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 5
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To understand what Mr. Brewster sought to condemn, the toast is here introduced :-
By Gov. Troup, of Georgia. The Government of the United States : With more limited powers than the Republic of San Marino, it rules an empire more extended than the Roman, with the absoluteness of Tiberius, with less wisdom than Augustus, and less justice than Trajan and the Antonines.
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ROBERT AUGUSTUS BEALL.
The following is an extract from Gov. Troup's letter of Septem- ber 21, 1830, referred to in the amendment :-
Whatever the people of South Carolina in Convention shall resolve for their safety, interest, and happiness, will be right, and none will have the right to question it. You can change your own government at pleasure, and therefore you can throw off the government of the Union whenever the same safety, interest, and happiness require it.
The author has thus followed Gen. Beall through his public career; and he concludes by a brief notice of his family, his declining health, and his religious opinions.
Gen. Beall inherited the full name of his venerable father, who for many years resided in the county of Warren. Major Robert Augustus Beall, Sr., was universally beloved for his intelligence and virtues. He was a gentleman of easy address, and retained the etiquette of the olden time. He had a large family of chil- dren, mostly daughters, whom he educated in the best manner. His liberal hospitality, and the expense of sustaining a fashionable position in society, impaired his fortune and caused him to experi- ence reverses in his old age. He bore all, however, with compo- sure. At the election for commissioners to distribute the Cherokee lands by lottery, in 1831-2, he was chosen by the Legislature as one of the Board; and, though infirm from age, he discharged his duties to the entire satisfaction of the public. He died some twenty years ago. Dr. Henry Lockhart of Apalachicola, Edward B. Young, of Eufaula, William H. Young and Robert M. Gunby, of Columbus, Robert Billups, of Texas, and John Billups, of Alabama, married his daughters. He had other children, two sons, William and Josias, with whom the author was slightly acquainted. The latter, Josias B. Beall, was killed in Texas at the massacre of Fannin's and Ward's command at Goliad, in 1836.
In October, 1828, Gen. Beall intermarried with Caroline, the heiress of Richard Smith, Esq., a wealthy citizen of Twiggs county. The portion of his wife was large, consisting of lands, slaves, and other valuables. Considerably in debt at the time, and having no skill or talent for accumulation, Gen. Beall permitted his affairs to become entangled in spite of the proceeds of his estates. The income reported by his managers was not equal to the lawful inte- rest on the capital employed in this form. He took up the idea that, by converting his property into bank-stock, it would be more productive in the shape of dividends, on which he might check at pleasure. He sold his estates, retaining servants for the house- hold, but the money was never converted into bank securities. An
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expensive style of living, and constant drains upon his purse, of which he did not see the drift at the time, led to a wreck of his fortune in eight years. His hospitality was that of a prince. No man could dispense the honors of such a life more gracefully, or with happier effect on his guests.
The health of Gen. Beall was never robust. His complexion was always bilious, and he had frequent attacks of colic from which he suffered severely. The following letter to the author shows his condition at such times :--
MACON, February 10th. 1832.
DEAR MAJOR :- Will you be at Houston Court ? If yea, carry over our papers; and if not, send them so as to reach there early Monday morning.
From the present state of my health, I consider it very doubtful whether I shall be able to attend. I last night took an emetic which threatened for some time serious consequences. It produced, in the first instance, cramp in my stomach, which finally extended to all my limbs. I was finally relieved by the professional skill of Dr. Baber.
I made out a set of interrogatories in the case of -, in which we are counsel for the defendant, to take the testimony of -, and left them with a friend for Judge Holt to carry down. They were neglected to be given to him and mislaid.
Will you make out another set, and forward them to M. Myers, Esq., for execution ? I do not know what questions to ask, but our client requests it, and he is entitled to have his wishes gratified. Ask her if - did not give the negro to his wife upon their separation, &c., and any other questions which may occur to you. Ask her what she stated to - in Marion, on the subject of -'s title to the negro.
Yours truly, ROBT. A. BEALL.
He was compelled to be abstemious in diet ; and amidst the dis- sipated company into which his late hours threw him, he never drank to intoxication. IIe was generally cheerful, and always ready to converse with his friends, even after his heaviest losses, without betraying his inward struggles. With the people he was a decided favorite, ever accessible and friendly. His countenance had a firm, yet benignant expression; it was lit up by dark, sparkling eyes, that charmed all who gazed upon them. He was an adept in human nature; and his success in controlling the minds of men by his suavity was an obstacle to his advancement in the law by enabling him to achieve by words easily uttered what others had failed to accomplish by hard labor,-the satisfaction of clients. As before stated, he put off drudgery to the last. When forced, however, to apply himself, he would toil with his pen, or at his books, the whole night, and come into court next morning fresh and courteous, with triumph on his brow.
--------
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ROBERT AUGUSTUS BEALL.
Previous to 1835, Gen. Beall had been a skeptic in religion. During a revival in Macon that year, under the ministry of the Rev. John Howard, his infidelity was crushed and he became a new man, rejoicing in the pardon of his sins. He connected him- self with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was frequently called on to pray in public. He engaged with zeal in the services of the sanctuary, and with happy effect on the minds of others. ITis mortal career was now drawing to a close. In the spring of 1836, his constitution gave way, and, after a lingering illness of several months, he died in peace, July 16, 1836. His death pro- duced a deep sensation in the community. Extensive funeral honors were paid him. The bar, and literary societies of which he was a member, manifested peculiar respect for his memory. The press tecmed with eulogies ; and men of all parties united in con- fessing his extraordinary gifts, and the lofty qualities which marked his character ;- all mourned his exit as a public loss.
Such was ROBERT AUGUSTUS BEALL,-a man of worth and infirmity.
III. JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN, LL.D.
THE annals of America furnish many distinguished names in the Cabinet and in the field, in the Judiciary and in the halls of legislation. JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN has been too recent an actor in public affairs for his character as yet to possess that influ- ence over the minds of men which it is destined to exert. While living, he had to encounter an active political rivalry which was not always scrupulous in the means employed to gain its point. He lived to establish a reputation of which any orator, jurist, statesman, or scholar, might justly be proud. It will be the object of the author to gather up a few broken fragments in the history of this remarkable man, and to render that justice to his memory which an admiring public will readily sanction.
Of his ancestry much might be said to gratify his descendants. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantz by Louis XIV., in 1685, withdrawing from the Protestants the security afforded them in the exercise of their religion by Henry IV., in 1598, the best blood of France was dispersed in foreign countries. America became the asylum of many of the persecuted religionists, called Hugue- nots originally in contempt, but now a term which has a universal significancy, conveying the ideas of fortitude and the loftiest vir- tues. His paternal ancestors descended from the Huguenots who fled from France into Ilolland when the Edict of Nantz was revoked. John Berrien, his grandfather, was one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New Jersey ; and his father, Major John Berrien, at a very early age removed to Georgia. He was with Washington's army at Valley Forge, participated gallantly in the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, and in several other engage- ments. He continued in the service until the close of the war. In the mean time he married, at Philadelphia, Margaret Macpher- son, whose brother, John Macpherson, was aid-de-camp to General Montgomery, and fell with him at Quebec. Another brother was General William Macpherson, who gave up his commission in the British army and escaped to the American lines, in which he ren- dered efficient service.
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JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN.
In the house occupied by General Washington as head-quarters whence he issued his farewell address to the army, JOHN MAC- PHERSON BERRIEN was born on the 23d day of August, 1781, in the State of New Jersey. His father brought him to Georgia when he was only a few months old. When of a suitable age, he was sent to various schools in New York and New Jersey. He graduated at Princeton at the age of fifteen. The late Judge Gaston, of North Carolina, was a classmate.
On his return to Georgia, he read law in the office of the IIon. Joseph Clay, and was admitted to the bar in 1799, before he completed his eighteenth year. In 1809, he was elected Solicitor- General, and the next year Judge of the Eastern circuit. The latter office he held four terms. While on the bench, the question of the constitutionality of the alleviating law came before him ; and, in a convention of all the judges at Augusta, he delivered the opinion declaring the act to be unconstitutional. This was a triumph of law over popular excitement. The people were dis- tressed in financial matters, and had elected a majority to the Legislature to grant relief, even to the suspension of debts, or at least of the process enforcing them. The public judgment has long since exploded all such measures as the veriest trifling with difficulties, to say nothing of the principle.
While war existed with Great Britain from 1812 to 1815, Judge Berrien was elected to the command of a regiment of volunteer cavalry, which rendezvoused at Darien, watching the British forces on St. Simon's Island and elsewhere in that quarter. No opportunity, however, of conflict with the enemy occurred. IIe thus united the civil and military character in as perfect a model as the forum and the camp ever presented ; for he was not the man to hold any office without making it honorable by the dignity and qualifications which he brought to the discharge of its dutics.
The only time when complaint or dissatisfaction was even whis- pered on account of any of his judicial acts was when he gave sentence on the trial of Hopkins for the murder of McIntosh. It seems that the overseer of Hopkins assisted his escape in a boat, and had no further connection with the offence. On conviction for manslaughter, the principal was sent to the penitentiary without labor, and the overseer was subjected to hard labor for a term of years. The public, not acquainted with the facts, became indig- nant at the discrimination,-the rich culprit to lounge at his ease in the State prison, while his poor, innocent friend was doomed to
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the anvil or the workbench in constant toil, in sight of each other. An investigation was demanded by Judge Berrien, and, at the session of the Legislature in 1818, both Houses decided unani- mously that there was no just ground for the charge. The fact was, the presiding judge saw that to compel Mr. Hopkins, in his fecble condition, to perform the ordinary labor of a convict would be to take his life by judicial execution when a less punish- ment was all that the law authorized. , Such an act of humanity, so far from deserving censure, merits approbation. It required moral courage of a high order to confront the possibilities of mis- construction, and to vindicate the act when assailed.
After closing his judicial career with the highest credit to him- self and with the hearty approval of the people of Georgia, Judge Berrien consented to serve his fellow-citizens of Chatham county, in the years 1822 and 1823. During the latter session, * as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he introduced the fol- lowing :-
Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, That it is expedient that some fit and proper person should be appointed by the Legislature at its present session to compile and digest the statute-laws of England that are now in force in the State of Georgia, and whose duty it shall be within two years to report the same to his Excellency the Governor, who, after the same has been examined of three learned in the law, to be appointed by him for that purpose, shall approve or disapprove of the same, and for their said services shall be paid by the Governor out of the contingent fund; and when the said work shall be performed and approved, that his Excellency the Governor be, and he is hereby, author- ized to subscribe for two thousand copies in convenient bound volumes : Provided, the same does not exceed the price of four dollars per volume, to be disposed of and distributed as the Legislature may direct.
This resolution passed both Houses, and was approved by the Governor, who appointed the Hon. Thomas U. P. Charlton, William Davies, and Charles Harris, of Savannah, to examine the work prepared by the Hon. William Schley,-well known to the profes- sion as Schley's Digest.
His abilities were so conspicuous in the State Senate that Mr. Berrien was elected in 1824 to the Senate of the United States, and took his seat in that body March 4, 1825, at a time when it was an honor indeed to represent a sovereign State in the Councils of the Union. Unfortunately, the Senatorial robes do not confer as much reputation in these latter days, owing to causes casily understood. While something is lost on the score of dignity by
* See Senate Journal, p. 178.
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the contrast, much is perhaps gained to popular rights, among which may be included the right of very moderate men to exercise high public trusts. Judge Berrien at once took a commanding position in the Senate. He shared in the debates only on import- ant questions, and then, maturely prepared as he never failed to be, his arguments were sustained by a logic and eloquence which gave universal delight. When Judge Berrien entered the Senate of the United States, in 1825, he was in the forty-fourth year of his age,-bordering on that golden period when enthusiasm usually abates and the purer offices of the intellect are brought into full action. He had quite a youthful appearance, and gained from Chief-Justice Marshall the appellation of the "honey-tongued Georgia youth."
At the session of the Legislature of Georgia in 1828, a " Pro- test" against the Tariff was adopted, which was committed to our Senators, Judge Berrien, and his colleague, Hon. O. H. Prince, to be laid before Congress. In January, 1829, Judge Berrien sub- mitted this document in a style so beautiful and impressive that his speech on the occasion was justly termed by the press a model of its kind. The title of American Cicero was accorded to him, and never did he forfeit the proud distinction.
On the election of General Jackson to the Presidency, in 1828, that distinguished personage tendered the office of Attorney-Gene- ral to Judge Berrien, thus making him one of his constitutional advisers. It was accepted, and in March, 1829, he resigned his scat in the Senate and passed into the Cabinet. No man had brighter prospects or a smoother way, to all appearances. The first annoyance to which he was subjected was a complaint by Gen. Call that the office of Attorney-General brought him in con- flict with a large number of important land-claims in Florida, in which he had been previously of counsel adverse to the United States, and that the President was not apprized of this relation when he made the appointment. Judge Berrien promptly met the charge, and asserted that he distinctly informed Gen. Jackson of his professional connection with these claims, and reserved the right to fulfil his existing engagements with his clients. With this understanding he accepted the office of Attorney-General, and nothing more was heard on the subject.
When he removed to Washington City as a member of the Cabinet, his family consisted mostly of daughters, Mrs. Berrien having died a short time previously. This fact is mentioned here as applicable to the cause which led to the dissolution of the
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Cabinet in 1831. No attempt to give the history of this affair will be made further than is necessary to place the conduct of Mr. Berrien in its true light. The sympathies of the President had been invoked by his Secretary of War (Maj. Eaton) in his domestic affairs, because certain members of the Cabinet (all, indeed, except Mr. Van Buren, who was a widower) had omitted those courtesies which society had established respecting formal visits or calls, either in person or by card, as the case might hap- pen,-that Mrs. Eaton was not honored by the presence of those gentlemen or their families at her regular levees, nor were her "calls" returned. The cry of persecution was raised, which touched the sensibilities of Gen. Jackson, who rashly undertook to "regulate" these family matters. The consequence was that his authority in this sphere was not admitted, each gentleman leaving his own family to decide upon their company. Dissensions con- tinued to increase. Gen. Jackson was not in the habit of yielding his point; nor were the Attorney-General, Secretary of the Trea- sury, and Secretary of the Navy, (Berrien, Ingham, and Branch,) disposed to surrender their domestic government to his dictation. They at once resigned. Much was said on the subject at the time. The United States Telegraph, edited by Gen. Duff Green, was the official organ of the administration ; but adhering to Mr. Calhoun in his quarrel with the President, simultaneously with the rupture of the Cabinet, it was superseded by the Globe, with F. P. Blair as editor, who denied the retiring members of the Cabinet the privi- lege of vindicating their course through its columns. Mr. Berrien, as also Messrs. Ingham and Branch, severally published addresses to the people of the United States, setting forth the whole matter in quite a spirited array. Niles' Register, and all the leading papers of the day, copied the appeals, and the counter-state- ments of all the high functionaries concerned. Mr. Berrien never wrote with more animation and eloquence than in this controversy.
The following correspondence between Mr. Berrien and the President is submitted :-
WASHINGTON, June 15, 1831.
SIR :- I herewith tender to you my resignation of the office of Attorney- General of the United States. Two considerations restrained me from taking this step at the moment when your communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, announcing your determination to reorganize your Cabi- net, first met my eye. There was nothing in the retirement of the Secre- taries of State or of War, or in the distinet and personal considerations which they had assigned for this measure, which made it obligatory upon, or even proper for, me to adopt a similar course. Such a step, with any reference to that occurrence, could only become so ou my part as an act
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of conformity to your will. You had felt this, and had announced your wishes to the Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy respectively. I had a right to expect a similar communication of them, and conformed to the wishes and opinions of my fellow-citizens of Georgia when I determined to await it. An additional consideration was presented by the fact that I had been charged, at the moment of my departure from this place, with the performance of certain public duties which were yet unfinished, and my report concerning which you did not expect to receive until my return. I was gratified to learn from yourself that you had taken the same view of the subject, having postponed the communication of your wishes to me until my arrival at this place, without expecting in the mean time any communication from me. It is due to myself further to state that, from the moment when I saw the communication referred to, I have considered my official relation to you as terminated, or as subsisting only until my return to the city should enable me to conform to your wishes by the final surrender of my office, which it is the purpose of this note to make.
I retire, then, sir, with cheerfulness from the station to which your confidence had called me, because I have the consciousness of having endeavored to discharge its duties with fidelity to myself and to the coun- try. Uninfluenced by those considerations which have been avowed by that portion of my colleagues who have voluntarily separated themselves from you, totally ignorant of any want of harmony in your Cabinet, which either has or ought to have impeded the operations of your administra- tion, I performed this act simply in obedience to your will. I have not the slightest disposition to discuss the question of its propriety. It is true that, in a government like ours, power is but a trust to be used for the benefit of those who have delegated it, and that circumstances might exist in which the necessity of self-vindication would justify such an inquiry. The first consideration belongs to those to whom we are both and equally accountable. From the influence of the second you have relieved me by your explicit declaration that no complaint affecting either my official or individual conduct has at any time reached you. You have assured me that the confidence which induced you originally to confer the appointment upon me remains unshaken and undiminished, and have been pleased to express the regret which you feel at the separation which circumstances have, in your view of the subject, rendered unavoidable. You have kindly added the assurance of your continued good wishes for my welfare. You will not, therefore, refuse me the gratification of expressing my earnest hope that, under the influence of better counsels, your own and the interests of our common country may receive all the benefits which you may have anticipated from the change of your confi- dential advisers. A very few days will enable me to put my office in a condition for the reception of my successor, and I will advise you of the fact as soon as its arrangement is completed.
I am respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
JN. MACPHERSON BERRIEN.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
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WASHINGTON, June 15, 1831.
SIR :- I have received your letter resigning the office of Attorney- General.
In the conversation which I held with you the day before yesterday VOL. I .- 4
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upon this subject, it was my desire to present to you the considerations upon which I acted in accepting the resignation of the other members of the Cabinet, and to assure you, in regard to yourself as well as to them, that they imply no dissatisfaction with the manner in which the duties of the respective departments have been performed. It affords me great pleasure to find that you have not misconceived the character of those considerations, and that you do justice to the personal feelings with which they are connected.
I will only add that the determination to change my Cabinet was die- tated by an imperious sense of public duty, and a thorough, though pain- ful, conviction that the stewardship of power with which I am clothed called for it as a measure of justice to those who had been alike invited to maintain near me the relation of confidential advisers. Perceiving that the harmony in feeling, so necessary to an efficient administration, had failed in a considerable degree to mark the course of this, and having assented on this account to the voluntary retirement of the Secretaries of State and War, no alternative was left me but to give this assent a lati- tude coextensive with the embarrassments which it recognised, and the duty which I owed to each member of the Cabinet.
In accepting your resignation as Attorney-General, I take pleasure in expressing my approbation of the zeal and efficiency with which its duties have been performed, and in assuring you that you carry with you my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
.ANDREW JACKSON.
JOHN M. BERRIEN, Esq.
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