USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 29
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The partnership between him and Judge O'Neall, closed about the period of his first wife's death. In 1816, he ran for Congress, and was defeated by Colonel Starling Tucker. I thought then, and still think, that Tucker ought not to have offered. As the mutual friend of both, I had received and communicated to Mr. Caldwell, his assurance he would not be a candidate. But friendship often overlooks what ought to be sacred-such an assurance, and Colonel Tucker's friends, very much against his will, forced him to be a candidate. From 1818, Mr. Caldwell began to resume business, as a law- yer at Newberry and Lexington.
In 1824-'26 and '28, he was returned as a member of the House of Representatives of South Carolina.
From 1830, his affairs became more and more embarrassed, until at length he disposed, by public or private sale, of the
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most of his property. His practice, as an attorney, grew less and less, until he gave it up. He received a serious injury in his hip by a fall, and he was subsequently paralyzed both in his limbs and tongue.
He had two children by his last marriage, Dr. John C. Caldwell, and Elizabeth Hunter Eigleburger, both of whom, with his wife, survived him. He died 15th January, 1856, in his seventy-first year.
John Caldwell, when young, was possessed of more physi- cal powers than usually fall to the lot of a man. He was re- markably active, and could jump farther than any young man of his acquaintance. He rode well, indeed, he was regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Intellectually, he was no con- mon man. If he had had industry, he ought to have com- pared very well with his great kinsman, John C. Calhoun. He was an excellent accountant and surveyor.
As a lawyer, he did not pretend to learning ; as an advocate, and in the management of a case, he possessed unrivalled talents. His quick, clear perception of everything, made him ready for any turn of his case. Before a Jury, his powers as an advocate, very often gave him success. Indeed, in Lex- ington, he had unrivalled sway.
As a man, he was generous and honest; as a citizen he was patriotic ; as a husband and father, he was kind and affectionate.
An unfortunate habit, (which has always been too common among men,) and to which he was a slave, wasted his means, laid in ruin his intellect, and stripped him of his powers as a man. But in the weakness and suffering of many years, and when he saw his Bacchanalian friends fly from his side, and when none, except his wife and children, and one to whom in youth he had been a friend, stood by his arm, to sustain and console him, he no doubt sorely repented of the follies of youth and manhood, and very probably obtained the sure mercy of his indulgent Creator, which was manifested to him, in being permitted to pass from the world as if he had fallen asleep.
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ANDERSON CRENSHAW.
Anderson Crenshaw was a native of Newberry District, South Carolina. His primary education was at the school, around the Long Lane, where his father, Charles Crenshaw, the Tax Collector for many years of Newberry District, ilved and died ; and where his mother and only sister died in 1815.
His academic education was at Mount Bethel. He was the first graduate of the South Carolina College in 1806. He was the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the College from 1806 to 1808. He studied law with Judge Nott, and was ad- mitted to the Bar in 1809.
He settled at Newberry, and there practiced law, and was remarkable, at that early day, for his knowledge of his pro- fession. He was a good special pleader, and prepared his cases with great care, although I always thought his judgment not to be relied on.
In 1812, he was elected to the House of Representatives from Newberry, but failed to be returned in the succeeding election. In the fall of 1815, he was married to Miss Mary Chiles, of Abbeville, and removed to Alabama in 1819 or 1820.
Judge Porter, of Sydney, Alabama, furnishes the following sketch :
I became acquainted with the name of Anderson Crenshaw in South Carolina, where he had considerable reputation as a lawyer. In 1832, I saw him in person, having gone before him to obtain a license to practice law in Alabama, to which State Judge Crenshaw had previously removed. He was, at that time, holding the Circuit Court of Monroe County, at Claiborne.
Judge Crenshaw was very tall and slim in person, and noted for a stooping gait. His complexion was very dark, and his enunciation slow and hesitating. He did not remain at the Bar, in Alabama, long enough to establish much reputation
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as an advocate, having been elected to a Circuit Judgeship as early as 1821. He had, however, much celebrity as a sound lawyer; and it is certain, that he had filled his mind with a vast amount of knowledge of the principles of juris- prudence. He was slow in arriving at conclusions, but when he did, was generally correct, and the impression on his mind permanent. He was a disciple of the ancient system of law, and, during his whole life, opposed, earnestly and justly, the efforts of a young generation to innovate upon the establish- ment of my Lord Coke.
In manners, Judge Crenshaw was, at first interview, neither attractive nor forward. When the moment of formal inter- course, however, wore off, he was free in conversation, and surprised his hearers with apt quotations from the antiquities of the profession, and from classic literature. He delighted in the character and readings of Shakspeare, and, what was singular in a person of his apparent sternness, had an especial liking for Sir John Falstaff, whose calls for sack he repeated when asking for refreshment. It is told of him, that upon one occasion, at a newly settled county site, he requested a negro, unused to dramatic literature, to bring him some sack, and was astonished by being brought quite a different and ludicrous article at a moment when his room was crowded with the Bar.
A man of more amiable and kind disposition did not live than Judge Crenshaw. He was eminently just, honest, and benevolent; and the tenor of his life never was stained by the slightest moral reproach. On the organization of a separate Chancery Court, he was elected one of the Chancellors-a position in which he displayed unusual and remarkable know- ledge of the principles of Equity and the pleading and prac- tice of that Court. Previously, the Chancery jurisdiction had been connected with the Circuit Court; and from the diffi- culty of getting cases heard, the Bar had become quite indif- ferent to the system. The learning of that Court was, conse- quently, extremely low. When Chancellor Crenshaw took part in it, however, he gave, by his learning, a new and im- portant impulse to it. Libraries increased, and the Bar had
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to make themselves good Equity lawyers, or have their bills summarily dismissed.
When Judge Crenshaw was first elected to the Circuit Bench, the Judges heard, collectively, appeals on writs of error. As one of these, Judge Crenshaw delivered many opinions, distinguished by most clear and logical enunciations of the principles of law; and which stand, in the reports, opposing and truthful monuments of judicial learning, com- pared with the diffusive, but weak and sickly opinions which have too often, in later times, been suffered to grow like funguses upon the once flourishing trunk of English law. These opinions will be found in the Alabama Reports of Minor, Stewart, and Stewart and Porter.
Chancellor Crenshaw, while presiding over the Equity forum, by his keen sense of justice, and his power of discrimi- nation, gave great popularity to that Court. Few lawyers, fresh from the contests of a law Court, are enabled to exert their abilities in a manner to avoid grafting upon Equity jurisdiction, technicalities which it is the great purpose of this Court to defeat. Under Chancellor Crenshaw's adminis- tration, the Court reached and maintained a dignity and elevation which it never before, and rarely since, has had in Alabama. It was, indeed, under his control, the forum of the reason and spirit of the law-the Ars boni et æqui of Cicero-the doctrine of all that was equitable and good.
Chancellor Crenshaw died in the year 1847, having been twenty-six years in a judicial position. The Bench and Bar, generally, attested their sense of his loss by most honorable funeral demonstrations.
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JAMES R. ERVIN.
The subject of this sketch was descended, by both father and mother's side, from some of the Scotch-Irish families who were among the first settlers of what is now Williamsburg District. James R. was the son of Col. John Ervin, and Jane, his first wife. He was born on the Pee Dee, in the year 1788, in the lower part of Marion District.
Having been deprived of a mother's care in infancy, he was consigned to the charge of an aunt, Mrs. Witherspoon, for some years after. His education commenced at a com- mon school in the neighborhood, and could the incidents of that period of his life be recovered, there would doubtless be found many indications of those original powers of mind, and that remarkable versatility of talent, which were so strikingly exhibited in his subsequent career.
When about eleven or twelve years old, he was sent to the noted grammar school, then under the charge of the Rev. John M. Roberts, near Statesburg, an institution which maintained for many years the first rank in the north-eastern part of the State. Here he remained two or three years, and, associ- ating there with some of those who were to rise to eminence in the different walks of life and the service of the State, was probably induced to turn his thoughts to the study of the law, as the most successful mode of rising to usefulness and dis- tinction !
For the law he was eminently fitted by nature, as well as for political life, to which his tastes and peculiar gifts caused him to turn at an early period.
Soon after leaving the school at Statesburg, he was placed under the care of John D. Witherspoon, then the only resi- dent lawyer in the old Cheraw District, comprising the present Districts of Chesterfield, Marlboro', and Darlington. He en- tered the office of Mr. Witherspoon, as a law student, in Jan- uary, 1805, and not being a graduate of any college, it was
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necessary that he should devote four years to the study of the law, before he could be admitted to practice !
Mr. Witherspoon, though he had not himself been very long at the Bar, had acquired a considerable practice, particularly in the way of collecting.
Young Ervin was a ready writer, and had, therefore, the benefit of a large amount of office work; as such, rendering him familiar with, what is so often to young lawyers, the most difficult part of the practice.
In 1809, he was admitted to the Bar in Columbia, and set- tled immediately after in Marlboro' District, where an inviting field opened before him. His rise to popular favor was rapid, and based upon those qualities which are always attractive to the people, secured for him their hearts and lasting confidence and regard. Soon after settling in Marlboro', he was returned a Member of the House of Representatives, which position he continued to fill, until his removal from the district.
In the year 1814, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Gen. Erasmus Powe, of Chesterfield-a lady of most lovely dispo- sition, and who, by her devotion, contributed largely to his happiness.
Soon after his marriage, he removed to Marion District, and there acquired a highly respectable practice; but, becoming dissatisfied, returned to Marlboro'. From that district, he was again returned to the Legislature, but in the higher capacity of Senator, which position he continued to fill, until the ex- piration of his term.
Influenced probably by the relations with which his mar- riage had brought him, he was induced to leave his first field of public labor again, and to settle in the town of Cheraw. Here, also, after a brief residence, the appreciative regards of the people made him their Senator.
During his residence in Cheraw, he was left a widower, with six children. This season of trial passed, he intermar- ried with Mrs. Vereen, of Marion, by whom he had one child, a daughter.
About this time his health began to fail, and while on his way to the Rocky River Springs, in North Carolina, an acci-
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dent, which led to a profuse hemorrhage, put an end to his life in a few moments. Few men were possessed, to so re- markable a degree, of the confidence and love of the people. The tidings of his untimely end were received with unusual marks of sorrow.
In person, Col. Ervin was attractive and commanding ; about 5 feet 11 inches in height, and well-proportioned, with a countenance singularly open, and beaming with intelligence and good nature, he inspired respect as he went, and capti- vated all with whom he came in contact. His talents were of a high order-placing him, in point of natural genius, in the opinion of competent judges, among the very first of those who have been reared on the Pee Dee ; and had his applica- tion been equal to his endowments, he would probably have fallen behind no competitor in the way to fame!
As a speaker he was fluent and forcible ; ready to take ad- vantage of any turn and change of circumstance-abound- ing in anecdotes and repartee. His quickness and versatility made him, as was often confessed by the most learned and eminent advocates, an adversary always to be watched and dreaded.
Baffled at one point, which seemed to have been his strong- hold, or driven from a position maintained against formidable odds, he would in a moment take other ground, with so much ingenuity, and such a show of reason or law, as often to con- found his opponent, and not unfrequently to gain his case. In the celebrated trial of Mason Lee'will, in Marlboro', in which some of the most distinguished lawyers of the State were employed-the late Col. Blanding and Chancellor Harper being associated with Col. Ervin, and Judge Evans and Col. Preston opposed to him-this striking trait was remarkably displayed. He is said to have conducted his part in that singular case, with the most consummate tact. But, unfortunately, for his reputation and success, his convivial temperament and aversion to steady labor, caused him to take a position behind those who might otherwise have been distanced in the race.
His habit was to appear without anything like thorough
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preparation, relying, as he did, mainly upon the weakness of his adversary, or his own ingenuity, to give strength to his cause ; or upon his general knowledge of the law, and his power so to present the facts of the case, as to carry the jury with him, which he seldom failed to do. As a jury lawyer, he scarcely had an equal. And so, before the people he may be said to have been almost irresistible. Attached to them by sympathy, at ease in any company, with remarkable con- versational talent, and though making no studied effort, mas- ter, notwithstanding, of those arts which are ordinarily used to gain their esteem, he was their favorite through life. His rich vein of humor and inexhaustible fund of anecdotes, made him the very soul of social life at the Bar. Here he had no equal. In 1832, he was the acknowledged leader of the Union party in his section of the State.
Singularly cool, and as fearless as he was cool; as able in counsel as he was efficient in action, to him the eyes of his fellow-citizens were invariably turned in times of emergency, nor were their hopes likely to be disappointed. He was prompt to respond to any appeal, and the confidence so im- plicitly reposed in him was never abused.
As a friend, he was constant and self-sacrificing to a re- markable degree; and in every relation of life, all that a noble affection could prompt, or a generous impulse move him to be-a true man and faithful !
His life, however, rich as it was in incident, and singular in all those elements of power which made it up, was one of those, the most difficult to be written, and not often lived- known only, as tradition may hand down some remains of it to posterity.
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THOMAS SMITH GRIMKÉ.
The great man whose name has just been read is identified with every good and excellent recollection, in which a South Carolinian and a friend can indulge. To speak of him as he deserves, is the task which is before me. I approach it with feelings both anxious and fearful: anxiety as to the work, and fearfulness that it may not be done well, are present, and will dwell upon my care-worn pen, until I can say, it is finished.
Thomas Smith Grimké was born in Charleston, South Caro- lina, 26th September, 1786. He was cradled in the bright, blushing morn of peace, blessed peace, which followed the dark and bloody night of the Revolution. One who now knows the subsequent life of the infant then born, would say, that he came the messenger of that peace, and that which is better, the peace which goes beyond this world. He was the son of Judge John Faucherand Grimké and Mary Smith, his wife, the daughter of Thomas Smith. His youthful mind had the benefit of the judicious training of his eminent father. Obedience to and love for his parents began with him in child- hood, and only ceased with their death. He had the benefit of the best schools of the State. At the age of seventeen, he left home for Yale College, then under the care of that emi- nent scholar and Christian, President Dwight. Young Grimké had the full benefit of his teaching and parental care, and re- turned home, in 1807, with all the honors of the college clus- tering upon him. He wished to study for the ministry, but his father desired that he should study law. He yielded his wishes to those of his parent, and set about the preparation which made him the light of his profession, and the Christian sage of his own city.
I have followed a statement found in the "Calumet," of January and February, 1855, said to be furnished by his family, but from the date of his admission to the Bar, 30th
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May, 1809, and the fact that the law then required from a graduate three years study before he could be admitted, I am convinced Mr. Grimké must have graduated in the fall of 1805, or early in 1806. For he was too conscientious to have claimed admission a day earlier than he was entitled. He was married to Sarah D. Drayton, on 25th January, 1810.
His first public effort was a Fourth-of-July oration, which I remember to have read and admired many years ago; tra- dition is, that he was unequal to the delivery, that he fainted, either from the heat of the day, or his own excitement, and his venerable father finished his task by reading the balance of his oration.
I happened to have preserved his admirable discourse before the Bar Association on the "Practicability and expediency of reducing the whole body of the law to the simplicity and order of a code," delivered 17th March, 1827. He said then, that "a work such as that proposed, is worthy of the most cultivated judgment, the best talents, and the soundest learn- ing, which adorn our State." How appropriate the thought and the expression to the work which the Legislature of the last year directed to be begun. The discourse ought to be read by every thinking man in the State; it contains wisdom and truth in every line. On the 9th of May, in the same year, he delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society his address on science, which, indeed, is one of the purest and best offerings ever laid on the altar of literature. These are a part, a small part, it is true, of his matchless pro- ductions by which he sought to benefit his fellow-men.
Mr. Grimké was remarkable for his accuracy as a lawyer. He sifted thoroughly every case, and came into Court armed at every point. He was in Court, as everywhere else, a gen- tleman, kind and courteous; but he was firm as he was cour- teous. He felt in Court he was the minister of truth; he never sought to mislead a Judge or a Jury. His arguments, some notes of which are to be found in our law books, prin- cipally in 1 & 2 Bailey, Bailey's Equity, 1 & 2 Hill, were full and exhausting on every subject. In the State ex rel., Ber- ney vs. the Tax Collector, 2 Bail. 654, his argument against
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the constitutionality of the Act, imposing a tax on the divi- dends of United States Bank stock, will be found. It is true, his argument failed to carry the Court with him, yet it pre- sented the most ingenious and plausible views. But his last, greatest, and best legacy to the Bar and his country, is his argument, in March, 1834, on the great Test Oath question, in the State ex relatione McCready vs. Hunt, 2 Hill, 14. The sickness and death of two of my children carried me from the Court to their bed-sides; I was, therefore, prevented from hearing this matchless argument in its delivery, which, at the time, confirmed friends in their opposition to that measure, and which made Nullifiers acknowledge in the Court House, " thou almost persuadest me." It will be read and admired as long as the law and the Constitution have a home in the hearts of the people.
Mr. Grimké was not only a lawyer. St. Philip's and St. Michael's did themselves honor, by claiming the benefit of his talents as a Senator, from 1826 to 1830. His services in that department were of great value. I do not know that he originated or framed any laws; but I do know that he was always at his post, and ever vigilant in ascertaining, and ever faithful in securing the right. He was one of that august Court, in January, 1828, which tried Judge James on articles preferred by the House of Representatives. He was one of those pure and fearless Judges, whom neither sophistry nor eloquence could turn aside, and who, with tears, wrote " guilty," and pronounced the judgment of removal.
Mr. Grimké was, in fact, the father of the Temperance re- form. He stood almost alone in that good work: "his name being at the head of the subscribers to the original Tempe- rance Society, which he was mainly instrumental in forming, and whose constitution was drawn up by his own hand." In February, 1831, when I first visited Charleston as a Judge of the Court of Appeals, it was at the end of a great snow- storm; the sailors, to ridicule temperance and Mr. Grimké, made a man of ice, placed him upon the deck of one of the vessels, with a cocked hat on his head, with this label placed upon it: "The President of the Temperance Society." They
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little dreamed, that that which they thus ridiculed would enter their ranks with the olive branch of peace and love, and claim of them, in less than thirty years, more than seven thousand followers in the Mariner's Washington Total Absti- nence Society. Yet so it is. Mr. Grimké heeded neither the ridicule of ignorance, nor the intelligence of enemies nor of friends. He was a temperance man both by precept and example. Often have I regretted, in the triumphal ovations of temperance, that the kind, benevolent face of Grimké was not to be seen. Before the day of jubilee, God had called him to his everlasting reward.
He left Charleston for Ohio, in September, 1834, with the double purpose of visiting his brother, Judge Frederick Grimké, and to attend the Annual Convention of Teachers, and to address the Evodelphian Society of Miami University. These two last objects he accomplished. The last speech which he was permitted to deliver, was in a temperance meeting, in Cincinnati, on Wednesday, Sth of October, 1854. He left Cincinnati for Chilicothe, to visit his brother, who was to meet him at Columbus. On Saturday night, in the stage, he was attacked with Asiatic cholera, and was obliged to stop at Gwynn's farm, twenty-two miles from Columbus, and just as the rays of the sun of the Lord's day, 12th October, 1854, streamed through the casement of his chamber, the pure spirit of Thomas Smith Grimké, took its flight from earth to heaven ! His brother had reached him in time to minister to him, and hoped that the skilful physician, who accompanied him, might have been instrumental in saving him, but in vain- he was only permitted to see him roused for a few minutes, and then to die.
Having just completed forty-eight years, Thomas Smith Grimké might have been expected to spend many more years of usefulness here. But God said, it is enough! and he passed away.
Our duty is to profit by his example. It is one of rare and exceeding brightness. It may be followed. It may be imi- tated, but it cannot be excelled. As a scholar, jurist, legislator, follower of temperance, orator and Christian, he was unsur- passed.
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It is as an orator and Christian, that something more may be said. Mr. Grimké was remarkable for his rapid delivery. He never was at a loss for a word, which he always used of the purest English, and in its proper place. He did not gen- erally seek the highest flights of eloquence, but in the great " Test Oath Case," he sought and attained them. His closing words in that case, are beautiful exponents of his own char- acter .- 2d Hill, 69. He said, " I have come to lay my gift on the altar of God and my country : for what is an independent judiciary but my country, and what are the halls of justice but temples of the Most High ! I have felt that I dared not offer my gift on such an altar, if any brother had aught against me. I have not willingly, uttered a word that could, in the slightest degree, give an instant of pain. And if, by aught that has been said, I have excited a momentary unpleasant- ness, or have cast even a transient shade over a single coun- tenance, may I trust to be forgiven."
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