USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 42
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In New Orleans in 1805, he drew up the Code of Procedure which was adopted by the Legislature as a foundation of the Code of Practice of Louisiana. It was subsequently used in making the present Code of Civil Procedure of New York.
During his early days in New Orleans, he had as a client, John Gravier, who gave him as part of his fee, in a litigation in which he employed him, a part of the batture St. Marie, out of which grew the famous batture case. The people of New Orleans claimed that the batture belonged to them, and Livingston, who was about to improve his property was, by the authority of the United States Govern-
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ment, ejected from it. He promptly brought suit in the court to vindicate his rights, and then it was that Jefferson assailed him, in a published pamphlet, although when in Congress he had supported Jefferson as against Burr in the vote for the Presidency. It was said, in justification of Jefferson's conduct, that Jefferson was influenced by the slander that Gen. Wilkinson had circulated, that Livingston was implicated in Burr's conspiracy, an absurd charge, of which Livingston com- pletely cleared himself as soon as it was brought. Livingston replied to Jefferson in kind. It was universally admitted that Livingston had very much the best of the President in the controversy. Besides that, Livingston won his suit in court and got possession again of his land. The charge of complicity in the Burr conspiracy brought against him was originated by Gen. Wilkinson, and had only the slender foundation, that a private debt which had been reduced to judgment against Livingston in New York had been assigned to Aaron Burr.
During the battle of New Orleans, Livingston was an aide to Gen. Jackson, and served him with such ability that Gen. Jackson formed a personal friendship for him, which continued through his life, and which was of the utmost service to Livingston in his political future, when Jackson was elevated to the Presidency. When Jackson left New Orleans he presented Livingston with his portrait painted on ivory.
In 1820 Livingston was a member of the Louisiana Legislature. In 1822 he was sent to Congress, where he served for three terms. In 1823 he was ap- pointed on the Louisiana Code Commission and drew, besides the Revision of the Civil Code, a Criminal Code, which was never adopted by the Legislature, but is considered by jurists of the highest rank.
In 1826 Livingston paid his debt to the Government, which, with interest, amounted to over one hundred thousand dollars, by transferring land that he had acquired to the United States.
In 1829 he was elected United States Senator from Louisiana, and in 1823 he was Secretary of State in Jackson's Cabinet. It was charged by Jackson's politi- cal opponents that Edward Livingston was the President's brains. He. is sus- pected of being the author of the famous Nullification Proclamation of December, 1832. In 1833 he was appointed Minister to France, and formed a close friendship with Gen. Lafayette.
On his return from France he retired to his estate at Rhinebeck, New York, which had been left him as a legacy by his sister.
Undoubtedly Edward Livingston was one of the greatest lawyers that ever
Eccle Rost
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lived. His knowledge of law was inexhaustible. His legal works are of the highest authority : Judicial Opinions of the Mayor's Court of New York (1802), pub- lished in 1803; Report of the Plan of the Penal Code of New Orleans (1822) ; System of Penal Law for the State of Louisiana (1826) ; System of Penal Law for the United States (Washington, 1828) ; and there also has been published his complete works on Criminal Jurisprudence (New York, 1873). Livingston is thus described by Gayarré :
"Among the Americans who had come to New Orleans to better their fortune, none was so distinguished as Edward Livingston. He was of an illustrious family, and before emigrating to the extreme South he had been mayor of the city of New York. *
* He at once became one of the leading members of the bar, not- withstanding his enemies who spread evil reports against him, and his having incurred a great deal of unpopularity in consequence of the part he took in the famous "batture case," which gave rise to riots in New Orleans, and to an acri- monious controversy between Thomas Jefferson and himself, in which he showed that he was at least equal if not superior to his great adversary. * Con- quering prejudices, calumnies, and envy, he grew rapidly as he became better known and appreciated, upon the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens in his newly elected home, and was sent to represent Louisiana in the Senate of the United States. His career as such, as Secretary of State under the Presidency of General Jackson, and as Minister Plenipotentiary in France is well known. For the present I have only to deal with him as a member of the New Orleans bar, where he towered up as one of the giants.
"Edward Livingston was tall and spare in body, and with strong, clear-cut features which denoted his Scotch ancestry. The habitual expression of his face was meditative and rather austere, but his smile was indicative of the benignity of his heart. He was mild in manner, courteous, dignified, and indefatigably laborious. * His eloquence was of the classical order, and uniformly ele- gant. It would in forensic debates, flow at first with the modesty of a gentle stream, but by degrees, swelling and rushing like the mighty tide of the ocean, it would overflow far and wide and leave to opposition not an inch of ground to stand upon."
DOMINIQUE SEGHERS.
One of the most noted of the old French lawyers of New Orleans was Domi- nique Seghers. The following description of this old French avone of the ancien regime, as Mr. Gayarré describes him, is typical :
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"Dominique Seghers was a perfect type of the red-tape old French avone of the ancient regime. He looked into every case entrusted to his care con amore, almost with paternal affection. * * The very moment a subject of litiga- tion was placed in his hands, he doubted not of its being founded in law, and if that law was not apparent, he felt convinced that by dint of patient researches he would discover in the end that the projected suit could be based on some article of the Civil Code, some special statute, some applicable precedent, some decision of court, if not on the broad principles of jurisprudence. For him professionally there was no right or wrong outside of the text of the law. Everything else was vaporous sentimentality, shcer romance. *
"He had to contend against a peculiar and very serious impediment for a man of his profession; it was the extreme difficulty he had to express himself. In court he painfully struggled for words. They stuck in his throat, and when at last they came out, it was as if they had forced their way through an obstructed passage. No interruptions from court or jury, or from the adverse party, however frequently repeated, could put him out of countenance. * * After a * while he would start again, in his humorous style, precisely from the point where the thread of his discourse had been cut off. *
"His physical appearance would easily have denoted the inward man to a physiognomist. There was a great deal of character in his features. They were strongly marked-a sharp, long face; a large mouth; a much protruding and big nose; gray eyes participating of the elongated olive shape, with furtive and oblique glances to detect anything suspicious, from whatever part of the horizon it might come; large flat ears that stuck close to the side of his head, and for which no approach of a velvet-footed cat would have been noiseless. This gentleman acquired by his profession a considerable fortune."
ETIENNE MAZUREAU.
The next of the famous advocates of the olden time, still following Mr. Gayarré, is Etienne Mazureau, a native of France, who has emigrated to Louisiana in search of a better fortune, and who in a few years has risen to be one of the magnates of the New Orleans bar. Of a medium size, compactly built, with flashing dark eyes, intensely black hair and a brown complexion, he is a perfect specimen of the Southern type as if to the manner and the manor born. He is of an ardent temperament, and the sacred fire of the orator glows in his breast. He is an adroit and most powerful logician, but on certain occasions his eloquence becomes
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tempestuous. He delights in all the studies appertaining to his profession, and possesses a most profound and extensive knowledge of the civil law, from the twelve tables of Rome and the institutes of Justinian to the Napoleon Code. He is also thoroughly familiar with the Spanish jurisprudence, which is derived from the same source. He is deeply versed in the common law, which, however, when the oppor- tunity presents itself it is his special pleasure to ridicule and treat with spiteful depreciation. He is equally great and successful in civil and criminal cases. Hence his income is very large; but he has a peculiar knack of getting into debt and parting with his money in the most unaccountable manner. He has this characteristic in common with many men of splendid abilities, through whose pockets silver and gold run as through a sieve much to the mortification of their creditors."
GEORGE EUSTIS.
One of the most distinguished Judges of New Orleans was Judge Eustis, who was a nephew of Governor William Eustis, of Massachusetts. Judge Eustis was born in Boston on the 20th of October, 1796. He died in New Orleans on the 23rd of December, 1858. He was graduated from Harvard in the class of 1815, and then became private secretary to his uncle, Gov. Eustis, who was then Min- ister of the United States to Holland at The Hague. It was while at The Hague, at the United States Legation, that he began the study of law. In 1817 he came to New Orleans, where he continued his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar in New Orleans in 1822.
Judge Eustis' public services began with his election to the State Legislature, in which he served several terms. He then became Secretary of State, and was subsequently appointed one of the Commissioners on the Board of Currency. In this office he acquired a very considerable reputation as a financier, on account of the reforms he introduced in Louisiana, tending to give to the finances of the State a more staple basis. He was next Attorney General of the State, in which office he served one term. Then he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1845. He was appointed to the Bench as Chief Justice, and served until 1852. On account of the distinction he obtained as a jurist, Harvard, his Alma Mater, conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.
Judge Eustis' sons were both distinguished men: George Eustis, a member of Congress and Secretary of the Confederate Legation in France, and James Biddell Eustis, who enjoyed a long career of public distinction.
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PIERRE ADOLPH ROST.
One of the most accomplished civilians who ever sat upon the Bench of Louisiana was Mr. Justice Picrre Adolph Rost. Judge Rost was born in France in 1797, and died in New Orleans on the 6th of September, 1868. He was edu- cated at the Lycée Napoleon, and at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. While he was yet a lad he served as a soldier in the defense of Paris when Napoleon was in retirement at the Island of Elba, and but for the defeat at Waterloo would have been given a commission in the French Army under the Empire.
In 1816 he came to America and settled in Natchez, Miss., where he studied law with Jos. E. Davis. From Natchez he removed to Natchitoches, where he practiced law with distinction. In 1826 was elected to the State Senate. In 1830 he was nominated for Congress, but defeated. The same year he removed to New Orleans. In 1838 he made a trip to Europe and on his return was appointed to the Supreme Bench, where he served for some time, but resigned to engage in the occupation of planting, in which he had extensive interests. In 1846 he was again appointed to the Supreme Bench, and served for several years.
During the war Judge Rost was Commissioner to Spain for the Confederate Government, and attained high rank as a diplomatist. After the war he returned to New Orleans and resumed the practice of law and devoted himself to caring for his large planting interests.
Judge Rost was an able Judge, a profound civilian, and distinguished for his learning in the Commercial Law. As a jurist, he was one of the ablest that ever sat upon the Bench in Louisiana.
THOMAS COURTLAND MANNING.
Thomas Courtland Manning enjoys the distinction of having been three times appointed Judge upon the Supreme Court Bench for the State of Louisiana. He was born at Edenton, North Carolina, in 1831. He died in New York City on the 11th of October, 1887. Judge Manning was graduated from the University of North Carolina and admitted to the Bar in North Carolina and practiced in his native town of Edenton for some years.
In 1885 he removed to Alexandria, La., where his marked ability, in a short time, brought him a large practice. In 1861 he was a member of the Convention in Louisiana which decided upon secession. Immediately after this, the war breaking out, he was given the command of Lieutenant in a Louisiana Confederate regiment, and was subsequently promoted to be a Lieutenant Colonel upon the
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staff of Gov. Moore, the War Governor of Louisiana. In 1863 he was again pro- moted to be Adjutant General of Louisiana, with the rank of Brigadier General. In 1864 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and served until the end of the war. In 1872 he was offered the nomination for Governor, but declined. His political prominence still continued, although he held no public office. In 1876 he was vice-president of the National Convention which nomi- nated Samuel J. Tilden. In 1877 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and served in that capacity until 1880, when the new Constitution of 1879 went into effect, and a term was put to his office by the formation of a new court under that Constitution. He was apponited, about this time, one of the trustces of the Peabody fund.
In 1880 he was again a Presidential Elector, and in this year was appointed to the office of Senator of the United States, but his seat was refused him. In 1882 he was, for the third time, appointed on the Supreme Bench and served until 1886, when he was appointed by President Cleveland United States Minister to Mexico. He held this office until his death.
Judge Manning was one of the ablest Judges that ever sat upon the Supreme Court Bench of Louisiana. Not only was he a jurist, but he was a man of culture as well. His attainments, as a scholar, and his accomplishments as a man of the world, were recognized by President Cleveland by his appointment to the Mexican mission. His popularity as a Judge was greater, and his place in history more marked, inasmuch as he was the Chief Justice of the Court which succeeded the Ludeling Court, which held office during the period of reconstruction, and which is held by the people of Louisiana, as all the government at that time, as infamous.
JAMES BIDDELL EUSTIS.
James Biddell Eustis was born in New Orleans in 1827. He received a classi- cal education and was graduated from the law school of Harvard. He was ad- mitted to the Bar in New Orleans in 1856 and practiced in New Orleans. .
During the Civil War he was appointed on the staff of Gen. Magruder as Judge Advocate, and subsequently transferred to the staff of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, where he served to the end of the war. He was one of the commissioners sent to Washington to President Lincoln with regard to Louisiana affairs at the elose of the war. After the war he resumed his praetice in New Orleans and began his life as a publie man. In 1872 he was elected to the State House of Repre- sentatives. In 1874 to the State Senate. In 1876 he was elected Senator of the
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United States and served until 1879. He was then appointed professor of Civil Law to the University of Louisiana. In 1884 he was elected for a second term to the United States Senate and was subsequently appointed Ambassador to France by President Cleveland. Senator Eustis is only recently deceased. He was one of the ablest of the Southern statesmen and was a man of culture, and an accom- plished writer. His writings show literary ability in a marked degree.
EDWIN THOMAS MERRICK.
One of the oldest and most distinguished of the practitioners at the bar of New Orleans in the early days, who survived until almost the present day, was Edwin Thomas Merrick, who, under the Constitution of 1852, was Chief Justice of the State. Judge Merrick was born in Massachusetts in 1810. Having received his early legal education and training in a common law State, in his long practice at the bar in Louisiana and on the Bench he was able to add to the profound knowledge of the civil law to which he had attained the broader point of view derived from his common law learning. In the United States Court in New Orleans he was distinguished for his eminence in the equity practice.
When Judge Merrick first came to Louisiana he settled in the Felicianas, where he practiced with distinction until elected Chief Justice in 1855. After his term of office, he practiced in New Orleans with much distinction until his deatlı at the age of eighty-seven in 1897.
HENRY CARLETON MILLER.
Henry Carleton Miller, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, was born in Covington, St. Tammany parish, Louisiana, in 1828, and died in New Orleans on the 4th of March, 1899. His father was S. W. Miller, a member of the Bar, of some distinction, who was one of the first reporters of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Judge Miller was educated at private schools in New Orleans, and when he was a young man entered into commercial life, not having the means, on account of his father's death, to begin, at once, his legal career, in which he afterwards was so distinguished. He succeeded, however, by his own efforts, in obtaining the legal education necessary to admittance to the Bar and passed his examination before the Supreme Court. Once at the Bar he soon displayed the ability that so distinguished him throughout his professional career, and at the outbreak of the Civil War he was United States District Attorney, and had at- tained such prominence in his profession as to be considered a rival of the Honor-
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able Thomas J. Semmes, who, for many years, was the leader of the Bar in New Orleans. After the war, Mr. Miller formed a co-partnership for the practice of law, with E. W. Huntington, and later was a member of the firm of Lee, Finney & Bradford, which was the successor of the firm of Benjamin & Bradford, and composed of Judah P. Benjamin, of whom an extended notice has been given here, and of E. A. Bradford, who, just prior to the war, had been nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States. During his practice, Mr. Miller, among other important cases, in which he was engaged, gained distinction in the Premium Bond case-the Consolidated Bond casc, and as attorney of the Board of Liquida- tion. He was dean of the faculty of the Tulane Law School for many years, lec- turing on Admiralty and International Law. In 1894, he was appointed to the Supreme Bench, to succeed the Honorable Charles Parlange. In 1896, he was re- appointed for the full term of twelve years. Had Judge Miller not been appointed to the Supreme Bench, it was acknowledged that he would have been recognized as the leader of the Bar upon the death of the Honorable Thomas J. Semmes. On the death of both of these distinguished lawyers, there has been found no lawyer in New Orleans sufficiently above his fellows to deserve the position of leader. As a lawyer, Judge Miller, was painstaking, logical and profound, and was one of the most thorough lawyers who ever argued a case in the Louisiana. courts. He was acknowledged to have been one of the ablest Judges ever appointed to the Bench.
THOMAS JENKINS SEMMES.
Thomas Jenkins Semmes, one of the greatest Louisiana lawyers, was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, December 16, 1824. He was educated at George- town College, where he was graduated in 1842, and then studied law and went to the Law School at Harvard, where he graduated in law in 1845. He practiced. law for a number of years in Washington, and in 1850 removed to New Orleans. He was appointed United States District Attorney by President Buchanan, and attained such prominence in his profession, he was elected Attorney General of the State before he was thirty years of age. He was a member of the Confederate Senate from Louisiana, and made the report of the committee that de- vised the motto of the seal of the Confederacy. After the war, he resumed his practice in New Orleans, holding, until the end of his life, the position of leader of the Bar. He was twice professor at the Law School of Tulane University-first, professor of Civil Law, and later, professor of Common Law, which position he held at the time of his death. His lectures to the law
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classes have never been surpassed in learning or brilliancy. His arguments before the courts always attracted a crowd, and he was listened to by the judges and the lawyers with the utmost attention. His oratory was of the old school, but sur- charged with profound learning and of a range that has rarely been equaled. It was when he had a case that was seemingly difficult that his ability was the most strongly called forth. He took absolute delight in presenting what seemed to be an untenable proposition and in demonstrating, with his remarkable logic and eloquence, that sound reason required that that proposition should be held. He was president, for a term, of the American Bar Association. Many of his ad- dresses have been printed-notably, "Codification the Natural Result of the Evolution of Law," delivered before the American Bar Association. Mr. Semmes was a profound civilian, and although learned in the common law, of which he was professor at the Law School, preferred the Civil Law as the superior system. He was fond of arguing that all the improvements in the Common Law have been derived from a Civil Law source.
Mr. Semmes accumulated a large fortune in his practice, which he employed liberally in charity. His character was as kindly as his learning was profound. His demeanor, both in the court room and out, was always of the utmost courtesy of a gentleman of the old school. Without doubt, he was the most distinguished figure of the Louisiana Bar during the period from the close of the war to the present time. He died in New Orleans on the 23rd of June, 1899.
PRESENT BENCH AND BAR.
The present Judges in New Orleans are :
Of the Supreme Court-Chief Justice Francis T. Nicholls, Lynn B. Watkins, Joseph A. Breaux, Newton C. Blanchard, Frank A. Monroe.
Of the Court of Appeal-Judges R. N. Ogden, Horace L. Dufour, I. D. Moore. Of the Civil District Court-Judges N. H. Rightor, T. C. W. Ellis, Fred D. King, and George H. Theard, and John St. Paul.
Of the City Courts-Judges R. H. Downing, P. J. Patorno, Wynne Rogers, and Thomas F. Maher.
Of the Criminal Court-Judges James C. Moise and Joshua G. Baker.
Of the City Criminal Courts-Judges Thomas M. Gill, Jr., and A. M. Ancion.
The present Bar of New Orleans has, in its numbers, many distinguished lawyers, who would bear comparison with the famous advocates of the past days. It is considered more in accordance with traditional propriety not to mention any of the living members of the Bar.
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CAUSE CELEBRES.
The famous cases arising in Louisiana have been numerous, on account of the quantity of litigation which the city has seen, and the number of distinguished lawyers who have practiced at the New Orleans Bar. There may be mentioned the case for contempt against Gen. Andrew Jackson, in which Judge Dominick Hall, of the United States Court, fined him one thousand dollars; the famous batture case of Edward Livingston, in which he got into a controversy with Presi- dent Thomas Jefferson, and they printed pamphlets against each other, a con- troversy in which Livingston was acknowledged to have gotten considerably the better of his distinguished opponent; the McDonogh will case, in which was in- volved the large bequests of John McDonogh to the public schools in New Orleans and Baltimore; the Martin will case, which has been referred to under the notice of Judge Martin; and the Gaines case, perhaps the most celebrated case in the United States, which was brought by more lawyers, before more courts, and in- volved more property, and attracted more notoriety, and was more romantic than any other case, in any court in the world, of which there is record. An excellent resume of the litigation as it finally took shape, is found in the 131 U. S. Reports, page 192, summarized by the reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States, the title of the case being, New Orleans vs. Gaines' Administrator.
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