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 24
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I beg leave to offer a few words upon the expediency of this amendment, and I declare myself at a loss to divine the motive which so ardently presses its enactment. It is said that humanity, a tender concern for the welfare both of the slave and his master, is the moving principle. And here I cannot refrain from repeating the words of a periodical writer as remarkable for his good taste as the justness of his sentiments :- "The usual mode," says he, "of making a bad measure palatable to a virtuous and well-disposed community is that of holding it up as conducing to some salutary end, by which the whole people are eventually to be greatly benefited. It is thus that every mischievous public measure is sheltered behind some pretext of public good." But it is a question which deserves consideration, whether, if slavery be confined to its present limits, the situation of the master or the slave, or both, will be made better. Will
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not the increased number of slaves within a given space diminish the · means of subsistence? Will not the number of masters diminish as the number of slaves increases ? And what are the consequences ? Extreme wretchedness, penury, and want to the slave; care, anxiety, imbecility, and servile war to the master. Then, indeed, will be produced what the advocates of this amendment so much deprecate,-tyranny, in all its wan- tonness, on one hand, despair and revenge on the other. At this moment the situation of the Southern slave is, in many respects, enviable. Adopt your restriction, and his fate will not be better than that of the mastiff, howling all day long from the kennel where his chains confine him. But let the dappled tide of population roll onwards to the West, raise no mound to interrupt its course, and the evil of which we on all sides so bitterly complain will have lost half its power to harm, by dispersion. Slaves, divided among many masters, will enjoy greater privileges and comforts than those who, cooped within a narrow sphere and under few owners, will be doomed to drag a long, heavy, and clanking chain through the span of their existence. Danger from insurrection will diminish; con- fidence will grow between the master and his servant; the one will no longer be considered as a mere beast of burden, the other as a remorseless despot, void of feeling and commiseration. In proportion as few slaves are possessed by the same individual will he look with less reluctance to the prospect of their ultimate liberation. Emancipations will become com- mon ; and who knows but that the Great Being, to whose mercies all men have an equal claim, may, in the fulness of his time, work a miracle in behalf of the trampled rights of human nature ? Sir, humanity, unless I am egregiously deceived, disclaims those doctrines the practical result of which is to make the black man more wretched and the white man less safe. She turns, with shivering abhorrence, from the fetters which, while you affect to loosen, you clasp more firmly around the miserable African.
But let gentlemen beware ! Assume the Mississippi as a boundary. Say that to the smiling Canaan beyond its waters no slave shall approach, and you give a new character to its inhabitants, totally distinct from that which shall belong to the people thronging on the east of your limit. You implant diversity of pursuits, hostility of feeling, envy, hatred, and bitter reproaches, which
"Shall grow to clubs and naked swords, To murder and to death."
If you remain inexorable, if you persist in refusing the humble, the decent, the reasonable prayer of Missouri, is there no danger that her resistance will rise in proportion to your oppression ? Sir, the firebrand, which is even now cast into your society, will require blood-ay, and the blood of freemen-for its quenching. Your Union shall tremble, as under the force of an earthquake ! While you incautiously pull down a consti- tutional barrier, you make way for the dark, and tumultuous, and over- whelming waters of desolation. "If you sow the winds, must you not reap the whirlwind ?"
Soon after the close of his Congressional career Judge Reid was again elected to the bench of the Middle circuit, where he con- tinued until the session of the Legislature in 1825. He was then succeeded by the Hon. William Schley, who belonged to the
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Clark party. That year was memorable for the great contest between Gov. Troup and Gen. John Clark, who were candidates for the Executive, it being the first election of Governor by the people. The canvass was unusually bitter. Gov. Troup had triumphed over President Adams and his Cabinet in relation to the Old Treaty, under which the Creek lands were surveyed and distributed. The boldness with which he defended the rights of Georgia drew upon him the charge of "audacity," and he was reviled for every act of his administration. On the other hand, the blemishes of Gen. Clark were pointed out by the supporters of Troup in no very gentle terms. He was called a "tyrant," and a very ambitious man with but little merit to sustain his pretensions. The strife even extended to families, the members of which took opposite sides, and in too many instances unkind feelings were engendered which time failed to eradicate.
The first Monday in October, 1825, decided the contest. Out of 40,407 votes cast for Governor, Troup received 20,545, and Clark 19,862, -- giving the former a majority of 683 votes. But the Clark party had the power in the Legislature, and most pro- scriptively did they exercise it. With the exception of Judge Wayne, not a single Troup man was retained on the bench. The following are the names of the judges elected and those who retired in 1825 :-
DISTRICTS. ELECTED. RETIRED.
Eastern circuit
J. M. Wayne
Middle
William Schley R. R. Reid.
Ocmulgee "
O. H. Kenan . A. B. Longstreet.
Western
W. H. Underwood .. A. S. Clayton.
Flint 66
C. J. McDonald Eli S. Shorter.
Southern " Moses Fort T. G. Holt.
Northern "
John M. Dooly.
These seven were the only judicial circuits then existing. The solicitor-generals shared the same fate, in a party sense. This was the first time that such a spirit was permitted to dispose of qualifications for office on so broad a scale in Georgia. Since then, the precedent has been adhered to with equal tenacity by both political parties as they respectively prevailed at the ballot- box. No praise or censure is intended for either in thus standing by their friends. If it be a virtue or a fault, both share it alike.
Resuming the practice of his profession, Judge Reid appeared in many important causes in his own circuit, and occasionally at a distance, where the influence of his name commanded clients. He
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was a polished speaker, fluent and graceful, a fit companion of Richard Henry Wilde, his fellow-townsman and warm personal friend. The bar of the Middle circuit always maintained a high character for abilities and courtesy. Its members fostered a lofty social bearing, neither oppressive by cold dignity, nor yet so free as to encourage rude familiarity. It was the happy medium which secured respect and business on terms compatible with true fame. Of this school Judge Reid was a loyal disciple. His fine person attracted notice in any and every crowd. He was indeed a finished gentleman ; and so instinctively was he such-his organization so sensitive and his heart so kind-that it would have been impos- sible for him to have been coarse in his manners without trampling his nature in the dust. From his boyhood he was gentle, and his poetic raptures moulded him into a frame which the shocks of adversity and ingratitude he was destined to experience never ceased to torture.
Judge Reid was selected to deliver an address on laying the corner-stone of the Augusta Masonic Hall, June, 1828, from which an extract is given, affording the best argument we have seen for excluding ladies from the Craft. The orator said :-
Again, it is objected that females are not received into Masonic meet- ings, and it is tauntingly asked, Can any institution from which woman is carefully excluded be free from evil? Our reply to this question might with propriety rest upon the usages of the world. . Are women allowed to mingle in the ranks of battle, side by side and shoulder to shoulder with men ? Are they invited to swell the tide of debate in the Senate-house ? Does woman hasten to the polls at your elections or promulgate the holy doctrines from the sacred desk? And will valor be denied to the army and wisdom to the Senate because woman is not there? Will the elective franchise be deemed valueless, and instructions from the pulpit unholy, because woman does not participate in the one and is not a teacher of the other ? Woman is as effectually shut out from the ministry of the gospel, from the exercise of some of the highest privileges known in a free country, from the learned and the military professions, as she is from the Lodges of Masonry; and we say to those eager to find fault with us in this matter, "Take the beam from your own eye before you point out the mote in ours." Extend all the advantages you enjoy to the other sex; make her education equal to yours ; open to her the road to fame and renown; place her upon a level with you at home, and let her be your companion abroad ; twine around her brows not only the crown of myrtle, but the bays of science and the laurels of victory ; and when you have accomplished this, -all this,-then perhaps you may be justified in demanding for woman an admission into the chambers of Masonry.
But there is a reason to be found in the origin of Masonry which will at once show why women, according to the ancient and established rules of our Order, cannot be Masons. At first all masons were operative; that is to say, they were engaged in manual labor, to which the tenderness of woman was unadapted. Abundantly endowed with a capacity to com-
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prehend the tenets of speculative Masonry, still, woman was not sufficiently robust to engage in those works about which Masons were then actively and industriously employed. Thus, to no want of respect and esteem, but to a regard for her weakness and a desire to promote her comfort and happiness, is to be ascribed that immemorial usage which confines to our own sex the performance of the rights of Free Masonry. It becomes me to add that Masons are pledged to the protection of woman, and that they owe to her admiration and gratitude. How could it be otherwise ?
" The very first
Of human life must spring from woman's breast : Your first small words were taught you from her lips, Your first tears quench'd by her, and your last sighs Too often breathed out in a woman's hearing, When men have shrunk from the ignoble care Of watching the last hour !"
He, my friends, who deems lightly of woman cannot be a good and true man ; and none but a good and true man can be a good Mason.
In February, 1827, Judge Reid was appointed to preside over the City Court of Augusta, and in November, 1829, was re-elected by the Legislature to the same office. In the early part of this memoir it is stated that in January, 1831, he lost his second wife, in less than two years after their marriage. By this calamity his fortunes and his mind suffered an eclipse. The day of happiness was gone. He loved his children, and endured life for their sakes, -not for any other attraction. His house was sad and a place of misery. The presence of old objects-even old friends-gave him pain, all reviving the memory of the past and his own desolation. To change the scene, his friends applied to President Jackson for an office, and in May, 1832, he received the following commission :-
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, to all who shall see these presents,-greeting :
Know ye, that, reposing special trust and confidence in the wisdom, uprightness, and learning of Robert R. Reid, of Georgia, I have nomi- nated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him, Judge of the United States for the District of East Florida, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfil the duties of that office according to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and to have and to hold the said office with the powers, privileges, and emoluments to the same of right appertaining unto him, the said Robert R. Reid, for the term of four years from the day of the date hereof.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have caused these letters to be made patent and the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the twenty-fourth day of May, A.D. 1832, and of the Independence of the United States of America the fifty-sixth.
ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President :
EDW. LIVINGSTON,
Secretary of State.
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Before noticing his departure from Georgia to the "Land of Flowers," as Florida has been aptly styled, it may be proper to remark that, in the contest for Governor in 1829 between Major Joel Crawford and Mr. Gilmer, (both Troup men,) Judge Reid, who wrote freely for the political press in Augusta, espoused the cause of Maj. Crawford, and was replied to anonymously by the Hon. Eli S. Shorter, a friend of Mr. Gilmer. This circumstance gave rise to the following letter, which is here inserted, because it is highly creditable to the heart of its gifted author, and was accepted in the kindest spirit :-
DUBLIN, 9th October, 1829.
DEAR SIR :- The contest for Governor is now over. I have no dis- position to exult at the success of Mr. Gilmer or the defeat of Mr. Crawford. The first has never done or attempted to do me an injury ; but the latter has been for the last six years my bitter and unfeeling enemy. That I should have supported the one and opposed the other was natural.
In our newspaper-dispute you seemed to evidence toward me some deep feeling, and, I think, unjustly. This circumstance I much regret, for I have never, that I remember, lost any one opportunity of manifesting toward you the most friendly feelings. It has ever afforded me pleasure to further your views and to advance your interest; but, if a new state of relations is to exist between us, I can only regret the occurrence and submit to my destiny. I embarked in the support of Mr. Gilmer with a determination to bear him through; and that I should have turned your arguments and those of Mr. Crawford's other friends as much to the advantage of Mr. Gilmer as possible ought not to have excited your surprise or "indignation." Your belief,, however, of my being at the bottom of the contest between G. and C. is wholly a mistake. I was not in Athens, and had no part, directly or indirectly, in putting up Mr. G., but was much pleased that he was put up.
In regard to Mr. Forsyth, I will take this occasion to say that I con- sider him a splendid man and eminently qualified for any office. I have never failed to support him in my whole life, when he has been a candi- date for office ; but, in candor, I must say that my feelings are somewhat wounded with him for the course which I fear he pursued in bringing out Mr. C .: but still I am unwilling to abandon him. Efforts have been made to get up opposition to him; but, as far as I know, in every instance it has been by Clark men. Before and since the first Monday in October, very strong appeals have been made to me from the same quarter to become his competitor ; but in every instance I replied promptly,-first, that I considered it due to myself, my friends, and the community not to seek for as distinguished an office so soon after committing the great indiscretion in my private life that pushed me so near the brink of ruin ; and, second, that I know Mr. F. to be infinitely my superior in point of ability, education, and experience, and I would not consent to be provided for at so great a sacrifice to the State. I have done all in my power, and shall continue to do so, to keep down every opposition to Mr. F., and trust I shall succeed.
I felt it due to you and to myself to make the foregoing remarks
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They are submitted frankly and in a spirit of friendship. What I have done toward Mr. Forsyth has not been from fear of a, defeat, and what I have said to you is not with the view of being in the end benefited myself. I wish my course to be distinctly understood by all for whose opinions I have any regard, and look with confidence to the result. This letter you will please to consider private and confidential; and, if you answer it, direct your letter to me at my residence. ·
Respectfully, &c., ELI S. SHORTER.
Hon. ROBERT RAYMOND REID.
This letter was found among the papers of Judge Reid which had been submitted by his family to the inspection of the author. It alludes to an "indiscretion" in the "private life" of Judge Shorter which is referred to in his memoir in this volume. The tone of the letter is manly, and shows both tact and frankness in healing a supposed breach between friends. Mr. Forsyth was elected to the United States Senate in 1829, and was no doubt instrumental in obtaining for Judge Reid the very honorable post in Florida to which he soon repaired.
Judge Reid was in the habit of keeping a private journal,-not continuously from year to year, or even from month to month; but he noted down daily or at leisure periods such reflections, objects, and events as he deemed of interest and opportunity allowed him to record. While on a late visit to St. Augustine, the author availed himself of the kind permission of Mrs. Reid to look over several paper volumes containing entries of this character in the handwriting of Judge Reid, with liberty to copy such portions as might be of service in his memoir. When this labor of transcription was going on, the author was often at a loss what passages to select. Many of them related to his family and personal affairs, but all in such garb of propriety as might meet the public eye with advantage to his memory.
Believing that the composition of Judge Reid will please his readers far better than his own poor style, the author submits very copious extracts from these private journals, throwing light on men and things, blended with amusement equal to any similar record he has ever seen in print. It begins in 1825, when he was thirty-six years of age, and concludes in 1841, a few weeks pre- vious to his death,-embracing the golden period of his life. He had religious difficulties, and finally settled in the Unitarian faith. It will be seen that he was habitually devotional, and tried to keep his heart and actions upright. Gloom often gathered over his spirit. He needed a Friend to enlighten him,-the very Friend
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whom he rejected. His struggles were those of an exalted nature. Who can read his emotions, as they gush from the heart, without admiring his genius and sympathizing in his trials ?
No attempt will be made to arrange the extracts in any order except that of time. They are given word for word as they came from his pen, and will not be disturbed by explanatory matter until the end. The extracts here given form only a small portion of the contents of the journal or diary.
From the Private Journal of the Hon. Robert Raymond Reid.
1825, June 12 .- What a beautiful composition is the 35th Psalm of David! Surely never man more trusted in God, whether for good to himself or evil to his enemies ! The royal prophet did not love the latter, but prayed fervently for their destruction.
A Sunday passed at home in reading, sleeping, and writing.
A visit from a good Baptist preacher keeps me employed for the even- ing. He lectures on regeneration, which I cannot comprehend.
June 15 .- In much perplexity : my family sick, my heart sick, without friends, and surrounded by troubles. May God help me! for my way is covered with darkness, and I am groping and blundering like a midnight wanderer.
I resolve so to frame my conversation in presence of my children as to inform their minds and feelings.
The court almost over, and I exhausted and harassed. I should be always employed, kind and civil to all, always self-possessed, never forget my judicial character.
June 30 .- I would be a poet, a kind father and husband, a faithful friend, a good man, an upright judge, and free from debt.
July 28 .- I am full of faults, follies, and distresses. I deserve all, and more than I receive. I am undeserving the kindness of Heaven. May God have mercy and enable me to go through with the annexed plan for the month of August. [Hours for labor and recreation stated. ]
Aug. 6 .- A day badly spent. I wish I could arrange my debts. I then should have leisure for better things.
Aug. 9 .- There are few good novel-writers; but, if any man would write faithfully the history of his life and feelings, he would give to the world that which would be considered an excellent romance.
Aug. 16 .- Respect yourself, or others will not respect you. Think before you speak. Keep your servants at a distance, and admit their advances with caution. Endeavor to occupy your older children, and your younger also. Teach them never to repeat after servants, and not to be familiar. Be kind and just to your family and friends, and let the world say what it will. Lay down rules of temperance, and keep within them.
Aug. 30 .- Our young men come from college into the world as men go to a theatre, -- mere spectators, not fitted for the business or action of the stage. Studies should be varied, and the history, biography, travels, &c. which have relation to each branch should, by some judicious hand, be pointed out to the learner. The idea of shifting studies is not modern : indeed, it has its root in the nature of man, which delights in novelty and is fatigued with a constant engagedness in one pursuit. Logic detects false arguments. Religion and morals should prove the deformity, re-
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proach, and misery of a deviation from their precepts. Men must be kept in the right path by hope of reward and the fear of punishment. Every citizen of America is a secondary legislator, and should therefore acquaint himself with the Constitution, laws, and policy of the country as far as possible. It is never too late to begin the work of improvement, for we may lengthen life by truly enjoying the years that are to come. Speak neither too loud nor too low, but preserve the key of your voice in a happy medium. You will never speak well without self-possession and a knowledge of your subject. In reading statutes, deeds, &c., the voice may be uniform and the utterance quick with advantage. Be not too slow in reading or speaking; get your idea, and out with it. But speak not at all 'if you have no idea. If your thoughts are good, a little practice will give you a good style. Begin your speeches in a low voice, and con- form your manner and your subsequent tones to your subject. Attend carefully to the style and substance of every thing you read, and you will learn to read well. Stops vary in different writers, and afford no certain rule for the modifications of the voice. Emphasis must be controlled by attention to the sense of what you read. A man should form for himself the ideal of a character, and come up to it as nearly as possible. Literature has lost something by printing the names of things without capitals. What are necessary to an orator ? Sound judgment, good imagination, distinct voice, forcible expression, imposing or feeling or appropriate manner.
Thoughts on Money .- Men in the pursuit of happiness endeavor to pro- cure money, because that obtains those things by which human happiness is supposed to be promoted. It often happens that the habitual attention to the means entirely absorbs the end; that is to say, men, from con- stantly endeavoring to acquire money, lose sight of the objects for which they were anxious to get it: they acquire money not with the ultimate view of what money will bring, but from habit they love to get money. Hence the most controlling of all the passions, avarice !
Money is of two kinds, metallic and paper. The last is in common use, because it is lent or carries with it the greater security. Paper money is issued by banks and bankers, who get a quantity of specie and issue promissory notes to twice or thrice its amount. These go to persons who give security (generally names in credit) to the banks from whom they borrow. These bills cannot be redeemed if all are at once presented to the bank, because greater in amount than the fund upon which they issued; and the individual paper or notes would not be received in pay- ment, unless the bank were considered insolvent; and then there would be an end of the bank. It is to the interest of every banking-institution, then, to lend out as many of its bills as possible, because for them it receives promissory notes yielding an interest or discount. The bills, however, must be regulated by the chances of their return for specie to the bank. When these are not great, the issue may be extensive; but, if great, the issue must be as little as possible.
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