USA > Kentucky > Daviess County > History of Daviess County, Kentucky, together with sketches of its cities, villages, and townships, educational religious, civil military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, biographies of representative citizens, and an outline history of Kentucky > Part 7
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Smothers was much perplexed in mind upon the subject of em- ploying good counsel to argue his case before the Circuit Court. For all minor offenses he had appeared in his own behalf, and had been uniformly successful; but in a case which involved the question of his life or death, he was unwilling to trust himself. But he was poor, and lawyers' fees werehigh, and he knew not well what to do. His anxieties about the matter were happily relieved. The great advocate, Jo Daveiss, knew Smothers well, and admired him greatly for that indomitable courage which never had been known to quail in the presence of danger. He heard, at Frankfort, of the affair, and sent Smothers a message which was characteristic of the man: " Don't ruin yourself hiring lawyers. I will be with you on the day of the trial." Smothers knew his man, and relied upon the promise with implicit confidence. The fame of Jo Daveiss as an orator and
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the wide-spread acquaintance of the accused brought a concourse to court, such as had never been seen in Hartford before. The keelboatmen from Louisville were there, and strangers from a circuit of 100 miles were in attendance, curious to see Bill Smothers, and anxions to hear Jo Daveiss. The trial itself was likely to be one of surpassing interest and remarkable singularity. Only two lawyers would appear, and they were brothers. As soon as the sheriff had made proclamation that the "court was open," Smothers tendered himself in discharge of his bond, and took a seat within the bar. John Daveiss, the Prosecuting Attorney for the district, was mnuch interrupted in his duties during the day by repeated questions concerning his brother: "Where is he?" " When do you think he'll be here?" "May be he will not come at all." And a variety of inquiries and speculations saluted him wherever he went. On Monday night Jo Daveiss staid at the house of Stephen Stateler, four miles from Hartford, and on Tuesday morning he and Stateler walked into town. Court was already in session, and was devoting the usual hour to motions. Stateler and Daveiss sat upon a bench in a remote corner, engaged in conver- sation. Statcler was much the taller man of the two, but they were dressed alike in blue jeans, and to all appearances were a couple of sensible farmers. Stateler had no idea that he was talking to Jo Daveiss, but still he was strangely fascinated by his company. When Judge Broadnax had disposed of the motions, he opened the docket and called the case of the Commonwealth versus William Smither, alias Bill Smothers. John Daveiss was up stairs with the Grand Jury, and of course made no response to the call. State- ler's companion left him and took a seat by the side of his client. Smothers, who was not in the least surprised at the course of his lawyer, shook him warmly by the hand. Broadnax becoming im- patient directed the sheriff to summon the attorney for the Com- monwealth. John Daveiss walked down stairway, and with his papers in his hand stepped in the doorway where he had a short conference with his witnesses. Broadnax repeated the call of the case with emphasis, and said he wished to be advised if the Commonwealth was ready. John Davciss, stepping inside the bar, said he believed he would not apply for a continuance, although one important witness had not yet arrived; that he might come during the progress of the trial, and he reserved the privilege of taking his testimony. "What say you, Mr. Smothers?" said his honor. The shrill voice of Jo Daveiss answered, "We are ready for the defense."
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John Daveiss, recognizing the voice of his brother, embraced him affectionately, and having introduced him to Broadnax and the bar, proceeded to impanel a jury. The evidence in the main was in accordance with the fact already stated. Jo Daveiss made no labored effort at cross-examination, but permitted the witnesses to make their statements in their own way, sometimes putting a sin- gle question to elicit an explanation. When the attorney announ- ced that the testimony was closed in behalf of the Common wealth, Jo Daveiss exchanged a few words with Smothers, and then rose and said, that his client, from motions of delicacy, had positively refused to introduce his sister, who was the only witness that could. state anything material to the defense; that the prosecuting at- torney might proceed with his argument to the jury. By the feel- ing manner in which he made this simple statement, he seemed already to have gained the vantage ground. But John Daveiss was a man of no ordinary ability, and knowing that he had to cope with one of the greatest advocates of this country or the world, he put forth his full strengthi in his opening speech, endeavoring to forestall the impression which had always attended the powerful efforts of his brother. The evidence was arranged in a masterl manner, and he closed by a spirited and strong appeal to the jury to discharge their sworn duties honestly and faithfully, exhorting them to disregard alike the fame and passion of the orator who was to follow him, and assuring them that whilst the wicked might re- joice at acquittal, all good men would say amen to the condemna- tion and execution of a marander, an outlaw, an assassin and a murderer.
That wonderfully eloquent and strangely eccentric man, Jo Da- veiss, then rose to address the jury. It was his ambition to do everything after a fashion that nobody else in the world ever liad attempted. He was never known to ride to a court-house, but made his circuit on foot, whilst a negro boy accompanied him on horseback, carrying his papers and clothing in a pair of saddle- bags. ITis manner, his style, his tactics at the bar, were all his own, and they all lie buried with their master in the field of Tippe- canoe. No fragment of a speech of his remains to-day; and from the erring and fading memories of inen we derive our only ideas of the inspiration that moved upon the feelings and swayed the passions, until he could drive his triumphal car over any obstacle that might oppose his onward course. Tradition furnishes only a dim ontline of his speech in defense of Smothers, which was prob-
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ably the greatest forensic effort of his life. It was made for a friend, without hope of reward. and the whole power of mind, body and soul were poured forth in his cause.
Hle commeneed as if he had a fee to assist in the prosecution. He reiterated the strong points in the attorney's speech, and of- fered additional arguments in favor of conviction. The friends of the aceused began to whisper that he was a snake in the grass, and that he had come to help his brother. and the eyes of Smothers were raised in ealm surprise to the face of his counsel. But Daveiss went on urging that an acquittal, under all the circumstances, would be a monstrous ontrage upon law and justice, and insisting that the jury ought, without hesitation, to hang the criminal. Adopt- ing all the epithets which had been so liberally bestowed, he called upon them to hang the marauder, hang the outlaw, hang the assas- sin, hang the murderer. Proof or no proof, let the hangman pro- ceed on his mission of strangulation.
That such, in effect, was the common reasoning of prosecuting attorneys, and he had been repeating in substance what had fallen from the gentleman who preceded him; but the law was es- tablished upon principles precisely of an opposite character. Ile dwelt upon the tenderness and merey of the law, and the safeguard it threw around the life and liberty of the citizen. That malice, premeditated malice, was an essential ingredient in making out a case of murder, and without it there was no murder. That if the killing was in sudden heat, it was manslaughter; and if the blow was given in self-defense, or in defense of family and home, then it became a virtue, and was no crime at all.
Without a note he reviewed the evidence from beginning to end, calling the names of the witnesses as he went, and contended that the Commonwealth had failed to prove that his client had slain the deceased. That he was found dead in the house of the prisoner at the bar, but no man had seen the prisoner inflict the wound. That circumstances, however conclusive they might appear, were frequently deceptive. Ile read a case in the English Reports where an innocent man had been executed upon circumstantial evidence even stronger than that before the jury, and took the po- sition that the unscrupulous and vindictive prosecutor was guilty of murder, and that the twelve jurors were his aiders and abetters, because they did not require that positive and undeniable proof which leaves no room for a reasonable doubt. That if, in truth, it :was the hand of Smothers that directed the blade, the facts in the
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case warranted the conclusion that the other was the aggressor. That the prisoner was a man of sense and a man of prudence, and never would have sought an encounter with a giant, whose physi- cal force was so great that he had never found an equal; and who had a host of thirty comrades who would have rushed to his eall and staked their lives in the quarrel. That the deceased was the aggressor in the beginning, and it was a fair inference that he so continued to the end. That unbidden he had invaded the precinets of the prisoner's home, and in return for civility and hospitality, had offered insult and injury. That his foul, false tongue had aimed to fix the seal of infamy upon the spotless tablet of a maiden sister's fame. That when his companions, impelled by repentance and remorse, had left the house, he lingered upon the spot. That if Smothers had slain him, he slew him in the holy cause of religion and of virtue, and that the King of Heaven had strengthened the arm that drove the pointed steel to his heart.
He paid an eloquent and glowing tribute to the brave pioneers, who, by their toil, sweat and blood, had won the great valley of the Mississippi from the Indians, and consecrated it to agriculture, to commerce and to the arts. Hedenounced in terms of the bitterest indignation the deep ingratitude of the Government which suffered them to languish and die in poverty and neglect, whilst all its favors and patronage were lavished upon fawning sycophants and eringing parasites and flatterers, who knelt and worshiped at the footstool of power. That a golden crown had been tendered to Julins Cæsar for his victories in Gaul, and for the addition of that province to the Roman territory. That these men had conquered an empire thrice as great and thrice as fertile as Ganl; and neither the charity, nor the bounty, nor the justice of the Government had ever induced it to bestow upon one of them so much as an iron skillet. That a representative of that Government was here to-day appeal- ing to a jury of the country for the blood of one of the bravest, because he had stood upon the threshold of his rude hint, which was his castle in the eyes of the law, and had defended his family against the licentious and wanton insults of a blackguard and ruffian. Were he in place of his client he would leave his Govern- ment, and seek "some boundless contiguity of shade, where the rumor of oppression and of wrong might never reach him more."
That if Smothers had to die, it was meet and appropriate that he should die at Hartford. Hartford had been the theater of his valor, and Hartford should be the scene of his execution. That
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he came with the party that erected the first fortification; that his hand dug the ditch and planted the palisade; and when the Indi- ans besieged and fired upon you from stump, bush and tree, whose aim was deadliest and whose rifle rang clearest in your defense? and when they were defeated and turned their backs in retreat, who was fleet-footed enough to lead the van in the pursuit? Who hovered around them like a destroying spirit until he had dyed the waters of your rivers in their blood ? Who trailed them to their homes beyond the prairies, and restored your stolen property without ever receiving one cent in compensation ? That whatever falsehoods may have been invented and circulated against his client, the forked tongue of slander itself had never charged that his sonl had been stained by the sin of avarice. That with ample opportunities of securing an immense landed estate, there was not a foot upon the earth that he could call his own. That while others had en- riched themselves by speculation, peculation, violence and fraud, the poverty of Smothers was a vindication of the sterling integrity of the man. That his public service needed no rehearsal. That Isaac Shelby, in a conversation, had endorsed the heroic condnet of the "boy Bill Smothers " at King's Mountain. That he carried in his pocket an honorable discharge from General Green, after the great battle of Eutaw. That after he came to the West, the hills and valleys and the rivers had witnessed activity that never tired, eyes that never slept, and courage that never flinched in the hour of danger. That if they met the demands of the Government official by the sacrifice of the life of the prisoner, let the martyr- dom occur on the mound on which we stand; let the last glance of the departing soldier rest upon the scene where in the vigor of manhood he strove to give peace and security to your homes and firesides; and as his slender form swings in the air, take a long and a last look at the truest and boldest man that ever raised an arın in your defense.
In his charge to the jury, Judge Broadnax himself approved the able lawyer and the upright man. Forgetting the many an- noyances of Smothers, he exhorted the jury to look in mnerey upon the prisoner, and to give him the benefit of every reasonable doubt. The jury, after a retirement of ten minutes, brought in a verdict of "not guilty."
Smothers invited his counsel to go home with him, and Daveiss accepted the invitation. He was so well pleased with the country around Yellow Banks that he settled the place afterward owned
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by James Rudd, and planted the orchard which stands upon the slope of the hill. His brother, John Daveiss, not long afterward commenced opening the farin upon which the Crutchers subse- quently resided, and now owned by Mr. Lostetter, and lived there for many years.
The speech of Jo Daveiss opened to the mind of Smothers a new field of thought and a new object of enmity. All his private and personal animosities were forgotten in the disgust and indig- nation which he felt toward his Government. Hitherto he had regarded bear-hunting and Indian-fighting as the greatest pleasures of his existence; but he now reflected that he had expended the flower of his youth and the strength of his manhood in destroying wild beasts and savages, that he might increase the power and re- sources of a Government which had sought his life; and that that Government, with means beyond his power of computation, had failed to make the slightest provision for his wants, and would neglect him to the end. The voice of Jo Daveiss ever sounded in his ears that he ought to seek some shade where he would be free from oppression and from wrong. Brooding in silence over such subjects, he came to the deliberate conclusion that a proper self- respect required him to leave the territory of the United States.
When he arrived at this conviction he confided his purpose to no one, but began to make necessary preparations for his depart- ure. He had always felt a strong partiality for Bob Tarlton and other friends on Rough Creek, and he could not think of going without seeing them; and to make the visit as pleasant as possible he proposed a big bear-liunt. In company with Husk and Glenn, he started with his dogs to go directly to the house of Tarlton. He found Tarlton and his friends in a grand sprec. After spend- ing a day with them, they all started on a hunt, which lasted sev- eral days. They succeeded in killing a monstrous bear, which they quartered and took to their camp at the Falls of Rough.
On his return to his home, Smothers commenced making active preparations for his departure. About the first of February he went to the house of his brother James, who lived near Blackford, to spend a night with him and bid him a last adieu. When he announced liis intention, his brother, overwhelmed by the sudden shock, gave free vent to his sorrow. He considered their separa- tion the greatest calamity that could have befallen him. He clung to him and insisted on going with him. Bill remonstrated with him, "Jim, be a man. If I had been liung at Hartford, I should
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not have drawn a sigh nor shed a tear, and I don't like to see you crying as if you were a woman or a child. "
When Smothers had taken leave of his sister and embraced his brother's children, he stepped out of the door and saw his brother James leading a couple of horses from the stable, and informed him that all hands were going to accompany him home. They re- mained with him several days. One day at dinner Smothers in- formed his brother that he wished to start the next morning at sunrise. Rising from the table they took an affectionate farewell. James and family returned home, and the next morning Smothers, with his three dogs, stepped into his skiff, and they were shoved off by Husk.
After a prosperous voyage of two weeks, Smothers landed at New Orleans. He spent one day in that city in purchasing ammu- nition and embarked on the next, descending the Mississippi toward the delta. He passed through the right hand mouth of that river and entered the Gulf of Mexico; hugging the shore, he rowed along in the direction of Texas. After two or three deten- tions he rowed into Galveston Bay abont the first of May, and spent a month on the Island of Galveston-the only quiet month he had known for forty years. He again started on his journey and thiis time landed at the month of Yeagna Creek, where he began to look abont for a permanent home. He selected a place forty miles from the spot where he landed, a place combining more advantages than any other in the country.
For fifteen years Smothers trod the wilderness alone, except an occasional meeting with an adventurer like himself who was will- ing to brave the dangers in order to enjoy the pleasures of the chase; and then he made it convenient to separate as soon as possi- ble, believing that it was safest to be alone. He was satisfied with his manner of life,' but it was his destiny to return to the habits of civilized life, and in view of his age he did not regret the change.
One of his daughters, Mrs. Berry, a woman of a kind and affec- tionate disposition, was devotedly attached to her father, and induced her husband to follow him to Texas, that she might at least provide for some of his wants. The tears streamed from her eyes as she beheld his emaeiated form and tottering steps. She inade every effort and used every argument in her power to induce him to make her honse his home that she might care for him in his old age. But her importunate attentions wearied him, and he declared he would never go to see her again as he conld have no
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peace in her house. He was very fond of his grandchildren and spent a great deal of time in play with them. At last Smothers told his daughter that some friends from the Brassos had promised to be at his house early in the fall and that no consideration would induce him to be absent on their arrival. A presentiment that she was seeing her father for the last time overwhelmed her with sorrow at their separation. Even the fortitude of Smothers was shaken by this manifestation of filial affection.
Early in October his friends started to take the hunt with Smothers. They hitched their horses near a spring, walked up the hill and got over the yard fence. The dogs sallied forth to resist intrusion upon their prostrate inaster, but they were quieted upon hearing familiar voices. When they entered the house they saw the form of Smothers extended upon a bear skin. He wore a white woolen cap, but his locks and his beard were whiter still. His tomahawk was belted to his side and his open palm rested gently upon the back of his gun which stood in the corner. The active limbs were stiff and cold. The tongue that had urged on the strife was mute. The pulse that had beaten high in the van of bat- tle had ceased to throb. The devoted friend, the implacable enemy, the lion-hearted SMOTHERS WAS NO MORE.
The hero of the foregoing history is thus noticed by the cele- brated Washington Irving in his " Experiences of Ralph Ring- wood," who was Governor Duval, of Florida. The latter was hunting in the wilds near Yellow Banks, when he saw a stranger, and the following conversation ensued : "What are you after ?" cried he. "Those deer," replied I, pettishly; "but it seems as it they never stand still." Upon that he burst out laughing. " Where are you from ?" said he. "From Richmond." " What! in Old Virginny?" "The same." "And how on carth did you get here ?" " I landed at Green River from a broad-horn." "And where are your companions ?" " I have none." "What! all alone?" " Yes." "Where are you going?" " Anywhere." "And what have you come for ?" "To hunt." " Well," said he, laugh- ingly, "you'll make a real hunter; there's no mistaking that! Ilave yon killed anything?" "Nothing but a turkey; I can't get within shot of a deer; they are always running."
"Oh, I'll tell you the secret of that. You're always pushing forward, and starting the deer at a distance, and gaze at those that are scampering; but you must step as slow and silent, and cautious as a cat, and keep your eyes close around you, and look
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from tree to trec, if you wish to get a chance at deer. But come, go home with me. My name is Bill Smothers; I live not far off; stay with me a little while and I'll teach you how to hunt."
I gladly accepted the invitation of honest Bill Smothers. We soon reached his habitation, a mere log hut, with a square hole for a window, and a chimney made of sticks and clay. Here he lived with a wife and child. He had " girdled " the trees for an acre or two around, preparatory to clearing a space for corn and potatoes. In the meantime he maintained his family entirely by his rifle, and I soon found him to be a first-rate huntsman. Under his tutelage I received my first effective lessons in " woodcraft." * *
After I had passed ten or twelve days with Bill Smothers, I thought it time to shift my quarters, for his home was scarce large enough for his own family, and I had no idea of being an incumbrance to any one. I accordingly made up my bundle, shouldered my rifle, took a friendly leave of Smothers and his wife, and set out in quest of a Nimrod of the wilderness, one John Miller, who lived alone, nearly forty miles off, and who I hoped, would be well pleased to have a hunting companion.
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CHAPTER III.
LIFE AND TIMES OF ROBERT TRIPLETT.
The substance of this chapter is extracted from a remarkably interesting and valuable work entitled " Roland Trevor," which is in faet an autobiography of Mr. Triplett; and as it gives so much early history pertaining to this region of Kentucky, we feel justi- fied in publishing the following extraets in this connection. The first several paragraphs we quote entire, as they embody the max- ims of his life, and seem to be as valuable as the noted sayings of "Poor Richard."
"The life of every man contains a lesson to his successor which may be of value if properly written ont. It is a chart, showing where the shoals and breakers lie which produce failures in his en- terprises as well as where the deep and smooth waters are found in the sea of prosperity. There are few who have arrived at the age of fifty and have been prosperous, who could not be more so if they had their lives to pass over again, and quite as few who, hav- ing been unfortunate, eannot look back and see the causes to which they owe their misfortunes. A fatlier, then, who has the time, should furnish his son with this chart while his mind is yet in that pliant condition which adapts it to receive the lessons of experi- ence; before a dogmatie self-will has impressed him with an idea of his own smartness which makes him deaf to the instruction of others.
" The most important lesson which my experience has taught ine is the conviction that the human mind is progressive in all its stages, and that upon no subject has it ever filled the measure of knowledge to be obtained therein. The conceited, therefore, who turn from instruction under a belief that they have nothing more to learn upon any subject, only show the shallowness of their un- derstandings. The mind very quickly determines from hearing a leeturer whether there is a probability of adding anything to the store of knowledge already possessed on any given subject, and if not, it would be waste of time to listen to him; but one should not, therefore, cease to make inquiries through more intelligent sources.
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