USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume II > Part 22
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To return : my mother died, and I received the heart-rending news at Augusta. Great Father of mercies ! what were my sufferings those who
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saw my agony alone can tell. I sat sometimes looking at the moon with streaming eyes, remembering the moments we had passed together by moonlight, and recalling all my poor mother's sorrows, her virtues, her voice, and her words. At other times, when all was still around me and my companions were asleep, I have sobbed upon my pillow and drenched it in tears. My studious habits were abandoned, and an all-absorbing grief possessed me. I determined to leave school; and, an opportunity offering, I went home.
My poor mother's late residence was a desert; but I walked about the garden, through her chamber, sat in her chair, and bewailed her with a sorrow most poignant. O my beloved parent, dost thou inhabit other regions, and can it be that thou forgettest thy erring and unhappy and still helpless son ? On thy death-bed thou didst caress a little butterfly, fancying that my spirit had taken a favorite and lovely form to commune with thine in its darkest hour; and now I sometimes think, when a butterfly comes to me fluttering around the candle at which I read, settling on my sleeve, or crosses my evening walk, that thou hast not forgot, but art still near me. O loved long and ever, if my thoughts can be known to thee, and if thou hast power to assist me, yield me thine aid ; take sometimes the place of my guardian spirit, and be ever near me; and, oh, implore thy God and my God to forgive my follies and to grant me strength to bear up against the ills of life and to overcome the envy and . malice of my enemies !
My father soon sent me back to school. But my nature seemed to have undergone a radical change : it had, in its deep grief, approached a bound- ary beyond which all was wildness and folly. I no longer thought or studied : there was no one now on earth whose approbation I cared for, whose encouragement was valuable to me. My only aim was to stiflé re- flection and to "conquer my bosom's sadness" by noisy mirth. I par- took in the sports of the school and forsook my books. It is true, I was more the favorite of my school-fellows ; but all piety, sincerity, pride-in a word, my day of happiness-was completely overcast.
At length I left Augusta, with a tolerable supply of Latin and Greek ; and, after some months passed with my sister, whom I loved affectionately, I went to Columbia, and was entered on the books of the college in the Freshman class. It was intended I should take a place in the Sopho- more ; but Doctor Maxcy deemed me too little skilled in scholarship to put me there. A new scene now opened upon me. I doffed my ruffled shirts, put on cravats, shaved my beard, (and in one of my first efforts in this way had nearly cut off my nose,) strutted consequentially, and was a man ! Being very effeminate, I avoided all broils and disputes as far as natural vivacity and heedlessness permitted. I frequented the company of ladies, of which I was very fond, and, indeed, never saw a woman without expe- riencing a thrill of delight.
The college had just commenced : there was no apparatus, no library, but one Senior and four Sophomores, and a host of Freshmen. I was a better scholar than any in the Freshman class, and was often resorted to by my classmates to construe their lessons and to assist them to prepare for recitations. I no longer studied : there was no necessity for it. Ladies' company, poetry, and novels, occupied my time. I had read so many romances that the stories were all jumbled together in my memory, and it was impossible for me to understand a graver work. I remember to have read Ferguson's Rome without any profit whatever. I could not com-
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prehend a great part of the history, and what I did understand I did not recollect. Whence arose this defect of memory ? Was it because my mind was crowded to overflowing with the incidents of works of fiction, and there was no room for any thing else ? Was it that in reading I was wont . to pursue the main thread of the story by glancing my eye over the page before me, without taking in the language on the minor incidents ? Let those who wish to derive advantage from reading beware of a careless habit !
My frankness, benevolence, and lively imagination soon procured me friends. Among them was Anderson Crenshaw,* the Senior, who was an excellent man, and, as I then thought, learned beyond measure. He afterward was deranged at college, but recovered, and graduated. He became a lawyer; but I do not know that he was ever distinguished. George Davis was another collegian whom I loved : he had a genius equalled by few, and a kindness of heart as remarkable as it was rare. Poor fellow! he died early. Had he longer lived, he must have occupied a large space in the world's eye. Another person to whom I was attached was Joseph Lowry, as pure a being as ever lived. He is now a preacher of God's gospel; and, if any one goes to heaven, he will. William Harper, the present Chancellor of South Carolina, was also my friend. He was a fine scholar and profound reasoner ; also a good poet, though I knew him once to steal some verses and to palm them on us as his own.
This account brings him to manhood. With whom he read law, or at what precise time he was admitted to the bar, has not been ascertained for this memoir. That he was industrious and regarded as a rising youth may be inferred from the circumstance that he was selected to deliver a public address at Augusta, in 1808, while in his nineteenth year. The author has procured the original manuscript, from which he has copied several paragraphs, showing the solid order of Mr. Reid's abilities and the maturity of his style before he had ceased to be a minor. It is thus entitled :-
An Oration on the 16th of January,-the birthday of Doctor BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and anniversary of the Savannah River Literary Associa- tion,-1808.
(Extract.)
In 1744, the British possessions in North America, increasing in wisdom and strength, began to perceive their connection with Great Britain to be maintained by the latter wholly on the ground of interest. The golden harvest annually reaped in the Colonies was but an incitement to gather- ing more on each returning year. Engrossing our commerce, and imposing theirs upon us, under the semblance of maternal friendship, they were draining our pockets and exporting luxuries into our country in order to enervate our hardy sons, to create in them an increasing ardor for foreign superfluities, and finally render them dependent, without a wish or power of redress.
* Removed to Alabama, and successively held the offices of Circuit Judge and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and died one of the Chancellors of that State, about the year 1845 .- M.
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The Proprietors of certain States were unwilling to recognise the right of general taxation ; and, while the honest farmer paid his proportion, the lands of his master were deemed hallowed and exempt from contributing their share to the support of a Government which was daily preserving them from French inroads and savage conflagration. To oppose this unjustifiable privilege, Benjamin Franklin first forsook the private walks of life. His soaring mind perceived the dangers awaiting his country from the encouragement or even permission of such measures. Breathing the spirit of liberty, he stood up boldly against the chicanery of party and intrigue of Proprietary influence. He insisted that mankind were equal by birth ; that Americans were not slaves, and it was neither their duty or inclination to bend in homage to a tyrant's rod of iron, or bless the hand inflicting the galling wound; that no moral or physical right excluded the Proprietors from joining the landholder in the expenses demanded by the public.
He spoke, and conviction followed his words. He reasoned, and sophistry declined the contest. His periods were not fraught with that specious eloquence which characterized a Henry, or the vehemence of a Randolph ; but the energy of a Madison, the philosophy of Jefferson, and the zealous truth of Washington were stamped upon them. It was in vain. The hearts of the citizens always beat responsive to sentiments of freedom and equality; but their governors, in the service of corrupted Englishmen, hardened to the call of justice, were still determined to rule with a high hand and persist in their diabolical pretensions.
Such was the situation of the country when the encroachments of the French and Indians on our boundaries spread terror and alarm far and wide. Washington arose, like the moon from a misty cloud, like the sun from the morning vapor, and, gathering the rugged children of the mountains, sought the enemy on the cold borders of the Monongahela. His patriotism and firmness converted the unfavorable prospects of total defeat into almost a victory; and he returned with stainless and unfaded laurels from Fort Necessity. During these times of tumult Franklin was not inactive. Seated in the councils of wisdom, he formed plans for effective resistance. The consternation which prevailed on this side the Atlantic was quickly wafted to Great Britain, and the ill-fated Braddock was deputed to terminate the contest. Unacquainted with the wiles of the crafty savage with whom he had to deal, and despising the modest counsels of our gallant Washington, he fell into an ambuscade of French and Indians, and lost his own life, together with the lives of the flower of his army. Gloom and despair hung upon the battle ! The scalping- knife glittered in the evening sun ; the poisoned arrow whistled through the air! The groans of the dying Braddock, mingled with the war-whoop and the execrations of the French, added new horror to the last moments of the expiring soldier.
But Washington came forth in his strength, calm as the breast of the lake when the loud wind is laid. Cool and collected, he drew the residue of the corps from the scene of carnage, and, by a timely and well-conducted retreat, formed a junction with the rear. Unable to prosecute a contest which had become so unequal, the forces were obliged to return, first setting fire to one hundred and fifty baggage-wagons which the patriotic exertions of Franklin had procured for the expedition, and for the return of which he had bound himself in severe penalties. Undismayed, how- ever, by these unfortunate events, that hero [sage] proposed in the House
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of Delegates the establishment of a militia, which was accordingly carried into effect, and himself appointed colonel of a regiment of twelve hundred men, destined to defend the Northwestern frontier. He left the shades of science and the school of wisdom to take charge of this important post ; but the Assembly of Pennsylvania experienced the loss of their able coun- sellor in a manner so signal, that he was recalled, again to illuminate that body with the splendor of his abilities,-a splendor not transient as the meteor which blazes and is gone, but steady and refulgent as yon bright orb of day which scatters life and vigor from utmost Thule to the Southern Pole.
Expensive as the defence of the Colonies was to the mother-country, it might easily have been avoided by placing muskets in the hands of Ameri- cans and teaching them to defend themselves. This, however, would have proved a ruinous policy : it would have been adding the means of emancipation to the knowledge of their situation, which already seemed to have impressed them deeply, as was but too plainly evinced in their spirited addresses to their governors on the subject of general taxation. These complaints, though trite and hackneyed, were not the less interesting to the people; and, in 1757, Franklin was appointed agent for Pennsyl- vania, to beseech redress at the foot of the throne. Attended by the benisons of his countrymen, this able statesman embarked, and arrived at London, where he laid before the Proprietors the inexpediency and even impossibility of infringing on the rights of Americans. He exploded the transatlantic idea that human nature was degenerate on the Western con- tinent, and represented his countrymen as breathing the air of liberty, tilling the soil of freedom, and determined never to bend their necks to the buskined foot of oppression.
They scarcely listened to him with patience, and treated him as the re- presentative of bondmen. It was now that, in the most moving and irre- sistible language, he preferred the injuries of his country to the ear of majesty. Truth and justice will prevail. Even amid the corrupted pur- lieus of a British court men were found more attached to principles of right, however abstract and disguised, than to the open practice of wrong in an unprincipled Parliament and intriguing cabinet. The Proprietors, discovering the opposition greater than they had been aware, consented to a compromise, and finally agreed that their lands should be equally subject to the payment of taxes with those of the inhabitants. Having compassed this important object of his mission, Franklin received from all quarters congratulations and applause.
In 1811, Mr. Reid married Miss Anna Margaretta McLaws, with whom he lived in great happiness until her death, on 7th Septem- ber, 1825. She left him five children,-Janet, James W. E., Rosalie, Florida Forsyth, and Robert Raymond. The eldest daughter married her cousin, Charles Black, who removed to Florida, where he died, leaving his young widow to take care of their two children, Rebecca and Charles, both of whom died young. Mrs. Black afterward intermarried with Captain James Graham, of the United States Army, but died before her father. James W. E. Reid was educated at the Naval School, Annapolis, Mary-
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land, and became a midshipman. In 1839, he was placed in com- mand of a national vessel, the "Sea-Gull," attached to Captain Wilkes's Exploring Expedition, and was lost in a gale off Cape Horn with every soul on board. His second daughter, Rosalie, died at the age of seventeen, and his third daughter, Florida For- syth, married Lieut. F. L. Darcy, who is now a successful planter on the St. John's. Robert Raymond is a merchant at Palatka. In the extracts which will appear in the course of this narrative, most of these children are particularly mentioned.
Before commencing with the public life of Judge Reid, it may be in order to notice his second marriage, on the 8th of May, 1829, with Miss Elizabeth Napier Delphia Virginia Randolph, of Colum- bia county. She was a lady of commanding beauty and superior accomplishments; but death, on the 22d of January, 1831, re- moved her from husband and friends. This was a severe blow to Judge Reid. He never fully recovered from it, as will be seen in passages of his diary.
In 1813, we find Mr. Reid playing the orator, on the 4th of July, at Augusta. His address was published in pamphlet form, at the request of the citizens. A brief extract is here given :-
The British maxim, " Once a subject, always a subject," is counter to American policy,-to the dictates of reason. If a man, influenced by chance or preference, leave his native, peaceful land, he has surely the right to locate himself where he pleases, and to aid and assist that Government where he finds support and protection. In the right of naturalization we open to the oppressed of all nations a refuge and asylum. The Russian forsakes his despotic government and wastes of snow. The Frenchman leaves his distracted country and blushing vine- yards. The Polander weeps over his partitioned state, and bids the forests of Lithuania and the towers of Warsaw farewell, with a sigh. The Irish- man escapes his impoverished country, while the tear glitters in his eye and "Erin go bragh" lingers on his tongue. The Scotchman casts a last long lingering look on that
"Land of broom-heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood, Land of his sires."
The Briton flies the complicated imposition of taxes and his enamelled meadows to retire to the bosom of America, where a mild government will protect their rights, where friends wait to receive them, where the endearing joys of home shall again return. In vain do we extend the hand of friendship to our unfortunate brethren if Great Britain, with imperious tone, interpose her command that we make not citizens of her subjects.
*
The late changes made by the President in the officers of departments under his control, and the distinguished characters who command in our
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armies, would seem, if not to insure, at least to deserve success. The names of Boyd, Wilkinson, Clay, Pierce, Pinckney, Forsyth, Flournoy, and others shall be heard in distant times; and Harrison,
" Untainted by flight or by chains, While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With liis back to the field and his feet to the foe ;
And, leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame."
Time shall do homage to the fame of those who have bravely fallen in the present war, whether by sea or land. Their names shall be registered in the temple of memory, and on each return of this day the orator shall make an offering of the purest praise to their hovering spirits.
" How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes bless'd ! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung. There Honor comes-a pilgrim gray --- To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom shall a while repair To dwell, a weeping hermit, there."
Shades of the valiant, in bowers of bliss by the fountains of happiness ! ye are found worthy the society of the mighty dead ! WASHINGTON, the greatest in a land of spirits, welcomes you to his airy hall! Ye commune with the departed worthies of your country! Ye hear the tales of old ! Ye tell to the listening ghosts the actions of your fame : they equal the deeds of other times ! Crowns of immortal amaranth, woven by seraphic hands, smile on your eternal temples ! For you the groves of Paradise assume a fresher verdure, and new anthems arise from the harps of angels !
These youthful efforts are reproduced here as evidence of the literary turn of Mr. Reid. The next document is official, being part of his charge to the Grand Jury at December Term, 1816, of Burke Superior Court. His promotion to the bench at the early age of twenty-seven years was indeed a compliment to his talents and moral worth. After alluding to certain vices in so- ciety which it was the province of the Grand Inquest of the county to suppress by their action, Judge Reid dwelt more particularly on the one he considered most destructive to the happiness of the community. He thus expressed himself :-
Need I tell you in plainer language it is drunkenness of which I speak ? Man is at best but the child of frailty. The violence of passion agitates the human mind with continual tumult, and the voice of reason, like the cries of the shipwrecked mariner, is heard only in the pauses of the storm. But when a depraved appetite delivers its miserable victim to the influence of intemperance, it is then that reason is overwhelmed,
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pride forgets its consequence, intellect relinquishes its rich treasures, and that form which bore the impression and seal of Divinity is changed into a bloated monster, with feelings and propensities at once bestial and disgusting. Many persons vainly imagine that infractions of the laws are venial when committed in a state of intoxication; and they sophisti- cally argue that, laboring under a species of madness, they are driven to atrocities from which, in their moments of sobriety and self-collection, they would start with abhorrence. But this plea will not avail. This hideous vice conceals none of its deformities. It is true the brimming goblet may sparkle in the hand of pleasure; but beneath its transparent wave is seen the dark and deep and deadly poison. Roses may crown the cup ; but they are cankered by tears of remorse and sorrow and disappoint- ment. The unhappy being who ventures to slake his thirst knows at the moment the perils which await him. He has before witnessed its horrible effects. He has seen the fond father become the hater of his offspring, the tender husband transformed to the inveterate tyrant, the faithful friend to the bitter enemy, the pride of society to the object of common scorn; and yet will he not abstain; yet will he swallow down the infuri- ating draught which shall make him the jest of the vulgar, the scoff of his foes, and the regret of his friends,-which shall lift his arm against every man, and every man's hand against him. Let him then receive the consequences of his temerity: he has courted them with his eyes open. The law rejects his claim to its lenity, and intemperance adds a blacker shade to the enormities which it produces. I have perhaps dwelt too strongly upon this subject; but I am so well aware of the existence of the evil and its destructive tendency that I cannot help thus publicly requesting you to lend your aid, whenever it may be properly afforded, to put down and destroy so great a pest to morality and civiliza- tion.
In their general presentments at the close of the term, the Grand Jury (whose foreman was S. Harlow, Esq.,) thus responded to his Honor :-
We sincerely regret that, in uniting with his Honor the judge in bearing testimony against the degrading and disgusting vice of drunkenness, we are compelled to say that it prevails in this county to an alarming degree, and is, we fear, increasing. To this cause, principally, may be attributed the unusual number of criminal prosecutions commenced at this term. We earnestly recommend to magistrates, and all others possessing influence in society, to endeavor, as far as may be in their power, both by precept and example, to discountenance this odious practice, the fruitful source of every crime. And, if our voices could reach the Legislature, we would respectfully suggest to the consideration of that body whether the evil might not in some measure be remedied by restricting the granting of licenses to retail spirituous liquors in small quantities to houses established for the enter- tainment of travellers and strangers, and requiring security from the keepers of such houses for the preservation of order.
This plan appears to us very practicable ; and we are persuaded that much benefit would result from suppressing a multitude of tippling-shops which are nuisances in their respective neighborhoods, destructive to the morals of the people, and disgraceful in the country.
We tender our thanks to his Honor Judge Reid for his prompt and
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diligent attention to the duties of his station, and particularly for his determined support of good order during the present term. And we respectfully request that his Honor's charge to us, together with these presentments, may be published.
From the highest judicial dignity then known in Georgia, Judge Reid was next elected a Representative in Congress, in 1818, and re-elected in 1820, both of which terms he served with usefulness to his constituents and reputation to himself. The author has before him a pamphlet copy of the speech delivered by Judge Reid on the Missouri question, which so fully anticipates the controversy which has since grown out of the action of Congress in regard to slavery in the Territories, that he makes no apology for incorpo- rating the entire speech in this memoir, as an act of justice :-
SPEECH OF MR. REID, OF GEORGIA, ON THE RESTRICTION OF SLAVERY IN MISSOURI.
. Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, January 28, 1820.
Mr. REID said that this was a question deeply interesting to that quar- ter of the Union whence he had the honor to come, was the only apology he urged for offering his opinions to the committee.
The subject (he continued) is said to be delicate and embarrassing. It is so ; and particularly in one point of view. The sentiments to which the heat and ardor of debate give expression will not expire here, like the broken echoes of your hall ! They will penetrate to the remotest cor- ners of the nation, and may make an impression upon the black population of the South, as fatal in its effects to the slave as mischievous to our citizens. This is not mere idle surmise. In a professional capacity, I was recently concerned for several unhappy beings who were tried and convicted of a violation of the laws by attempted insurrection. They had held conversations, as the testimony developed, with certain itinerant traders, who not only poisoned their minds, but incited them to rebellion by proffered assistance. Such influence have the opinions of even the most depraved and ignorant white men upon this unfortunate race of people ! But the subject is neither delicate or embarrassing, as it is con- sidered to imply reproach, or a high offence against the moral law,-the violation of the liberty of our fellow-man. Such imputations
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