddeus G. Holt was called to the chair, and Thomas Porter, Esq., Solicitor-General, appointed secretary. The object of the meeting being stated, it was
* Gen. Thomas E. Blackshear.
·
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Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draft a suitable preamble and resolutions expressive of the feelings of the Southern bar in relation to the death of Paul Coalson, Esq .; whereupon the chairman appointed Stephen F. Miller, Lott Warren, and Daniel D. Sturges, Esqs., as that committee.
The meeting then adjourned until to-morrow, three o'clock P.M.
Thursday, 6th May, 1830. The committee attended in open court, when Stephen F. Miller, Esq., reported the following preamble and reso- lutions, which were unanimously adopted :-
In the private ranks of society, when a useful and respected member is cut off by providential visitation, the regret throughout the circle in which he moved is generally proportioned to the good or indifferent qualities which marked his life. The occasion of our assembling as a brotherhood is to offer respect to the memory of Paul Coalson, Esq., our departed bro- ther and fellow-citizen. The eulogy of the dead can be of no other avail than to manifest to the living the estimation in which virtue and talents are held, to soothe the anguish of surviving friends, and to stimulate the youth of our country to the practice of those duties which lead to reputa- tion and happiness.
Trained with early advantages, Mr. Coalson entered the university of our State, and, with an ardent thirst for knowledge and by habits of severe application, he acquired the elements of a collegiate education to an extent which placed him high on the list of finished graduates. Thus ending his literary pupilage with credit, he engaged in the legal profes- sion and became an industrious and respectable member. But it is not to his professional character alone that we confine our tribute.
His youth and rural avocation prevented him from pursuing that range at the bar which would have brought him more directly before the public eye. In the active and social relations of private life he shone with a pleasing lustre; and long will be remembered the genuine hospitality and unaffected friendship with which he treated his brethren of the bar. The ties thus produced by a variety of causes rendered the eternal separation painful in the extreme. Yet to the behests of Him who directs all things we must submit without a murmur. Therefore, in order to evince our regard for the deceased,
Resolved, That we have learnt with deep regret the death of Paul Coal- son, Esq., our respected friend and brother, and that we truly sympathize with his bereaved family and relatives in the great loss they have sustained.
Resolved, That the bar of the Southern circuit wear crape on the left arm during the present riding, as a testimony of regard for the deceased.
Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings, signed by the chairman and secretary, be forwarded to the family of the deceased, and that the secretary forward the same; and that copies be published in the Milledge- ville papers, and also a copy, signed by the chairman and secretary, (by order of the court,) be entered on the minutes.
THOMAS PORTER,
Secretary.
THAD. GOODE HOLT, Chairman.
Ordered by the court, that the proceedings be entered on the minutes of the court, agreeably to the request of the committee.
The aforegoing is a true extract from the minutes of said court, this November 14, 1851.
JARED EVERITT, Clerk.
VIII.
WALTER T. COLQUITT.
EVERY age and every State usually affords one man more remarkably endowed than all others. The American Revolution had but one Patrick Henry, and Georgia has never contained, and probably never will possess, more than one WALTER T. COL- QUITT. To render justice to such a character is beyond the ability of the author. He has not the particulars; and, even if he had, he questions his own skill in so putting them together as to make a good likeness of the original. Written description often fails of its object, and perhaps in nothing more signally than in tracing the volcanic eruptions (for so they may be styled) of the orator now to be considered.
WALTER T. COLQUITT was born in Halifax county, Virginia, on the 27th day of December, 1799. A few years afterward, his father, Henry Colquitt, removed to Hancock county, Georgia, and settled near Mount Zion, where Walter was sent to the school of Mr. Beman. His progress was rapid, and his standing in class was about the first grade, as it was in all athletic exercises. He was running over with vitality, and his sports were as wild as his nature was fearless. Not that there was any serious mischief in him,-not that he defied his teacher or neglected his studies,-but there was an impulse, a restless spirit within him which must have vent in some outward manifestation, or the consequences would be apparently as fatal to the nervous system as too great a head of steam would be to the engine. Action was the safety-valve. This was the cast of his mind; and it was always his rule to follow nature, honest nature, in all her moods, however singular and at whatever sacrifice, within the bounds of a manly, rational freedom. It may be readily supposed that Walter was a captain among his schoolfellows, directing their games and their quarrels, always the friend of the weak in both.
On reaching the proper age, he was sent to Princeton, New Jersey, to complete his education. Up to this time he had never worn a suit of store-clothes, but was attired, like other country lads, in the products of the domestic loom. When he left for Princeton
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he wore a hat made of rabbit-skins, no doubt a very durable, if not elegant, head-cover, manufactured by some good hatter of the neighborhood. How long he remained at college the author is unable to say. Before graduating he returned home, owing to the illness of his father. Whatever may have been his conduct, rash or disorderly, it was not such as to class him with the highest offenders, nor could it have been prejudicial to his honor, as the institution has enrolled him among its alumni.
He read law in the office of Col. Samuel Rockwell, of Milledge- ville, and was admitted to the bar at Wilkinson Superior Court, in 1820. He first located in Sparta, where he opened an office, and then removed to a village called Cowpens, in Walton county. In the mean time he had been elected brigadier-general by the Legis- lature when twenty-one years of age. He belonged to the Troup party, and was a candidate for Congress in 1826 in a district which contained a majority of two thousand Clark voters, as shown by the election between Troup and Clark for Governor in 1825. The Hon. Wilson Lumpkin was his successful competitor, who was elected by a majority of thirty-two votes !
The contest gave Gen. Colquitt quite a reputation, and rendered him at once prominent. What he lost in political was amply made up by judicial advancement ; for, on the 15th December, 1826, at the age of twenty-seven years, he was elected Judge of the Chatta- hoochee circuit, and presided at the first Superior Court ever held in the city of Columbus. His administration was highly approved. Whenever he had doubts, or there was excessive hardship or cruelty in the punishments prescribed by law, he always inclined to the side of humanity. A case of the kind is referred to by Gov. Forsyth in his message to the Legislature, November 4, 1828 :-
Every day's experience adds to our knowledge of the defects of the Penal Code. I recall to your attention the communications heretofore made by my predecessors, particularly to the Executive message of 1827, communicating a report from one of the judges (Schley) of the effects of the amendatory act of 1820. To the information contained in that report I will add that it is ascertained that the punishment of a free person of color, convicted of inveigling a slave, is now one year's imprisonment in the Penitentiary, while a white person is subjected to severer penalties,- a distinction not justifiable in itself, and dangerous in its consequences to the security of property and the peace of the State. Another of our judges (Colquitt) during the past year found himself compelled to sen- tence a person convicted of the offence of mayhem to the pillory, and the payment of a fine of £100, or to suffer, if unable to pay the fine, the bar- barous punishment of one hundred lashes laid on his naked back. The poverty of the person convicted was so notorious that the payment of the
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fine was not to be expected, and the Executive, under a recommendation of the judge, was obliged to interfere to prevent the infliction of a brutal punishment,-a disgrace to our criminal jurisprudence, and which, in the opinion of the community, has been long since expelled from our code. A careful and matured examination of the act of 1820 will enable you to correct these and other errors that have unavoidably arisen from the use of general terms, and their application to all the previous legislation of the State on crimes and punishments.
In 1829, Judge Colquitt was re-elected for another term of three years, at the expiration of which he retired from the bench, fully satisfied with its dignities and cares. In 1834 and 1837, he represented Muscogee county in the State Senate. His course in this body proving him to be a statesman and debater of a high order, he was nominated for Congress in 1838, was elected, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the first Monday in December, 1839. In the Presidential election of the next year, he and two of his colleagues, Messrs. Black and Cooper, refused to support Gen. Harrison, and went over to Mr. Van Buren, thereby severing the political ties which connected them with their colleagues in the House and with the Whig party of Georgia. But, however unpleasant the dissension between the parties, the people sustained Mr. Colquitt and re-elected him in 1840, and again in 1842. His victory was complete, though his new associa- tions with men against whom he had warred so long-the Clarkites, Union men, Democratic party, and Mr. Van Buren as the head of the phalanx-must have embarrassed him at times in the company of certain leaders. But he knew well how to conquer difficulties, and he went forward, turning neither to the right nor left, follow- ing his principles as soon into the camp of the enemy as anywhere else. He dreaded no conflict and quailed at no danger.
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