USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 40
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Mr. Nott was small-under the common size. He was of a lively, cheerful disposition, fond of anecdote, and a com- panionable man.
At the Bar he was more remarkable for his knowledge of the law, than for his power of impressing that knowledge to the Court or Jury.
He spoke fluently, but without that point and force which is so necessary to make an impression.
It is possible if he had continued longer at the Bar, he might have risen to distinction as a lawyer.
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
PLEASANT H. MAY.
This gentleman was admitted to the Bar in 1819; moved to Charleston from Chesterfield District, in the year 1824, where he practiced law until 1834-5, when he emigrated to Alabama.
He soon drew public attention, by his fluency as a speaker, and by his early attention to politics. In 1828, he entered warmly upon the political canvass between Mr. Adams and General Jackson, taking side with the former. Time writer of this memoir heard him make quite a stirring speech from the steps of the stairs in the Hall of the Court House in Charles- ton, to a small crowd of Mr. Adams' supporters. This step was unsuccessful, and probably retarded his advancement ; not being taken at what might have been a more happy juncture, when the full tide of Jackson's popularity had rolled back, and left his reputation tainted with the Procla- mation and Bloody Bill.
Mr. May surprised the audiences of Charleston by a species of elocution, to which, until then, they had not been accus- tomed. He was a loud, florid, but not unpleasant speaker, though eccentric in his manner of expressing himself, and given to more declamation than was the practice of the city advocates. He had a graceful address, and an agreeable person, fine large eyes, and a voice of much power and beauty of tone. In stature, he was tall, erect, and slim; his face handsome, his forehead broad and intellectual.
In 1834 or '5, he removed to Alabama, and settled at Tus- caloosa, the then capital of the State. He immediately attached himself to the Democratic party, and for several years edited " The Flag of the Union," the leading party paper, with ability. In this post, though an ultra State-Rights man, he maintained the Union doctrines, as they were then styled; which were, in other words, the principles of the Jackson party. He was subsequently elected to the Legisla-
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ture, by the casting vote of the Sheriff; and it was remarked as a singular coincidence, that on several occasions, promi- nent men in that county had owed their seats to a similar accident. In this office, Mr. May acquitted himself with honor, and bade fair to reach an elevated nich in his party honors, when the opposition, or Whigs, obtained an ascend- ancy, which the Democrats were never able to reverse. Soon after this event, Mr. May removed to Sumpter, where he had a brother residing, and where he practiced law until his death, which occurred about 1846. He met the melancholy fate of being drowned in the Tombigbee River; having, by accident, fallen from the deck of a steamer.
Mr. May, in the qualities of his heart, was kind and bene- volent. Indeed, he was liberal to a fault; for, like too many of the most brilliant minds, he neglected that attention to pe- cuniary matters, which is so necessary to secure the confidence of mankind. He had great command of language, and was an orator of quite uncommon qualifications. He was not, how- ever, regarded as very stable in opinions. Depending alone upon his natural advantages, he did not pay that attention to books, without which, the most splendid talents cannot be maintained. He was inordinately ambitious of political dis- tinction ; and had his genius and capacity for popular oratory been regulated by more discretion, he might have reached, had he lived, the highest rank in his party. His heart, how- ever, was warm, and his disposition social; and those who were most in contest with him in politics, and in times of great bitterness in party issues, never failed to recognize him as a companion, or suffered the pleasantness of intercourse to be interrupted.
His wife was Miss Randolph, of Columbia, South Carolina, who died before he removed from that State. One son was the sole inheritor of his name, who, it is believed, yet lives in Alabama.
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
JOHN STOBO JAMES.
John Stobo James, Esq., the son of Benjamin James, was born in Stafford County, Virginia, on the 19th of March, 1799. He received the benefit of a good education, and was graduated in the South Carolina College in the Class of 1818. He studied law at Newberry with Judge O'Neall, and was admitted to the Bar in the spring of 1820. He settled at Laurens, and had a good practice from the beginning. In Janu- ary, 1823, he married Elizabeth, the third daughter of Captain Sampson Pope, of Edgefield. In 1824, he became the part- ner of his brother-in-law, John B. O'Neall. In December of that year, he was elected Commissioner in Equity for Lau- rens District, and held that office much to his advantage and credit until 1832, when he declined to be a candidate, and soon after removed from the village of Laurens and settled at his mills on Rabun's Creek.
He lost his wife in August, 1830 ; four small children, Benja- min S., Sarah, George S., and Helen Maria, were left to his widowed care. One of these, Sarah, in a short time, followed her mother to the grave; the others still survive. After several years of widowhood, he married a second time, and found in Emma Eliza Young, the daughter of James Young, a worthy successor to his first wife. He began the mercantile business at the mills on Rabun's Creek, in Laurens, and failed in 1843 or 1844. He removed to Columbia, and by the aid of his brothers- in-law, John Garlington and John B. O'Neall, he resumed the mercantile business, which he pursued until 1850, when he again failed, much to the injury of his friends. He removed to Charleston, and died in April, 1851, leaving, by his second marriage, his widow and two children, Jane and Belton O'Neall, besides those already mentioned of his first marriage, sur- viving him.
Mr. James was a good lawyer, spoke well, and might have very well succeeded and realized a fortune in his office, and
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at the Bar, if he had been content to let " well enough alone ;" but, like many another, he grasped at the shadow and lost the substance. His report in Simpson vs. Feltz, 1 McC. C. R., 214, is evidence of his knowledge of the law, and of his ability as a Commissioner. Before his death he joined the Presbyterian Church, and died in the hope of a Christian.
Mr. James was a worthy, good man, unfortunate in his life, but entitled to the respect of all who knew him.
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
LAURENCE E. DAWSON.
This gentleman, the son of John Dawson and Mary Huger, and a native of Charleston, South Carolina, was born in 1799, admitted to the Bar 12th January, 1821, and died in Dallas County, Alabama, in February, 1848, very soon after a re- moval from his native State, and just when rising to consider- able distinction as a lawyer, in that of his adoption.
When the writer of this sketch first saw Mr. Dawson, the latter had been at the Bar about seven years. In person, he bore a remarkable likeness to Keating Lewis Simons; and the circumstance which impressed this resemblance forcibly upon the mind of the reminiscent, was a trial, in which Mr. Dawson greatly distinguished himself. About the year 1828, if the reminiscent does not err, at a Court of Sessions in Char- leston, Mr. Petigru, the then Attorney General, was represented by Mr. Dawson. He was conducting a prosecution against a person for excessive cruelty to a slave ; and his effort was truly a master-piece of eloquence, distinguished for richness of lan- guage, weight and solidity of argument, and a solemnity and vehemence of style, very like that for which Col. Simons, who had so long thundered in the Forum, was noted. The speech made a deep impression at the time, and the reminiscent has never forgotten the effect upon his own feelings, he being then quite a youth.
On the fourth of July of the same year, 1828, Mr. Dawson was the orator of the Revolution Society. His oration was a chaste and dignified composition, full of zeal for the Union, and of advocacy of General Jackson; but warm in the sup- port of those theories in politics which afterwards became fully developed in the doctrine of Nullification. He admin- istered, in the course of his oration, the most just and salutary rebuke to the press, for its general proneness to villify private character for party purposes ; and invoked the spirit of the Revolution, to the task of keeping the government pure as it came from the hands of its original architects.
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Aside from the representation of Prince William's Parish, in the Legislature, from 1832 to 1835, and from being promi- nently before the country as the proposed successor of Mr. Grayson for Congress, a nomination for which position Mr. Dawson declined, he was little in political life; having the good sense to see the futility of a service so dependent upon the voice of a changeable mob; so unsatisfactory in its honors and emoluments, and so directly in opposition to the ease and happiness of domestic life; besides which, he preferred the profession in which he had been reared, a success in which can never be obtained, when connected with political strategy.
In 1830, Mr. Dawson left Charleston, and removed to Prince William's Parish. This was not the result of a doubt as to his success in the city ; but in the pious wish to gratify his wife with a residence near her parents, who were Dr. Rhodes and Mary, the daughter of Gov. Paul Hamilton. A heavy practice in his new location, particularly in the Court of Chancery, to which Mr. Dawson was much attached, pros- trated his health ; and, on the advice of his physicians, he abandoned his profession, and sought a more genial residence in St. John's, Berkeley .* In 1842, he removed to Dallas County, Alabama. Mr. Dawson was a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Wad- dell, in a school which has trained the brightest intellects of South Carolina. He read law successively under Col. Wil- liam Drayton and Mr. Petigru, then the associate in business of his relative, Gen. James Hamilton.
Mr. Dawson was gifted with a fine manly person. He was tall and well-formed, and possessed of features exceedingly striking and attractive. His manners were at once so grace- ful, and his general appearance so dignified, that no one could
* In Means vs. Henry, 2d Hill, 328, Mr. Dawson made the only argument which I ever heard. A short note of it will be found at 329, 330. It was a well-consid- ered effort on a difficult subject, the construction of the will of Thomas Bell, de- ceased. It carried the Court with him ; and, although the decision was subjected to the opposition and witticism of such lawyers as Judge Frost and Mr. Petigru, it was, on a review of the whole subject, in. the case of Henry and Talbird vs. Archer, Bail, Eq., 534, in the Court of Errors, sustained by a majority of seven, con- sisting of DeSaussure, Johnson and Harper, Chancellors ; and Gantt, Richardson, O'Neall, and Butler, Judges at Law ; and has ever since been acquiesced in as settled law.
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see him without feeling that he was in the presence of a fin- ished gentleman, in the true sense of the term. When he first appeared before the Supreme Court of Alabama, the Bench and Bar were struck forcibly by his person and address, and the remark was general, " there stands a perfect model of the high-toned, elevated, and accomplished advocate of South Carolina, upon whom seems to have fallen the mantle of Hale and Mansfield."
The language of Mr. Dawson at the Bar, was energetic and lofty ; his voice sonorous and manly ; his action appropriate and full of authority. He had the rare gift of combining elegance of diction and a flow of melodious and well-rounded periods, the ornaments of speech, with convincing, clear, and perspicuous reasoning.
The school of Bar eloquence, in which Mr. Dawson stu- died, stands in striking contrast with the thing called oratory in the present time. It may be, that the decline is in the audience, not the orator ; for we have the authority of Cicero for saying, that the taste of an audience governs that of the speaker ; " for those," says he, " who wish applause, consult the characters and inclinations of those who are to hear them ; and accommodate themselves to their several humors and dispositions. However this may be, the difference is quite evident to one who has had the advantage of hearing speakers in both periods ; and with what patience, may we again say with Tully, can a Mysian or Phrygian be heard at Athens, where even a Demosthenes, when he condescended to jest, was reproached as a nuisance? Then the orator was on his guard against the slightest indelicacy of expression, against every faulty and distasteful word. The commencement of a speech was ever modest and temperate; the body of it, full of clear, powerful reasoning, addressed to the good sense, not to the prejudices of the hearers. It was in a style, pure and correct ; and embellished with those glowing ornaments which, without clouding, give grace, dignity, and eloquence to an oration. Now, orators are generally triflers, full of the antics of the clowns of a circus, whose power consists in thundering forth a volume of corpulent sentences, pregnant with trash
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and detestable words, uttered in grave tones, unenlighted by a single idea ; interspersed with low abuse, or vulgar ribaldry, designed solely to make the common herd laugh. How dif- ferent from the flimsy whinings of this class, was the energy, pathos, and decorum of the orators, who, as was said by Aris- tophanes, used to " Thunder and lighten, and throw all Greece into a ferment."
These reflections flow from a recollection of the resem- blance of Mr. Dawson's elocution to that of a perfect orator. It is to be regretted that so early in life, before the State of his adoption could be benefited by his talents and example, he was called on to yield to unconquerable death. But in vain do we murmur :
" Not your family, oh Torquatus, not your eloquence, not your piety, shall restore you. For neither Diana delivers chaste Hyppolitus from infernal darkness, nor is Theseus able to break off the lethean chains from his dear Pirithous." -HORACE, Book iv., Ode 7.
It is only necessary to add, that Mr. Dawson was long an exemplary member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. That he was an upright, just and public-spirited citizen, and that, as the head of a family, he was at once the light and oracle of a wife and children, who at last are those upon whom falls the heaviest blow. Public honors and public regrets may, for a brief moment, illustrate the obsequies of so wise and virtuous a man ; but they cannot assuage the griefs of the. sur- vivors at the domestic hearth, to whom time and civic demon- stration give no consolation, because they bring no restora- tion.
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JAMES EDWARD HENRY.
James Edward Henry was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on the Sth November, 1796; he lost both his parents when quite young; his father having been killed, while com- manding, as captain of an American merchant vessel, in cap- turing an English vessel, during or preceding the war of 1812. Captain Henry succeeded in making the capture, but lost his life in the engagement.
James Edward Henry migrated to Spartanburg District, South Carolina, in 1816, being then nineteen years of age. Before he left Providence, he came into the possession of his patrimony, and spent it. This I have learned from some of his friends. From others of his friends, I have been told, he lost his patrimony by the insolvency of his father's executor; which is most probable. When he found himself obliged to work, he went into one of the cotton factories of Rhode Island, where he remained bút a short time, till he was induced to come to Spartanburg by the Messrs. Weaver, two gentlemen of Rhode Island, who were about erecting a cotton factory in Spartanburg District. He came to Spartanburg at their so- licitation, and began business for them; but he was not there long-more than a few weeks-before the neighbors prevailed on him to take charge of a school in the neighborhood. He taught two or three years, then went to school a year (1819) to Mr. Chaney Stone, near Sandy Spring, in Laurens District. Then he taught again one year (1820) near Cross Keys, in Union District, at the same time studying law.
He began the study of law by reading books kindly fur- nished him by William Hunt, Esq., still living, and at that time practicing law at Spartanburg Court House. After be- ginning the study of law, and while he was still teaching, he formed the acquaintance of Colonel James Brannon, then re- siding at Spartanburg, and enjoying a large practice, who was so pleased with Mr. Henry, that he urged him to come to
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Spartanburg, to live in his family, and study in his office; which kind offer Mr. Henry accepted, on the termination of his school engagement. From the end of that year (1820) till April following, i. e., to April, 1821-about three months-he was a student in Colonel Brannon's office. He was admitted to the Bar, in April 1821.
Upon his admission, he was associated in partnership, at Spartanburg Court House, with Colonel Patillo Farrow, of Laurens, and with him practiced about four years, when he began to practice by himself. Previous to his admission to the Bar, Mr. Henry, being treated in a way that roused his indignation, gave expression thereto by an open insult to the offender. He was sued for damages, and engaged Colonel Farrow as his counsel; and in the intimate and unreserved relations of counsel and client, Colonel Farrow observed those high traits of character, which not only made him a friend then, but in all after-life. And no man was more pleased at Mr. Henry's brightening prospects than his counsel and senior partner, who has often said, that he never knew any lawyer who surpassed Mr. Henry in grasping and clearly presenting the strong points of his case. The friendship thus early formed between Mr. Henry and his senior partner continued on the part of both through life.
In 1821, Mr. Henry was appointed Notary Public by Gov- ernor Bennett. In April, 1823, he was licensed to practice in Equity. On 30th January, 1826, he was appointed aid to Major-General J. B. O'Neall; and in same year was an un- successful candidate for the Legislature. In 1828, he was again a candidate for Legislature, and was elected.
He was married June 25th, 1828, to Miss Ann Eliza Jones, daughter of General Edmund Jones, of Wilkes County, North Carolina, and had six children: Edmund Jones Henry, Caro- line P., wife of James Farrow, Laura Ann, wife of T. Stobo, Farrow, James Edward Henry, Eliza Freelove Henry, and Patrick Lenoir Henry. Of these, only the two last named survive; Mrs. Henry having died in 1855.
Mr. Henry, in 1839, joined the Methodist Church, at Spar- tanburg Court House, with the purpose of connecting heIh-
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self with the Episcopal Church, in which he had been brought up, should a society of that denomination ever be organized in Spartanburg village; this he did some years afterwards.
In 1846, Mr. Henry, having been for several successive years a Member of the Legislature, announced his purpose of not being a candidate again. He persistently refused all soli- citations to change his purpose. But notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding there was no lack of candidates struggling for seats, the people voted in such numbers for Mr. Henry, nolens volens, as to elect him the second or third Member out of a delegation of five Representatives. He was so impressed by this generous manifestation of confidence, that he then declared, he would serve as long as the people would elect him. He was again elected in 1848. He died January 28th, 1850, just having finished his second term under the election of 1848, and at the age of fifty-three years.
To the close of his life, he never forgot the kindness of those who had extended to him a generous hand during his various steps in life. For many of the people around the neighborhood where he first located in Spartanburg, he felt, to the close of his life, a strength of attachment, which usually is awarded only to kindred. Towards Landen Miles, Esq., Major William H. Miles, and Miss Polly C. Miles-each of whom in his early life, had shown him marked kindness-he cherished to the last the warmest regard.
Mr. Henry was admitted to the Bar in 1821, and settled down at Spartanburg to practice law. He soon found his deficiency, and read most diligently to remove his defects. He has told me, that he read every case in the sixteen vol- umes of Johnson's Reports then published. He soon made an impression at the Spartanburg Bar. Between '21 and '25, he wrote a pretty, little novelette, called " Myra Cunning- `ham." This was published by Patrick Carey, at Yorkville, first in his paper, and afterwards in book form. It attracted great attention.
In 1824, I first made the acquaintance of James Edward Henry, and was struck by his lively disposition and his gene- ra knowledge. In 1825, I was elected Major-General of the
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Fifth Division, and appointed Mr. Henry one of my aids, with the rank of Major. He accompanied me, fall of 1826, in my first review of the division, at York ; Colonel Roger's Regiment, at Union; Colonel Beatty's Regiment, near the line of Spartanburg and Union; at McCarter's, Colonel Collins's Regiment; and in Spartanburg District, at Timmons's Old Field, Colonel Brannon's Regiment. Major Henry had no military talent; he had acquired all the benefit which he desired from his appointment. He soon afterwards resigned.
He rose rapidly to eminence and distinction. He was first elected a Member of the House of Representatives in 1828. In 1832, he was a Member, and stood in that glorious mino- rity of Union Members, who withstood all the abuse, which was lavished upon them by the unbridled licentiousness of the press of that day. He, however, knew well the noble, gallant yeomanry upon whom he could fall back at home. He was elected again and again; and, I believe, longer than he chose to offer. In the failure of the Bivingsville Cotton Factory, he sustained a heavy loss His income and estate were diminished, but still he was independent. The rapid growth of Spartanburg village, and the appreciation in value of his property, fully covered his losses. In the course of time, between '36 and '44, he wrote the "Tales of the Pacolet," which were published in, I think, the " Magnolia;" they were full of humor, and calculated to please the readers of light literature.
Major Henry was a most delightful companion; his con- viviality was, perhaps, the cause of his greatest misfortune.
He was an excellent lawyer. He has often stood before me, both on the Circuit and in the Court of Appeals; and there were few, very few, who managed or argued their cases better. Indeed, before a Jury of Spartanburg, it required all the weight of a Judge in whom they had confidence, to keep the scales of justice fairly balanced. He was a speaker of great force and effect. His rapidity of utterance never was checked by his want of ideas. He poured an incessant stream of words, conveying knowledge in every sentence, until he exhausted his subject. I have often listened with
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delight, and, at the same time, in amazement, at his match- less efforts. My amazement arose from my knowledge of his early history. He stood before me, the child of genius, who had broken the net of poverty, and who was soaring, like the lark, higher and higher, towards the sun-light of glory. Oh, that he could have lived, and had never known that which makes the strong man weak; then, indeed, he would have been the first among Carolina's sons. But the wish is vain ; he lies in the Spartanburg village cemetery, surrounded by his wife and children, cut down soon, alas! too soon, by the fell destroyer. His early death was and is mourned, by all who knew him, and by no one more than by him who was his friend in early life, who again and again pointed him to the dangers with which he was beset, and who to-day drops a tear, and plucks a laurel to lay upon his tomb.
" Major Henry was a great lover of books, a hard student, and, consequently, a man of extensive reading, not only in reference to his profession, but generally. His library was well furnished with the best religious, historical, political and miscellaneous works, to which he devoted the whole of his time when not engaged in the active duties of his profession. Major Henry seemed from his youth to have had fixed habits of study. He gave his attention exclusively to books, having no avocation but his profession for a living. For many years, when engaged in the work of rearing and educating a young and interesting family, he was rarely to be seen but in his office or in the domestic circle, never on the side-walks, and in the long piazzas amid the loafers and blackguards who in- fest these common places of daily meeting. Major Henry deserved, among the literary men of his day, a high rank; in his own district he stood at the head of the list; he wrote much for the newspapers of his day ; his " Tales of the Paco- let," founded in fiction, and published some thirty years since, were much admired. He was a constant and thorough reader of the Bible for many years before he made profession of religion, and often enriched his conversation and pleadings at the Bar, and other public addresses, with beautiful and ap- propriate quotations from its sacred pages. I knew him for
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