USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. I > Part 10
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The next circumstance in his history, to which I shall advert, although still less of a public nature, can yet scarcely be classed among the transactions of his private life. I mean his connection with this Church. In the resolutions at your late meeting, it was declared, with equal truth and simplicity, that to Judge Lee we "owe a debt of gratitude." Perhaps few among us are aware of the full extent and bearing of that remark. It may be known to many, that in the year 1817, this Church had been long united with another in the city, so as to form with it one legal corporation and one ecclesias- tical body, even to the regular interchange of pulpits every Sabbath by the two acting pastors. Few persons acquainted with religious history, would antecedently predict that a con- nection like this could be indefinitely permanent. It must have been foreseen that in the lapse of time, the harmony of the association, however complete at first, would at length be disturbed by personal partialities and prepossessions in favor of different pastors, or by differences in theological opinions. Accordingly with the year just mentioned, the period had arrived for both these causes of disturbance to operate with uncontrollable power. The two Churches were rent into an irreconcilable division, one party embracing the ancient Cal- vinistic creed of the corporation, and the other adopting those principles of scriptural interpretation denominated Unitarian. The breach was still further widened by the fact, that one of the officiating ministers for the time being, Mr. Forster, was an earnest advocate of the last mentioned system, and had, in a short time, acquired a large number of adherents, being par- ticularly acceptable as a preacher and a man. It thus became a desirable object of the Calvinistic party to exchange him for a clergyman of a different description, and secure, if pos- sible, the continued adherence of both the Churches to their ancient creed. At this crisis, Judge Lee was found among
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the friends and followers of Mr. Forster, who proposed to the other party the terms of an amicable separation, and the future appropriation of each Church edifice to the use of the denominations, respectively. The proposition was for some time strenuously resisted. Various discussions and meetings took place, at which Judge Lee was almost the only promi- nent advocate of the side which he had espoused. Single- handed, he encountered four or five very able and active opponents, until at length both parties became convinced that there was no hope of future harmony and reconciliation, except by a voluntary and absolute separation. Our departed friend was Chairman of the Joint Committee of Ten, who drew up and reported the articles of separation. "Impressed," say the Committee in their Report, " with the solemnity and importance of the subject confided to them, and anxiously solicitous to meet the wishes of their constituents, they fre- quently and freely interchanged their sentiments, and now recommend the above measures as the most likely to tran- quilize the Church, and unite in brotherly love and affection all its worshippers." Upon this recommendation the whole body acted, and the result may be perceived in the following extract from their minutes: "Charleston, 24th June, 1817. At a Church meeting held this afternoon in the Circular Church, present one hundred members and supporters; on the above Report of the Joint Committee being read, it was unanimously agreed to adopt the same without any alteration whatever." Thus terminated this severe struggle, and they who have since enjoyed the advantage of an edifice here, where they could celebrate the worship of Jehovah, and ob- serve the ordinances and institutions of Christianity, accord- ing to the principles then contended for, and which they have been led conscientiously to adopt, may estimate the truth and force of the declaration, that we owe a debt of gratitude to Judge Lee.
But this was but the beginning of our debt of gratitude to him. For twenty-two years he has continued one of the firmest and most efficient supporters that ever blessed and upheld a Church. Truly may we say that a fair pillar has
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been removed from our temple. Unstintedly and unshrink- ingly did he throw his reputation, his influence, his exertions, his time, his voice, his good wishes and his prayers into the ark where he believed the truth was enshrined, and the best interests of himself and mankind enclosed. Never doubting, never desponding, always conciliatory, always forbearing, he entered with zeal into every project which the exigencies of the Church, or the defence and maintenance of its principles required. A prominent and beautiful feature of his character was, to surrender peacefully and gracefully to the will of the majority, in matters where his conscience was not absolutely concerned. For instance, when it was proposed several years ago to procure an organ for the improvement and assistance of the choir, his private taste preferred the ancient practice of vocal music; but as soon as he learned that an organ was desired by the congregation at large, his generous subscrip- tion was immediately ready for the purpose. Nor did his interest in the Church rest simply in externals. He was as far as any man living from employing religion as an instru- ment of policy, or for the promotion of good order in society. He would have scorned so low a motive for its support. His religion, too, was infinitely removed from the mere negation, of which his views are sometimes thought to consist. His zeal was never inspired by the fact that he had made a party- matter of the cause, and that he must now support it at all hazards. He had repeatedly and seriously examined his religious tenets. They had entered into his heart and soul. They had become a part of the very man, moulding him to the will of an all-present God, and assimilating him to his meek and spotless Redeemer. Their influence seemed almost to overcome in him the few infirmities inherited from our common imperfect nature, causing him to forget, like a child, the quick resentments of the moment, to forgive the injuries which he may have incurred, to bear with peculiar and un- expected patience the attacks of the last oppressive disease, and to encounter the approaches of death with a firm, un- wavering, and even triumphant faith. In some published remarks which he delivered a few years ago, at a public
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meeting of the Tract Society in this church, he expressed himself in the following words: "The creed of my fathers, Mr. Chairman, was Trinitarian; and I had every motive to attach myself to and love that religion which they professed. I was brought up in that faith, and worshipped in it long after the period of manhood. I then found its mysteries per- plexing and incomprehensible. The demands which it made upon my mind to yield implicitly and blindly to doctrines, as fundamental, which I could not understand, led me to calm and deliberate investigation, which resulted in their rejection as not warranted by Scripture. I considered myself, sir, as an accountable being; and believing that it was my sacred duty to use the reasoning faculties with which God has en- dowed me, for the discovery of truth, and in a more especial manner of religious truth, I rejected the authority of men and councils, and sought for light and direction, where alone it could be found, in the records of Revelation. My mind, sir, is completely satisfied; and I thank God I have no longer any doubts or misgivings."
Such was the state of his mind and belief, yet combined with the most tender regard and the most entire respect for the conscientious views of all other denominations, when he became, in the year 1824, almost sixteen years ago, a regular attendant on the administration of the Lord's Supper in this church. His interest in religion has seemed to increase with every succeeding year. Not long after the event just men- tioned, his eldest son, a most pious and worthy member of this church, died and was buried in the family cemetery in the country. One of his surviving sons informed me, that on the return of the family from the interment to the mansion, his father addressed them all in an impressive and instructive strain of remark, which he trusted they never could forget. During the absence of the pastor of this church a few sum- mers ago, our friend took the lead in conducting the usual services of the congregation, and his impressive manner in devotion and reading, heightened as it was by his exemplary character, will long be remembered. About a year since, when it was announced that our Sunday School required a
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few more teachers, he was, in his sixty-ninth year, among the first to offer his services; and when a sufficient supply prevented them from being accepted, it still seemed to be his pleasure to enter his pew every Sabbath morning at an early hour, and listen to the lessons and hymns of the children. When, a few months since, a vacancy occurred in the Dea- conship of the church, he cheerfully accepted the office, not- withstanding his advancing age and probable infirmities. To his pastor he was ever an invaluable friend, soothing his mind and sustaining his labors by frequent notes and letters of sympathy and kindly counsel, or by visits snatched from the hours of business.
Shortly before his death, as if in near anticipation of the event, while standing with a dearly beloved relative in the cemetery of our church, he pointed to a spot which he had recently purchased, and said, " when I die, let me be laid in the centre of that square. It is the next square to my friend -'s," whom he at the same time named. "We have never quarreled in life," said he, "and we shall slumber peaceably by each other's side in death."
Does not this church owe him a " debt of gratitude ?" Shall not the memory of the just be cherished as peculiarly blessed and precious, by every heart of sensibility among us ?
I had intended to close this discourse with a general sum- mary or estimate of Judge Lee's intellectual and moral qual- ities; but the materials of his biography have so swollen under my hands, that I shall leave this unvarnished statement of his personal history, to make its own impressions; to en- force its own conclusions on your minds. There were one or two points, however, about his character, so very prominent, yet so very intrinsic, that I may be permitted to dwell on my subject for a few moments more.
The first was his intense and deep conscientiousness. He had as strong a love of right and abhorrence of wrong as any man who ever lived. One of his most frequent inquiries was, is such a policy or course of conduct right ? He would meet you in the streets with this question. He would discuss it with you at home. It haunted him like a messenger from
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heaven. It was indeed the voice of God. Would that indi- vidual and social man might more and more earnestly listen to it, like our departed friend !
The second of his characteristics which I cannot help noticing, was his open-handed and overflowing benevolence. His life was a series of benefactions. He seemed to know no value in money, but the good it might do to others. It was this quality that led him many years since to adopt the orphan child of a perfect stranger who died by the fever of our climate, and that at a time when his own numerous and increasing family made no slight demand upon his means. It was the same quality which prompted him to place con- siderable sums of money on the severely cold days of every winter in the hands of his pastor, with a request that it might immediately be distributed to the suffering poor. At other times he would deposit amounts of money in the same hands for any general purposes of charity whatever that might occur. And again he would appropriate sums in the same manner, under a feigned hand, but which was detected to be his, by inadvertent resemblances of manuscript, paper and other circumstances. Doubtless many are equally acquainted with other instances of a benevolence which appeared thus habitual and spontaneous.
It has been said of him that he was of an indolent, or more properly speaking, an inactive temperament, unless roused to exertion by a strong sense of moral obligation. Much of this infirmity is unquestionably to be ascribed to the long periods of suffering and disease which he endured in middle life. But if he were constitutionally inactive, it only heightens his merit, that he so often and so effectually overcame the pro- pensity, and was ready to act at every call, even of hopeless duty. Heaven bestow on society as many indolent members as it may please, like Judge Lee !
But at last the period drew near when he was to be called to a more solemn, yet at the same time a more merciful tri- bunal than the admiring or caviling judgments of his fellow- mortals here. On the Sabbath before the last, he sent from his sick chamber to ask for the prayers of his church in his
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behalf. On the following morning he desired to see his pastor, who immediately repaired to his abode and visited him every day till his decease. He found him calm, col- lected, firm as ever in all his religious views, though not dis- posed to dwell on speculative points of doctrine. Repeatedly did he express his confidence in God as his merciful Friend and Father. He professed to receive infinite comfort from the language of sympathy and prayer. When informed that his numerous friends were anxious for his safety, "tell them," said he, "that I am patient; and be assured, that if ever man felt humble, such is my feeling now."
Judge Lee may be said to have died an enviable death. The very time that has taken him away was almost as felici- tous as the many happy points about his own character. He has died in the fulness of a ripe and good reputation. He has not outlived his friends and admirers. He was almost borne away like Elijah in a chariot of glory-for surely the affectionate admiration of a whole community may be com- pared to the Tishbite's ascending car. He died before the in- firmities of age had dimmed his faculties, or rendered it a matter of question with the succeeding generation whether his fame were so well founded as his contemporaries represent. The young have known and heard him, and learned from him. The middle-aged have been stirred by the tones of his manly and melodious voice, and have been prompted to high and virtuous action by his persuasion and example. The aged have witnessed his long, consistent and honorable career. Could happier circumstances and coincidences have attended his death? Yes, one thing is happier than even these. He died the death of a righteous man. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."
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SAMUEL WILDS.
Samuel Wilds is a name which challenges respect even after he has rested in the silence of the grave for nearly fifty years. He was born (I presume in Darlington District,) on 4th of March, 1775. His love of learning is shown by an anecdote narra- ted to me by a friend. He was about engaging in a pitched battle with other boys. They were dissuaded, and a foot race was proposed as a substitute, for a wager. The race was run, and Wilds was the victor; the money thus won he applied for the purchase of a Latin grammar. He married in 1798, or 1799, Elizabeth De Witt, daughter of Captain William De Witt, a gentleman occupying a high position, in the country, for his active services in the war of the Revolution as well as for his domestic virtues and stern integrity. At the age of twenty-six, Mr. Wilds was elected a member of the Legisla- ture; two years afterwards he was elected Solicitor of the Northern, now the Eastern Circuit, without a dissenting vote. He was elected a Judge the 11th December, 1804, in his thir- tieth year. Judge Waties was the youngest man ever elected to that office; he wanted a few days of being twenty-nine years old. Judge Wilds was twenty-nine years, nine months and seven days old, when he attained to that highest legal distinction. John Garlington, Esq., of Laurens, stated to me that he heard Judge Wilds narrate his early poverty, which was so extreme that he had not a pair of shoes until he was eighteen years of age. He also said that Judge Wilds, with great good humor, told his auditors on the same occasion- an entertainment given to him by Robert Creswell, Esq., at Laurens-that Judge Grimké was much displeased, on ac- count of his youth, at his election to the Bench : the venerable Judge, in reference to his election, said, "the boys will be coming over the Bench." Judge Wilds died 9th March, 1810. He was, therefore, upon the Bench a little more than five years. In that time he obtained the reputation which a long life seldom earns.
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Young, eloquent, learned, polite, and energetic, he held the scales of justice to the admiration of all. His sentence upon Slater, in the Court of Sessions for Charleston District, for the murder of his own slave, will be read and admired wherever truth and eloquence can be understood .* His opinion in
* The following is the sentence on Slater. It is taken from a work intended to pervert and misrepresent Southern institutions-Mrs. Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. The friends of Judge Wilds are indebted to her for preserving this beautiful and eloquent specimen of his powers: "John Slater, you have been convicted by a jury of your country of the wilful murder of your own slave ; and I am sorry to say the short, impressive, uncontradicted testimony, on which that conviction was founded, leaves but too little room to doubt its propriety.
The annals of human depravity might be safely challenged for a parallel to this unfeeling, bloody, and diabolical transaction.
You caused your unoffending, unresisting slave, to be bound hand and foot, and by a refinement in cruelty, compelled his companion, perhaps the friend of his heart, to chop his head with an axe, and to cast his body, yet convulsing with the agonies of death, into the water! And this deed you dared to perpetrate in the very harbor of Charleston, within a few yards of the shore, unblushingly, in the face of open day. Had your murderous arm been raised against your equals, whom the laws of self-defence and the more efficacious laws of the land unite to protect, your crime would not have been without precedent and would have seemed less horrid. Your personal risk would at least have proved, that though a murderer you were not a coward. But you too well knew that this unfortunate man, whom chance had subjected to your caprices, had not, like yourself, char- tered to him by the laws of the land the same rights of nature; and that a stern but necessary policy had disarmed him of the rights of self-defence. Too well you knew that to you alone he could look for protection, and that your arm alone could shield him from oppression or avenge his wrongs ; yet that arm you cruelly stretched out for his destruction.
The counsel who generously volunteered his services in your behalf, shocked at the enormity of your offence, endeavored to find a refuge, as well for his own feelings as for those of all who heard your trial, in a derangement of your intel- lect. Several witnesses were examined to establish this fact ; but the result of their testimony, it is apprehended, was as little satisfactory to his mind as to those of the jury to whom it was addressed. I sincerely wish this defence had proved successful, not from any desire to save you from the punishment which awaits you, and which you so richly merit, but from the desire of saving my country from the foul reproach of having, in its bosom, so great a monster.
From the peculiar situation of this country. our fathers felt themselves justified in subjecting to a very slight punishment him who murders a slave. Whether the present state of society require a continuation of this policy, so opposite to the apparent rights of humanity, it remains for a subsequent Legislature to de- cide. Their attention would ere this have been directed to this subject, but for the honor of human nature, such hardened sinners as yourself are rarely found to disturb the repose of society. The Grand Jury of this country, deeply impressed with your daring outrages against the laws of both God and man, have made a very strong expression of their feelings on the subject to the Legislature ; and
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Gourdin vs. Thurs, (3 Brevard, 153,) will be, as it deserves to be, praised by lawyers for its clearness and legal acumen. His early death made South Carolina weep from her mountains to her seaboard. But God's purposes, dark to us, are always just and right: and while we weep as individuals, or as a
from the wisdom and justice of that body the friends of humanity may confidently hope to see this blackest in the catalogue of human crimes pursued by appropri- ate punishment .*
In proceeding to pass the sentence which the law provides for your offence, I confess I never felt more forcibly the want of power to make respected the laws of my country, whose minister I am.
You have already violated the majesty of those laws. You have properly pleaded the local law under which you stand convicted as a justification of your crime. You have held that law in one hand and brandished your axe in the other, impiously contending that the one gave a license to the unrestrained use of the other.
But though you will go off unhurt in person, by the present sentence, expect not to escape with impunity. Your bloody deed lias set a mark upon you which I fear the good actions of your future life will not efface. You will be held in abhorrence by an impartial world, and shunned as a monster by every honest man. Your unoffending posterity will be visited for your iniquity, by the stigma of deriving their origin from an unfeeling murderer. Your days, which will be but few, will be spent in wretchedness, and if your conscience be not steeled against every virtuous emotion-if you be not entirely abandoned to hardness of heart-the mnangled, mutilated corpse of your murdered slave will ever be pres- ent in your imagination, obtrude itself into all your amusements, and haunt you in the hours of silence and repose.
But should you disregard the reproaches of an offended world-should you hear with callous insensibility the gnawings of a guilty conscience-yet remem- ber that an awful period is fast approaching, and with you it is close at hand, when you must appear before a tribunal whose want of power can afford you no prospect of impunity-when you must raise your bloody hands at the bar of an impartial, omniscient judge. Remember, I pray you remember, whilst you yet have time, that God is just, and that his vengeance will not sleep forever.
# The punishment under the Act of 1740, 38?, under which Slater was con- victed and sentenced, was a fine of £700, currency equal to 100l. sterling-which at 4s. 8d. to the dollar is $423 57-100-and incapacity to enjoy or receive the prof- its of any office, place or employment, civil or military, and if unable to pay this fine then imprisonment for seven years. The Act of 1821 changed this trifling punishment for what Judge Wilds justly called the "blackest in the catalogue of human crimes," to death. His eloquent tongue had been silent in death nearly eleven years, when "the wisdom and justice" of the Legislature yielded to the " hopes " of the " friends of humanity." At my instance, my friend Daniel Horl- beck, Esq., caused the records to be examined, to ascertain when the above sen- tence was pronounced, and strange to say, nothing can be found. There is no Sessions Docket or Journal, until 1833, now extant. No indictment against Sla- ter can be found. I presume the sentence was pronounced in 1807.
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nation, it is our duty to submit. He was a follower of Tem- perance, when it was not known or recognized as a duty. He drank neither wine nor strong drink. He usually kept colored water before him, when in fashionable company; this he drank in reply to their glasses of wine.
He left at his death an only daughter, Caroline Simons Wilds, who married, in 1821, Dr. R. W. McIver, and died in 1837, leaving five daughters and one son. A posthumous son was born to Judge Wilds not long after his death, and was called Samuel De Witt Wilds : he died in 1822.
His excellent widow, after mourning the death of her young and gifted husband many years, married Dr. Thomas Smith, whose head and heart alike make him an honor to his name and profession. She lived for many years enjoying the bless- ings of a kind and indulgent husband and an abundant home. She was a pious and honored member of the Baptist Church at Society Hill, and died on the 24th day of March, 1855, full of years, and abounding in everlasting hope.
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WILLIAM SMITH.
Judge Smith was elected to the Bench the 28th of June, 1808, in the place of Judge Trezevant, who had died the February preceding. He was President of the Senate when elected, and was a lawyer in the full tide of successful practice on the Middle, now called the Northern Circuit.
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