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 36
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. After looking into the whole affair, he gave it as his opinion that the statute of limitations barred them.
The baron, having borrowed money of one Pollock* before leaving for Europe, to enable him to support his colonists, had given him a mortgage upon the grant to secure repayment ; but, dying before returning to Ame- rica, it had never been redeemed nor foreclosed. In the course of time, Pollock parcelled out the whole to his family, and others, who now hold by lapse of time.
The Revolution, cutting the connection between the mother-country and the Colonies, at the same time cut off all titles of nobility. Yet every one of the descendants of the baron were Whigs, thereby jeopard-
* An ancestor of the late George Pollock, Esq., the wealthiest man in the South. He was killed in 1839 by a young and spirited horse rearing and falling backward upon him, while riding over his plantation on the Roanoke. Mr. Pollock was an Englishman, and, it is said, had received the order of knighthood from the king. He possessed several large estates in North Carolina, working some two thousand slaves. The town of Newbern, planted by the Baron de Graffenreid, was his osten- sible residence. Most of his time, however, was spent in Philadelphia and in Europe. He was never married .- MI.
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izing their title and large estate; and two of them joined the Continen- tal army when Tarleton and Cornwallis invaded the South,-thus vindi- cating the Swiss blood, whether patrician or plebeian, at home or abroad, ever on the side of patriotism, from the days of Julius Caesar down to the present time. But what a lesson does such a retrospect teach ! How fleeting and how vain are all human affairs, whether high or low ! Less than a century and a half ago, Baron De Graffenreid, the wealthy courtier and favorite of princes, the owner of ancient baronial possessions in Europe, coming down in his family through centuries, and with a domain in America larger than a dozen German Principalities and larger than his native Switzerland, fondly hoped to make his name immortal and his family the most powerful of the English nobility ; when, behold, his castle and large estates in Europe have been lost to his family, his descendants in America long since stripped of both their great domains and the en- nobling title descending to them from their ancestor who sleeps in death beyond the sea ; while the insignia and patent of his and their nobility are kept as curious rubbish (but whose Latin and heraldic ciphers he can- not make out) by one of his descendants, in an obscure corner of Georgia. Certainly, vanitas vanitatum is written upon all things earthly.
Since the preceding notice of Baron De Graffenreid was written, Judge STRONG, another of his descendants, has died, and the grave stilled for- ever as large and noble a heart as ever beat in human breast. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, and his mother a De Graffenreid. He was born in Virginia, and when he was about five years of age his parents re- moved to Wilkes county, Georgia, where they died, after a long life well spent.
When old enough, Judge Strong returned to Virginia, to study law with the celebrated Chancellor Taylor; and, after being admitted to the practice of the law in Virginia, he married the sister of Mrs. Taylor, Miss Lucy Woodson, a lady remarkable for her beauty and accomplishments, and soon after settled permanently in the practice of the law in Putnam county, in this State, doing a large and lucrative practice, until the Governor called upon her citizens, in the war of 1812, to rally to the de- fence of the State.
At the call, Judge Strong, surrounded by his young and happy family and all the blandishments of wealth and refinement, promptly forsook all, and, at the head of a company of cavalry, followed the gallant Floyd through an unbroken wilderness of two hundred miles, to meet in this stronghold the numerous Indian enemy. In the two hard-fought battles of Calleebee and Autossee, Gen. Floyd effectually crushed the power of the Lower Creeks and secured the peace and safety of the Western frontier. In these bloody and hard-fought battles Judge Strong bore a conspicuous part, charging the enemy at the head of his men, and receiving the ap- plause of his commanding officers. Gen. Floyd spoke in the highest terms of his gallant bearing; and, as an evidence of his cool bravery and goodness of heart, the general related to the writer this anecdote :-
The judge was mounted on a fine roan horse, well trained and of great sagacity. In one of his terrible charges, a rifle-ball passed directly through the old roan, piercing both skirts of the saddle; and at once, instead of heeding his own peril and the thickly-flying balls, seemed wholly absorbed in sympathies for his favorite horse, and proceeded to help him up. To the surprise of all, the animal had strength to stand and walk. But, while they were furnishing him with another horse, the judge hur-
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riedly committed Old Roan to his servant, with directions to walk him slowly home to Putnam, two hundred and fifty miles, and carefully nurse him until he should die or recover. At this juncture an aid of the com- mander-in-chief rode up and said, "Strong, let the old roan go to the devil and die, while you attend to the Indians." " I'll be cursed if I do !" was the reply ; " Old Roan has carried me safely through too many dangers for me to desert him in his distress."
Old Roan finally reached home in safety, and recovered. I have heard Mrs. Strong relate, with tears, how she wept, and kissed the wounded and faithful old war-horse, on his arrival home.
It is believed, by those who knew him best, that Judge Strong was insen- sible to personal danger ; and yet his heart was ever touched with sorrow for every thing in distress, however humble. After the war, he resumed the practice of the law with great success, and was soon elected Judge of the Ocmulgee circuit, after repeatedly refusing to be a candidate. He was several times re-elected to that and the Flint circuit, and discharged his duty to the satisfaction of all honest men.
While he resided in Putnam, the judge became surety to a heavy amount for an old army friend, the whole of which he had to pay, ab- sorbing his whole estate. He gave up every dollar's worth of his large property, leaving him a bankrupt, with a debt unpaid hanging over him for years, absorbing all his earnings, and rendering his old age miserable so far as this world was concerned. But his religious faith was strong and enduring of a better world beyond the grave. He was a member, in his latter years, of the Episcopal Church. His piety was apparently deep and sincere.
Judge Strong's life is an instructive one to the young. He served the State with great fidelity, encountering many privations and sufferings in the public service, without any adequate reward either to himself while living or his memory when dead. While he perilled his life and his for- tune for the State, giving up all the comforts of life, no county, no village, perpetuates his name,-while the names of inferior men and foreigners, and some of them notorious enemies of the State, cover the map of Georgia. This lesson respects the warning to the young :- " Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men." The calamities which followed his suretyship repeat the lesson of Solomon :- " If thou be surety for thy friend, deliver thyself as a roe from the hands of the hunter, and as a bird from the snare of the fowler."
In person, Judge Strong was about five feet ten inches high, and what is called stocky, with a large Roman face, and an eye large, black, and of remarkable brilliancy,-features inherited from his mother, and which are still to be seen in paintings of some of the family in Europe centuries ago, showing the perpetuity of the distinct blood of races.
XXX.
WILLIAM H. TORRANCE.
THE gentleman now introduced historically was one of the ablest lawyers who ever appeared at the Georgia bar. His mind was eminently judicial, luminous in argument, and inexhaustible in authorities. He was entirely self-made. Without patronage in early life, he made the most of his opportunities; and in ten years from the date of his admission to the bar he stood among the foremost.
WILLIAM H. TORRANCE was born in Union district, South Carolina, on the 5th day of March, 1792. His father, Andrew Torrance, was a native of Scotland, whence he emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in 1766. He was a man of liberal education, and was the intimate friend of Judge Roan. Soon after the Revolution broke out, he entered the Continental army, and was appointed quartermaster, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He then removed to South Carolina, and settled at a place well known as the Cross-Keys, in Union district. In the year 1789, he married Esther Howard, sister of the late Maj. John Howard, of Milledgeville. Mr. Torrance the father removed with his family from South Carolina to Baldwin county, Georgia, in the spring of 1811, where he died the 1st of July the following year.
Until his fifteenth year, WILLIAM was in feeble health. At the age of five years he was sent to a country school, and continued there three years, during which time he had made fair progress in learning. Soon as his age permitted, he was placed in the store of Mr. George Gordon, a Scotch merchant at Cross-Keys. Thence he was transferred to Laurens district, in the mercantile house of John & William Black, also Scotchmen, with whom he remained until the embargo of 1809 caused them to discontinue business. He then returned to the paternal home, where he engaged in the labors of the farm. From this situation he entered the service of his country, at an age when youth is generally fired with the mili- tary passion.
In 1813, he volunteered as a private soldier in the company of
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Captain Joseph Howard, and was stationed at Fort Hawkins. Here he received the appointment of private secretary to Gen. John Floyd, and was afterward present with that distinguished officer in the hard-fought battles with the Indians at Autossee and Calibbee, in the then territory of Alabama. Mr. Torrance was well qualified for the duties to which he had been selected. His neat and ready penmanship, his courteous disposition and unwearied in- dustry, greatly facilitated the labors of his patron in making out orders and reports and in keeping a journal of the campaign. The valuable manuscript history of several Indian tribes, by Col. Benjamin Hawkins, the Agent of the United States Government, was committed to the care of Gen. Floyd, in order to acquaint him with the localities of the enemy, and to furnish other useful in- formation which he could obtain from no other source respecting the number and habits of the Indians. This history was deposited with Mr. Torrance, who occupied much of his leisure in glancing over its pages. Fragments of this work by Col. Hawkins (who received the Agency from President Jefferson, and was requested by him to collect all the information he could relative to the tribes within his jurisdiction) have been published, and the whole of it may perhaps be in the Executive Office at Milledgeville.
At the close of the campaign under Gen. Floyd, Mr. Torrance again volunteered, in Captain Horton's company, which was organ- ized at Sparta, where he was appointed quartermaster's sergeant ; and, on the arrival of the company at Fort Jackson, the post of forage-master was given him until the army was disbanded, on the reception of peace.
In the same year-1815-he entered as clerk in the store of Stewart & Hargrave, in the city of Augusta, where he continued three years, at the end of which time he engaged in a cotton- speculation in partnership with Mr. John W. Wilde, which proved disastrous and drove them both to the practice of the law. What seemed a misfortune then opened the way to prosperity and repu- tation in another pursuit.
For the particulars respecting the parentage and early employ- ments of Mr. Torrance the author is indebted to the late Amelius Torrance, Esquire, of Baldwin county, a brother. At the request of the author, a gentleman* who for more than twenty years was the intimate friend of Mr. Torrance has furnished a sketch so admirable that it is here given without abridgment :-
Hon. Joel Crawford.
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To the number of professional men who, without the advantages of carly education, have attained eminence, no State, it is believed, has made larger contributions than Georgia. Until within the last thirty years, respectable schools were to be found in very few counties, and were, of course, accessible to none but the children of wealthy parents. That so many of those who have given proofs of great intellectual power at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the practice of medicine, have been reared up without these advantages, however encouraging to future aspirants, by no means justifies the conclusion that academies and colleges may be dis- pensed with. Such gifted men as Watkins, Walker, Flournoy, and Tor- rance, under the circumstances which favored their individual success, found resources in their own genius, industry, and ambition which were more than equivalent to the best scholastic training in humbler minds. That each of these men, with early and thorough learning and like im- pulses to effort, would have mounted far higher in the scale of professional distinction, can hardly admit of doubt.
WILLIAM H. TORRANCE was born in South Carolina, of poor parentage, about the year 1792, and, at the first settlement of Baldwin county, re- moved with his father's family to a small farm in the vicinity of Milledge- ville. He with his brothers were chiefly occupied with the business of agriculture until he had nearly or quite reached the age of manhood ; but, with his scanty opportunities, he made attainments which qualified him for the duties of a clerkship in a retail store and for reading good works in the English language. His love of books had been often re- marked by his acquaintances, but was never so fully gratified as during a residence as merchant's clerk in the city of Augusta. Here he made the acquaintance and engaged the friendly aid of that gifted and generous man, Richard Henry Wilde. Under his direction, young Torrance gave all his spare hours to miscellaneous reading and the sedulous study of the law. In due time, but after he had attained ripe manhood, he passed an approved examination, obtained a licence to practise, and opened a law- office in Milledgeville. His prospects were by no means bright; but he was not the man to sink under discouragements, one of the greatest of which was that nervous sensibility under the morbid influence of which men of dauntless courage are sometimes subdued by the presence of a court or popular assembly. This defect, in his case, is to be ascribed, in a great measure, to the total lack of early practice in the art of declama- tion. For nearly three years after coming to the bar, it is believed, he seldom or never attempted to address an argument to a jury; but in dis- cussing law-questions before the court he felt himself more at home, and he here gave to the public the first evidence of his professional learning. Before he shed the restraints of early diffidence, his moral rectitude of deportment, industry, and attention to the business of clients had gradually increased his practice ; but it was not until about the fifth year that public opinion conceded to him that high reputation which he maintained through life. His services in great cases were eagerly sought, the fruits of which were seen in the rapid acquisition of fortune, which few men knew better how to use and enjoy than William H. Torrance.
Mr. Torrance was never master of a graceful and flowing elocution. His rank arose from profound knowledge of law, quick and accurate discernment of the essential elements of his case, and the imposing manner in which he drew his logical inferences. These qualifications, combined with untiring industry, unsullied probity, and great ability at the bar, con-
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ferred upon nim an enviable popularity. He seemed, however, ambitious only of professional fame, having never sought or accepted office.
Mr. Torrance married the third daughter of Peter Crawford, Esq., of Columbia county, whose untimely death probably contributed to shorten his own life. He survived her but a few days, or weeks, leaving three children-two daughters and a son-to the testamentary guardianship of their maternal grandmother, by whom they have been carefully nurtured and educated. His son-a robust and promising youth, who is still at school-will live, it is hoped, to appreciate the worthy example of his father's life and to emulate his high reputation.
Knowing that Mr. Torrance kept up a large correspondence with professional and public men, and believing that letters existed among his papers of great value, the author applied to the late Mansfield Torrance, Esquire, of Columbus, on the subject of an examination, from whom he received a letter, of which an extract is given :-
I have just written the sketch, (at the instance of Major Crawford,) and only want a few dates, which I must get from Colonel Jones ; and, if not too late, I will furnish it as soon as I can hear from you. I hope it will not be too late. The sketch is brief, and will not cover more than five or six manuscript pages. As his executor, I have all his papers, and might possibly, with much labor, find a letter or two worth publishing; but most of his letters were private. I know no anecdotes worth publish- ing; and he never pretended to be a wit. Of course we were much together, but seldom together on the circuit, as I practised in Western Georgia.
If access could be freely had to old letters, to which no great import- ance was attached at the time, many facts would appear in politics, in law, in literature, and in the current history of the times, far beyond what may be generally supposed in point of public interest. The author has seen in possession of Mr. Torrance original letters to him from Mr. Jefferson and Chief-Justice Marshall; and, as these eminent men never wrote carelessly or on trifling matters, it is certain something worthy was in the correspondence. All the parties being dead, there was no longer any seal of privacy. It was the remark of the late Hon. William H. Crawford, that he never wrote a letter in his life which he would object to being pub- lished if all the circumstances were known. Such ought to be the frankness of every man. Although the author replied immediately to Mr. M. Torrance, desiring the sketch of his brother which he had prepared, yet he never had the good fortune to receive it. Death has since closed up all possibilities.
An event of peculiar interest in this history of Georgia was the treaty at the Indian Springs, concluded on the 12th day of February, 1825. between Messrs. Campbell and Meriwether, Com-
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missioners on the part of the United States, and General William McIntosh, head of the Cowetas, and fifty other principal chiefs on the part of the Creek Nation. The Indians ceded to the United States all the lands claimed by them within the limits of Georgia, and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi previous to the 1st day of September, 1826. For this surrender of their right of occupancy, the United States gave in exchange, acre for acre, lands westward of the Mississippi, on the Arkansas River; and, to pay for loss incurred by the Indians in leaving their homes in Georgia, and to support them in their new settlement, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars was to be given to those who might emigrate.
On the day after the treaty was made, the United States Agent for Indian Affairs addressed to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, a letter, of which the following is an extract :-
Yesterday a treaty was signed by McIntosh and his adherents alone. Being fully convinced that this treaty is in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the instructions which I have a copy of, I feel it my bounden duty, as the agent of the Government, to apprize you of it, that you may adopt such measures as you may deem expedient as to the ratification; for, if ratified, it may produce a horrible state of things among these unfor- tunate Indians. It is proper to remark that, with the exception of McIntosh and perhaps two others, the signatures to this treaty are either chiefs of low grade or not chiefs at all,-which you can perceive by com- paring them to those to other treaties and to the receipts for the annuity ; and these signers are from eight towns only, when there are fifty-six in the Nation.
This letter plainly showed the opposition of the Agent to the treaty. His conduct became the fruitful topic of investigation, and of bitter controversy between the Executive of Georgia and the Federal Executive,-Governor Troup and President Adams. As Mr. Torrance was selected by the Governor, in a commission au- thorized by the Legislature, to inquire into and report the facts touching the Agent, a few passages will be here introduced from public documents.
In transmitting the treaty to the War Department, Colonel Campbell, under date of February 16, 1825, says :-
The attendance of chiefs was a full one,-much more so than is usual when chiefs only are invited. The opposition was feeble, and seems to have been dictated by the Big Warrior. The death of this chief, I con- ceive, puts the question at rest. That all opposition will now cease, and that the dissenting party will now treat and reunite themselves with the majority, I have no doubt.
By proclamation of March 21, 1825, Governor Troup announced
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the ratification of the treaty by the President and Senate of the United States. This document, to which the great seal of Georgia was affixed by the late Colonel Everard Hamilton, the efficient Secre- tary of State, concluded as follows :-
All good citizens, therefore, pursuing the dictates of good faith, will unite in enforcing the obligations of the treaty as the supreme law, aiding and assisting the magistracy in repressing and punishing any disorder or violence which may infringe its provisions. And all officers, civil and military, are commanded to be vigilant in preventing offences under it and in detecting and punishing offenders.
The Governor saw no reasonable necessity for waiting until the Indians had actually departed before the country should be sur- veyed and prepared for distribution among the citizens of Georgia. After many efforts to obtain the consent of the Indians, the head- chief McIntosh, under date of April 12, 1825, thus wrote to Go- vernor Troup :-
Some difference existing between the present agent of the Creek Nation and myself, and not having any confidence in his advice, I have deter- mined to act according to the dictates of my best judgment, which results in the determination to agree to the request of your Excellency in giving my consent, and, in behalf of the nation who signed the treaty, their con- sent, that the land lately ceded to the United States at the Indian Springs may be run off and surveyed whenever you may, or the General Govern- ment, think proper to do so.
In another letter to the Governor, of the same date, General McIntosh says :-
In giving voluntarily our consent for the survey of the lands in the late treaty we are actuated by motives of friendship purely toward you and toward your people. No consideration of a mercenary nature could be permitted to enter our breasts when a favor was asked of us, particularly by your Excellency and in behalf of your people. We know the great importance it was to your people to be ready to occupy the country immediately after our removal from it, and have, with true hearts of friendship, acceded to your request. We would have thought it disgraceful in us to attempt to make a condition founded on your wants or desires a price for our acqui- escence. The opportunity presents itself, and we hope the circumstances will have only the effect to render ourselves more worthy of your esteem and friendship.
Accompanying this letter was a long memorial (signed by six- teen chiefs) to the members of the Legislature of Georgia, which began as follows :-
FRIENDS AND BROTHERS :- We, the chiefs of the Creek Nation who have sold to the United States a part of the country, and intending shortly to remove to a new country, have thought it our duty to lay before you this our last and farewell address.
Friends and brothers, we believe you and your State have always been
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our true friends. Ever since we took hold of one another's hands in friendship we have been as neighbors, inhabiting the same country,-a country which the Great Spirit made to be the home and habitation of his children. The red and white man are all from the same Father, and each of them are entitled to a share in this world of the works of his hands and of the good things he has made for the use of men. The country which you now possess, and that which we now remain on, was by the Great Spirit originally given to his red ehildren. Our brothers the white men visited us when we were like the bees of the forest. Our forefathers smoked the pipe of peace and friendship with the forefathers of the white man; and when the white man said, "We wish to live with the red man and inhabit the same country," we received their presents and said, "Welcome ! We will give you land for yourselves and for your children." We took the white man by the hand and held fast to it. We became neighbors; and the children of the white man grew up, and the children of the red man grew up, in the same country, and we were brothers. The white men beeame numerous as the trees of the forest, and the red men became like the buffalo.
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