USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 31
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William Wirt was for twelve years the
Attorney General of the United States and filled a large space in the public eye. He was born in Bladensburg, Md., in 1772, but removed to Virginia when a young man, and finally settled in Richmond. He took the leading part in the prosecution of Burr for treason and made then the famous speech, beginning with "Who is Blenner- hasset?" While Attorney General, he be- gan to practice in the Maryland courts, and, upon the expiration of his last term, in 1829, he came to Baltimore to live. He was a well read Latin scholar and familiar with the best English literature, as well as a charming letter writer. His life of Pat- rick Henry and the British Spy are well- known books; the former contains some splendid pieces of rhetoric. Some people thought that Wirt was not a profoundly learned lawyer, but in the trial of every case he was fully equal to the emergency. No one can read his argument in the great case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9 Wheat., I, without perceiving that his celebrity as a lawyer was thoroughly well deserved. Kennedy, his sympathetic biographer, says: "His man- ner in speaking was singularly attractive. His manly form, his intellectual counte- nance and musical voice, set off by a rare gracefulness of gesture, won in advance the favor of his auditory. His ora- tory was smooth, polished, scholar-like, sparkling with pleasant fancies and beguil- ing the listener with its varied graces out of all note or consciousness of time." Wirt died on February 18, 1834.
The career of Roger Brooke Taney, who was for twenty-eight years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, belongs largely to the history of American jurisprudence generally, but he was for
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some ten years a resident of Baltimore City and his fame as a great lawyer belongs to the bar of which we are speaking. He was born in Calvert county, Md., March 17, 1777, and was graduated at Dickinson Col- lege. After having served in the Legisla- ture as a delegate from his native county, Taney began the practice of law in Fred- erick. He moved to Baltimore in 1823 and acquired at once a large and valuable clientele. He was Attorney General of Maryland in 1827 and Attorney General of the United States in 1831. He was ap- pointed Secretary of the Treasury by Presi- dent Jackson in 1833 and took a leading part in the removal of the deposits of the Bank of the United States about which a fierce and passionate controversy then raged. His nomination as Secretary was consequently rejected by the Senate, and he returned to Baltimore in 1834. Two years afterwards he was nominated and con- firmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and then began one of the greatest judicial careers in Amer- ican history. He died October 12, 1864.
John Pendleton Kennedy was a conspic- uous figure in the legal and political circles of the city during the second quarter of the century. He was born in Baltimore on Oc- tober 25, 1795, and was educated at Balti- more College, which afterwards, when united with the medical school, became the University of Maryland. While a lad, he fought and ran away with the rest at the bat- tle of Bladensburg. He came to the bar as soon as he was of age and worked stead- ily and successfully at the profession for some years, but his tastes inclined him more to literature and politics than to law, while a wealthy marriage relieved him from the
necessity of working himself to death in order to make a living. His historical nov- els dealing with the revolutionary and other periods of American history, entitled "Horseshoe Robinson," "Swallow Barn" and "Rob of the Bowl," have very consid- erable literary merit and enjoyed a high degree of popular favor. His Life of Wil- liam Wirt is an admirably constructed piece of biography. Kennedy was a member of the State Legislature for three or four years and served two or three terms in Congress. Under President Filmore, he was Secretary of the Navy. He died in 1870.
Of all the Maryland lawyers, the greatest popular orator, the man who could sway most powerfully his audience and "wield at will the fierce Democratie," was John Van Lear McMahon. He had a commanding presence, a superb voice and a high order of true eloquence. During the Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign of 1840, he was president of the then famous National Whig meeting and opened the proceedings by saying, "Let the Nation come to order. The mountains have sent forth their rills-the hillsides their streams-the valleys their rivers, and lo, the avalanche of the people is here."
That McMahon possessed extraordinary gifts as a lawyer and was one of the finest intellects that ever adorned the bar is the testimony of all his contemporaries, but his reputation was confined to the State. For some reason, he refused all manner of pub- lic employment. He declined to accept a Cabinet office which was tendered him. He refused a United States Senatorship when, in order to be elected, he had but to signify his willingness to accept. He refused po- sitions on the bench and he would never
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make a speech outside the State. He had the reputation of being uniformly success- ful in his cases, but this was perhaps be- cause he only took those-at least in the later years of his life-which he thought he could win.
Except among his few intimate friends, he was austere, reserved, dignified-perhaps a little eccentric in manner. He withdrew from active practice when about fifty-five years of age and afterwards lived a secluded life; he was rarely seen on the streets. Mc- Mahon was born in Cumberland, Md., Oc- tober 18, 1800, of Scotch-Irish parentage. He graduated at Princeton with the highest honors of his class. He came to Baltimore after having served in the Legislature as a delegate from his native county. He left Baltimore some four years before his death, which occurred in 1871. He was the author of a very valuable work on the Early His- tory of Maryland, which was published in 183I.
A large number of able and distinguished men illustrated the legal and political life of the city towards the middle of the cen- tury and afterwards. One of these was John Nelson, who was born in Frederick, Md., in 1790 and died in 1860. He was Attorney General of the United States in 1843 and had previously served as Minister to Naples under President Jackson. As a lawyer, he was the equal of any of the men of his day, and was especially remarkable for the skill with which he could present all the facts and enforce all the arguments in a case with very few words.
William Schley was renowned for his ex- act and varied legal learning, the force of his arguments upon questions of law and his versatility of resources as a general prac-
titioner. Schley was born in Frederick, Md., October 31, 1799, and graduated at Princeton with the highest honors of his class in 1821. He removed to Baltimore in 1837 and continued to reside there until his death in 1872.
Levin Gale was a Coke on Littleton law- yer, whose reputation was greater with his fellow lawyers than with the public at large. The reputation of Thomas Yates Walsh was that of a wit rather than a lawyer.
John Glenn was, at the time of his death, in 1853, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maryland, an office which had previously been filled by his father, Elias Glenn. While at the bar, Judge Glenn was reputed to have had the most lucrative practice. He was an able man and was for a long time a chief figure in the so-called court house clique of prominent lawyers who ruled the Whig politics of the State.
John Mason Campbell, the son-in-law of Taney, also had a large practice and was an accomplished man of cultivated artistic tastes. He was one of the lawyers selected to argue the celebrated Police Board case, 15 Md., 424.
Thomas S. Alexander was especially cele- brated as an equity lawyer. He died in New York, to which city he had removed, in 1871.
George R. Richardson, born in Worces- ter county, Md., in 1803, was for some time Attorney General of the State. Ex-Gov. Whyte said of him, in the address already referred to: "The lawyer who was primus inter pares in the criminal practice was the Attorney General, George R. Richardson, who was in the zenith of his fame, as a public prosecutor, between 1846 and 1851, in
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which year he died. It was my good fortune during part of that period to have been associated with him, as one of his as- sistants, and to have enjoyed his valued friendship, and to have had opportunity to appreciate his noble qualities. His early education had been of the highest order; he had been dedicated by his parents to the ministry, and graduated at Princeton with high honors. His mind, however, ran in a direction different from the ministry, and he chose the law as his profession. His pre- paration for the bar had been as thoroughly conducted, and he came into it with the highest expectations. His ambition was lofty; his intellect was clear and his diction was of the purest English; his voice sweet and melodious; his presence commanding and magnetic; his face handsome and ex- pressive; his action graceful and attractive, and his eloquence swayed the minds of the jury, as with a wand. I shall never forget him in the great legal battle which he had with Mr. Reverdy Johnson in the case of Burns vs. Vickers, in the old Baltimore County Court, wherein those splendid logicians struggled with such zeal and warmth as to have imperilled their formerly friendly feelings."
Robert J. Brent, who succeeded Richard- son as Attorney General, was a very ver- satile and able lawyer and had an extensive practice up to the time of his death, in 1872.
Charles H. Pitts, who died in 1864, had a deservedly high reputation as a jury law- yer, especially in criminal cases, and as an eloquent and effective orator upon the hustings.
John H. B. Latrobe (born in 1803, died in 1891) and Charles J. M. Gwinn (born 1822, died 1894) were conspicuously suc-
cessful and able corporation lawyers. Mr. Gwinn was also Attorney General from 1875 to 1883.
Of Charles F. Mayer (born 1795, died 1864) Ex-Gov. Whyte said: "When I first knew him he had passed the fifties, and was in the enjoyment of a valuable practice. He was a peculiar type of a successful lawyer. Kindly in manner, of even temper, he was a man without enemies. He had graduated with honor at Dickinson College, and then traveled abroad for several years, so that, on his return to his native city, he had be- come an accomplished linguist, and his mind had been stored with the best French and German literature. He was an ardent student, with a metaphysical turn of mind, filled with an inexhaustible stock of valu- able learning. He was conspicuous in pub- lic affairs in the State, and having 'the pen of a ready writer,' many addresses on po- litical subjects during his active life were the products of his vigorous brain and his untiring energy. While he was a Senator, he gave the State the benefit of his wisdom and foresight in framing many of the im- portant laws which are now condensed in our code. His philanthropic and charitable views were of the broadest character. He was one of the founders of Baltimore's House of Refuge, and his address at the laying of the corner-stone of that institu- tion is a masterpiece of reason and of elo- quence. I knew him well, and I have rarely met a man of more varied acquirements and of simpler tastes. He lived up to Webster's definition of the real lawyer. 'He worked hard, he lived well and died poor.'"
Much of this eulogy is equally applica- ble to Thomas Donaldson, who was not only an admirable lawyer, thoroughly
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equipped at all points, but also an accom- plished scholar.
The reputation of Henry Winter Davis was political rather than legal, but he ar- gued many important cases and held a de- servedly high rank in the profession. He was born at Annapolis, August 16, 1817, where his father was then president of St. John's College and rector of St. Anne's parish. He graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio, in 1837. He afterwards studied law and literature at the University of Vir- ginia and began the practice of law in Alex- andria, Va. He came to Baltimore in 1850 and soon became the leader of the Ameri- can, or Know-Nothing, party in this State, and their chief representative in Congress. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he became the leader of the Union party in the State and during the war was one of the most prominent men in Congress. His elo- quence and power as an orator were justly celebrated throughout the whole country. He was a man of very considerable literary culture and his speeches may still be read with pleasure, although dealing with purely controversial issues. He died December 30, 1865.
After the war, Mr. I. Nevett Steele was regarded by men as the leader of the bar. Upon one occasion, at a dinner of the Bar Association, Mr. Wallis, in the course of an after-dinner speech, in which he had spoken of the great lawyers of the preceding gen- eration, went on to say that he had heard from Mr. Steele arguments which he thought to be the equal of anything that had ever been addressed to a Maryland court by those of the former period. Mr. Steele was born in Cambridge, Md., in 1809, and his whole life was devoted to the
work of his profession, except for four years, beginning in 1849, when he was charge d'affaires of the United States in Venezuela. In his younger days he was Deputy Attorney General and led for the prosecution in several notable criminal cases, the most famous of which was the trial of Adam Horn for the murder of his wife. In 1871, he successfully defended Mrs. Wharton, who was indicted for the murder by poison of Gen. Ketchum.
Upon announcing the death of Mr. Steele in 1891 in the Court of Appeals, Mr. John Prentiss Poe said: "The eminence which, while still a young man, he achieved in the years long gone by, too long ago for any of us to know except by tradition, and which, within our memory, with ripening years, and expanding faculties, and judg- ment more and more matured, steadily grew until there was no loftier height to reach, the persuasive oratory with which for half a century in this high tribunal and in the Nisi Prius courts of this State he discussed so many of the great litigations of his long life; the close, compact and powerful logic which he brought to bear upon complicated and difficult questions of law and fact; the clear, orderly and discriminating statement; the marvelous ingenuity and the vigorous reasoning which distinguished his forensic efforts, marked him as worthy to stand abreast of the great Maryland lawyers whose name and fame are a part of the proud history of our State."
Reverdy Johnson filled a leading role in the legal life of the State for more than half a century. He was born in Annapolis, May 21, 1796, and came to Baltimore to live in 1817. After having served in the State Senate for several years, he was elected to
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the United States Senate in 1846 and served until he was appointed Attorney General of the United States in 1849 by President Taylor. In 1863, he was again elected to the United States Senate, but resigned in 1868 in order to accept the position of Min- ister to England. He there negotiated a treaty for the settlement of the Alabama Claims, which was rejected by the Senate. He died in Annapolis in 1876. Mr. John- son's chief characteristic was intrepidity- mental, moral and physical. He had un- bounded confidence in his own power and resources, and he was never a victim of mis- placed confidence. His knowledge of hu- man nature was profound, and it was per- haps to this that he owed his reputation of being the best cross-examiner at the bar. Add to these qualities, thorough legal learn- ing, majestic good sense, great logical pow- ers, relentless industry, rich humor, and one can see that few men have ever been better equipped for the contests of the forum than was he, or more sure of success in the struggles and conflicts of professional life. During a large part of his career his fame as a lawyer, both within and without the State, far exceeded that of any of his con- temporaries.
S. Teackle Wallis, for more than forty years preceding his death, in 1894, was one of the most distinguished lawyers of Balti- more. In other spheres of life, too, his was a great reputation. He was the first citizen of the State, a man whose tongue and pen were ever ready to defend public rights, to succor the unfortunate, and to cast down the haughty. He was the most distinguish- ed man of letters in the State, and in private life he was the arbiter elegantiarum. He wrote two popular books on Spain and de-
livered several addresses, which were pub- lished during his life in pamphlet form. Since his death, an incomplete edition of his works has been published in four volumes. These writings show that he was a master of style, and style, as a great French critic says, "is a golden sceptre to which the king- dom of this world definitively belongs." If any one wishes to learn what potent magic and vivid charity of phrase was his, with what wisdom and learning and wit his writ- ings are replete, let him read Mr. Wallis' discourse on the Life and Character of George Peabody and his addresses to the graduating classes in Law and Medicine of the University of Maryland. As a wit, as a maker of epigrams, which fell from his lips with lightning quickness, there was no one to contest his pre-eminence. The follow- ing examples are sufficient to prove the truth of this statement. When somebody said to him once that a certain disreputable lawyer had gotten religion, Mr. Wallis im- mediately replied, "I am not surprised; he is always getting something that doesn't belong to him." While waiting for a case, in which he was retained, to be called in court, he inquired if the prosy lawyer who was then speaking had not then nearly fin- ished. "No," said his colleague; "he is go- ing to take his full hour." "You mean," said Mr. Wallis, "his empty hour." Pre- siding, upon one occasion, at a public din- ner, he called upon Prof. Sylvester, of the Johns Hopkins University, who was upon the programme for a speech. The pro- fessor excused himself by saying that he had gone to the opera the night before and had consequently not had time to prepare anything worthy of the occasion. Mr. Wal- lis congratulated him upon his adherence
Thomas J. Boer
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to the valuable maxim "opera non verba." Once, in arguing a case before the Court of Appeals of Maryland, Col. M., who was on the other side, resumed his argument in the morning by calling attention to a point, which, he said, he had first thought of in a dream. Mr. Wallis declared that the Court could pay no attention to such an argument, because it was in open violation of the legal maxim, Vigilantibus non dor- mientibus subveniunt leges. In another con- nection, alluding to the fact that in early English law the greatest attention was be- stowed upon real property and very little upon personal property, he said: "Such an opinion was doubtless reasonable enough in the days of King John, when a wealthy He- brew on a gridiron was their only banking institution." Of one of the judges under the Constitution of 1851, Wallis said that "he would not recognize a legal principle if he met it in the street."
Soon after the war he tried a case for the plaintiff against Simon Cameron, who was present in court. Mr. Wallis said that the defendant had caused the Simons to be di- vided into two classes-the Simons Pure and Simon Cameron.
Speaking of Justin Winsor's book on Co- lumbus and that learned antiquarian's ina- bility to understand how chivalry and ro- mance could be combined in that age with greed and money making, Mr. Wallis said, "I don't think that the Pilgrim Fathers would have refused to land on Plymouth Rock if it had been auriferous quartz." This brilliant wit was united in Mr. Wallis with the utmost courtesy and charm and distinc- tion of manner, great kindness of heart and a lavish generosity. It can be truly said of him, as Cardinal Newman said of Hope
Scott, "If there ever was a man who was the light and delight of his own intimates, it was he."
Mr. Wallis was an accomplished scholar and throughout his life kept up his studies in Latin, French and Spanish literature. The last mentioned language he spoke with as much ease and fluency as English. He sought and found his greatest solace and refreshment in the blooming garden of lit- erature and art, to which he had the pass- word.
From early manhood, Wallis was a fre- quent speaker in political campaigns, and many of his most eloquent words and bril- liant witticisms were uttered upon the hustings, and of these there remains now only a fast vanishing tradition. He was a Whig in politics until the disruption of that party, when he transferred his allegiance to the Democracy. He was the foremost ad- vocate of reform and purity of government and was the animating soul of several hotly contested campaigns. When it is remem- bered that in addition to his activity as a writer and political speaker Mr. Wallis was also one of the leaders of the bar, constantly engaged in the trial of important cases, one can see that in spite of his fragile health, - he was a prodigious worker and endowed with an extraordinary degree of versatility.
A very eloquent address upon the life and character of Mr. Wallis was delivered before the Maryland Historical Society, of which he was president at the time of his death, by Judge Charles E. Phelps. In that masterpiece of commemorative ora- tory, wortny of Wallis himself, Judge Phelps says: "The death of Mr. Steele placed Mr. Wallis by universal consent at the head of the Maryland Bar. With what
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conscientious labor, both in general and special preparation, he rose to that proud eminence-with what luminous and logical method he unfolded his stores of learning- with what consummate skill he extorted truth from the lips of an unwilling witness, or marshalled facts in the order of demon- stration-with what mastery of the weapons of invective he riddled and crushed false- hood and fraud-with what graceful and commanding eloquence he captivated courts and juries; all this and much more has been the theme of unstinted eulogy from his sur- viving professional brethren. But no point has been more unanimously emphasized than his delicate sense of personal and pro- fessional honor. So far as mortal vision may penetrate, a cleaner conscience never sought the presence of its Maker. The ba- sis of his character was a profound and ab- sorbing passion for truth and justice. Take this innate sense of justice, warm it up until it flames, arm it with wit, with satire, with invective, inspire it with courage, endow it with the staying qualities of a thorough- bred, give it a rapid ringing voice, often high pitched, and sometimes in its energy of inflection startlingly shrill, add to this the intense earnestness of an old Hebrew prophet, and the action, action, action of Demosthenes, let the framework be a carv- ing in delicate but pronounced lines, sculp- tured after the antique-and we have a faint image of Teackle Wallis before the people. The career of Mr. Wallis was a stormy one. The more peace to his ashes! Measured by the vulgar standard, it was not altogether a successful one. He died unmarried, untitled, unenriched. And yet the world, which applauds success, bows be- fore him in veneration. To see the death
of such a man so universally wept is creditable to human nature. It is more. It is a damaging blow to pessimism. Pub- lic spirit cannot be dead, conscience cannot be drugged, patriotism cannot be sapped in a community that admires such a life, ap- plauds such a character and reveres such a memory, as the life, the character and the memory of Severn Teackle Wallis."
Mr. Wallis was born in Baltimore on Sep- tember 8, 1816, and graduated at St. Mary's College in 1832. He studied law in the office of William Wirt, and derived also from him valuable instruction in literature. After Mr. Wirt's death he was a student in the office of Judge Glenn. As soon as he came to the bar he achieved success in the profession and a reputation as a lawyer, which was constantly enhanced throughout his life. In 1845, he made a visit of consid- erable length to Spain, and, in 1850, was sent to that country by the United States Government upon a special mission. In 1861, at a time of great public alarm and distress, he was forced to accept a nomi- nation to the State Legislature. He was opposed to secession, but he did not believe that the Federal Government was consti- tutionally authorized to wage war upon the States that had already seceded. In con- sequence of his prominence, he was arrested by the military authorities, together with several other members of the Legislature and leading citizens, and was confined for more than a year in Fortress Monroe and in Fort Warren in the harbor of Boston. In 1875, he was a candidate of the reform party for Attorney General, but was de- feated. He never accepted any other nomi- nation for office, although often asked to do so. Mr. Wallis died in Baltimore on April II, 1894.
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