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 38
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Two years after his admission to the bar,-to wit, in 1821,-he was elected Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature. This place he filled for ten or eleven consecutive years, through frequent changes of party supremacy,-no inconclusive evidence, this, of his fidelity as an officer and his amiable character as a man. Indeed, it was here that he laid the foundation of that remarkable popularity which he has always enjoyed. As Clerk of the House for so many years, he had the means of becoming personally acquainted with leading men from every section of the State. Familiar with the forms of business, and obliging in his disposition, he gave his aid to all such as needed it. Prompted by his amiable disposition as well as the policy of the thing, he never per- mitted an opportunity to go unimproved of making a friend or of con- ciliating an opponent. It is true that he was always (as before intimated) a man of the people, and was never known to pass a sovereign without a shake of the hand and a pleasant word. This was, however, more the outgoing of his buoyant spirit than the cold working of a selfish policy,- more the generous recognition of the claims of all men upon his courtesy than the forecasting of the political aspirant. Never, however, has he been known in political action to pander to popular prejudice or yield principle to popular passion. On the contrary, with unyielding firmness, he testified his devotion to the people by pursuing such a course and ad- vocating such measures as, in his judgment, would promote their true in- terest. In the outset he took position with the State-Rights party of Georgia, then better known as the Crawford party, and subsequently as the Troup party, and later and for many years as the Whig party. To
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the fortunes of the Whig party he adhered with unwavering consistency. Supporting the Compromise measures of 1850 in the Senate, he was one of the leaders of that great mass of Georgia Whigs and Democrats who organized the Constitutional Union party, and, as most men believe, saved the Union in 1851. His political opinions were those of the Southern Whig party,-eminently conservative, true to the Constitution, insisting upon the faithful observance of its compromises, and of unquestioned loyalty to the Union. For many years after he entered upon active life, the war of parties raged in Georgia with fearful violence. The history of that war this is not the place to trace. He might with truth say of it, " Magna pars fui." Gallantly did he bear himself in those struggles for many years. It is proper to say of him that, when the storm was at its height of violence, he could boast of more personal friends among his political opponents than almost any man of the day.
In 1834, he entered especially into politics, being returned for that year and the following year (1835) to the State Senate from the county of Greene. There he was known to the State as a diligent business- member, sustaining with able advocacy all the great interests of Georgia,- among them, education, internal improvements, a sound currency, equal representation, equal taxation, reform in prison discipline, and a court for the correction of errors. It was about this time that the State began to move in those great works which have pushed her ahead of her Southern sisters and crowned her queen of the Southern tier. To these he lent his efficient aid both in and out of the Legislature.
In 1836, he was elected to Congress. Georgia elected at that time by general ticket. Judge Dawson was the only Whig returned, prevailing over a popular Democratic majority by reason of his extraordinary per- sonal popularity. General Coffee, a member of Congress from Georgia in 1836, having died, he was elected to fill his unexpired term, and took his seat in the winter of that year in the House of Representatives. The Creek and Seminole Indians in Florida and on the line of Georgia be- coming hostile in 1836, and threatening depredations, Judge Dawson raised a very handsome volunteer company, to the command of which he was unanimously chosen, and, under the authority of the State Govern- ment, took the field. Having fulfilled with judgment and discretion the duties of this new post, he returned to his home, still more endeared to a people who had found him as willing to serve them in the field as in the Legislature.
General Scott, who had at that time taken the conduct of the Florida war, gave him a separate command, and detailed him upon a special ser- vice, which he performed to the satisfaction of that great captain.
He was re-elected, together with the entire Whig ticket, in 1838, and also in 1840. For the first time for many years, in 1838 the State re- turned an entire Whig representation to Congress, the subject of this sketch leading the electoral triumph. But it seems that the course of popularity, like that of true love, never does run smooth,-never, cer- tainly, through a public life. Our popular favorite was destined to expe- rience one of those reverses to which all publie men are liable. He from his "pride of place" fell into disfavor, a victim to popular caprice, real- izing one division of Burke's aphorism, that popularity may be acquired without a single virtue and lost without a single fault. The popular frown did not, however, long rest upon him. Popular honesty, rectified in its judgment by knowledge, soon reinstated him, and, like a fabulous hero of
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antiquity, he may be said to have gained strength by his fall. In 1841, he was nominated the Whig candidate for the State Government, ran with great confidence of success, and was beaten. This discomfiture was owing to the use that was made before the people of a vote which he gave at the extra session in 1841, to increase the duty on tea and coffee. An in- crease of revenue was at that time found indispensable to discharge the accumulated obligations of the Government and maintain the national honor untarnished. Believing it better not to increase the duties on the articles taxed under the tariff compromise acts, and that by taxing tea and coffee the new burden would fall mainly upon those most able to bear it,- to wit, the wealthy consumers,-he voted for an increased duty upon those articles. The people were told that he had voted to tax them for using tea and coffee,-to deprive them of two of the necessaries of life ; and, voters enough being found to believe these and numerous like versions of the matter, he was defeated. Notwithstanding that such perversions were made of his vote, it is not probable that he would have been beaten, if his friends had not relied with too much confidence upon his success. Believing that this result was a disapproval by the State of his course in Congress, and being incapable, according to his views of the relation between a Representative and his constituents, of holding office when his opinions upon leading questions of policy were not in harmony with those who elected him, in November, 1841, he resigned his seat. The prin- ciple of instruction may rightfully apply to the Representative of the people in the House of the people. In this case it may be questioned, however, whether there was a fair and deliberate expression of opinion against him. I am inclined to think that he might have waited for the "sober second thought." He remained in private life-except the interval, as stated, that he was on the bench-from that time until the autumn of 1847, when he was elected to the Senate of the United States.
He occupied his seat in the Senate for an entire term, commanding the respect of his colleagues for his ability and patriotism, their affection as a man, and their admiration for his assiduity as a business-member. Ilis reputation, indeed, at the expiration of his term, had become national.
His character in Congress was that of a vigilant, industrious, effective man of business. IIe spoke rarely, and, when he did take the floor, it was upon a question requiring action. He was not wont to address Bun- combe from the halls of Congress upon abstract propositions introduced for the purpose of party, or sectional, or personal effect. Whilst no man evinced more zeal in behalf of those rights under the Constitution which are peculiarly Southern, or a more unflinching determination to maintain them at all hazards, than himself, yet he was decidedly national in the general cast of his politics. His judgment was too sound to be misled by impracticable theories of government, however plausibly constructed or adroitly addressed to the strong republican sympathies of the nation, and his patriotism too elevated and pure to be weakened by the ultra demands of a section, however stimulated by wrongs and fortified by aggressions. Good sense and independence characterize his speeches. They are plain. unambitious of ornament, and free from cant.
The limits assigned to this article will not admit of any notice, however brief, of all the measures with which his name has been creditably asso- ciated in the course of his Congressional career. Whilst a member of the House, he was Chairman of the Military Committee, and also Chairman of the Committee on Claims,-the latter one of the most laborious and useful
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positions appertaining to the National Legislature, and one which cannot be well filled but by a good lawyer and an industrious and just man. He whose voice is potent enough to call the attention of the House of Repre- sentatives away from its turbulent political struggles, and fix it upon the memorial of a private citizen for justice long enough and close enough to examine into minute facts, must have its confidence as an officer and its kindly regards as a man.
In 1840, the Whig Representatives divided upon the election for Presi- dent, Judge Dawson and five others-Messrs. Habersham, King, Warren, Alford, and Nisbet-supporting General Harrison as a safe exponent of the principles of the Whig party, and the balance sustaining Mr. Van Buren. In that agitating canvass he entered with his usual spirit and address. The State was carried for Harrison.
At the opening of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, Judge Dawson was put in nomination for the Speaker's chair. Upon the first ballot he received a very flattering vote. Discovering that two of his colleagues voted against him in consequence of a division between them on the election of President, he required his name to be withdrawn at once. ITis friends believed that if it had not been withdrawn he would have been elected to this distinguished office, for which they believed him well qualified.
He was among the very first of those who took ground against the absurd theories and indelicately selfish, not to say impudent, demands of Kossuth. He had the moral courage, in his place in the Senate, to con- demn those theories and denounce those demands, choosing rather to abide the counsels of Washington than the revolutionary teachings of a foreign exile, who, coming to our shores as a beneficiary of the nation, sought to repay its hospitality by arraying the people against their own Government, and, through the process of revolution at home, commit them to the complications of revolution abroad.
In the latter years of his life, his position upon national politics was defined by himself in a speech in the Senate in the following words :- "It was known that he had declared that he could support no one for the Presidency who would not openly, plainly, and honestly declare that he will support the Compromise; and he would act with no party in the next election who is not pledged to oppose any further agitation of the matters embraced in it. He would not support any man nor act with any party who will not declare, in terms not to be mistaken, a de- termination to adhere firmly to the finality of the Compromise." He was twice married : his last wife, an accomplished lady of Tennessee, still sur- vives him. To the wife of his youth and the mother of his children he was indebted for much of the success of his life.
It is at this day and in this country, so far from being humiliating, a source of pride for men to confess the obligations they are under to women. In all relations they contribute to make the fortunes of the sterner sex, but chiefly as mothers and wives,-as mothers, in the forma- tion of characters; as wives, in seconding, by counsel and exertion, and inspiring by affection, the highest aims and the noblest resolves. Fortu- nate is the young adventurer upon the stormy sea of professional life who has secured the hand and heart of an amiable and sensible woman. She is the truest of all friends, the safest of all advisers, and the sweetest of all solaces. The instinct of wedded love is equal to the conclusions of the profoundest wisdom. These propositions were illustrated in the married life of Judge Dawson. It falls to the lot of but few men to be so signally
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blest in a wife as was he. She was, without a figure of speech, his better half, and, in literal verity, his guardian angel. To use his own language, she was "the chief source of his happiness and success." In 1819 he was married to Miss Henrietta M. Wingfield, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Wingfield, an eminent physician of Greensboro, whose family, one of the most worthy of that ilk, emigrated to Georgia from the State of Virginia. With her, surrounded with their children, numerous friends, and a large body of relations, he enjoyed the highest degree of domestic bliss until the 7th day of April, 1850, when she left the duties of earth to enter upon the joys of heaven. She was a lady of great beauty, of refined tastes, easy yet dignified manners, remarkable for good sense, and dis- tinguished for her intense yet unostentatious piety. She possessed in a remarkable degree the almost indescribable quality which is indicated by the word "sensible,"-a word which, in its application to women, means an almost intuitive perception of what is proper under all circumstances. Without bringing down upon herself the unpleasant observation of the world, or violating the delicacies peculiar to her sex and station, she, with consummate address, became his strongest auxiliary in every honorable aspiration of his life. With him she ascended gracefully to the highest level of social life at Washington. Knowing her well, I can with truth say that she never occupied a station that she did not adorn. She adapted herself to his circumstances,-gave to practical things the aid of her sound judgment, to the hospitalities of his house the elegancies of a cultivated taste, to her children the unwearied assiduities of a mother, to the poor profuse charity, and to God the devotion of a meek and quiet spirit. Judge Dawson appreciated the character of his wife, and repaid her love with the most marked respect and the most unremitting tenderness.
Already it has become manifest that he was eminently social in his nature and habits. "Carpe diem" was with him a practical precept. He illustrated his gratitude to Heaven by enjoying its bounties. He was at home where wit and humor and harmless frolic ruled, and was happy at a table-speech. His house was always open to a wide circle of friends, who found there the comfort and repose of their own homes, the welcome of affection, and the courtesies of cultivated life. He trained his sons to honor and virtue, and his daughters to gentleness, grace, and love. But he is lost to bench, bar, country, and family. His body moulders into dust, but his memory lives, a bright and instructive entity. He fell in the prime of his age, cre yet the hopes of life had begun to fade or the orb of his intellect had begun to wane. It is true that the dial had begun to cast its shadow castward; but as yet it was short, and lengthened slowly. Suddenly his sun of being sunk beneath the horizon, and, lo ! all was shadow. The grave received with him as much of practical capacity, of uprightness, energy, and benevolence, as ordinarily falls to the lot of favored men. Many-very many-throughout the Union mourn his death whilst they rejoice in the healthful example of his life.
XII. SEABORN DELK.
MANY persons who may look into this work will not expect to find in it the name of SEABORN DELK as the subject of biography. The author of course alludes to such persons as were acquainted with the hostile relations which existed between Col. Delk and him- self more than twenty years ago. He must take occasion to say that his nature forbids injustice even to an enemy. More than this ; the grave has long since hallowed a better feeling ; and, although there was a mutual dislike for a short period, let it be said they had been friends. Something of this personal affair will be noticed hereafter.
The author has not been informed of the birthplace of Mr. Delk. It may have been in Wilkinson county, as his father, the late David Delk, Esq., is believed to have been the first clerk of the Superior Court of that county after its organization in 1807. It is therefore quite certain that the subject of this memoir was a native of Wilkinson. From his sprightly and intelligent mind, it is inferred that he was placed carly at school and made fair progress in his studies. When old enough to write legibly, he as- sisted his father in the clerk's office in keeping up the records, which proved to be of great service to him in after-life. His pen- manship was neat, even elegant, and at the same time rapid.
Of the incidents of his carly life no account has been obtained. He was probably a dutiful son and warm in his friendships. Nothing more need be said on that subject previous to 1828, when the author formed his acquaintance. Mr. Delk was then a law-student in the office of the IIon. Lott Warren in Marion, Twiggs county. Both near the same age, and both hopeful of the future, a very cordial attachment soon grew up between Mr. Delk and the author. Besides their legal aspirations, they had tastes similar in the military line ; for, almost beardless as they were, one was colonel of the Wilkinson county regiment, and the other was a member of Major-General Wimberly's staff,-appointments most gratifying to their ambition. Let not older and wiser heads mock at the heroic mood of the two young friends. If peace continued,
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they were certain of glory at the bar, in the halls of legislation, or in some other bright field where reputation was to be won, just by the desire, with a very trifling effort. To wish earnestly for an object was about the same thing as having it in possession, as they then innocently believed.
And, should war come, what a pair of chiefs they would make ! Yorktown and New Orleans would be eclipsed by their strategy !
If these two worthies were a specimen of youth generally in their ideas of the future, it may be affirmed that language has no word so utterly in contrast as the tender and art- less word inexperience and the pregnant letters remaining after the first syllable is detached. A gnat and an eagle are not more unlike in power than the fantasies of youth and the conclusions of age are unlike in the great concerns of life. All remember that, when Demosthenes was asked what was most essential to an orator, he replied, " Action, action, action." So, if the question were put to an old man, what was the most valuable thing, what was truth, what did men most need to make them wise and happy, he would say, Experience, experience, experience. And yet this pearl is rarely gained until it is too late to profit by the merchandise. The meaning of this episode on the reveries of youth will be mani- fest in the course of this memoir.
After applying himself with becoming assiduity to the studies prescribed, Col. Delk was admitted to the bar at Wilkinson Supe- rior Court, at October Term, 1828,* the Hon. O. H. Kenan the presiding judge. He immediately opened a law-office in his old village of Irwinton, amid the friends of his father and those who had known him from childhood. He at once obtained a respect- able practice. IIis competitors, or rather legal friends, were Robert HIatcher, Esq., who represented the county several years in the Legislature ; James P. H. Campbell, Esq., afterwards Solicitor- General of the Chattahoochee circuit, and Col. John S. Barry, late Governor of Michigan. Mr. Barry was a Northern man, and his first employment in Wilkinson county was that of a school- teacher. He read law, and obtained a license to practise a short time before Col. Delk came to the bar. Being a gentlemen of intelligence and address, he was recommended to Gov. Forsyth for an aidship, which was bestowed, with the rank of lieutenant-colo- nel. He forthwith provided himself with military attire suitable for a representative of the commander-in-chief, and made quite
* The Hon. J. J. Scarborough applied at the same term and was admitted at the same examination.
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a figure at regimental reviews. Col. Delk took credit to him- self for getting up and supporting the request to the Governor which secured to Col. Barry a higher influence in society. As a lawyer he did not well succeed,-not from any deficiency of talent or legal qualifications, but mainly because he could not make him- self " a people's man." His fondness for books had inspired him with too much of the ideal to fraternize with rude human nature in its every-day garb. After a few years he removed to the West, and, beyond all expectation, though not to the regret of old friends in Georgia, he was advanced to the Executive chair of Michigan, with the right to confer titles such as proved very grateful to him at an early period of life.
` In the year 1831, Col. Delk married Miss Coates, the only daughter of the late Robert Coates, Esq., of Laurens county, a man of considerable fortune. In 1832, he removed from Irwinton to Marion, to pursue his profession without being annoyed by loungers and idle persons, who gave him no time for study or office- labor in his native village. He was an expert in pleading and con- veyancing, and possessed much legal information, fluency of speech, and a great knowledge of human nature. He aimed to please all who might possibly be useful to him, by adapting himself to their tastes. His stories were told in a natural way, both in feeling and in language, and he always had a stock on which to draw, to suit the company, or any particular individual whose favor he desired. He was actuated by policy in all his movements ; and he did not hesitate to avow that success was his object, without any quibbling as to the means. An example will be given.
An individual, S -- , had killed HI- by a blow on the head in Marion. S- fled, and the Governor offered a reward of two hun- dred dollars for his apprehension. Col. Delk suggested to the father of S- to have him surrendered to the sheriff by a friend, take a receipt on which to obtain the reward, and pay it to him (Col. Delk) as a fee, and he would have S- acquitted. The deed was done accordingly, the fugitive brought in and imprisoned, and Col. Delk immediately sent a young man who was living with him to Milledgeville after the reward, and actually put it in his pocket. The case lingered many years on the docket, and was never tried,-the defendant in the mean time at large on bail.
After his removal to Marion, Col. Delk attended all the courts of the Southern circuit, and by his talents and self-control soon attracted fees. He possessed no delicacy of feeling, and not much
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respect for the rights of others when opposed to his own interests. He was in the habit of following up men who had business in court and putting himself before them so as to gain patronage. This he did from two motives,-one to benefit himself, and the other, per- haps, to render better service than any other member of the bar could afford. For it was a singular fact that his merit, though obvious to all, was, contrary to the usual doctrine on the subject, still more apparent to himself. He and the members of the bar generally were upon kind terms; yet at the same time his lax morality was losing him the respect of many who had a different standard of action.
The author has referred to a state of feeling which suspended for a while all amicable relations between Col. Delk and himself. How the matter arose, and how it terminated, will be seen by the corre- spondence and statements appearing in this memoir. In his reply to the first note of Col. Delk the author embodied the facts. On the interposition of mutual friends the affair was submitted. Owing to the imprudent, boastful remarks made by Col. Delk to the friend* of the author who alone was admitted into his part of the contro- versy, it was determined to publish the whole of it, with the evi- dence supporting the author's allegations. To this end the author had inserted a "Card" in the Southern Recorder, about the middle of November, 1833, announcing his intention. To prevent its fulfil- ment, Col. Delk made a secret assault on the author with deadly weapons at Bainbridge, within the closing hour of the Superior Court, December 7, 1833. The grand jury immediately found a " true bill" for assault with intent to murder, and Col. Delk was placed under bond by the court for his appearance at the next term.
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