USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 28
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vidence as a blessing to their species; who possessed the power to protect the oppressed, and punish the oppressor. Then it is, that we are reminded how transitory are human hopes ; how uncertain is human happiness! Then it is, that nature, true to herself, gives a triumph to the better feelings of the heart; charity casts the veil of oblivion over the faults of the departed, and calls to mind only the virtues and talents, which benefitted mankind. The feeling is as honorable to human nature, as it is profitable to society, for, as it is the lot of man to die, so it is the duty of man to preserve the recol- lection of those services, which may have rendered the dead useful while on earth, that those who succeed them, may profit by their example, and the memory of the good and the great, be embalmed in the recollection of their deeds. Influ- enced by feelings thus sanctioned alike by Nature and Reve- lation, we have met to deplore with the community at large, the premature death of one, who, while yet a boy, called forth the admiration of all who knew him, not less by the brilliancy of his genius than the goodness of his heart; who, when he had but just entered the threshold of manhood, delighted his companions with his wit, and elicited the plaudits of all, by the splendor of his eloquence.
William Crafts, the subject of our eulogy, was born in Charleston, on 24th January, 1787. At an early age, he gave proof of the possession of a superior intellect, which received all the cultivation that the mind of a discerning father could suggest. His early studies were conducted by the late Rev. Dr. Buist, then at the head of one of the best grammar schools, in Charleston. His progress in the languages was uncom- monly rapid, and after spending a short time under the care of the Rev. Dr. Gardiner, of Boston, he entered the Sophomore Class of Harvard University. His conduct while there, was all that the fondest father could have wished; his talents and assiduity enabled him to defy competition, and at the early age of eighteen he graduated Bachelor of Arts, receiving the first honors of that venerable university. He shortly after re- turned to Charleston, and commenced the study of the law. His fame had preceded him; his company was sought by the
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grave and the gay; learning and beauty crowded around the youthful bard to offer homage to his genius. This was, in- deed, a season of pleasure unmixed with sorrow. Few men of even mature minds, could have withstood the temptations by which he was surrounded; what could have been expected from one of his age, and in such a situation ? Was it won- derful, that the solitude of the study, should have been fre- quently abandoned for the gaiety of the saloon? that the minstrel who had so frequently struck the harp in praise of beauty, should have loved to bask in the sunshine of woman's smiles ? To our friend, was not given power to resist temp- tations so attractive. He was surrounded by all that was bright and beautiful, and cheering to the eye of youth ; he saw nothing of that misery and affliction, which, in this cold world, so often chase joy from the heart and smiles from the cheek. The rose of life was presented to him, he inhaled its fragrance; but saw not the thorns which lay concealed beneath its leaves. Mr. Crafts was admitted to the Bar at the age of one-and- twenty. Few young men ever entered on the practice of a profession with more flattering prospects. He enjoyed the friendship of some of the most eminent gentlemen of the Charleston Bar, who kindly allowed him to appear with them in important cases entrusted to their care, aided by their learning and experience. With these advantages, he quickly acquired a distinguished reputation as an advocate. His business increased with a rapidity before unknown at our Bar. Fortune smiled upon him, and his friends fondly hoped to see him at the head of his profession. In this country the duties of Counsellor, Attorney, Solicitor and Advocate, are re- quired of the same individual. Hence it may be conceived that he, who would possess even a moderate share of know- ledge of a profession, so complicated, must bestow upon it his undivided attention. It must be admitted that our friend possessed not this qualification for eminence in the law. The want of it, rendered his success as transitory as it was bril- liant.
He had early offered sacrifices at the shrine of the Muses. In after years, he struggled in vain to free himself from the
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allegiance he had proffered them when a boy. The quaint and antique pages of Coke and Littleton were too often laid aside for the more fascinating productions of Homer and Virgil. If the opinion of Lord Coke be true, that it requires the lucubrations of twenty years to make a good lawyer, it will not be surprising that Mr. Crafts was far from being pro- found in several branches of his profession, or that he should have been in many instances unsuccessful in its practice ; confident in his own abilities, he relied on them to supply his want of attention to those technicalities and forms, a knowl- edge of which, however unimportant in itself, is absolutely necessary to success at the Bar. The consequences resulting from this error might easily have been foretold: he was fre- quently foiled and compelled to yield the palm to men his inferiors in everything but attention and application. Yet was he not always unsuccessful as an advocate; he possessed the power of moulding the passions of men to his own pur- poses in a surprising degree. As the criminal Courts afforded the best field for the display of his peculiar talents, so was it the field of his forensic triumphs. In the defence of the life or liberty of a fellow-citizen, Mr. Crafts had few equals, and no superior; often have jurors yielded verdicts of acquittal to his eloquence, which their cooler judgments could scarcely have justified. Chagrin and disappointment had done much to wean his affections from a profession, which had been chosen less for its own sake, than as an introduction to public life, and whose highest honors are bestowed on those only, who are willing to submit to severe and unremitted labor for, at least, one-third of the ordinary term of life. For some time previous to his death he seldom appeared at the Bar, and he may be said to have abandoned a profession which had ceased to yield any addition to either his fame or his fortune. As an advocate, Mr. Crafts always conducted himself in the most dignified manner; there was no trick or artifice about him; none of that affected gravity, so often mistaken by the vulgar, as the indication of wisdom, and so often assumed by the pettifogger, as a mask for the concealment of his ignorance. No lawyer could be more honorable and candid towards his
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brethren, than our friend; none more courteous more gener- ous, or less disposed to profit by the errors in point of form, to which inexperienced members of the profession are liable. Though he had superiors in legal learning, he certainly was inferior to none in honorable principles and gentlemanly de- portment.
Shortly after his admission to the Bar, Mr. Crafts turned his attention to public life. Two great political parties then divided the country, under the names of Federalist and Re- publican; both loving that country, and equally anxious for its prosperity and happiness. Taking their rise from a differ- ence of opinion in relation to the Federal Constitution, they disagreed as to the sum of power granted by the individual States to the General Government, and, of course, as to the best means of effecting a common purpose. Our friend iden- tified himself with the former of these parties, and adhered to their principles to the day of his death, with the constancy of a martyr. It is not my intention, nor is it necessary, on this occasion, to justify or condemn the tenets of either party. That there were pure and spotless patriots, highly gifted and honorable men, among the adherents of both, will not at the present day be denied. No good men can think, without pain, of the violence and animosity which once existed be- tween them; nor but with pleasure on the change that in this respect has taken place. The disciples of Adams and Jeffer- son, like those great leaders, have long since forgotten the party feuds that once divided them, and, at length, learned, that an honest difference of opinion does not of necessity pre- vent the interchange of those civilities, which constitute so much of human happiness.
It is to be lamented as one of the great evils of violent party spirit, that it calls into action some of the worst passions of our nature. The most uncharitable construction is put upon the conduct of opponents; actions, innocent in themselves, are tortured into crimes, and too often an error in opinion is considered as a derelection from principle, and deprives the individual of a participation in those social pleasures and en- joyments which should always exist in a civilized commu-
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nity. None ever suffered more from party promises and party feuds; none deserved to suffer less than Mr. Crafts. There was an exhibition of generous feeling in the part he took in politics, as disinterested as it was magnanimous. The witch- ery of his eloquence had endeared him to the people, and had he attached himself to the popular party, there is no doubt that he could have commanded any office or honor in their gift. How many young men, anxious for distinction, would have resisted temptation so alluring? What good worldly reasons might have been given for his choice; but he was not the man to hesitate for a moment as to the course he should pursue. He took that part in politics which was to have been expected from his connexions and education, and sacrificing self on the altar of patriotism, he united himself with a party, which, though already in the minority, and without any pros- pect of regaining their power, supported principles, which he deemed essential to the honor and prosperity of the republic. It was his misfortune, in the language of one of his friends, "to have been praised too early and abandoned too soon." He was flattered, and taught to expect the highest honors which his party could command. He was, in a measure, neg- lected by that party, ere he had an opportunity of exhibiting the powers of his mind, benefitted as they must have been by the lights of experience. No man in public life ever dis- played more purity of purpose, or more consistency of conduct. Satisfied of the soundness of the views entertained by the Federal party in relation to the Constitution, he adhered to them with firmness, and the last act of his political life, was a vote given in the Senate against certain resolutions intro- duced by a distinguished gentleman of the Republican party, which he thought had a tendency to weaken, if not to destroy certain powers of the General Government. If his political creed was erroneous, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he erred with some of the best and most enlightened men his country had produced: with Washington, Hamilton and Cotesworth Pinckney, of the last generation, with Calhoun and McDuffie of the present.
Notwithstanding the unpopularity of his political opinions,
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he was several times elected to a seat in the General Assem- bly of his native State. In this situation, he rendered impor- tant services to his constituents. He was early distinguished for his love of letters, and omitted no opportunity of dissemi- nating a love of learning among the people. He felt, to use his own language, that "knowledge was the life's blood of republics and free governments;" that the eagle was the bird of light, as well as of liberty. In the Legislature, he always advocated every measure which had for its object the encour- agement of scientific and literary institutions. At a period, when a short-sighted policy, aided by a parsimonious spirit, would have abolished the Free School system of the State, and left the children of the poor to all those innumerable miseries and crimes, which are the almost certain consequen- ces of ignorance, Mr. Crafts undertook its defence, and in a speech, replete with eloquence and good sense, depicted in glowing terms, the blessings of knowledge to a State, and the curses entailed upon it by the ignorance of its citizens. He was successful; humanity and good sense triumphed over a narrow-minded policy, which would have weighed the true wealth of the State, the intellect and moral character of the rising generation, against the gold and silver which fills its coffers.
His friends might rest his character for usefulness as a legislator on this one act, for if in ancient days, he who saved the life of a single citizen, was deemed worthy of the civic wreath, to what is he not entitled, who by his eloquence and zeal preserved to thousands that means of moral life, without which man is little better than the brute on which he ban- quets ; the prey of appetites and passions that degrade him in the scale of creation; which unfit him for usefulness, and make him a burden to himself, and too often a curse to the State. If gratitude be not an imaginary virtue, while the free schools remain in existence, they will be identified with the name of Crafts; his memory will long be cherished by the thousands who have, and the tens of thousands who shall hereafter participate in the blessings they impart. Mr. Crafts was a philanthropist in the most extensive sense of that term;
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he possessed a heart full of the milk of human kindness; the sorrows of his friend, were felt as his own, and relieved, if in his power; but his good feelings were confined in the operation to no narrow circle; to no creed; to no party; whenever the voice of misery was heard, it was attended to with promptness: his professional aid was never solicited in vain, by the poor or the oppressed. These feelings so honoroble to him in private life, were carried with him to the Legislative Halls of the State. The establishment of an asylum in a central part of the State for those unfortunate beings, who, afflicted by the hand of Providence with loss of intellect, suffered in private all the miseries attendant on a situation so dreadful, added to those which proceed from poverty and want, was with him a favorite object. Though a difference of opinion may exist as to the practicability of the measure, there can be none as to the good feeling which prompted the undertaking; for, if the deprivation of reason, "the ruins of a noble mind," the wreck of that intellect which forms the connecting link between man and his Maker, be a sight at which humanity shudders, and even angels might weep, anything which has a tendency to mitigate the suffer- ings of its victims must afford satisfaction to the friends of humanity. In pursuance of a bill introduced by Mr. Crafts for that purpose, and passed by both branches of the Legisla- ture, a building was commenced, it remains unfinished, at once a standing evidence of his humanity and of the econo- mical spirit of those who guide and govern the destinies of the State. May the time soon arrive, when the legislators of our country shall recognize the claims of this suffering class of our people-claims founded alike on religion and humanity- claims which cannot be neglected without reflecting on the philanthrophy of the State.
The glory arising from deeds of arms, is as common to barbarians as to civilized man-it is evanescent in its nature, and frequently perishes with the warriors who achieved it; but edifices designed to perpetuate the discoveries of science, or to aid the cause of benevolence and charity, constitute the proudest and most durable monuments of a nation's glory ;
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monuments which not unfrequently outlive the national in- dependence of the people who erected them, and redeem the honors of war by the nobler triumphs of letters and humanity.
Mr. Crafts was instrumental in obtaining the repeal of the law, which refused to auctioneers the benefit of the Insolvent Debtor's Act-a law as unjust as it was inhuman, which con- verted misfortune into crime, and freemen into slaves, by depriving the debtor of the means of performing his contracts, and then punishing him for his disobedience with perpetual imprisonment. Our friend held a seat in the Legislature for eight or ten years, yet never solicited an office of profit. When it is recollected how many patriots of modern times com- mence their career, with speeches "loud and long" in support. of the people's rights, and continue this course most zealously until they obtain an office with a good salary annexed, a bet- ter proof of disinterestedness cannot be offered.
Our friend was advantageously known as an essayist, both in this country and Europe. His compositions, published in the Charleston Courier, were copied into the principal news- papers throughout the United States and Great Britain, and were everywhere read and admired. As a writer he was chaste and concise; his productions abounded with classical allusions, his comparisons, drawn from the works of nature, evinced a correct taste and an imagination alive to the beau- ties of creation, that a good Providence had everywhere scattered around him. It is to be hoped that the orations delivered by him on various occasions, with a selection from the essays, printed in the journals of the day, will be collected and published; they would form a volume, which would be a valuable addition to the library of the man of taste, and con- stitute a durable and appropriate monument to his memory. In the private walks of life, no one was more amiable than our friend-possessed of a lively fancy, a social disposition, and attractive manners, he was the idol of his friends and companions. The goodness of his heart was never called in question, it was perceptible in every action of his life, it tem- pered his wit in such a manner, that though all acknowledged its brilliancy, none complained of its point. He was an
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affectionate son and brother, a fond and faithful husband; all the duties resulting from these relations, were performed in the most exemplary manner. May a merciful God, enable his afflicted relatives to sustain their loss with fortitude; may he comfort and sustain them during their earthly pilgrimage, and in due time enable them to meet him, whom they loved on the earth, in that world were the sorrows of the good and virtuous cease, " where tears are wiped from all eyes." It was the misfortune of Mr. Crafts to possess a sensibility the most acute, hence no one ever suffered more intensely from the aspersions which as a politician he was subject to, than he did. There is a sensitiveness in genius which shrinks . from the assaults of the rude, the vulgar, and the violent; there is a delicacy of feeling in every honorable man, which makes the bare suspicion of improper conduct more painful to him, than is the actual commission of crime, to the worth- less and abandoned. Our friend possessed too much of this feeling for his own happiness; the slanders of which party spirit is so prolific a mother, and which men of coarser minds could either pass unnoticed, or retort upon their au- thors, stung him to the quick; and did much to embitter the last years of his life. It is melancholy to reflect on the insta- bility of all human honor and distinction; true it is that no man can hope for unalloyed happiness on the earth. This world is at best the scene of much sorrow and little pleasure. The visions of happiness and future bliss, which hope pic- tures to us in youth soon give place to the sober certainty of disappointment and woe. Such was the fate of him we mourn-he, whose genius burst upon us in the morn of life, with the brilliancy of a meteor-he, whose noon was clouded with sorrow-has sunk beneath the horizon of life! That voice which was once heard in the forum, defending the rights of the widow and the orphan, or on the rostrum, telling the praises of departed worth, or in the legislative halls of his na- tive land, advocating the cause of humanity and science, shall be heard no more-death has set his seal upon his lips and that voice is mute forever. The sod lies on that bosom, which once beat with every manly feeling. Yet shall his fame live
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after him. Time, that effects the best cure of wounds inflicted by malice and falsehood, shall leave no traces of the slanders heaped on him during his public career, and while genius has admirers or eloquence votaries, so long will his memory be cherished. It is true that he was ambitious, but his was the ambition of virtue, springing from a love of country the most pure and exalted : may that country never be cursed by an ambition less pure, less honorable. His talents were an honor to his country, his country will do honor to itself, by doing justice to them. His faults were the faults of genius, they were obscured by his many virtues. There are spots on the orb of day, yet do they not deprive man of the blessings of light and heat:
But should there be to whom the fatal light, Of falling wisdom yields a base delight, Men who exult when minds of heavenly tone, Jar in the music that was born their own, Still let them pause; ah little do they know, That what to them seemed vice, might be but woe. Hard is his fate, on whom the public gaze Is fixed forever to detract or praise ; Repose denies her requiem to his name, And folly loves the martyrdom of fame.
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JOHN CALDWELL.
John Caldwell, Esq., the eldest son of William Caldwell, of Revolutionary memory, (Annals of Newberry, 277,) was born 9th of September, 1785. He had a good academical education, mainly under the tuition of Dr. Pyles of Laurens, and Elisha Hammond, at Mount Bethel, Newberry. He had also a thorough training as a merchant's clerk, under Wiley Glover, at Ninety-Six, and Robert Geddes, of Charleston. From Mount Bethel, he went to the South Carolina College, and was one among the earliest pupils, and graduated in the second class of four, in 1807, and received the second honor. He visited Boston, either while in College, or very soon after, with his in- structor of Mount Bethel, Elisha Hammond, who was a pro- fessor in the South Carolina College in 1805 and 1806. He studied law with Samuel Farrow, Esq., and kept an office and did business for him, at Newberry, previous to his admission to the Bar in 1809. He commanded a fine troop of cavalry, which usually mustered at Davenport's, on Little River.
He was married to Elizabeth, the daughter of John Hunter, Esq., of Huntsville, Laurens, on the 14th of December, 1808 .* By this lady he had two children, William T. and Sarah, now the wife of Dr. Foster, of Alabama, both of whom still survive. Mrs. Caldwell was a most amiable and excellent woman.
In October, 1812, Mr. Caldwell was elected to the House of Representatives, in the General Assembly of South Carolina. In December of that year, originated the Bank of the State of South Carolina. Mr. Caldwell was one of its most active friends, and was elected a director, and to his astonishment,
*This gentleman was distinguished in his day. He was an Irishman by birth, and must have been an early emigrant to South Carolina, for he was a County Court Judge in Laurens. He was a Member of the Legislature, in early times, and I have often heard my friend, Judge DeSaussure, contrast him and General Anderson, as public speakers. " Mr. Hunter," he said, " was gentle, flowing and silvery ;" the other was "rushing and impetuous as a mountain torrent." Mr. Hunter, commonly called Judge Hunter, was Senator in Congress at his death.
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at the extra session of 1813, found he had vacated his seat in the House, by accepting a directorship in the Bank. He was elected Cashier in the Branch of that Bank in Colum- bia, and removed there in the Spring of 1814. In May, 1814, Judge O'Neall, who had studied law with him, was admitted to the Bar, and settled at Newberry, as the partner of Mr. Caldwell, and together they did a large and profitable business. He was elected a Trustee of the South Carolina College in 1813.
In January, 1816, Mrs. Caldwell died, and I am sorry to say that no marble tells where she lies, or perpetuates her memory as a wife and mother. Her remains are in the grave-yard of the Presbyterian Church at Columbia.
This unfortunate event determined Mr. Caldwell to remove from Columbia. He resigned his cashiership, which was far, very far from being profitable to him; indeed, he sustained a heavy loss in settling his accounts. He sold to Dr. Briggs, his fine patrimonial estate on Mill Creek, in Newberry, and all his negroes. This was thought, at the time, to be a wonderfully fine sale, yet, in the end, it was vexation and loss to him. He returned to the town of Newberry, and on the 17th of October 1816, he was married to Abigail, eldest daughter of Hugh O'Neall, and sister of Judge O'Neall.
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