History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 77

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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The same year he was appointed by President Fill- more chief justice of Utah Territory, then just organ- ized. He,was strongly urged by the President per- sonally to accept, as the position was a trying one, and the administration wished it to be filled by some one in whoin it nad confidence. Its great distance from civilization and the customs of the country, which were so abhorrent to his ideas, led him, how- ever, to decline the proffered honor.

On the resignation of Hon. J. Murry Burrell, judge of the Tenth District, he was appointed to that position, in the fall of 1855, by Governor Pollock, with whom he had been a fellow-member of Con- gress, and with his appointment commenced a close and intimate acquaintance with Westmoreland County and its citizens that lasted until his death.

In the fall of 1856 he was elected to fill the position to which he had been appointed for a term of ten years. In this election he had no contestant, the opposition declining to nominate through the advice of their then candidate for the Presidency, James Buchanan, a special friend of the judge's for many years. This position he held until 1866, when he was again elected to fill the judgeship for another term of ten years.

This he resigned in 1871, when failing health ad- monished him that the judicial labors, already be- yond the power of any man, were too great for one who had passed the meridian of life and had borne the heat and burden of the day, whilst others more vigorous had fallen by his side. It was hard, indeed, for one whose mind was skilled to greatness and trained to labor to listen to the demands of a feeble frame whilst yet that mind was in the vigor and strength of maturity. But, sustained by the con- sciousness of duty well done, and cheered by the united voice from without proclaiming his life's mis- sion to the public nobly performed, he left the battle- field of life and lived (as was his wont) amid the brighter joys of social and domestic love, himself the centre around which the affections of a dear home clustered. He was again in private life after forty- six years' connection with the bench and bar of the

Commonwealth, to the thoroughness and industry of which the State Reports for the forty years preceding bear silent but eloquent witness.

Surrounded by friends and every comfort of life, the following year passed quickly, but, as in the case of many an overworked professional man, the final summons came without warning. On Saturday, Feb. 8, 1872, he was in his usual health, and on rising from dinner went to an adjoining room, across which he commenced walking as was his wont. His wife com- ing in five minutes afterwards found him lying on the sofa in the sleep that knows no waking. He was buried with the services of the Episcopal Church, of which he had been an attendant, officer, and liberal supporter for many years. Of Judge Buffington as a lawyer we have spoken ; as a citizen he was public- spirited, and as a neighbor he was kind and sympa- thetic; all his intercourse with his fellow-men was marked with a courtesy and quiet dignity that im- pressed ome as being in the presence of one who was a gentleman in the true sense of the word. His memory is a rich legacy to friends who survive.

JUDGE JAMES A. LOGAN.

On Monday morning, May 8, 1871, accompanied by Judge M. P. McClannahan, one of the associate judges, and the only one in the county at that time, his colleague, Judge Robert Given, being in Califor- nia, Judge Logan took his seat upon the bench, and directed the crier to open the courts. He then handed his commission from Governor Geary, appointing him president judge of the Tenth Judicial District, to the prothonotary to be read. The commission empower- ing him to hold the said office until the first Monday of the next December was then read.

Judge Logan was a native of Westmoreland County, born in the limits of Burrell township. He received his education at Elder's Ridge Academy, a prepara- tory school in Indiana County, and studied law with William A. Stokes, Esq., and with the Hon. H. P. Laird, and on motion of W. H. Markle, Esq., was admitted to practice on the 16th of May, 1868. After his admission to the bar he entered into partnership with Mr. Markle, and remained with him until the senior member of the firm was appointed collector of United States revenue of this congressional district. He was shortly after his admission appointed solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and after the South- west Railway was incorporated was selected to man- age the legal affairs of that road, of which he was also a director.

He applied himself with diligence to the study of the law, and soon evidenced legal talents of more than ordinary degree. He acquired a good practice, and was prominent as a rising politician in the Re- publican party, and was mentioned as a candidate for Congress a year or two prior to his appointment as judge.

Judge Logan presiding with satisfaction in each of

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the three counties of his district under this appoint- ment, was nominated by the Republican party as its candidate for election, and was easily elected over Silas M. Clark, Esq., of Indiana, his competitor in the Democratic party, his party having a majority in the district. He presided after his election over all the courts of the district until Westmoreland was made a separate judicial district by the Constitution of 1874, when he was retained as judge of this county alone. Over the courts of this county he presided with eminent ability, firmness, and skill until he resigned, in 1879, to accept the position of Assistant General Solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a position in the legal department of that corporation which he was the first to occupy.

JUDGE JAMES A. HUNTER.

The Hon. James A. Hunter, the present incumbent of this distinguished office, upon the vacancy occur- ring by the resignation of Judge Logan, was com- missioned as president judge of the Tenth Judicial District by Governor Hoyt, July 12, 1879, his com- mission running to the first Monday of January, 1880. On the 14th of July, 1879, Judge Hunter took his oath of office. In the election of the fall of 1879 to fill this vacancy Judge Hunter was elected by the people of Westmoreland their law judge for ten years.1

JOHN BYERS ALEXANDER.

At the beginning of the present century, Westmore- land, relatively speaking, was yet in the backwoods. At that time there were no turnpikes, not to say canals or railroads. Although the people were in- dustrious and energetic, yet they were, as is always the case in like circumstances, in too many instances inclined to be quarrelsome and fond of litigation. The class which made up the great majority of the early inhabitants were proverbially fonder of the sight of a court-house than a church. Its county town was, therefore, taking all things together, a good location for a young lawyer of able body and practi- cal mind-characteristics and acquirements which nearly all the eminent lawyers of that day possessed in a marked degree. Among these first lawyers was John B. Alexander.

John Byers Alexander was born in Carlisle, Cum- berland Co., Pa., and emigrated to Greensburg early in the present century. He was admitted to the Westmoreland bar on motion of William Wilkins, Esq., at the December term of court, 1804. He opened his first office here, engaged in the practice of the law, and resided here until the war of Eighteen-Twelve commenced. Mr. Alexander had been liberally edu- cated, having been graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, when that institution had a first-class repu- tation. He was a good Latin scholar, readily reading and explaining old law writers to the court. In his

old age he was heard to quote Horace in the original in ordinary conversation with gentlemen of culture. But Coke says that the law is a jealous mistrees, and requires an undivided attention. Alexander was of the same opinion, and had little regard for any lit- erary pursuit outside of his profession. He was no politician, and read no newspapers, novels, maga- zines, or histories. His sole literary recreation was the reading of Shakspeare. This he knew so well that he quoted it regularly in court, and could repeat whole scenes without any mistake, and with proper manner and pronunciation. And to him, in his profession, the great dramatist was undoubtedly of great use, and particularly in this, that it supple- mented him with a fund of quotations with which in addressing juries he could relieve the dryness and dullness of professional language.

His father having a large family to support, he, after having received his collegiate education, was thrown upon his own resources. He studied much, worked hardly and carefully, and as a return rose to the front rank at the bar, and gained the best practice in the county.

Only on two occasions did he allow his mind to be drawn away or diverted from the practice of his pro- fession, in which he was making money and gaining reputation. The first of these occasions was the war of Eighteen-Twelve. When that war with Great Britain commenced he collected a company of volun- teers, and served with credit under Gen. Harrison in several engagements with the British and Indians. The name of his company was "The Greensburg Rifles," and an account of its services in that cam- paign will be found in the chapter of this book in which the subject of that war is treated of.

After his return he resumed the practice of the law, rose to the head of the Greensburg bar, and obtained a lucrative practice in this and the adjoining counties. But notwithstanding his peaceful profession, Alex- ander still retained a taste for military display. His town of Carlisle had been the site of a British bar- racks and a military rendezvous, and hence there had grown up among the inhabitants an admiration of a soldier's character and a fondness for a soldier's life. But in the case of Alexander, he was born with the instincts of the soldier, and members of his family had raised the name to distinction in the military annals of the Revolutionary era on the side of the colonies. The title for which he felt a fondness and expressed a preference was the familiar one of " Major," by which he was known all over the State, and which he justly and honorably had earned in the field.

Moved by this military taste, Alexander raised a company of artillery for " parade duty,". when

"No war or battle's sound Was heard the world around; The idle spear and shield were high up hung; The booked chariot stood,' Unstain'd with human blood ; The trumpet spake not to the armed throng."

1 See biographical sketch of Judge Hunter.

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The company was the model company of the mili- tary division in which the militia of the State was divided, and was truly a fine one in appearance. The men were handsomely uniformed, were all over six feet in height, and their two handsome brass cannons were drawn by large gray horses. The rank and file consisted of substantial farmers and stout mechanics and laborers. In rich and gaudy uniform, Alexander always commanded in person, and he expended a large sum of money in equipments, horses, and dona- tions. He, with his company, turned out in honor of Lafayette when he passed through the southwestern part of our county, and he commanded this company. in person at the execution of Joseph Evans.

Alexander not only encouraged the profession of arms by his example, but he went so far as to ao- knowledge the code of honor in theory and practice. He fought a duel with a Mr. Mason, of Uniontown, Fayette Co. They exchanged shots, but neither was wounded. Both desired a second fire, but the seconds refused on the ground that the point of honor for which they fough. did not require another interchange of deadly missives, and neither had the satisfaction of putting a bullet-hole into the body of his antago- nist.

This fondness for military parade and display thus became rather a weakness with Alexander. As he grew older he became vain of military titles and reputation, and was easily cajoled and flattered on this point.

His military reputation, however, rested on a more substantial foundation. Of his popularity, based upon his military exploits, is related a curious incident. Some time about 1838, when Sanford, who introduced upon the stage the "Jim Crow" minstrelsy, intended to dance and sing, Alexander was in Pittsburgh, at- tending the Supreme Court. He went to the theatre, and on his appearance in the boxes it was suggested to Sanford to make him a compliment. Jim Crow improvised the following :

" Ole Gen'ral Harrison, He was the big commander, And the next big hero there Was Major Alexander ! "80 wheel about," etc.

This drew attention to the box of Alexander, and was received with uproarious applause. The old Major was highly gratified.

. But on his return from the war he quietly returned to his profession, not using his military reputation as a stepping-stone to popular favor. His military ser- vices were such as to have made him a distinguished citizen of the county had they not been very largely lost sight of in his more brilliant reputation as an eminent lawyer. In this character shall we chiefly regard him in this sketch.

The second and less fortunate occasion which drew off his attention from the agreeable toil of the office and the bar was his election to the State Assembly.

Prior to that, and until the advent of Gen. Jackson into the political arena, he had taken no part in poli- tics. At that time he avowed himself a strong Jack- son man. The individuality and the upright and simple character of that remarkable leader drew to his support many of contrary political opinions and preferences. On the first evidences of the popular- ity of that military citizen he was claimed by both parties which were then in antagonism, and probably the Federalists, or Whigs, had more right to class him with those in their faith than had the Democrat- Republicans. But Alexander, although a Federalist of Federalists, was among the first of Jackson's sup- porters in Westmoreland, and remained.the friend of his administration, without the hope of preferment or of party patronage.

In 1884 one of the representatives of Westmoreland in the General Assembly, James Findlay, having been appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth by Gover- nor Wolf, a vacancy was made in the representation, which was filled at a special election by returning Maj. Alexander.

The professions of the law and of arms have from times of high antiquity been regarded as inimical professions. Inter arma silent leges. But Alexander was attached to both of them. It may be said of him too, as it was said of another, that law was his busi- neee and arms was his recreation, in relative degrees. For politics, however, he had no predilection. It is seldom that eminent lawyers are successful as politi- cians or as legislators, and especially when they enter public life advanced in years. The political and leg- islative careers of such eminent jurists as William L. Meredith and James M. Porter, of Rufus Choate and Horace Binney, were in nowise successful, and certainly added nothing to their reputation as law- yers.

Alexander was unanimously elected to fill the va- cancy, and thereupon went to Harrisburg. It was admitted by all that his representative career was a failure. He was like a fish out of water. He there came in contact with men who, although they could scarcely have spelled their way through the horn- book, could have bought him and sold him in legis- lative trickery every hour in the day. For those he had the utmost contempt, and he appeared to regard the whole legislative body somewhat ss Gulliver regarded a similar assemblage in Lilliput. Before the session closed he left them in disgust, mounted old "Somerset," and rode home.

Thenceforth he took no part in politics whatever until 1840, when his old commander was nominated for the Presidency. During that campaign he con- sented to preside at a Harrison meeting at Greens- burg. He was then on the verge of eternity, and died shortly after, in the same year.

The position of Mr. Alexander at the Westmore- land bar for a period of about twenty years is gener- I ally admitted to have been 'at its head. There were

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then at the bar other lawyers who rose to eminence after his day, and at his day there were gentlemen who were justly regarded as able lawyers, but these were mostly younger and less experienced. Rich- ard Coulter, a younger man, was his superior in eloquence, Alexander Foster in extensive reading and discursive knowledge, and several others in gen- eral accomplishments, but when he was in the full vigor of his intellectual manhood, as a learned lawyer he had no superior. But in the end his inclination and ability for work decreasing with lost vigor, his former position was secured by others.

Probably the great secret of the success of Alex- ander as a lawyer was his sedulous and exclusive de- votion to the profession of his choice. More than one of the text-writers and expositors of the English jurisprudence have, in giving their experience and advice, laid stress on the observation that to succeed at the law all thought of advancement elsewhere must be abandoned. Bacon, who undoubtedly was vain of his intellectual powers, admitted the superi- ority of Coke, his one-time rival for the enviable dis- tinction of being the oracle of that code which, taking shape in the Institutes, soon after came to be regarded as a not unworthy rival of the imperial jurisprudence, the code of the civil law of the Latin civilization ; and this superiority which Bacon ad- mitted in Coke he attributed not to superior intellect or attainmenta, but to a closer and more exclusive study of the groundwork and superstructure of the English common and statute law. It is said by Chitty, the elder, that the law. as a jealous mistress submits to no division of affection. It was a well- known apothegm, traceable to the earliest of the law- writers of England, and which Blackstone regards with the veneration due to a saying so old, and which he has made part of the text of the Commentaries, that to make a good lawyer, a lawyer sufficient to judge the laws, requires the ceaseless lucubrations of twenty years; and all his disciples know that before the master entered upon that course of study which qualified him to expound the laws of his country, and to lay out the plan of a new academical science, he bade adieu to polite literature in elegant and expres- sive verse, entitled "The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse," and which began "Shakspeare no more."

In one particular the writer of the Commentaries seems in his actual literary experience to have been at issue with his own advice, for notwithstanding this adieu, and although he did devote himself to the mas- tery of the law, yet Blackstone really never did aban- don his Shakspeare, but was in his lifetime regarded one of the best Shaksperian scholars in England, and found time to annotate, correct the text, and offer valuable suggestions for an edition of the dramatist's works, edited by a friend towards the end of his life. But he read Shakspeare as a lawyer would read it.

This advice Alexander followed in all parts. Shakspeare he did not and could not forego,-it was

his vade-mecum. In Blackstone he saw the perfection of human reason, in Shakspeare the perfection of human wisdom. From the one he obtained his knowledge of law, and from the other his knowledge of human nature. In his speeches before the jury he constantly drew from the serious portions, the pro- verbial expressions, and the didactic moral passages of his author; and in his peculiar humor, when away from professional restriction, he acted, with appro- priate "'Fore-God-well-said-my-lord-, and-with-a- proper-accent-and-manner," the comic scenes.

The high reputation of Alexander as a lawyer was well deserved. His mind was a legal one, clear, logical, and practical, and from early life he had been a close and severe student. Once, when complimented upon his legal knowledge as if coming by nature, he re- plied, "I owe my legal knowledge, whatever may be its extent, to hard study. I rose and studied when others were in their beds." This habit of study he retained until old age. It was said that he read Blackstone every year, and at all favorable opportu- nities refreshed his memory with the other standard law authorities. In short, he read nothing but law- books and Shakspeare.

As a sound and well-read lawyer he had, as we said, no equal at the Westmoreland bar, and in the special branch of the law relating to land title he had no su- perior in Western Pennsylvania. He was retained as counsel in many cases of disputed title in the court of last resort in the State, and even in some cases of a like character which were adjudicated in the highest court of the United States. He was the counsel in one particularly heavy land-title case on an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, wherein his adversary was the celebrated William Wirt. Alexander gained his cause, and the argument dis- played such legal acumen that he astonished the bench as well as the bar. At its conclusion he was complimented by Mr. Wirt and by Daniel Webster, who was present, and who expressed in his warm- hearted way his approbation of the manner he had handled his case, of his exposition of the law, and the profundity of his legal reasoning and learning. It is said, furthermore, that Alexander recognized these marks of approbation by such an expression as left a questionable doubt as to his appreciation of them; for, as he was reputed one of the best lawyers, so he was reputed one of the best cursers in the State.

In the intricate and abstruse practice of the land law of Pennsylvania Alexander was, without doubt, the superior of Wirt. Wirt was a politician, an orator, and a literary man, but to the law alone had Alexander devoted an almost entire attention. If Wirt were the Bacon, Alexander was the Coke.

His contemporaries used to relate many instances of his success at the bar in the management of his cases, and many anecdotes illustrative of his peculiar characteristics. Some of these have come down to our own times.

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A young lawyer of Armstrong County once secured the services of Alexander in an important land trial. Alexander took the case, made an examination of it, and prepared a memorandum and brief. He duly attended the Armstrong court when the case was set for trial ; but having met an old acquaintance there, who, like himself, was of a convivial disposition, the Major became so intent in " fighting his battles o'er again" that he did not care whether court kept or no. The Armstrong lawyer became uneasy, went to Alex- ander, whom he found in bed, told him that every- thing depended on his assistance, and that his client was anxious for the trial to proceed. Thereupon the Major asked for his saddle-bags, and opening them he took out a bundle of papers. "Take these papers," said he, with a hasty imprecation, "go into court, and if you cannot win the case upon them you are not much, of a lawyer." The young lawyer did so; he went into court, and entirely upon the precedents and authorities cited in the papers drawn up by Alexander obtained a verdict in favor of his client. When the term us court was over the young attorney called upon Alexander, who still remained in his room with his old military companion, and asked him what was his fee and what the services of both should be. "Why, you may charge as little as you please," he replied; "but I'm not going to have all this trouble and toil for less than one hundred dollars."

We have been told that the fees of Alexander were fair, moderate, and never exorbitant. He was no professional shark. Notwithstanding all the great land trials in which he was engaged, the largest fee he ever secured was one of a thousand dollars.

He greatly distinguished himself in one of the most remarkable cases ever tried in the Westmoreland courts. A negro man named Tom Morgan had been charged with an attempt to commit a rape upon a girl who was weak in intellect if not actually im- becile. The outrage excited such indignation in Greensburg that a party of stout men armed them- selves with cowhides and wattles, dragged the black man from his house, and so beat and whipped him that nothing saved his life but the sheriff and the posse, who took him out of the hands of the mob, lodged him in jail, and placed a guard round the jail building. Before yet the excitement had subsided the negro was indicted in the Oyer and Terminer Court. Eminent counsel, at private expense, was secured to assist the Commonwealth in the prosecu- tion. Conway, one of the first lawyers of Cambria County, and Coulter, one of the first lawyers of West- moreland, both of them eloquent advocates, were with the deputy attorney-general.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 77

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: