History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 106

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

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and saying that Luke E. Lawless was the author. An order was then made on Lawless, who replied re- spectfully, though denying jurisdiction, but was sen- tenced to twenty-four hours' imprisonment in jail, and to eighteen months suspension from practice. De- cember 8th of that year John Scott presented in Congress a memorial from Lawless, charging Judge Peck with tyranny, oppression, and usurpation of power. The House committee reported charges of impeachment, which came before the Senate at the following session. It was one of the most important and became one of the most celebrated cases ever brought before that body, the question of the liberty of the press being so closely involved. The House of Representatives chose five of its prominent mem- bers, including Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, to man- age the prosecution, and William Wirt and Jonathan Mercdith, of Baltimore, appeared for the defense.

Among the eminent jurists who were members of the high court of impeachment were Webster, Clay- ton, Livingston, King, Poindexter, Grundy, White, Forsyth, Chase, and Tazewell. Half the St. Louis bar were summoned as witnesses, the trial occupied six weeks, and the pleadings, which were prepared by Judge Peck and Mr. Lawless respectively, showed the highest ability and the most exhaustive research. Judge Peck was acquitted, and the decision authori- tatively settled many questions relating to the powers of courts to punish for contempt.1

1 Hon. John F. Darby gives the following version of this in- teresting controversy : " Richard M. Johnson and his brother came here with some steamboats, which were seized for debt, and he could get no lawyer to defend him except Peck, who was not a regular lawyer. When Johnson went back to Washing- ton he caused Peck to be appointed judge of the District Court. Peck soon after went blind, and would sit on the bench with a handkerchief over his eyes, an animated imitation of the heathen figure of justice. He passed upon the land claims presented, and Edward Bates was the United States district attorney. When the court met in the old building at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets, the people would come and present their claims. Judge Peck on one of these occasions asked some one to explain the modus operandi of proceeding. Judge Lucas undertook to explain to the judge. Lawless, who had filed a claim for ten thousand acres for the Soulards, pro- tested against Lucas being allowed to make the explanation to the court. Judge Lucas said he was licensed by an act of heaven, which gave him a tongue to speak and explain; that he had taken his degree in France, his native country, and had been invited to emigrate to America by Franklin ; that when Mr. Lawless had applied for admission to the bar he was one of the three to examine him, and had voted to pass him, while one of the others had voted against him, and it might be that he had done wrong in doing so. Lucas was very severe upon Lawless, who had acted as the second of Col. Benton in the duel with the son of Judge Lucas, and it was said that Lawless had fled from Ireland to escape the penalty inflicted upon those ' engaged in the rebellion. Judge Peck decided against the claim

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An idea of the feeling that prevailed in some quar- ters may be obtained from a statement in the Missouri Republican of Feb. 3, 1837, to the effect that in the previous December some members of the St. Louis bar met and passed a resolution to the effect that their objection to the "reappointment of Luke E. Lawless to the office of judge of the Third Judicial District be expressed to the Governor." The following lawyers were present: Henry S. Geyer, Hamilton R. Gamble, Beverly Allen, Gustavus A. Bird, John F. Darby, James L. English, Harris L. Sproat, Charles F. Lowry, Wilson Primm, Charles D. Drake, Ferdinand W. Risque, Alexander Hamilton, William F. Chase, Thomas B. Hudson, John Bent, Singleton W. Wilson. Henry S. Geyer was chairman.

Judge Lawless died in September, 1846, aged sixty-five years, leaving no children. The bar met and expressed their sense of his fine talents, and of the loss to the profession. Bryan Mullanphy was chairman, and Hon. A. Hamilton secretary. Lewis V. Bogy, Edward Bates, Alexander Hamilton, Thos. T. Gantt, and W. M. Campbell drew up the resolu- tions. The Dublin Nation, the exponent of "young Ireland," published a history of the professional and military life of this distinguished man, and reprinted the proceedings of the St. Louis bar in memory of his services. Tradition reports that he ranked among the half a dozen best lawyers of his time, but few persons knew him intimately, as his manner was re- served and almost cold. He was called the most absent-minded man in St. Louis, and if half the stories to that effect be true richly deserved the title. One of his peculiarities was a habit of carrying into the court-room a large green bag in imitation of the English and Irish barristers.

John Delafield, a graduate of Columbia College (1830), studied law with Judge Arius Nye, Marietta, Ohio; was admitted in 1833; married Miss Edith Wallace, of Cincinnati, and in 1849 settled in St. Louis. Here he gained considerable reputation in

of Lawless, and the latter published an article in a newspaper reflecting upon the judge. Peck had the editor brought into court and made to divulge the name of the writer. Peck had Lawless arraigned for contempt, and fined and debarred him from practice. On his way to jail Lawless used the most violent language against Peck. For this conduct Congress impeached Peck, and he was prosecuted in the Senate by McDuffie, of South Carolina, and James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, and was defended by William Wirt and Mr. Meredith, of Baltimore. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and other senators of the day sat as the jury, and the trial was conducted without regard to polit- ical prejudices. Peck was acquitted because there was not a majority of two-thirds against him, but Congress passed the claim of Lawless for ten thousand acres of land, a matter of great exultation to him."

land cases, but turned his attention to literary pursuits, and wrote several essays and published books on archæological topics. His death occurred in Liver- pool in 1865, at the age of fifty-three. He left a wife and four children. The three daughters married, and the son became a prominent business man in St. Louis.

One of Mr. Delafield's contemporaries was L. M. Kennett, whose biography will be found in the mu- nicipal chapter, as he was mayor of St. Louis in 1852. Another was Judge J. M. Krum, a biography of whom finds place in the same chapter for the same reason.

Joseph B. Wells was a brother of Judge Carty Wells, of the Lincoln Circuit, who was born in 1805 in Virginia, and died in 1860. Joseph, born in 1806, studied law with his brother, practiced in Warren County, went to the Legislature, and in 1845 moved to St. Louis, where he became William M. Campbell's partner. In 1849, after Mr. Campbell's death, he was in partnership with Judge Buckner. His health failing, he went to San Francisco, and practiced there with Judge J. B. Crockett, since and for many years judge of the State Supreme Court, and afterwards with Hon. Henry H. Haight. His health became worse, and he died while visiting relatives in Missouri in 1858. He was a good lawyer and a genial gen- tleman. His best work, professionally speaking, was done on the Pacific coast, where he is still remem- bered with affection and respect. Some extremely important land cases were in his hands.

Judge Robert W. Wells (not a relative of the preceding) ranked with the best jurists of the State, and was born in 1795 in Winchester, Va. His early education was defective, but he was ever an indefati- gable student, and became a good classical scholar. About 1818 he began practice in St. Charles ; in 1821 was made prosecuting attorney for that circuit under Judge Rufus Pettibone, and in 1826 was made at- torney-general of the State, an office which Bates and Easton had held with credit, and which Judge Wells occupied with equal success for ten years. Then he became judge of the United States District Court, re- maining in this office until his death, April, 1865, while visiting his married daughter at Bowling Green, Ky. Twice married, his first wife was Miss Barcroft, daughter of Maj. Barcroft (State auditor, 1823-33); after her death he married Miss Covington, of Ken- tucky. Five children were left to mourn his loss. Hon. Thomas T. Gantt presided over the meeting of the St. Louis bar which was held in honor of Judge Wells. His tribute was a memorable one. Judge Wells, said he, " illustrated and adorned the judgment

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seat." "He has done more than any other judge, living or dead, for the elucidation and correct exposi- tion of the United States statutes on which land titles in Missouri depend." " The State is impoverished by his death." Such and of similar import were the utterances of his long-tried associates in honor of Judge Wells. Politically he was a Democrat, sup- ported the Union, and advocated a gradual system of emancipation years before the war. He was presid- ing officer of the State Constitutional Convention of 1845.

A genial and popular gentleman, for many years clerk of the United States Circuit and District Courts, was Col. B. F. Hickman, born in Frankfort, Ky., in 1810, afterwards a deputy in Francis P. Blair, Sr.'s office, then law student with Judge Saunders; ad- mitted to the bar in 1832, and representative from Anderson County for two terms. Miss Cunningham, his first wife, was killed by being thrown from a buggy, and Mr. Hickman was severely injured. Years after he married Miss Moore, of Kentucky. In 1841 he located in St. Louis, and afterwards in Jefferson City, but in 1848 assumed the court clerkships, which he retained until February, 1871, the time of his death. He could not, of course, in his brief practice win much reputation as a lawyer, but his faithful efficiency as clerk received and retained the friendship of every practitioner in the Federal courts, and the usual tributes to his memory were more than ordinarily earnest. Judge Samuel Treat was one of the speakers on this occasion.

In 1826 irregular living hastencd the dcatlı of a brilliant young lawyer, Capt. Alexander Gray, who fought in the war of 1812, and reached Missouri in 1816. Soon after coming to St. Louis he became judge of the Circuit Court, and was afterwards judge of the Northern Circuit (St. Charles, Montgomery, and Howard Counties). As an advocate, particularly in criminal cases, he won a great reputation. Judge James Evans reached Missouri in 1816, and secured a large practice in Southeastern Missouri. In 1842 he was appointed judge of the Ninth Circuit Court, but his career was short.

The list of the leaders of the bar who were born pre- vious to the present century is nearly complete, and some glimpses of the lesser currents of activity have been afforded. One of the really strong men of that early bar, of which Gamble, Spalding, Geyer, Bates, and Darby were exponents, was Beverly Allen, native of Virginia, as were so many of the best Missouri lawyers. He was born in the year 1800, in Richmond, and having graduated at Princeton, he began his law studies with Judge Upshur, who gave him letters of

the highest value when he removed to St. Louis in 1827. For a while he had been located at Ste. Gene- vieve, and was John Scott's partner there. In St. Louis he was for a time a partner of Hamilton R. Gamble. President Adams appointed him United States district attorney, but the next administration removed him for political reasons. He was afterwards in the State Legislature, was member of the City Council, and was for a time city attorney. In 1838 he canvassed the State as a Whig congressional nomi- nee. His death occurred Sept. 12, 1845, on which occasion the Republican said,-

" Mr. Allen was a distinguished member of the bar of Missouri, eminent for his talents and profes- sional abilities, and universally admired and esteemed for his sound social, moral, and Christian principles and virtues. In a life not prolonged beyond the medium age he had won for himself, by uniform up- rightness of conduct, a reputation which will long make his memory cherished by all who knew him. A few months ago Mr. Allen, accompanied by his wife, made a visit to the south of France and Italy, in the hope of effecting the restoration of his health. He had reached New York on his way home, when his course was arrested and his usefulness cut off by death.'

Judge Thomas T. Gantt, whose memory is an un- failing fund of interesting reminiscences, has said of Mr. Allen that in 1839 he was one of the five lead- ing lawyers of St. Louis. His acquaintanceship with land titles was vast and exact. One of his ablest reports was that in justification of the title of Caron- delet to the common south of the Revière des Peres, which had been unsettled by claims of the War De- partment.

Capt. Edward E. Allen, for many years a justice of the peace in St. Louis, afterwards clerk of the law commissioners' court, and then a successful lawyer, fought through the civil war, receiving wounds which ultimately caused his death at the age of sixty- one (in 1878). He was born in Norfolk, Va., and educated in Richmond.

Judge James H. Birch, another of the " Virginians of the ancient régime," was born in March, 1804. His early life was spent in Kentucky, where he studied with Judge John Trimble, of the Supreme Court. He married a daughter of Daniel Halstead, of Lexington ; removed to St. Louis in 1826, and assisted in editing the Enquirer, Col. Benton's paper. The next year he established the Western Monitor at Fayette. In 1828 he was clerk of the Lower House, and soon after was sent to the State Senate. From 1849 to 1852 he was a judge of the State Supreme Court. Twice

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he served as register of the Plattsburgh land office. His great ambition was to go to Congress, but he failed in accomplishing this object. Stately, commanding, dignified, conservative, possessed of a clear, ringing voice and a graceful delivery, he might have been a marked and useful public servant ; but the times were ripe for partisans, and the days of compromises had long gone by. In one of his speeches in 1861 he appealed eloquently to " the people of the North against the politicians of the South," though the civil war had already begun.

The Bay family furnish examples of inherited tastes and faculties that would have delighted Francis Galton. Judge Elisha Bay was for forty-nine years judge of the highest court in South Carolina, and declined a seat in the Supreme Court of the United States in Jefferson's administration. His brother was law partner of Ambrose Spencer, chief judge of the New York Supreme Court. A son of this brother was very successful at the Columbia County, N. Y., bar, ranking with Van Buren, Morrell, and Edmonds, and his grandsons, Samuel M. Bay and W. V. N. Bay, became noted in Missouri as talented advocates and learned jurists. Judge Samuel M. Bay, born in Hudson, N. Y., in 1810, studied some time under Salmon P. Chase, in Washington, engaged in mercan- tile business, took up law, and in 1833 settled in Franklin County, Mo. He was soon sent to the Legislature, and was afterwards appointed attorney- general of the State, proving a vigorous and successful prosecutor. Removing to Jefferson City, he formed a partnership with Abiel Leonard, of Howard County, and this lasted until 1846, when he changed his resi- dence to St. Louis, and became attorney for the State Bank. In July, 1849, he fell a victim to the cholera. A career of rare promise was thus cut short. He left a widow and four children. His brother, Judge W. V. N. Bay, late of the Supreme Court of Missouri, is the author of the able work on the " Missouri Bench and Bar," from which we have before quoted.

Sept. 12, 1839, a young lawyer of note, Albert G. Harrison, died in Fulton. He was born in June, 1800, in Kentucky, cducated there, and removed to Missouri in 1827. For a time he was register of the St. Louis land office, and in 1836 was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1838.

A man of multifarious eccentrieitics was William M. Campbell, who died in Dceember, 1849, aged forty-five, a native of Virginia, and a graduate of Washington and Lee University. In 1829 he reached Missouri, settled in St. Charles, became very popular, and was sent to the Legislature and State Scnate, but in 1844 moved to St. Louis to edit a Whig news-

paper. In a few years he went to the State Senate again from St. Louis County, and remained in that body until his death. His talents were of the high- est order, and his reputation for honesty was unqucs- tioned. Never secking for office, it was forced upon him in every case. He was absolutely indifferent to dress and money, and nothing ever ruffled his temper. Physically he was as lazy as possible, mentally a giant of industry. He could listen to a speech an hour long, and then write it out from memory, a fcat almost beyond belief. As an editor he was invalu- able,-he could do the work of a dozen ordinary men. His political editorials were always of a high order. Though seldom appearing in court, his power over a jury was notable.

Another diamond in the rough, full of eccentrici- ties and talents, was James Winston, born in 1813. His mother was the youngest daughter of Patrick Henry, and James was the youngest of twelve cliil- dren. He had little education, but became a success- ful practitioner, though he seemed to have no definite purpose in life. He represented the Benton district in the State Senate in 1850. Two years later he was the Whig nominee for Governor, and, though defeated, the wit and fluency which he exhibited in the canvass greatly increased his popularity.

· In 1857 the bar lost one of its efficient members by the death of Richard S. Blennerhassett, a noted criminal lawyer, who was born in County Kerry, Ire- land, in 1811, and who was related on his mother's side to Daniel O'Connell and to the Spottswoods of Virginia. His father was first cousin of Herman Blennerhassett, concerned in the Burr conspiracy. In 1831 he married Miss Byran, great-granddaughter of Rousseau, came to America, taught school, studied law, was admitted in 1835, and in 1841 reached St. Louis. In 1848, '49, and '50 he was city counselor. It is asserted that he never had a superior in criminal cases at the St. Louis bar. He was not as eloquent as Uriel Wright, but was a better reasoner, and his self-pos- session was perfect. His social qualities and un- bounded generosity made him a universal favorite among his associates and in private life. In one of his most important eascs-the defense of McLean for murdering Col. Floyd-he obtained four suc- cessive trials between 1842 and 1845, at the last saving his elient from the gallows. No record has been kept of his most eloquent speeches, but they seldom failed to win the jury. His management of witnesses and analysis of testimony still live in tradition as unsurpassed among the lawyers of his time.

Robert P. Farris was born in Natick, near Boston,

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Mass., in the year 1794. He came to St. Louis about 1815-16, and entered upon the profession of the law. About the time of the admission of Missouri as a State, in 1820-21, he was lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment Missouri Militia, and upon the office of colonel becoming vacant, he was elected to the same May 25, 1822, by a vote of four hundred and three over his competitor, Col. Réné Paul, who re- ceived one hundred and thirty-one votes. Col. Farris was appointed circuit attorney for the St. Louis Circuit by Governor Alexander McNair, and entered upon the discharge of his duties at the term of the court held on the first Monday of June, 1822, N. B. Tucker then judge. He held the office nearly seven years, being succeeded by Hamilton R. Gamble, March 23, 1829, William C. Carr being then judge of the circuit. Col. Farris was married to the daughter of Capt. Joseph Cross, formerly of the United States artil- lery. A contemporary journal says, ---

" Married at Potosi, Washington Co., on the 31st March, 1824, by the Rev. Mr. Donnelly, Col. Robert P. Farris, of this city, to Miss Catharine Anne Cross, step-daughter of Samuel Perry, Esq., of the above place."

The notice of his death reads as follows :

" Died in this city on the 27th December, 1830, Col. Robert P. Farris." He was buried in the Prot- estant graveyard in North St. Louis, where now stands Grace Church.

His wife died some years previously.

His only son, the Rev. Robert P. Farris, was born in 1826.

One of the most eccentric, liberal, and widely-known lawyers of St. Louis was Bryan Mullanphy, of whom the genial John F. Darby, in his chatty reminiscences, has an abundance to tell. He was born in Baltimore in 1809, and his father, John Mullanphy, who settled in St. Louis in 1804, accumulated an immense for- tune, and did much to develop the material resources of the West. Determined to give his son every ad- vantage, he sent him to France, then to England, whence he returned at the age of eighteen, began the study of law, was admitted to practice, and soon took a creditable position. At his father's death it was found that most of the property was willed to his sisters, but they at once admitted him to an equal share. One of these sisters married Gen. Harney, another became the wife of Judge Boyce, of Louisi- ana, and a third of Maj. Thomas Biddle, while the other two married Charles Chambers and James Clemens, Jr., influential business men of St. Louis. Bryan Mullanphy became a fluent and impressive though not eloquent speaker. Though wealthy, he

enjoyed the practice of law, and his wide range of reading on literary topics rendered him an agreeable companion. He was in several noted trials the an- tagonist of the best men of the time, and showed fine legal capacity. In 1840 chosen judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, he served until 1844 with great fidelity, and few of his decisions were reversed. His successor was John M. Krum. In 1847 came an interesting and difficult period of his life, resulting from his election as mayor of the city. The cholera prevailed shortly after, and the dreadful sufferings of poor emigrants suggested to him the disposition he afterwards made of his wealth. His death occurred June 15, 1851, when he was forty-two years of age. For twelve years or more he had filled important offices, and for some time he had been director of the Bank of Missouri. The bar met two days after his death, and Messrs. L. V. Bogy, J. M. Krum, M. Blair, S. Treat, C. D. Drake, H. R. Gamble, and J. F. Darby drafted the resolutions, which closed as fol- lows:

" As a member of the profession, the deceased was distinguished for every quality which makes the gen- tleman in his intercourse with his brethren, and never for a moment forgot, in the excitements which are inseparable from the practice of the law, his habitual decorum, either to the highest or to the lowest among us, whilst his great legal attainments and varied knowledge made him an ornament to the profession." Nevertheless, this life, so useful and full of deeds of kindness and of charity, was curiously marred by eccentricities of many sorts, instances of which abound. He seems to have been a quaint, humorous oddity, and dressed with extreme carelessness. His countless gifts to the poor were marked in nearly every instance by some strange provision. His own likes and dis- likes were strongly shown. On one occasion he invited a noted actor to take a drive, but drove off and left him twelve miles or so from St. Louis, being, it is supposed, angry at something the latter had said. But all his oddities, and they were many, are but as dust in the balance when weighed against the upright- ness of his life and the succession of his charities, crowned at last by his munificent gift to the great city where that wealth had been accumulated by his father. His property was valued at six hundred thousand dollars.

The St. Louis Republican of June 17, 1851, gives an interesting account of the character and provisions of his will, which was contested, but fully sustained after a protracted litigation. It seems that after Judge Mullanphy's death many rumors prevailed re- garding the disposition of his property, and at first no

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will was found. But it was known, however, that a sealed package had been deposited by him with onc of the city officers. This instrument, it was suggested, might be his will, and as it was supposed, if so, that it might contain instructions as to his funeral, the mayor notified the relatives of the deceased that at twelve o'clock the package would be opened in the presence of a portion of them, thus summoned, and of other citizens. The package was produced by the city register and opened. The outside envelope contained a memorandum of the circumstances under which the package was received, signed by the then mayor, James G. Barry, and D. H. Armstrong, then comptroller. The will was then opencd, on the out- side of which was a memorandum in Judge Mullan- phy's handwriting, directing that it should not be opencd until after his death. This memorandum bore date Aug. 31, 1849. The will itself was as fol- lows :

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 106

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358