USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. I > Part 13
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I am not to be prayed, brother M., out of that sum," was the Judge's indignant answer.
On one occasion, when I was at the Bar, he had started to ride to my house; I met him midway, and proposed to turn back; he said, "No, it will be time for Court by the time we can reach the Court House." He turned and we rode on. He said to me, " Did you hear the quarrel between two lawyers yesterday?" I said, "No." He then said, "Such a thing had taken place, and if it ever occurs again, I will do as Carnes proposed to the County Judges at Winton." " How was that, Judge?" was the inquiry. He said that when the County Court first assembled at Winton, Carnes rose in his place and said, " May it please your worships, Courts were established not only to administer justice, but also to enable people to see rare sights. I understand, said he, that two horses are to fight here to-day, and to enable all to see the fight, I move your worships to adjourn." The Court accordingly adjourned. " Now," said the Judge, " When two lawyers again quarrel before me, I will make the Sheriff go to the door and proclaim that two lawyers wish to fight, and that the Court will adjourn to give them the opportunity !" Looking very shrewdly at me, he said, "I wish I may die, if I don't think that would end it!"
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LANGDON CHEVES.
Langdon Cheves was born on the 17th of September, 1776, in a small log fort (called, I presume, a block house) on Rocky River, Abbeville District. He was the only child of his pa- rents, Alexander Cheves, a native of Scotland, and Mary Langdon, a Virginian. His father, I have always understood, was an Indian trader, and possessed all the acumen necessary to give success to such a business. His extraordinary powers are, however, to be ascribed to his mother. For that I believe is the general law of nature, sons are mentally and physically like their mothers. His earlier years, as Mr. Petigru remarked, "were spent in rural life." "The first ten years of his life were passed," says the same accomplished gentleman, among the small farms of Rocky River, whom Mr. Petigru termed " a primitive people." When he left the place of his birth, he accompanied his father to Charleston: his mother had died in his infancy, and a second marriage on the part of his father soon forced him to rely mainly on himself. He first became a merchant's clerk, and at sixteen held the highly honorable position of confidential clerk. To this early training is to be attributed the beautiful handwriting which characterized him during life, and his accurate knowledge of accounts. At about the age of eighteen, he began the study of the law with that eminently gifted man, William Marshall, afterwards a Judge of the Court of Equity of South Carolina. It seems that his pursuit of the legal profession was against the opinion of his friends ; he was advised to stick to the desk, "for," said they, " he is cut out to be a merchant." But he felt that di- vinity stirring within him which foretold the success and greatness in store for him. How he acquired that education which fitted him to be first among the giants of 1812, we are not informed. He was admitted to the Bar 14th October, 1797, and immediately strode forward to success. The Rev. George Buist, D. D., one of the most distinguished divines of
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the city, noticed the high promise of the young lawyer, and was perhaps his first client, by giving him a fee of fifty dollars, which the modesty of Mr. Cheves made him pro- nounce a great deal too much for the service rendered. In 1806 Mr. Cheves married Miss Mary Dullas, of Charleston. In eleven years, unaided by family influence, Mr. Cheves acquired a business perhaps never equalled by any other in the ity Cof Charleston. He was the partner of Mr. Joseph Peace; and I have heard that at one term they entered up eight hundred judgments, and the income realized annually amounted to $20,000. Mr. Cheves succeeded John Julius Pringle as Attorney General in 1808.
In October, 1810, he was elected to Congress from the Charleston Congressional District. It was the purpose that South Carolina should be represented by four of her greatest . men-Wilds, Cheves, Lowndes and Calhoun. Death pre- vented Wilds from being one of the number. In his place, however, was General Williams, no unworthy associate; and South Carolina may recur to her representation in Washing- ton in 1811 and 1812, consisting of Cheves, Lowndes, Cal- houn and Williams, as unsurpassed by any four men who ever honored Congress with their presence. Mr. Cheves' reply to Gaston, Gouveneur, and Webster, was perfectly overwhelming, and crowned the Republican party with that wreath of meri- torious patriotism which gave them ever after the ascendancy. His speech on the Merchants' Bonds was remarkable for its accurate knowledge of the subject, and for its clear argument. Washington Irving, who heard it, said it was the first speech he had ever heard which gave him a correct idea of ancient eloquence, of the manner in which the great Greeks and Romans spoke. No higher compliment could have been paid, and certainly no man was more competent to give it.
On the 19th January, 1814, Mr. Cheves was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress. After the peace of 1815, he declined a re-election to Congress, and returned to the Charleston Bar. He was, however, not permitted to remain there for any time. In December, 1816, in the place of Judge Smith, who had been elected to the United States
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Senate, he was elected a Judge of the Court of Law of South Carolina. He entered upon the duties, and set the example of that untiring industry which broke down the dockets through- out the State. He once remarked to the writer (Spring of 1818, riding from Laurens Court,) "I work that I may rest." How terse and true was the remark! Yet how seldom is it practised. In January, 1817, he was one of that minority which upheld the constitutionality of the act requiring the Judges in the Constitutional Court to clear the dockets. His opinion was read with pride and enthusiasm by the Bar and the members of the Legislature, and added much to his popularity.
In December, 1817, he, with most of his brethren, resigned to receive the increased salary. He was re-elected, as I re- member, unanimously, if not he received the largest vote of any Judge re-elected. His opinions and industry in the Con- stitutional Court gave a vitality to that body which it had not known for several years. Nott, Johnson, Colcock and him- self were emulous of distinction, and attained it.
Judge Cheves' opinions in Williams vs. McGee, 1 Con. Rep. by Mill, 85; McClure vs. Hill, 2 Jd. 420 ; Brandon ads. Grimké, 1 N. and McC. 356; Faysoux vs. Prother, 1 N. and McC. 296, may be read as illustrative of his judicial style, learning, research and judgment.
During his judicial term, short as it was, not exceeding three years, he was the most popular man in the State, and yet, perhaps, he was as stern a Judge in the administration of justice, as ever presided. Every one knew that he was honest, pure and wise, and therefore there was cheerfully yielded uni- form acquiescence.
In the year 1819, (6th March,) he was called to the head of the United States Bank. It will be recollected that this in- stitution was established against his opinion. Before he left Congress, by his vote, as speaker, the charter then proposed was defeated. But notwithstanding his opinion had been against the Bank, he consented, very much from the solicita- tion of his friend, John Potter, and the fact that his wife's parents had removed to Philadelphia, to assume the respon-
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sible duty of President of the United States Bank and to bring order out of the confusion of the past administration, and to restore public confidence to this grossly mismanaged insti- tution.
It may not be amiss to say that I think Judge Cheves made two great mistakes in his life-the first in leaving Congress, and the second in leaving the Bench. If he had remained in Congress he would most assuredly have been the President of the United States, and most probably would have prevented the sad sectional division which we have experienced. When he left the Bench of South Carolina, he was laying broad and wide the foundation of judicial eminence. If he had continued, he must have been for many years the presi- ding Judge of our Court, the last resort in this State, and very probably might have succeeded Chief Justice Marshall in the Courts of the United States, and certainly would have been, as a Judge, only second to him, who is deservedly considered the greatest Judge who ever presided in America.
As President of the United States Bank, confidence, as was expected, followed his appointment, and in the short term in which he filled that office he crowned the Bank with pros- perity and unrivalled popularity. Having succeeded in res- cuing it from ruin, he resigned, and left for his successor Nicholas Biddle, an easy seat and the opportunity of acquiring great financial reputation, which for many years he enjoyed, until the removal of the deposites of the government showed the rottenness of the Bank.
He was appointed Chief Commissioner of Claims under the treaty of Ghent, and filled that office until all were adjusted, He resided for a time after his resignation at Philadelphia. and then at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he attempted the pursuit of his legal profession. His inclinations were, how- ever, to his Southern home; and accordingly, in the fall of '29 or '30, he returned to South Carolina, and soon became a successful planter on the Savannah River.
In 1836, he lost the companion of his life, the mother of his children, and thus experienced that greatest misfortune to which a man can be subjected. He never married again, and
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saw many of his children go down to the grave. These sad chastening blows of God he received without a murmur, and bore with that calm, stern philosophy, which always charac- terized him.
He lived altogether in retirement from his return to the State. He did not concur in Nullification, and wrote occa- sional reviews condemning it. He, however, it must be con- fessed, favored the dangerous doctrine of Secession, and in 1850 threw his great weight into the scale in favor not of separate State action, but of a Southern confederation. He was a member of the Southern Convention of Delegates, at Nash- ville. His speech there was considered as unsurpassed. He was a member of the Convention assembled at Columbia in 1852, and. aided in repudiating the folly of separate State action.
This was his last public appearance. It was manifest to such of his friends as saw him afterwards that his great phy- sical energy, which had heretofore sustained him, was failing.
On the 26th of June, 1857, in the eighty-first year of his life, he died at his residence in the city of Columbia. His funeral obsequies in the city of Charleston were such as he well deserved. Every civic honor was conferred upon his mortal remains, which were deposited in the Magnolia Ceme- tery.
The Bar of the city of Charleston paid a handsome tribute to the memory of this great lawyer, whom Charleston cher- ished and honored when young.
Mr. Petigru, in his address on that occasion, drew with a master's hand an admirable likeness of the character of Judge Cheves. "The leading characteristics," he said, " of his mind were power and grandeur. He was not only above vanity, but above the weakness of ambition, and no one ever saw him chuckle with the exultation of triumph. He never lay in wait to say or excite surprise by a brilliant thing, and he had no notion of attempting to shine in conversation or to dazzle his company. He was equally superior to the weakness of am- bition. Never was there a man more thoroughly proof against the frowns of power or the clamor of a crowd. Independence
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of mind was carried by him with fearless assertion of the rights of private judgment, even at the risk of falling under the condemnation of party. We may form an idea of the qualities of a great man by considering what are the topics which are laid to his charge by unfriendly censure : and in Langdon Cheves those things which were cited as blemishes were in fact the proof of the greatness of his character. He was called impracticable, and he was called so because he worshipped truth, because he was superior to the allurements of popularity as well as the fear of opposition. While other men are willing to make every sacrifice to gain official station, Langdon Cheves, through the whole tenure of his life, showed that he looked on office as subordinate to the approbation of his own mind. In fact, such was the refinement of his senti- ments, that he placed no value on office. He preferred his own freedom to the trappings of official station. By the force of his genius and the prestige of his character, he accomplished every thing that he attempted."
This is indeed a highly wrought picture finished by the hand of a master; and as I look upon it, and recur to the remembrance of the great man who is represented, it seems to me to be just and true, and I will not attempt to add to it.
Judge Cheves' person was as remarkable as his mind ; his face told every observer of the mighty mind within. His broad forehead was indicative of that power which surmounted the want of an early education, by acquiring one-which placed him first at the Bar, in Congress, on the Bench, and in every other public employment. All his other features were in con- formity, and all betokened the firmness and honesty of the man. He was about five feet ten inches high, his frame was muscular and calculated for great endurance ; and in the dis- charge of his duties as a Circuit Judge, he frequently tasked it to the utmost. He often sat in Court from 9 A. M. until 9 P. M., without adjourning.
Judge Cheves, beyond all doubt, was a most extraordinary man. He merited more, much more, than he received. In the scramble for office he was overlooked. What a blessing it would have been to America, if he could have been called
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from his retirement to succeed the Hero of the Hermitage, can only now be the subject of conjecture! Yet I may be permitted to say, if any man in this Union more than another resembled George Washington, it was Langdon Cheves-and in the President's chair he would have still more resembled him by holding the sceptre of power, without reference to party.
Judge Huger often said, " Cheves loved truth ; and to it he sacrificed every thing." His life was a living emblem of truth ; and as " God is truth," we may well be permitted to believe that his blessing here, and hereafter, rested and rests on Lang- don Cheves, the disciple of truth.
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JUDGE RICHARDSON.
John Smith Richardson was born at his paternal residence which afterwards became his own plantation, in Claremont County, Sumter District, on the 11th of April, 1777. He was educated in Charleston-having received there his primary, academic and collegiate education. He then studied law with John Julius Pringle, for whose great acquirements he always entertained the most profound respect. He was admitted to the Bar on the 30th of October, 1799, and com- menced the practice of law in his native district, and soon became a most distinguished lawyer and advocate. He was married in Williamsburgh District by the Rev. Hugh Fraser, 19th June, 1803, to Mrs. Eliza L. Coutrier, the widow of 'Thos. Coutrier, (deceased,) and the mother of two children, both daughters, but who had died before the second marriage. His wife bore him ten children, the eldest named Thos Coutrier, in honor of the first husband of his wife: all of their children died young, except three, John Smyth Rich- ardson, Francis Deleisliene Richardson, and Susan W. A. Logan. These three survived him, and still live. His son, Maynard D., graduated at the South Carolina College, in the class of 1830, and soon after sickened and died. He was a a gifted young man, calculated, if he had been spared, to have won distinction.
Mr. Richardson was elected to the Legislature from Clare- mont, and soon became one of the most distinguished leaders of the Republican party. He was the author of the Amend- ment of the Constitution, called the General Suffrage Bill, and which became a part of the Constitution on the 19th Decem- ber, 1810. He was elected Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives, at the commencement of that session. Early in December, he was elected Attorney General, and instead of delaying his acceptance to the close of the session, and signing the Acts of that year, on the 6th day of December, he accepted the office and vacated the Speaker's chair. He alludes to this in his Defence of December, 1847. He says, referring to the
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Speaker's chair, "I declined to remain in it, for twenty-four hours, notwithstanding the suggestions of friends, that I ought to remain sufficiently long, to append my name to the "Gene- ral Suffrage Bill," now one of the articles of the Constitution of which I was the mover. I then declined, because I thought it would be a personal act of vain glory."
He was elected a Judge on the 18th December, 1818; in 1820, he was elected to Congress from the Congressional District, including Sumter. This great political honor, he felt himself compelled to decline, first, because his means did not then warrant his acceptance; second, because the whole of his father's estate, and the entire patrimony of his younger brothers and sisters, was then involved in litigation by a suit commenced by some foreign claimants. He had charge of his father's estate, and felt it to be his duty to attend to the defence personally. He, therefore, having assigned publicly this as his reason, respectfully declined the unsoli- cited honor, which had been tendered to him with singular unanimity. Upon the resignation of Judge Gantt in 184], he became President of the Law Court of Appeals. In December, 1846, when Chancellor David Johnson was elected Governor, he, (Judge Richardson,) became the Presi- dent of the Court of Errors. He died on Wednesday, 8th of May, 1850, at half-past 4, A. M., at lodgings in the City of Charleston. He had then been nearly twenty-two years on the Bench. He was seventy-three years and twenty-eight days old. His wife survived him seven years, two months and twelve days, and died on the 20th July, 1859, in her eighty-fourth year.
Judge Richardson possessed eminent talents, as an advo- cate, and a public speaker. I never had the pleasure to hear him at the Bar ; but I have often heard him in the debates, in the stormy period of Nullification, and I think, he far exceeded all whom I then heard speak. My most esteemed friend, Col. Gregg, said to me in the fall of 1830, after the great barbecue near Columbia, at which Judges Harper and Richardson had spoken, that "Judge Richardson as much exceeded Judge Harper as day did night." This was high
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from so competent a Judge. His unrivalled powers were shown in his defence before the House of Representatives in 1847. He was then in his seventh-first year. I append the proceedings and defence.
From 1835 to 1850, my association with him as a member of the same Court enabled me to understand and appreciate him more highly than I had previously done.
Judge Richardson was a clear-headed, honest and just Judge. He had, I believe, as much moral courage as any man with whom I was acquainted. He was firm and immu- table in what he believed to be right. He was often in a minority in the Court of which he was a member, and defending his position with as much astuteness. The diffi- culty he experienced in writing, subjected him to much trouble. Most men would have yielded to the necessity. But the motto of Barnaby Rudge's raven, " never die," was apparent in his overcoming this apparently insurmountable difficulty. His opinions on Bell's will, Archer vs. Talbot, Appendix to Bailey's Equity, 554; in Jarvis vs. Pinckney and Knight, 3d Hill, 123; The State vs. Dawson, 3d Hill, 100; may be read as specimens of his legal research and reasoning. His long and painful illness he bore with Roman fortitude. He was gath- ered to his fathers in the city of Charleston, and died with that meek and child-like faith, which spoke so plainly that none could doubt that he was exchanging earth and pain for that better country, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest."
PROCEEDINGS, &C.
On the 4th of December, 1847, in the House, Mr. J. M. Allen, of Barnwell, offered the following resolution :
" Resolved, Two-thirds of the whole representation in each branch of the Legislature concurring, that the Hon. John S. Richardson, one of the Associate Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of this State, having become disabled from discharging the duties of his said office, by reason of permanent, bodily, and mental infirmity, that he be removed from his said office, and the same is hereby de- clared to be vacant."
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"On motion of Mr. John L. Wilson, it was ordered that a copy of the resolution be served on the Hon. John S. Richard- son."
On the 6th inst., the following letter from Judge Richardson was laid before the House by the Speaker:
COLUMBIA, DEC. 6, 1847.
To the Hon. the Speaker and Members
of the House of Representatives :
GENTLEMEN :- Under your order of the 4th instant, I have heen served with a copy of a resolution of same date, laid before your House, charging me with " permanent, bodily, and mental infirmity."
Presuming that some answer to this notice may be expected from me, and would be proper, I respectfully reply, that I am not conscious of any rational foundation for the charge con- tained in that resolution, and hold myself ready, at such time and place as may be designated by your honorable body, to meet any charges preferred against me; reserving in all respects my constitutional, moral and legal rights.
With great respect, I am your obed't serv't,
JOHN S. RICHARDSON.
" On the 11th, Mr. Allen called up No. 218 of the General Orders-the Resolution in reference to Judge Richardson-and moved that the same be made the special order for Saturday next, at 12 o'clock.
On motion of Mr. Northrop, by way of amendment, the following resolution was agreed to :
" Resolved, That the Resolution respecting the Hon. John S. Richardson, be made the special order for Saturday, at 11 o'clock, and that a hearing be allowed the Judge before this House, with counsel, if he desire; and that a copy of this resolution be served upon him."
On Saturday, the 12th, the resolution of Mr. Allen having been made the order for 12 o'clock, was taken up, and after some conversational debate, Mr. Carn, of St. Bartholomew's,
Moved, That a Committee be appointed to wait on the Hon. John S. Richardson, and inform him that the House was ready to hear him in defence of the charges contained in the resolu- tion submitted by Mr. Allen.
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Messrs. J. M. Carn and J. J. Wilson, being appointed a Committee for the purpose, waited on Judge Richardson, and reported to the House that he was ready, and would forthwith appear to make his defence.
As the venerable, and no less venerated Judge, entered the Hall, the Speaker, W. F. Colcock, rose to receive him, and with a grace as proper as it was elegant, remained in that posture until Judge Richardson was seated.
On the right of the accused sat his two counsel, H. C. Young, Esq., of Laurens, and Edmund Bellinger, Esq., of Barnwell; on his left were his son, F. D. Richardson, Esq., of the Charleston delegation, and the Hon. Wm. C. Preston.
Mr. J. J. Wilson, of Barnwell, said his duty was a delicate one; he had nothing to do with bringing forward the charges against Judge Richardson; but acting in behalf of his col- league, who had done so, he thought it required no specification of charges to enable the House to proceed with the trial. He read from the State Constitution as follows:
Amendment, Ratified Dec. 19-20, 1828.
Sec. 5. If any civil officer shall become disabled from dis- charging the duties of his office, by reason of any permanent, bodily or mental infirmity, his office may be declared to be vacant, by joint resolution agreed to by two-thirds of the whole representation in each branch of the Legislature; Pro- vided, That such resolution shall contain the grounds for the proposed removal, and before it shall pass either House, a copy of it shall be served on the officer, and a hearing be allowed him.
Under this clause, Mr. Wilson urged, that no specification of charges was necessary-no requirement of time, place, or cir- cumstance, as in other trials. Common rumor was sufficient, and that he would urge as existing against the accused.
Mr. Elliott, of Charleston, thought that the same rules which governed judicial tribunals should obtain here. There should be an issue made up. Allegations on one side and denials on the other. If facts were not stated-if time, place and circum- stances were not regarded, how was the accused to answer? What was he to answer?
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