History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 13

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them at length, and presents them from every standpoint favorable to his client. As he pro- gresses he warms to his work. His small frame insensibly assumes a more erect and impressive attitude; his gestures become more frequent; his shrill voice is pitched to a higher key; his gray eyes glow with animation; every muscle is at play and every energy of his nature is aroused, while words, arguments, illustrations, appeals flow in torrents from his lips. At the conclu- sion of his speech he sinks into his seat in a pro- fuse perspiration and well nigh exhausted. He leaves little else to be said on his side of the case, for he has covered the whole ground.

"Some French writer has observed that 'noth- ing is beautiful but what is natural.' This may well apply to Logan's style of speaking, which was formed after no model except his own, yet was beautiful because it was natural. He was accounted an eloquent speaker, though his elo- quence was of a peculiar kind and difficult to describe. He seemed to have adopted Chief Justice Marshall's maxim, and 'always aimed at strength.' His forte was reassuring, but it was reason imbued with intense animation; and he drove his juries to conviction as much by the resistless energy of his style as by the lucidity and compactness of his logic. His temperament was strongly emotional: and in the defense of persons arraigned for high crimes and misde- meanors, he sometimes touched with a master- hand those secret springs of feeling and passion that lie in the recesses of every human breast. Whenever he addressed the court upon any ques- tions of law, pleading or practice, he was heard with eager attention by his brethren of the Bar, because he threw a flood of light upon every legal principle he discussed.

"It might be objected to Logan's forensic efforts, particularly his jury efforts, that they were too replete with iteration, though this is a fault common to most lawyers, and arises partly from the nature of the calling itself. More- over, juries, as a rule, are not composed of a trained order of intellects, and hence it seems necessary for the skillful advocate to repeat over and re-combine the same facts and argu- ments in a variety of forms, so as to impress them indelibly upon the minds of those ad- dressed, and thus secure the desired verdict. One secret of his uniform success as a practi- tioner was due to the fact that, like Choate, he exerted himself to the utmost in almost every suit in which he was employed. No matter what the tribunal, the party or the fee, he put forth his whole strength, summoning to his aid

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

the resources of his legal learning, his logic, his wit and knowledge of men, and struggled as for life for the mastery.

"It is a quality of superior and dominating minds to rely upon themselves, and to take the lead in whatsoever enterprise they may engage. Such was true of Logan. It mattered not what was the character and standing of the counsel associated with him in a given lawsuit, he occu- pied the foreground, and on him rested the chief burden of the controversy. To his clients he was faithful to a degree that knew no bounds, except the bounds of honor. He iden- tified himself for the time with them, made their cause his cause, and their interests his own. It would be hard to determine in what particular branch of jurisprudence he was most proficient-whether as a criminal, a common law, or a chancery lawyer-for he seemed alike at home in all, and in all he shone without a peer. But few men in this country have ever brought to the profession of the Bar so many qualifications to ensure success as he. Logan is the best natural lawyer I ever knew,' said the late Judge MeLean, of the U. S. Circuit Court, himself a jurist of the soundest judgment and ripest experience; and such is the coneurring testimony of all his immediate contemporaries.

" His demeanor at the Bar was neither opin- ionative nor arrogant, but was characterized by a proper respect for the rulings of the court, and by an obliging disposition toward his pro- fessional associates. Still, his temper was nat- urally choleric, and quick to resent invidious re- marks and unprofessional conduet on the part of opposing counsel. At such times they were certain to feel the sting of his retorts, keen and pungent as the rapier's thrust.

"The life of the lawyer in full practice is any- thing but a life of ease. It is rather one of excitement and anxiety, of patient investigation and unremitting toil, spent in the perusal of authorities, the preparation of pleas and briefs, and in the trial or adjustment of vexatious and complicated causes. Ilence, in time he becomes worn out with the corroding cares of his clients; and when the silver thread of life is at last sun- dered forever, only a scanty and fragmentary record remains of his history. 'Probably in no department of life,' says an able writer, 'is there displayed so much talent which leaves no lasting record. The shrewd management and ready wit, the keen retort, the deep learning, and the impassioned eloquence of the accomplished law- yer, all come in play and tell strongly on the result, but they do their work and are seen no

more; felt and admired at the time, they go to make up the contemporaneous estimate living at the place, but not to be reproduced for other times and other admirers.' Ilow next to impos- sible, then, in a mere skeleton sketch like the present, to recall and portray those ' nice shades of character and talent, of thought and feeling, of look and gesture, of wit and pathos, that went to form the sum total of Stephen Trigg Logan's greatness and fame as a lawyer.

" During the first year of the troubled admin- istration of the Jate President Lincoln, a vacancy occurred on the Supreme Bench of the United States, to be filled by a Western jurist. Where- upon, the special friends of Judge Logan recom- mended him as eminently qualified for the place; but the President, for reasons satisfactory to himself, ignored the claims of his old-time friend and law partner, and appointed another to the judgeship. Some have thought that Logan would not have accepted the office if it had been tendered him, but this is improbable. Conscious of the possession of superior abilities, it was but natural for him to be ambitious, and to aspire to some commanding height, whence he could make his influence felt and his power known to the whole country. Had he been raised to a seat in that august tribunal, he would doubtless have shone as a star of the first magnitude in our judicial constellation, and his recorded opin- ions have enriched the judicial literature of the land. But the sister Fates decreed for him a less conspicuous, though scarcely less useful destiny.

"In private life Logan was one of the most exemplary of men. Simple in his tastes, regu- lar in his habits, unpretentious in his manners, and careless of his attire, he lived, moved and acted as if he were one of the least influential and observed of mankind. He was punctual and exact in all his business transactions. His maxim was to 'owe no man anything,' and to pay as he went-a most excellent Scriptural rule, but one more honored in the breach than the observance. He was also a man of unusually strong local and domestic attachments, and, while given to hospitality, preferred the quiet of his own fireside, and the society of his own family to that of all others; and, as a corrollary to this, he was one of the kindest of husbands and most indulgent of fathers.

" In conclusion it may be proper to say, that in his riper and declining years he experienced many severe afflictions. He outlived the major portion of his immediate family and kindred. He lost, in succession, all four of his sons,

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

whom he had doubtless hoped would have per- petuated his name and fame to other genera- tions. He saw his loved companion, the mother of his children, borne from his house of mourn- ing 'to the house appointed for all living;' he followed two of his amiable daughters in sor- row to the tomb; but amid all these domestic trials, Logan was Logan still; and, at length, worn out by the trials and cares and conflicts of this sublunary life, he bowed his withered head in submission to the will of his Creator, and slept with his fathers. No more shall we see his slight form and sharply chiseled features on the busy thoroughfares; no more shall we meet him in the bustling courts of law, so long the theatre of his intellectual struggles and tri- umphs; and nevermore shall the temples of jus- tice reverberate with the tones of his shrill, clear voice; for that heart once so fiery, and that tongue once so impassioned, now lie pulse- less and still in death.

"Thus one after another these relics of the past, these tottering monuments of a former and perhaps better generation, are going home to the silent land-'to that shore from whose sands is never heard the echo of retreating foot- steps.' 'Thus,' says Irving, 'man passes away; his name gradually perishes from record and recollection; his history is a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin.' But, sir, I will

'No farther seek his merits to disclose, Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode; There they alike in trembling hopes repose, The bosom of his Father and his God.'"

Hon. David Prickett, prominently identified with the early history of Illinois and Sangamon county, was born in Franklin county, Georgia, September 21, 1800. In early childhood he went with his parents to Kentucky, and a few years later to Edwardsville, Illinois, then a prominent town of this State. He graduated from the law department of Transylvania University, in Lex- ington, Kentucky, and was admitted to practice at Edwardsville, Illinois, November 15, 1821. Mr. Prickett served as the first Supreme Court Reporter of Illinois, was for a time Judge of Probate Court of Madison county; was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1826, when the Capitol was at Vandalia. He served as aide- de-camp to General John D. Whiteside in the Black Hawk war in 1831; was elected State At- torney in 1837 for the First Judicial Cirenit of Illinois, composed of Pike, Calhoun, Greene, Morgan, Sangamon, Tazewell, McLean, Macon 11-

and Macoupin counties. He served as Treasurer of the Board of Canal Commissioners during the construction of the Michigan and LaSalle canal in 1840; in 1842 was appointed Director, in be- half of the State, of the State Bank of Illinois; was Clerk of the House of Representatives ten sessions; and was serving as Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives at the time of his death, March 1, 1847. He dealt considerably in real estate, especially city property, and was joint proprietor in laying ont additions to sev- eral cities in Illinois. Mr. Prickett married Charlotte, daughter of Thomas and Christiana Griffith, of Tazewell county, on January 24, 1834. She was born March 9, 1806. Their marital union resulted in five children, Christiana G., Thomas G., Gibson R., Hannah O., living, and Susan, deceased. Mrs. Prickett died November 2, 1876. Her father, Dr. Thomas Griffith, was one of the original proprietors of Pekin, Taze- well county.

William L. May is a Kentuckian by birth, re- moving from that State to Edwardsville, Illinois, from thence to Jacksonville, and from there to Springfield, in 1829, having received the ap- pointment of Receiver of the Land Office in the latter place. Here in 1838 he formed a partner- ship with Stephen T. Logan. Mr. May was much more of a politician than a lawyer, and was a man of good address and a capital stump- speaker. In 1834 he was elected to Congress, and again in 1836. In 1838 he failed of receiv- ing the nomination, which went to Stephen A. Douglas. In the course of time Mr. May re- moved to Peoria, and from thence to California, where he died.

Dan. Stone became a member of the Bar of Sangamon county in 1833. He was a native of Vermont and a graduate of Middlebury College, in his native State. He afterwards went to Cin- cinnati, studied law with his uncle, Ethan Stone, and practiced in that city for several years, and during that time was a member of the legisla- ture, and also a member of the city council. On his removal to Springfield he at once took rank with the best lawyers. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1836, and was one of the famous "long nine " members of that body from this county. While a member of the legis- lature he received the appointment of Judge of the Circuit Court, and was assigned to duty in the northern part of the State and moved to Galena. In 1838 he rendered a decision with reference to the vote of an alien, which so dis- pleased the party in power that the courts were reorganized by the legislature, and Judge Stone

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

legislated out of office. He soon after left the State, and a few years later died in Essex county, New Jersey.

Josephus Hewett came to Springfield about 1830, at which time he was a Christian preacher, an eloquent "defender of the faith once deliv- ered to the Saints." He read law with Judge Logan, and was admitted to the Bar about 1834. In 1835 he formed a partnership with Cyrus Walker, of Macomb, Mr. Hewett remaining in Springfield and Mr. Walker in Macomb, but practicing together in the various courts of the State. Mr. Hewett became one of the most noted lawyers of that day, and is spoken of by the older members of the profession as a man of strong mind and very eloquent in his pleadings. He removed from Springfield to Mississippi, where he died since the war.

David B. Campbell came to Springfield .in 1838, from New Jersey, his native State. He was a fair lawyer and a good prosecutor, serving as Proseenting Attorney from 1848 to 1856, dy- ing in office in the latter year. He was a fair- minded man, and while Prosecuting Attorney would never prosecute one charged with crime unless thoroughly convinced of his guilt.

Dave Campbell was quite a joker, and a good story is told of him and one Benedict, of which he is responsible, it appearing in his "Reminis- cences" as follows:

The hotels, in those days, I remember, being scarce of beds, used frequently to put two of us lawyers in one bed; and it frequently fell to the lot of Campbell and Benedict to occupy the bed between them. One day I heard Campbell say to Benedict, with a smirk on his face:

" Benedict, you must get the landlord to fur- nish you a bed to yourself."

"Well, suppose he hasn't got one," said Benediet.

" Then you must sleep on the floor, or get the landlord to furnish you a berth up in his hay- mow."

" What is your objections to sleeping with me, General David Campbell?"

"Confound you," replied Campbell, " I never did sleep with you, but I have lain with you. To sleep with you would be impossible. You snore like a cyclops, and your breath smells so of mean whisky that I would as soon breathe the air of a charnel house and live in reach of its eternal stench."

" Well," said Benedict, "General Campbell, I will show you that you shall sleep with me, and if either of us has to sleep on the floor or go to the hay-mow, it will be you and not me."

" Well, well," responded Campbell, with a sinister smile on his face, "we will see about it."

So that night Dave Campbell went to bed earlier than usual, and so about twelve o'clock at night along comes Benedict, pretty much " how- come-you-so." Addressing himself to Campbell, who feigned to be half asleep, he said:

" Hello, there! Dave, lay over to the back of the bed, and give me room in front."

Before going to bed that evening Dave had armed his heel by buckling on it one of his spurs. When Benedict got undressed, even to the taking off of his drawers, he jumped into bed and began to fondle on Campbell. Dave quietly drew up his heel that had the spur on and planted it about six inches above Benedict's knee, and gave it a turn downwards, crying, " Get up there! get up there! " as though he was speaking to his horse. Benedict gave a sudden leap and landed about the middle of the floor, crying out in great agony:

"Jesus! the fellow has got the nightmare or delirium tremens, and has taken me for his blamed old horse."

Judge Davis and Lincoln, who were sleeping in the same room, could stand this no longer. They burst out into the most uproarious laughter.

Antrim Campbell, a brother of David, was born in New Jersey in 1814. Ile came to Springfield in 1838, and entered upon the prac- tice of his profession. In 1849, he was appointed Master in Chancery for the Circuit Court of Sangamon county, and resigned the same in 1861, when he received the appointment of Mas- ter in Chancery for the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illinois. While never taking high rank as an attorney, he was recognized as a good Master in Chan- cery and an excellent business man. He died August 11, 1868.

A. T. Bledsoe was a worthy member of the Sangamon County Bar during the last year of its Second Decade and extending nearly through the third. He came to Springfield from Greene county in 1840. While a young man he grad- nated from West Point, and shortly after re- signed his position in the army, studied for the ministry, was ordained a minister in the Episco- palian Church. Becoming disatisfied, he resigned his charge, studied law and was admitted to the Bar before coming to Springfield. On his ar- rival here he formed a partnership with Jesse B. Thomas, which continued about a year, when he became a partner of E. D. Baker. Major Stuart says that for real logic he was the strong- est man at this Bar at that time. But content-

IHISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

ment was not with him a cardinal virtue. He could remain in one position but a short time. He was an author of several scientific works, which were well received by the learned. Mr. Bledsoe about 1850 drifted South, was President of a college in Mississippi for a time, and at the breaking out of the war was professor of mathe- matics in a college at Charlotteville, Virginia. Espousing the Southern side, he was made Assistant Secretary of War, but becoming con- vinced that the Southern Confederacy was about to collapse, shortly before the close of the war, it is said that he applied to his old friend Abra- ham Lincoln, President of the United States, for a pass through the lines, receiving which he came within the Union lines and soon embarked for Europe, where he remained until the close of the war. Returning, he visited his old friends in Springfield, then again went South, and has since died.

Charles R. Willis was from Connecticut, was well educated, but done little business in law. Soon after coming to Springfield he engaged in the real estate business, in which he accumulated a large fortune. He died many years ago.

Schuyler Strong was from New York, and well advanced in years before coming to Spring- field. In his native State he was regarded as no ordinary lawyer, and was recognized as the peer of any when he arrived here. If it had not been for one grevious fault, so common, suc- cess would have crowned his every effort. He ‹lied about 1845.

Ninian W. Edwards is the son of Ninian Edwards, the first and only Territorial Gover- nor of Illinois. He was born April 15, 1809, near Frankfort, Kentucky. His father at that time was Chief Justice of the Court of Ap- peals of Kentucky, but, receiving the appoint- ment of Governor of the Territory of Illinois, he removed with his family in June following, to Kaskaskia, its capital. When the proper age, Ninian W. was sent to Transylvania University, and graduated in the law department of that institution in 1833. Previous to his graduation, and in 1832, he was married to Miss Elizabeth P. Todd, in Lexington, Kentucky. Returning home after his graduation, he commenced the practice of law. In 1834, he was appointed by Governor Reynolds, Attorney General of the State, and was shortly afterwards elected by the legislature. The law requiring the Attorney General to reside at the capital, and Mr. Ed- wards not liking a residence in Vandalia, he resigned the office in February, 1835, and shortly afterwards removed to Springfield. In

1836, Mr. Edwards was elected one of the Rep- resentatives in the legislature, and was also one of the "Long Nine," and is now, in 1881, the only one living of the number. From 1836 to 1852, Mr. Edwards served in the legislature, either in the Senate or House of Representatives, being a very efficient member. He was also a men- ber of the Constitutional Convention which formed the constitution of 1848. In 1852 he was appointed Attorney before the Board of Commissioners to investigate the claims of canal contractors against the State, amounting to over $1,500,000. In 1854 he received the ap- pointment of State Superintendent of Public Instruction by Governor Matteson, and was the first incumbent of that office. Ile was retained in this office by the legislature until 1857. Mr. Edwards has always been a champion of free schools, and drafted the law in regard to them which was first adopted in the State. In 1862, he was appointed by President Lincoln, United States Commissary. Aside from his official duties, Mr. Edwards has found time to prepare a history of the State of Illinois, including the Life and Times of Governor Edwards, written on the invitation of the Illinois State Histori- cal Society. It is a valuable work, and is re- garded as a standard on the subject on which it treats. As a lawyer, Mr. Edwards ranked high while an active member of the Bar, and even at this day on some subjects his views are often sought by the fraternity.

Cyrus Walker was a Kentuckian by birth; studied law and was admitted to the Bar in his native State, where he became very prominent, especially as a criminal lawyer. On account of his defense of a murderer, and his acquittal, whom the people generally thought should have been hung, Kentucky became uncomfortably warm for him, so that he came to Illinois and settled in Macomb, in 1833. Ile was a man of strong mind, an excellent lawyer, and withal very conscientious. In 1835 he was a partner of Josephus Ilewitt, and in 1839 with James C. Conkling. His business was very extensive for many years in the various courts of Illinois. He died near Macomb, in 1876.

In 1837, Abraham Lincoln was admitted to the Bar, and for the first time wrote in connec- tion with his name, "Attorney and Counselor- at-Law." While living in Salem, he had bor- rowed books from the law library of John T. Stuart, which he read and returned as the opportunity occurred. When convinced that he could stand an examination, he presented him- self for that purpose, and was duly licensed to

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

practice his profession. He immediately formed a partnership with Mr. Stuart, which relation continued about two years. During this same year, Stephen A. Douglas became a citizen of Springfield, having received the appointment of Register in the Land Office. He soon afterwards formed a partnership with John D. Urquhart for the practice of law, and here commenced the rivalry of these two great men-Abraham Lin- coln and Stephen A. Douglas-men whom the world delights to honor. In the address already quoted, by Isaac N. Arnold, he says:

"When, forty years ago, the Bar used to meet here at the capitol, in the Supreme and United States Courts, and ride the circuit in our differ- ent sections of the State, Lincoln and Douglas did not occupy a position of such overshadowing importance as they do to-day. They did not beat us in our cases when law and justice were with us, and we did not realize that they were so greatly our superiors. But these two men have passed into history, and justly, as our great rep- resentative men. These are the two most promi- nent figures, not only in the history of Illinois, but of the Mississippi Valley, and their promi- nence, certainly that of Mr. Lincoln, will be in- creased as time passes on. I will, therefore, en- deavor to give such rough and imperfect outlines of them as lawyers, and advocates, and public speakers, as I can. We, who knew them person- ally, who tried causes with them and against them, ought, I think, to aid those who shall come after us, to understand them, and to determine what manner of men they were. In the first place, no two men could be found more unlike, physically and intellectually, in manners and in appearance, than they.

"Lincoln was a very tall, spare man, six feet four inches in height, and would be instantly recognized as belonging to that type of tall, large-boned men produced in the northern part of the Mississippi Valley, and exhibiting its peculiar characteristics in the most marked de- gree in Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.

"In any court room in the United States he would have been instantly picked out as a West- ern man. His stature, figure, dress, manner, voice and accent indicated that he was of the Northwest.

"In manner he was always cordial and frank, and although not without dignity, he made every person feel quite at his ease. I think the first impression a stranger would get of him, whether in conversation or by hearing him speak, was, that this is a kind, frank, sincere, genuine man, of transparent truthfulness and integrity;

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084