Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. I, Part 27

Author: O'Neall, John Belton, 1793-1863
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Charleston, S.C. : S.G. Courtenay & Co.
Number of Pages: 484


USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. I > Part 27


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To give a notion of Col. Drayton, as a lawyer, I must again appeal to my friend Chancellor Dunkin. His pen gives the picture fresh from his heart :


" Col. Drayton's mind was eminently legal. His forensic


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arguments were chiefly addressed to the understanding, close, concise and admirably expressed. His style was not ornate, but he had a perfect and familiar acquaintance with his ver- nacular language; and every sentence, whether written or spoken, was chaste and finished.


" At that time, (1811,) as I have intimated, Col. Drayton and Col. Simons seemed to me the leaders at the Bar. They were employed usually on different sides in every important case. Their deportment not only towards each other, but to every one of their professional brethren was uniformly courteous, kind and conciliatory. In this they not only presented an admirable example, but such was the influence of their high character, that any departure from professional courtesy, or any violation of professional morality, would have stood rebuked and abashed.


" While courteous to all, Col. Drayton was, to the young and inexperienced barrister, especially kind and encouraging. I well remember being present in the Federal Court, where Judge Johnson and Judge Lee were presiding, an argument was in progress on the plea of the Statute of Limitations, in which Col. Drayton was assistant counsel with a younger member of the profession. His junior had just concluded an argument, in which he had exhibited elaborate research combined with discrimination. When he closed, Col. Drayton rose and said to the Court, that his young friend had so exhausted the sub- ject, and anticipated any views that he might have presented, that he should decline to address the Court. It is superfluous to express the effect of such a compliment on a young advo- cate, coming from one whose good word was almost fame."


The Chancellor adds-" He was very kind to me always, but particularly at a period of my life when kindness is most highly appreciated, and is, in truth, of most value."


I append extracts from the Charleston Mercury and Cou- rier, the proceedings of the Charleston Bar, the answer of Judge Butler on the announcement of Col. Drayton's death, and also the obituary notice of Col. Drayton from the Penn- sylvanian, and the notice of his death by the Cincinnati of Charleston. These, with the preceding memoir, will, it is


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hoped, place the Colonel's unspotted memory fairly before the world :


[From the Charleston Mercury.] " Friday, May 29th, 1846. DEATH OF COL. DRAYTON.


The notice of the death of this distinguished Carolinian, reached here in the Philadelphia papers on Wednesday. On its receipt the Court of Common Pleas and Sessions, on mo- tion of Attorney General Bailey, adjourned, as a mark of respect to one who, in his day, stood foremost at this Bar. Col. Drayton has been long absent from the State, and in such complete seclusion from public affairs, that he seems rather like the shade of one long dead, than a cotemporary. He was a high specimen, not only of ability, but of manhood, chivalry, and personal purity, and deserves to be mourned as one who has left behind him not many his equals in all these claims to reverence."


[From the Charleston Courier.] " May 28th, 1846. DEATH OF THE HON. WM. DRAYTON.


The painful intelligence was received yesterday, in this city, of the death of this eminent citizen, pure patriot, and distinguished jurist. Col. Drayton was born in this city, but enjoyed the advantages and accomplishments of a European education. Returning home, he was admitted to the Bar, ran a brilliant career, and rose to eminence in his profession. During the war of 1812, although of the Federal party and opposed to that measure, he readily sacrificed party to patri- otism, tendered his military services to the Government, and relinquished his lucrative practice for a Colonel's commission in the army. After the war, he returned to the duties of the civilian, and in the year 1819, his professional eminence ele- vated him to the office of Recorder of the city, and Judge of the City Court of Charleston, under circumstances peculiarly honorable to him, the salary of the office having been raised to the large sum of $4,000 per annum, expressly to secure


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his services. In 1826, he was elected to Congress from Charleston District, to fill the vacancy caused by the appoint- ment of Mr. Poinsett as Minister to Mexico, and continued to serve his constituents with distinguished usefulness and ability until the expiration of the third official term in March, 1833. In our memorable party strife of 1830, 1833, he was led, by principle and conscientious conviction, to side with the Union party, of which he was the recognized leader; and such was his bearing in that contest, and the general estima- tion of his purity and integrity, that the eyes of his fellow- citizens, in many parts of the Union, were turned towards him as the successor of Gen. Jackson in the Presidency. In the summer of 1833, he bade farewell to Charleston, and made Philadelphia his home, where he continued to reside, engaged chiefly in the duties of private life, although not without a considerable share of public usefulness, until his death, which took place in that city on Sunday last. He died, we learn, of a disease of the heart, and was, as we believe, very little short, if any, of 70 years of age.


Col. Drayton, although long alienated from us by residence, has yet ever been cherished, and is now mourned among us as one of the noblest, purest, and most gifted of Carolina's sons. In private life, he was ever regarded as a gentleman of lofty character and high-toned honor. As a lawyer, he was distinguished for ability, eloquence and learning, and for that urbanity, courtesy and manly bearing, which tempered the battles of the Forum with the spirit of chivalry. His mind was of an eminently judicial cast, and his judicial opinions were always marked by nice discrimination, clearness of rea- soning, and sound and luminous judgment; and, as a Judge, he was a model and exemplar of uprightness, impartiality, dignity and learning. His service in our national Legislature only gave a wider expansion to his fame, and there will scarcely live in history a name more venerated for worth, moral and intellectual, in our State, and the Union, than that of Wm. Drayton."


The Court of Common Pleas for this district, his Honor Judge Butler presiding, being in session when the painful


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tidings of Col. Drayton's death were received, Henry Bailey. Esq., Attorney General rose, and, after the following touching and eloquent tribute to the virtues and services of the de- ceased, moved an adjournment in respect to his memory :


" It has devolved upon me to announce to the Court the melancholy intelligence, received by this day's mail, of the death of another distinguished son of Carolina-one equally illustrious for his public virtues, his brilliant talents, his ele- gant and extensive learning, his devoted patriotism, and the purity and elevation of his character. I allude to the Hon. Wm. Drayton, who closed his earthly career in Philadelphia, on Sunday last. The mention of his name calls up the most touching recollections; perhaps there is no one who hears me to whom the name of Wm. Drayton is not familiar. But to those whose memory extends to the past, the announce- ment of his name revives feelings, and crowds the heart with emotions, mellowed by time, and hallowed by reminiscences of the deepest interest. We remember him as the brilliant advocate, whose character shed a lustre upon the Bar, as the Judge whose luminous decisions exalted the reputation of the Bench, upon whose eloquence ' listening senates' hung with admiration and wonder, whose devoted patriotism hesitated at no sacrifice when his country demanded his services. Nor was his reputation confined to the Bar, the Bench, or the legislative assemblies of his own State. Distinguished in the councils of the nation, his name is revered through the length and breadth of the land. And wherever the name of Wm. Drayton is known, he is loved for his virtues, and admired for his abilities. Whatever differences of opinion may once have existed between himself and a portion of the citizens of this State, and however bitter the feelings which these differ- ences may have generated, yet not only has time mellowed those feelings, but, upon the purity of motive, the high-minded integrity, and the lofty, self-sacrificing patriotism of Wm. Drayton, there is, and has been, but one opinion among all parties in South Carolina. Although for some years he has been domiciled in another State, yet he never forgot, nor has he been forgotten by the land of his birth. The name of


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Wm. Drayton is inseparable from South Carolina, and his memory will ever be cherished as one of her most beloved and distinguished sons. In compliance with a custom sanc- tioned by long usage, and hallowed by the instance in which it has been acted upon, and which originated in feelings hon- orable to the Bar, and such as I trust will ever be cherished by its members, I respectfully move, in behalf of myself and my brethren, that this Court do now adjourn."


His Honor Judge Butler, after the feeling and eloquent response which follows, granted the motion and adjourned the Court :


" Gentlemen-I recognize the propriety of your motion, and adjourn Court in conformity with your request. Although I was not associated with Col. Drayton at the Bar, or on the Bench, I could not but be familiar with his distinguished reputation, both as a lawyer and a Judge. I have been in- structed by his judgments, and have always felt the force of their authority. The beautiful propriety of his conduct in all that concerns the practice of our profession, has been univer- sally acknowledged. He died in another State, but his fame and his elevated character belong to, and are identified with the history of South Carolina. In feeling, he was no deni- zen of the State. The light of his reputation was not of that meteor-like splendor, which dazzles and flashes within local limits : it was more like the simple and steady brightness of a star of the first magnitude; distance cannot destroy, nor time diminish its splendor : it is the guiding light of intelli- gence and truth, that will afford instruction long after he has passed from the scenes of life. I recognize, Mr. Attorney, also the force of your remarks and allusions to Col. Drayton as a patriot and a soldier. The civil strife which you have spoken of, and which, for a short time, unhappily disturbed the social harmony of our State, is a matter now only of his- torical recollection. I am satisfied no one deplored it more than he did, and no one entertained less than he, the bitter feelings of party proscription. Whilst he may have felt it his duty to act his own part under the influence of pure motives and his best judgment, its termination was looked to in the


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spirit of a true patriot. Cæsar's remark, after the battle of Pharsalia, was 'to save the Romans, but pursue the for- eigners.' In a foreign war, no one was more ready to act upon the true spirit of this sentiment than Col. Drayton : whilst he could rejoice in the domestic harmony after the strife of a civil contest, he was always prepared to visit and draw the sword against foreign interference. The reputation which he left after the late war was such, as to command the respect and admiration of his distinguished cotemporaries. It is known that Gen. Jackson, at a time which required the first order of talent and qualification for the war department, thought him eminently fitted for the high and honorable station of Secretary of War. His reputation as a distinguished jurist, soldier and patriot, entitles his memory to the honor of his countrymen in every part of the Union, but especially in his native State and city. Mr. Sheriff, let the Court be adjourned."


At a meeting of the Cincinnati, held at Lee's, Broad street, on Friday, the 3d July, the following preamble and resolu- tions were introduced by Henry A. DeSaussure, Esq., and unanimously adopted :


"Since the last meeting of this Society, our number has been diminished by the loss of one of its oldest and most cher- ished members, and our State of one of its most distinguished sons. On Sunday, the 24th May last, our honored brother member, Col. William Drayton, departed this life at Philadel- phia, where, for some years past, he has resided.


In inserting on our journals the death of this virtuous and honorable man, we should be wanting in self-respect and in justice to the deceased, to omit the record of his pure and ele- vated character, his distinguished public services, disinterested patriotism and accomplished talents. The enrollment of the names of such men among our members, adds dignity and lustre to the character of the Society itself.


Descended from an ancient and honorable family in Caro- lina, who were distinguished, in its colonial history, by their ardent patriotism and devoted attachment to the liberties of their country, Col. Drayton has fully sustained the reputation


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of his ancestors, and transmitted it with increased lustre to his descendants. Endowed with sound practical judgment, of standard purity in morals, decisive in action, and fearless of responsibility, he gave early indications of that future eminence which he afterwards attained.


Admitted to the Bar in this, his native city, he attained and ably sustained, the highest rank in his profession by his legal acumen, his brilliant talents, and the fastidious propriety of his conduct in the management of his cases.


Upon the declaration of war in 1812, he abandoned the lucrative profession he then dignified and adorned, and re- ceived from the Government the commission of Colonel in the army, in which station he served to the end of the war, and acquired the reputation of an energetic and judicious officer.


On the restoration of peace he resumed his profession, from whence he was transferred to the judicial station of Judge of the City Court of Charleston, where he presided with dignity and integrity, and exhibited such professional learning and ability, as commended his decisions to high consideration. After some years he was elected to represent this congressional district, and his brilliant and useful career in the councils of his country at Washington, have become part of the history and the pride of the nation. His voluntary retirement into. private life was accompanied by the universal respect and regret of his countrymen.


Few distinguished men have had more friends or fewer enemies than Col. Drayton. His frank and manly character, noble bearing, and elevated standard of morals, blended with mild dignity of deportment, conspired to render him honored and beloved by all who could appreciate the noblest qualities of our nature.


In every station which he occupied, whether at the Bar, on the Bench, in the army, the Senate, or the retirement of private life, his conduct was equally conspicuous for the deli- cate proprieties of life, the decision and firmness of a well- regulated mind, for sound luminous judgment, energy of action, and for that courtesy of deportment, which constituted and adorned the most elevated character. Our object is not


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to eulogize the dead, but to record his virtues as a model for imitation, and an incentive to our own members to that course in life which commands public respect.


This Society mourns the loss of a distinguished member, and sympathizes with his family in the dispensation of Provi- dence, which has bereaved them of such a husband and father.


In token of the respect of the Society, for the memory of the Hon. William Drayton,


Resolved, That the members of the Society will wear the customary badge of mourning for the deceased.


Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and these resolu- tions be entered on the journals of the Society, and that a copy thereof be transmitted, by the President, to the family of the deseased.


On motion, ordered that the same be published in the daily papers of the city.


HALL OF THE CINCINNATI, Charleston, July 3, 1846.


I certify that the foregoing is a true extract from the Min- utes of the Cincinnati of this day.


Given under my hand, on the day and in the year above written.


JAMES SIMONS, Secretary."


-


" To the Editors of the Pennsylvanian :


Died, on Sunday morning, May 24th, at his residence in Philadelphia, William Drayton, a distinguished officer in the last war, a Member of Congress, for several sessions, from South Carolina, and lately President of the Bank of the United States.


Colonel Drayton has been closely connected with some of the most striking incidents in the annals of this country. Belonging to a family which had been highly distinguished during the Revolutionary war, he came into active life just at the time when, from his personal relations with the eminent


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men who were collected in South Carolina at that era, he was as well qualified from position to represent their views, as he was from power of intellect and purity of character, to illus- trate and maintain them. Receiving, in his boyhood, a finished education in England, at a time when colleges in this country were comparatively scarce and imperfect, he entered, at an early period, into the practice of the law at Charleston, where he soon took a leading professional stand. Attached to the army, however, by taste and association, he went into active service at the breaking out of hostilities, and acquired in that capacity a high reputation, as an officer of skill, bravery and experience Declining the commission of Brigadier General, tendered to him by the President, in 1815, as one which, after the treaty of peace, could render him of no additional service to his country, he returned to Charleston, where he resumed the practice which, four years before, he had abandoned. The letter of General Jackson, written at the time of Mr. Monroe's accession, in which, when suggesting to the President elect the importance of rallying around him men of high eminence, irrespective of party distinctions, he pressed earnestly on him, in connection with the post of Secretary of War, the name of Colonel Drayton, as that of a man, who, of all others, from the energy of his character, the power of his abilities, and the ripeness of his experience, was best qualified for that important post, is an illustration which few can refuse to recognize both of the judgment of the remarkable man by whom the recom- mendation was made, and of the merits of him who was thus represented.


Confined, however, at Charleston, by the claims of his profession, Colonel Drayton withdrew entirely from political life until the nomination of General Jackson, in 1823. It was then that again, though in another field of action, he appeared among the foremost and most powerful friends of his former chieftain. Elected to Congress shortly afterwards, he remained there for several sessions, and was the representative from Charleston during a struggle which, to him, as a principal actor, was perhaps the most painful to which he could have been subjected.


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Originally a Federalist of the South Carolina school, deeply and thoroughly impressed with the belief, that, while the State governments were to be protected in the exercise of an honor- able and independent sovereignty, the national judiciary was the tribunal which was ultimately to determine all disputes between them and the Federal authority-his distrust of nulli- fication was increased by his personal and political attachment to the administration against which it was necessarily directed. But, on the other hand, he had voted against the Tariff of 1828, and had frequently, in his place in the House, expressed, in terms the most earnest and determined, his deep sense of its great injustice, and of the oppression which it worked to his native State. He found himself alone in the South Carolina delegation on a subject vital to the dignity of the State; and his position was not rendered less trying by the fact that he agreed with his colleagues as to the wrongs suffered by their common constituents, and differed only as to the means to be employed for their redress. The setting aside, however, by a single State, as far as she was concerned, of an Act of Congress, he held was inconsistent with the federal compact; and he accordingly found himself at the head of that small but gallant and faithful body of men who, though in South Carolina a small minority, while protesting against the oppressiveness of the Tariff of 1828, and the measures passed to enforce it, did not shrink, even in the darkest hour, from proclaiming their paramount allegiance to the Union. He remained in Congress until the close of the struggle, and then, feeling that his mission was ended, and that, by the devotion of his whole energies, and the surrender of everything which, in his personal associations, was dear, he had maintained the supre- macy of the Federal Constitution. He left his native State finally and took up his abode in Philadelphia. But he experienced, at the close of the long and bitter contest in which he had been so active an agent, what few men under such circum- stances could have felt, that even at the time when, in his place in the House, he was resisting the darling projects of the State he represented, there was no one who had thrown a doubt on the purity of his motives, or who had cast a shadow


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on the fairness of his fame. He passed through the amphi- theatre of the most vehement contest this country has known with his chariot wheels untarnished; and, when at last, folding his robes, he descended from the seat he had so long and so honorably filled, and withdrew from the State of his birth and the home of his affections, he carried with him the respect and the esteem of even the bitterest of his political foes.


Colonel Drayton lived in Philadelphia for more than ten years after his retirement from Congress; but, except in one instance, he remained firm in his determination to appear no longer in public life. When, in 1840, the condition of the Bank of the United States became suddenly obvious-when it was found that its arches were undermined, and its vaults gutted-when, out of thirty millions of capital, scarcely more than three could be discovered-the eyes of the stockholders, as soon as the first shock of ruin was over, were turned to Colonel Drayton as the man who, from the maturity of his judgment, was best qualified to guide the institution into a path of safety, and, from the greatness of his reputation, to gain for it once more the confidence of the community. But the effort was too late; the bank was broken beyond the possibility of a reconstruction, and it became the duty of its new President rather to collect its fragments, than to direct its course. He remained at its head about a year, accepting no salary for his labors, but serving it with a fidelity, an ability, and a single-mindedness which showed that, had he but stood at its head for a few years previous, the dishonor brought upon the nation and the community would have been avoided.


Col. Drayton's health, for the last two years, had been very feeble, though, with one or two exceptions, he was not con- fined for any length of time to his house. The evening before his death he was in as full possession of his faculties as he had been in the days of his highest intellectual action; and, in no degree, were his remarkable clearness of perception, his singular felicity and purity of language, or his deep and vivid interest in public affairs, abated. Full of recollections of the earlier days of the Republic, fainter, indeed, in relation to the


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great Southern leaders of the Revolution, but increasing in intensity as he reached the struggle of the late war, his conver- sation was distinguished, in an eminent degree, by a mental grace and dignity which invested him with a peculiar attrac- tion. Even in his old age,


'jucunda senectus, Cujus erant mores, qualis facundia, mito Ingenium,' --


he preserved those high intellectual characteristics which marked him at the Bar, in the camp, and in the Senate; and in his death the country may mourn the loss of a man whose patriotism was as remarkable for its purity as for its devoted- ness, and whose abilities, continuing to shed to the last their lustre on every surrounding object, were always consecrated to the service of those high principles from whose support, whether in danger, doubt, or turmoil, he never shrunk."


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SAMUEL PRIOLEAU.


Judge Prioleau was born in Charleston, S. C., on the 4th September, 1784. He was the eldest son of Mr. Philip Prio- leau, a merchant of this city, and great-grandson of the Rev. Elias Prioleau, who came to this country with his congrega- tion, from France, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were Huguenots. His grandfather, Samuel Prioleau, was born in this colony, and raised a large family, the descendants of whom are still numerous, and confined to this State. Judge Prioleau lost his father early in life, and was brought up with great care and tenderness, by his mother, together with his only brother, Dr. Thomas G. Prioleau, now Professor in the Medical College of this State. At an early age he was sent to Philadelphia, to the care of the Rev Dr. Davidson, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained several years, and, after his graduation, returned to his native residence. His course through the University was always correct, and endeared him to his teachers and associates. Among the latter may be mentioned the present Professor, Samuel Jackson. of the University, the late Professor Dorsay, Dr. Samuel Patterson, Director of the Mint, Mr. Charles E. Khun, &c. On his return to Charleston, desirous of becoming a merchant, he entered the counting-house of Mr. Benjamin Booth, among the principal merchants of the city, and remained with him three or four years, until he withdrew from business. Mr. Prioleau then determined to alter his course and devote himself to the study and practice of the Law, but before commencing the study, and preparatory to engaging in it, he devoted his time and attention almost exclusively and assiduously to a course of the classics-History and Belles Lettres-for nearly two years, and was, during the time, a hard and most persevering student. Soon after, (when he con- sidered himself sufficiently prepared to commence the study of his profession,) he entered the office of Colonel John Ward, then a distinguished and eminent lawyer, in full practice.




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