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 25
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Where there are many banks, the competition for profits will induce great and incautious issues. Where banks are few, they have the power in their own hands, and may exercise their judgment calmly, always sure of getting the best securities for their bills. That commercial community, therefore, is safest where the banks are few. As a political question, it may be truly argued that banks should not exist at all. Where there are many, they issue extravagantly and lead to luxury and bankruptcy; where
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there are few, they break by bestowing favors on a few,-an irregularity in society unfriendly to liberty. Besides, in a trading society the banks may ruin at their pleasure any man who is not subservient to their views.
The great error, so far as respects the comfort of society, in banking is this :- Men get money, and, except in a few instances, and those temporary, this money does not so increase itself as to allow the easy payment of dis- counts and reductions. Every man is then on the stretch : he has not of his own and must borrow ; he borrows from Peter to pay Paul, and at last finds himself unable to pay Peter. It were better if credits were longer, and not founded upon names, but property well secured. It might then be that men would not ruin themselves and others by promising to pay when they cannot pay, or by borrowing when they cannot return. So long as names upon paper will get money, men will involve themselves and their friends ; for every one thinks himself lucky, and hopes more than fortune warrants. Ten thousand dollars is taken from a bank upon good names ; the note falls due; the debtor borrows to pay,-reborrows and borrows again; he reaps nothing but anxiety and insolvency, for in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred he speculates and loses his cash. His note and the names are good for nothing in the end : the bank has contracted a bad debt; it is known ; its notes throng in and must be taken up. The bank presses the other debtors; and thus the whole community is con- volved and agitated.
Speculations are the chief causes of commercial distress and pressure upon banks. If it were otherwise,-if the bank laid hold of property in the first instance,-its solvency would be more universally known, the pressure upon it would be less, the surety less affected by fluctuations in the amount of floating or current capital, and the pressure less upon it. Besides, money should be loaned only in a certain proportion to the value of property, so that if the debtor be imprudent he may at least be left something wherewith to repair his folly. Property is a better security than names. The last are the shadow, with this peculiarity,-that it often remains when the substance is gone.
Sept. 29, 1830 .- I am now forty-one years and twenty-one days old ; possessed of a good constitution with which I have taken many liberties, a mind somewhat impaired by misfortune and its consequences, and a heart broken over and over again by afflictions. I am surrounded by embar- rassments and difficulties, and see no avenue of escape. Death would be a relief to me, were it not for the helplessness of my children, who are most dear to me, and the consciousness that, if virtue makes happiness, I am not prepared for an after-existence. I pray to God to be merciful to me ! But of what avail are the petitions of one so unworthy as myself ? and, moreover, these said prayers are like the king's in Hamlet,-words, . and not thoughts :- "Words without thoughts seldom to heaven go !" Let me see : what would I be ? Alas, the time has passed for asking that question. What can I now be ? were more proper. Why, I can repair : no, never !- repair is not the word. I can be more industrious than I have been. I can regulate my passions better than formerly, and also my appetites. I can still do some good in the world; and as for fame, there is only one way in which I wish to acquire it. If I could secure to myself a favor- able notice as an author,-but the hope is presuming and vain ! I ought to put it down; and yet I cannot. It is a hope that has been with me
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from infancy, and, though long deferred, is still present and affording me comfort. I promise myself this day,-
1. To be more temperate, in the largest acceptation of the term; yet I will not forsake pleasure, for my maxim is, "God is paid when man receives : to enjoy is to obey." Excess in every thing is to be avoided ; moderation is allowable, and the power to moderate constitutes true wisdom.
2. To be industrious in my profession, in acquiring knowledge, and in writing.
3. In all that I possibly can to perform my duty to God and to my neighbor. I am not religious, but I will, if possible, become rationally so. As for your thorough-going religious man, he always seemed to me a devil more than a saint,-more fit for hell than for heaven.
*
*
Brandy and wine,-but they are enemies; and he who obeys toward them the divine injunction, "Love your enemies," should nevertheless " keep a red eye out," lest his dear enemies should get the better of him. Three potations are enough in the twenty-four hours. I have a hankering for snuff and tobacco and a love for cigars : surely two pinches, two chews, and two fumigations per diem can do no great harm. I'll make the experiment, however, and then we shall see. I am not a luxurious eater, although I like good things. Moderate breakfasts, hearty dinners, no suppers, and seidlitz, bathing and the flesh-brush, will serve to keep me wound up during the month.
Oct. 13, 1831 .- What changes have been wrought by one little year ! When this journal was discontinued, I was a husband, and expect- ing to be the father of another child. Now, when nearly a year after- ward I put pen to these pages, I am desolate ! Children there are, to-be- sure ; but the light of my life has been extinguished, and I am left in darkness !
I am now upward of forty-two years of age; and how, upon examina- tion,-close and rigorous examination,-do I find myself? Worse in circumstances, worse in habits, worse in feelings ! Nothing can excuse my downward course but absolute madness,-madness occasioned by mis- fortune,-excess of misfortune! God help me! I am most unworthy even to offer a prayer to the great and mysterious Being by whom I have been sorely and justly chastened.
March 4, 1832 .- Woke the same miserable being as when I went to bed. I am obliged to stifle thought,-unrestrained thought; and an unbroken view of all the ills I endure and have endured, and all the woes in prospect, would kill me !
Augusta, June 24, 1832 .- It is meet that I commune a little with myself. My health and constitution are impaired. I must adopt a course different from that I have pursued, in order to preserve SANITY of mind and body! First, then, my mind.
I must devote all leisure time that I can to the improvement of my mind. History, law, politics, science, are yet unlearned ; and their order and my application to them must be regulated by rules hereafter to be adopted, when I get to the place of my new destination, [East Florida.]
1833, Jan. 31 .- Passed the day at Tallahassee, and employed for the most part in business. Nervously inclined. Shall I never get rid of feelings which make earth a hell while they last ? Took Rob to town with me,-the best and purest boy upon the face of the earth ! Shall the
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time come when his kind heart will become corrupt and his innocence give way to guilt ? God forbid !
Somehow or other, there is a charm in Florida which attaches me to the country. In St. Augustine it was the Moresco-Spanish architecture, the venerable castle, the orange-groves, the bright moon and stars. On the way he sees the beautiful St. John's, the extensive pine-lands, the deep gloom of Black Creek, the magnificent Lake Kingsley, the dark Suwannee, the subterranean rivers, and the lime-sinks. Here, the lofty live-oaks, and the mossy hammocks, and the rural city, or rather forest-city, of Talla- hassee, wind the spell about me. After all, the chief reason of my fond- ness for Florida may be that it brings me no unpleasant associations. It is true I am tracing these lines near the grave of a kind-hearted and talented youth whose relationship to me made him very dear to my heart. I think of his virtues, intelligence, enterprise, and early doom, and am melancholy; but 'tis not the melancholy which came from the contem- plation of scenes in which I had met injustice and ingratitude in their worst forms; where I had encountered the loss of a wife,-a lovely, highly-gifted, extraordinary woman. No, no! Had I remained in Georgia I had gone crazy. I may yet, for I often feel the madness coming to my brain ; but I'll strive for my own sake,-my children,-for Florida.
Feb. 1 .- Spent the day at my daughter's plantation, roaming through the forest, indulging dark and desponding thoughts, reflecting on the ingratitude of , of those who should have sustained me. Oh, friendship! Then writing a long letter to Gov. Forsyth and reading Silliman's Travels,-good book, but sometimes makes one think of the first two syllables of the author's name.
Thus has the day been made out ; but it has been an unpleasant day, though my solitude has been unbroken,-and God knows how grateful solitude is to me. But my affairs-those of my child, for whose arrival here I am anxiously looking out, my prospects in this world and no pros- pects in another-are all gloomy, and fill me with doubt and dismay. Would I were a Christian ! but I cannot be a hypocrite.
Weather pleasant, and, while I write, the moon and stars are shining with surpassing lustre upon the high oaks that lift their branches over my log cabin.
This is the fatal 1st of February. What will the Nullifiers do ? Some think the storm will blow over. The disciples of Mr. Calhoun do not wish it to do so: a settlement of the Tariff would be death to the hopes of him and Mr. Clay. I think we shall have a row ; but the Union will weather it,-no thanks to the South Carolina aspirants.
Feb. 2 .- I hear by letter from Augusta (newspapers I can get none) that South Carolina's ordinance is suspended to the adjournment of Con- gress. That is well; it will now never be enforced. I wept this evening at poor Charles's* grave ! Poor young fellow ! how soon were all his hopes cruelly blighted ! The moon is shining brightly, though light clouds are driven across the heavens by the wind. "I'll forth and walk a while."
Feb .- 19. Set out after breakfast in a stanhope, having traded my gig for it. Like all my trades, bad ; but the vehicle more convenient than the one I gave for it. But the boot,-I could not afford to give it, and should
* Charles Black, his son in law.
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have been satisfied with what I possessed. Extravagance is indeed my besetting sin, and I should strive and master it.
Feb. 20 .- The old man [Mr. McGehee, at whose house he stayed the previous night] has been an instructor of youth, and would yet take delight, he says, in teaching. In the morning I found him seated on the steps of his house and feeding his chickens. One was a rooster of spirit, that ate from his hand. "This," said he, "I raised from a chicken, and taught him to eat as you see, and even to light on my knee and my shoulder ; but when he began to crow he took up with this young hen, and refused to eat what I offered him until he had first clucked to her, and invited her to partake." I offered the old lady a pinch of snuff : she said "'twas the first she had seen since her arrival in Florida." I gave her half the contents of my box, and she produced, to receive it, an old family snuff-box, silver, lined with gold. It had been nearly one hundred years in the family, and its top was composed of one centre-stone, a beau- tiful blue, with a rich vein of gold and dove color. I looked at the sun through the stone : he was as red as blood. The old man told me the box was in request in Carolina at the time of the spots in the sun, and more spots had been discovered through this stone than by the best telescopes.
Feb. 26 .- Pass the St. John's; but my horses, carriage, and servant can't pass the river. Waves running high, wind high, tide strong. Flat, freighted with the said horses, carriage, and servant, gets two-thirds over, and obliged to put back, all in danger; but get over late in after- noon. Stay at old Hendrick's : quite sick at night.
Feb. 27 .- For St. Augustine! Reach home delighted. The City of the Saint covered with orange-blossoms and redolent of sweets: more satisfied with it than ever. Meet my dear Flora and Rosalie, and my kind ser- vants,-all pleased !
May 3 .- It is proper that I should frame a course or scheme of life and adhere to it. Order and regularity are the main-springs of existence. What objects must I have in view ? Health, comfort, amusement. Im- prove in law and history; cultivate a taste for poetry ; exercise in com- position and oratory. Acquire a knowledge of the Spanish, and improve myself in belles-lettres studies, performing at the same time the duties of a father, master, neighbor, and friend.
Doctor - and I took a walk round the Fort, my head as big as a bushel ; told him my complaints; asked him to take my case in hand. He is a young man deep in consumption, but, I think, pretty good physician. We came to my house, talked with the ladies,-several there. The doctor professed to dislike the interference of preachers with sick people. Think he is wrong. Their motive is a mixed one, duty and vanity combined. If one ever attacks me, I shall see what he knows more than I do upon that grand and important subject. Doctor attempts, by way of beginning, to bleed me. Expresses surprise at my arm,-not rough and sinewy, but plump, round, and lady-like ; not a vein to be found; blood all up in my head. I am in a bad way ; but I am not alarmed. God's will be done !
May 22 .- Getting on (in court) pretty well; only one skirmish, and that with one of the bar, whose temper and habits and manner unfit him for social life. What shall we think of one whose literary attainments are not inconsiderable, whose physical and mental powers are, perhaps, extra- ordinary, whose industry and energy are vigorous and indefatigable, and yet whose love of self and ambition are unbounded, who is impatient of VOL. II .- 14
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all restraint, suspicious, angry, and revengeful, with a spice of magnani- mity and a gloss of good breeding,-to which may be added violent passions, irritable feelings, and unbounded craft ? All these qualities belong to -, and make him a strange, lofty, and repulsive character. When we look to his gigantic stature, lofty brow, the deep furrows of passion around his eyes and on his cheeks,-his surly mouth, formed not even for sneers, but full of bitterness, rank bitterness,-and, lastly, his black eyes, in which you look as into deep and dark fountains of sin and remorse,- eyes which may be characterized by the word " luciferian" more than any other,-we behold a being from whom we must stand apart, who can have no sympathy with us, and who, if we approach too near him, will certainly do us harm.
May 29 .- Read a chapter of the Revelation on Horned Beasts, and a Lesson from Sturm on the economy of bees, some of which, he says, are employed in bringing materials, others in labor within the hive, and a third class in feeding the laborers. Bees are indeed wonderful creatures : they have an intelligence and an art which man in vain might struggle to acquire, with all his boasted wisdom. I think, too, it is true that there are persons to whom they have antipathy and will attack, and others toward whom they entertain opposite or friendly feelings. Some persons may handle them with impunity; others suffer if they go near them. This must be owing to their delicate olfactories and the superior fra- grance of some of our species to others. I owned bees once : they left me ; old women say, a sign of decay and ruin,-but too well verified in my fortunes. Prayed feebly to God to help me to restrain appetite and to enable me to improve in good works.
DINNER FROM THE BAR.
June 3, 1833 .- Since I last journalized, there have been events. The most conspicuous was the Feast of Shells, to which the members of my bar invited me. To me, all unsuspicious of the honor intended, came a letter fairly written upon yellow paper, informing me that the gentlemen of the long robe thought very well of my conduct, both public and private, and wished to testify their respect by giving me a public dinner. Now, be it known that I am of suspicious temper, and, well knowing the jarring elements that abound here, and the inflammable materials around me, I conned the said letter upon the fine yellow paper aforesaid, over and over again, as sorely puzzled as was poor Tony Lumpkin when the letter from Hastings met his astonied gaze. True, I read not only the superscription, but the inside of the epistle, perfectly well; but the intention and design, the object in view and the end to be effected, I could not unravel. "This," said I, " looks well, sounds well: what the d -- I does it mean ? I know I'm no Mansfield or Hale, and don't deserve a jot of such an honor ; and, what's more, there are those among us who participate in this thing, and are of the same opinion.
"They have no desire to do me honor; and the rest, why-why-there are not more than one or two who would not be willing to see me sup- planted to-morrow ! How, then, shall I act ? Shall I decline and make a courtly excuse, or accept the invitation, hazarding all consequences?" The devil, in the shape of vanity and good-nature, made me adopt the latter alternative. Well, I returned a very complimentary letter, and the time, Friday, three P.M., (Friday is an unlucky day with me,) came. As no place
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was mentioned, I waited until half-past three o'clock, expecting an escort, of course ; but none came. So I sallied forth in search of my dinner, and wended toward Loring's, where I understood the viands had been prepared. (N.B .- As the occasion was to be a public one, I thought I could not do less than prepare a speech, which was done during the morning, to be delivered after the removal of the cloth, and in which every thing that could be agreeable to the bar was carefully infused. "As they treat me," thought I, " why should I not treat them in return ?" As well as I remember, 'twas a pretty good speech, with several clever flights !) Well, I arrived ; but no porter received me; my knock was unattended to. Thinks I, " They are all so busy-the servants, that is to say-that they don't hear. I'll go in without waiting longer." In I went. A little black fellow looked at me, and ran away with some precipitation. Thinks I, " He scents my judicial dignity." On I moved, and entered the parlor. There was no table, and but three chairs, in the vacant room. Says I, "I'm under some mistake as to the house ;" but my cogitations were interrupted by approaching steps, and Mr. - - entered and gave me a cordial greeting. Said I, "The hour mentioned in my invitation had passed, so I thought I would come round ; but I fear I'm too early." "No," he coldly answered, " but the dinner is too late." "Well," said I, " I'll return home, and come back again !" "Well, perhaps," said he, "it might be as well, and better than to stay here alone." So I was preparing to abscond, when in came a few gentlemen ; and, other chairs being brought, we seated ourselves in a piazza, and a conversation commenced, during which some one or two other gentlemen dropped in. "This," said I to myself, "is not a very pro- mising beginning; but who knows how well it may end?" So we talked of the heat of the weather, alligators, the Greek pun for laughter, &c. &c., when Messrs. - - made their appearance and asked us up to dinner. The dinner was plentiful,-ham, poultry, ducks, a half turtle-soup,-every thing rough and coarse; Judge - at the head and Mr. - at the tail, and the guests few and far between, and vacant chairs scattered from right to left. The bar and officers of court consisted of [Here follow the initials of seven names present and seven absent, and the initials of five gentlemen, invited guests.]
Numerous invited guests did not attend. Well, round went the turtle- soup, and we began to masticate. But few words were said; all seemed wrapped in their own gloomy thoughts. "I wish," said I to myself, "I had been in Guinea before I accepted this invitation. Here is evi- dently something wrong. The President is cold and the Vice solemn ; the guests few and reserved; the lawyers more silent than ever lawyers were before. Did the bar send me a cordial invitation to a public dinner that I might be thus entertained ? The finger of the intriguer has been at work, and he has succeeded ! It was intended to honor me : he has prevented it. It was intended to give éclat to a party given to me : he has made it cold and cheerless. Be it so. The gulled are to be pitied, the envious and malignant to be despised. I will be on my guard; and, while I do not show my discontent, I will neither say or do any thing to prove that I am gratified. That, indeed, would be a practical lie."
At length wine was introduced. "This," said a commissary's man, "is the gift of our friend, Mr. - , who left us this morning, in the 'Agnes,' for Charleston." "Come, gentlemen, fill your glasses," said the President. "Now," thought I, "he'll drink my health; and how shall I demean myself so as neither to be civil nor offensive .? " I resolved
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at once. "The health," said the President, "of our absent friend, Mr. - ," (the donor of the wine.) I drank a bumper. By this time Mr. -- (the champagne having been introduced) got drunk ; and he, after some coarse and maudlin prelectives, called on the President for a toast. The President declined, and begged the bewildered - to get the toast from the other end of the table. consented, and hallooed for a toast from Mr. - , who insisted he would not give one, and the President should. Then the President looked for a moment like a thun- der-storm, but, turning to me, said, "If I give a toast, you'll not get under the table?" "Oh, no," said I, good-humoredly, " I'll stick to you at all events !" Then they filled; and the President, in a hurried man- ner, said, "I'll give you our excellent friend and guest, the Hon. R. R. R-, the excellent judge of," &c. They drank their wine. "Now," said I, "if you will be pleased to fill your glasses, I'll give you a toast." They filled. "The hospitable and excellent inhabitants of St. Augustine." They looked surprised. Toasts went on. One drank the Judiciary; an- other the Chief-Justice; another the memory of Julius Cæsar; another the memory of Noah; the drunken lawyer, "the memory of our departed friends ;" and, moreover, he sung "The Old Jackdaw and the Young Jackdaw," and swore he liked no courts, because they always made d-d rascally decisions against him.
Thus flew the hours ; and at length I escaped, leaving my brethren of the bar, and guests, President, Vice-President, and all, scarcely less sor- rowful or sober, (except A-,) after emptying half a dozen of Mr. Lawton's champagne, than when the happy festival commenced. For my own part, I never knew a compliment press so closely on the confines of insult. Why did I accept that invitation ? 'Twas a false step. I went home, and burned the notes of my speech.
Aug. 12 .- About eight o'clock, a Methodist preacher called. Why can't people learn and know that a call should not be made before ten o'clock in the morning? Sent him word he must call at ten. Suppose his sacer- dotal dignity has taken offence. Don't care. Preachers-yes, Methodist preachers-should learn manners as well as other folk.
Read an essay by the good Grimkè, of South Carolina, on the appro- priate use of the Bible in schools. Very well written, but not altogether practical. The reason why so many turn from the Bible is because they have been tied to it as a task in their schoolboy-days. There are two thoughts in this little work which deserve to be treasured,-viz. : "Christianity is the moral common law of this land." To a certain extent it is so. Like the English common law, it is of no force in opposi- tion to a positive statute. Christianity, even, may not be regarded when the municipal law rises up against it. This is strongly illustrated by the Sunday-mails question and the popular decision upon it. The other idea is, "A well-cultivated imagination is a gallery of fine pictures."
Visit from my Methodist clergyman at ten. He calls to make an in- quiry respecting a legal doctrine. I think 'tis a pretence. But he be- haves himself well, talks pretty well. But I get only three items of information from him. 1. If the settler build a short distance from the St. John's, there is no danger of sickness. 2. The saw-palmetto, if cut down, buried, and rotted, makes an excellent manure for lands. 3. The air of St. John's is better adapted to pulmonary disorders than that of St. Augustine.
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