USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 43
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State, and, therefore, could not be convicted of burglary. The case excited more interest, as no capital conviction had oc- curred in the county for several years; and the confessions of the prisoners had made it apparently clear against them, and there was little doubt that, if convicted, they would be exe- cuted. Several convictions of negroes for burglary have taken place under the law, as it now stands, in other parts of the State. Judge Porter, however, being strongly opposed to all capital punishments, in such cases, exerts himself to the utmost. This point was argued with great ability. Judge Phelan, on the Bench, charged the Jury at length in accord- ance with the argument of Judge Porter, declaring that, with the law as it at present stands, he could not lay his head peacefully upon his pillow, if he charged otherwise; and the prisoners were acquitted."
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THOMAS H. POPE.
Thomas Herbert Pope was the eldest son of Capt. Sampson Pope, of Edgefield, and Sarah Strother, his wife. He was born 12th of November, 1803, was educated in the best schools and academies within his father's reach, and had the benefit of a clerkship in his father's store. He was, for a short time, in Yale College. He studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, Judge O'Neall, and acquired a knowledge of the profession with more ease and facility than any of the twenty-one who first and last studied in the same office.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1825, and settled at Edge- field Court House. He was married on the 19th January, 1830, to Miss Harriett Neville Pope, the second daughter of Young John Harrington, Esq., and his wife, Nancy Calmes, of Newberry. He removed to Newberry about 1832, and en- tered upon a large and lucrative practice, which he pursued with uncommon success. He was elected Commissioner in Equity for Newberry in 1836, and served until 1840, when he resigned.
He was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of the State in 1840, and served two years. How he was then regarded may be seen by what was said of him by a contributor to one of the South Carolina papers : " Mr. Pope, of Newberry, is a lawyer, and a most worthy and estimable man. He is a new member, and has, on several occasions, spoken with great effect. His speech on increasing the taxes was a most argumentative and practical onc. He is in favor of strict economy, and has shown him- self the advocate of morals and temperance. He is a business man, and possesses a most discriminating mind. I have no doubt he will be found a useful and valuable member."
He was opposed to the Bank of the State of South Carolina, and this gave rise to much unhappiness on his part, and, per- haps, persecution on the part of those who ought to have been his friends.
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He was a warm and ardent friend of the Greenville and Columbia Railroad, and did much to secure the charter. He threw himself into the ranks of those from Abbeville and An- derson, who desired to effect the location through Abbeville District via Anderson, and was very influential in carrying that point against the open and active opposition of the Presi- dent, and many of the largest and most influential stock- holders. That it was a great mistake has been shown by the continual difficulties through which the road has had to struggle. Much, however, was done at Abbeville, in 1849, to remedy that mistake, by making the extension from Belton to Greenville instead of from Anderson.
Mr. Pope was taken sick with typhoid pneumonia in Decem- ber, 1850, and lingered until the 4th of February, 1851, when he died, leaving his excellent and intelligent wife and six sons and one daughter surviving him. One of his sons, Neville, has since died.
Mr. Pope was not, by any means, an orator ; yet he spoke easily, plainly, and forcibly. His legal arguments were re- markable for their applicability and clearness. He managed his cases with great success, and very much to the satisfac- tion of the Court. He never committed those greatest of blun- ders, of tedious, unnecessary examinations and cross-examina- tions of witnesses, and of long prosy speeches. What he did or said was to the point.
His reports, while Commissioner in Equity, were lucid, lawyer-like expositions. He was a good accountant; his novitiate, in his father's store, gave him great facility in this respect.
ยท Mr. Pope was an honest, good legislator; and Newberry, though somewhat celebrated for her capricious changes of her legislators, never committed a greater blunder than when she rejected Mr. Pope. Whether she agreed with him or not on the Bank question, she ought to have been assured that she would have the services of a clear-headed, upright, indus- trious, firm, honest, good man, and no demagogue.
But he is in his grave, and with his faults and virtues he must there rest until God shall bid his dust arise.
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
ISAAC DONNOM WITHERSPOON.
Isaac Donnom Witherspoon, the son of Col. J. H. Wither- spoon, and the grandson of Isaac Donnam, of Lancaster, was born at Lancasterville, December 3d, 1803; he came to Yorkville in the year 1824, to study law with Col. Thos. Williams, and was admitted to the Bar, in Columbia, in Jan- uary, 1826.
He entered into partnership with Col. Thomas Williams, who was the leading lawyer, not only at York, but also on the Middle, now the Northern Circuit. On the 18th July, 1826, he married Ann T. Reid, daughter of Joseph Reid, once of Union District, and Senator from that district, but who was then residing in York.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in the General Assembly in 1836, and served two terms.
In 1840 he was elected Senator, and by successive elections continued until 1856.
He was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1842, but never qualified; he, therefore, retained his place in the Senate of the State.
In 1845, he was elected a Trustee of the South Carolina College in 1849, and in 1853 he was re-elected. He was the aid of one of the Governors, and thus acquired the title of Colo- nel. In 1857, he was struck with apoplexy or paralysis, at his plantation in Lancaster, and never entirely recovered. In the hope of improving his health, he visited the White Sul- phur Springs, Virginia, in the summer of 1858, but the hope was vain. He died there on the 20th July ; his body was brought on to Yorkville, and buried in the Presbyterian Church-yard, in the presence of his family, and a large body of the citizens of Yorkville and of the district.
Col. Witherspoon left surviving him his amiable lady and several children. He was a good man, was raised in the
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bosom of the Presbyterian Church, and was, I think, a mem- ber for years before his death.
He was a very respectable lawyer, and had a large practice. The last term which I held at York, April, 1858, it was mani- fest to me that Col. Witherspoon was not long to be numbered among the sons of men; yet so anxious was he for one of his clients, that he ventured to speak to the Jury. It was as the pleading of the dying for the living.
He maintained an honorable standing in the Senate of the State, and rendered good service to the district, which had so long honored him with her confidence.
In all the relations of life he was much respected by all who knew him. His wife, children and servants, experi- enced an irreparable loss in his death; but that which to them was loss, to him was everlasting gain !
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ALEXANDER DROMGOOLE SIMS
Was born in the County of Brunswick, Virginia, near Randal's Ordinary, on the 12th of June, 1803. His parents were Richard Sims and Rebecca Dromgoole, his wife; she was the daughter of Richard Edward Dromgoole.
Alexander D. Sims went to the University at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York. He came to South Carolina about 1826, and had charge as principal of the academy at Darlington Court-House. He studied law while he thus taught, and was admitted to the Bar in 1829. He opened an office at Darlington Court- House, and there continued the practice of the law until his death. He was married on the 28th of October, 1830, to Margaret A. P. Dargan, the daughter of Timothy Dargan, Esq.
Mr. Sims was elected to the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of the United State, in October 1840, and was re-elected 1842. He was elected to Congress from the District composed of Georgetown, Williamsburgh, Horry, Marion, Marlborough, Darlington and Chesterfield, in the place of John Campbell, Esq., who died in 1844 He was then elected, in preference to the Honorable John McQueen, the present Member, and again in 1846. He was re-elected in 1848, just before his death, which took place at Kingstree, Williamsburgh District, on the 22d of November, 1849, whither he had gone to meet his constituents, and to attend the Law Court. His daughter, Gertrude L., still survives him. She lives with her uncle, Julius A. Dargan, Esq., who is her guardian, she having lost her mother on the 8th of July, 1844.
Mr. Sims was a good scholar, and had a keen, discrimi- nating mind. His taste was eminently literary. He published a revolutionary romance, the title of which has escaped my recollection.
He was a very respectable lawyer, managed and argued his cases very well, possessing great fluency of language. All
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his aspirations were, however, political. In the House of Representatives in the General Assembly, he was an assidu- ous Member, remarkable for his business habits, and as a ready debater. His greatest ambition was, however, a seat in Congress. This he attained, and continued a Member until his death. His addresses to his constituents I frequently heard in the fall of 1846, and I considered them very fine specimens of such harangues. Indeed, I never saw any one who was so well calculated to win and retain the affections of the people.
His death, in the forty-sixth year of his age, cut short his career of usefulness as a Member of Congress.
He died possibly before a blight fell upon him ; for Wash- ington was a place not at all suited to a man of Mr. Sims' habits, and his quick, vivacious, and companionable dispo- sition.
I append the eulogy of his friend, Dr. John P. Zimmer- man, pronounced at Darlington soon after his death. It will give to every one a full, and, I presume, a just notion of Mr. Sims' excellencies :
" In all ages it has been common for the living to testify by some public act their high estimate of the worthy dead. It is a pleasing and melancholy task to assemble around their last resting place, and make some kind oblation to their memory. It seems to be a beautiful and appropriate out- pouring of love and friendship as well as of gratitude for kind offices that are past, and cherished affections that are now sundered forever. In accordance with a time-honored custom of our ancient and venerable order, we have this day met at the grave of our departed brother to pay the last sad respects to his memory. He lies before us in his narrow bed, in the solemn repose of death, alike unconscious of our eulogy or regrets. Anything which we may say or do can confer no benefit on him; but the living-those of us who now surround his sepulchre-may here learn lessons which will profit us in time to come.
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But'a few months ago we saw him in our streets, in this sanctuary, full of life and health, buoyant and happy. Pos-
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sessed of great physical strength, he seemed to be destined to many years of life and happiness. But he is gone, and the scene we are called on to witness to-day is a sad commen- tary on human life.
How transient-how uncertain ! We are forcibly reminded that in the midst of life we are in death.
' Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth as a shadow and continueth not.'
His days upon earth are as a shadow, and are swifter than 'a weaver's shuttle.' 'In the morning he flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening he is cut down and withereth.'
We shall be excused if, on this mournful occasion, we briefly advert to some points in the life and character of our brother, which seem to require public notice: it is for this purpose we are assembled here to-day.
With much of the early history of our friend, we are wholly unacquainted, and, therefore, the most we may say of him, is drawn from the time he came among us. We know, how- ever, that he was descended from a very worthy and intelli- gent family of Virginia, and that he was favored in early life with every opportunity to acquire an education. At the University of North Carolina (than which there is no better institution in the South), and then at Union College, Schenec- tady, he distinguished himself, exhibiting great industry and ardor in the pursuit of knowledge. How he profited by his collegiate studies, which are so often neglected and misin- proved by the youth of the country, his learning and acquire- ments sufficiently testify. He was a thorough scholar. Per- haps it would be hazarding but little to assert, that he had but few equals, and no superiors in this part of our State, in the variety, extent aud accuracy of his knowledge. It was, however, in mathematical and classical learning he excelled ; and all his life, even after he had retired from the pursuits which seemed to require him to keep up his knowledge of these sciences, he devoted a portion of every day to his favo- rite studies, and was as well acquainted with the Latin and Greek, as with his own vernacular tongue.
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Here he was peculiarly fitted for the interesting and im- portant task of training the young minds of our youth, and preparing them for stations of respectability and usefulness. In this employment he very much delighted and spent several years of his life. Many of his pupils (some of whom I have the honor now to address) remember him with gratitude, as well for the thorough instruction he imparted, as for his kindness of heart, and zeal for their improvement. No indi- vidual in this district, engaged in the interesting work of teaching, has gained for himself so enviable a reputation. Several of his pupils completed with him their academical studies, and have gone on in their professional pursuits with great success and promise of future distinction.
It is too commonly thought, that the man who follows what is usually esteemed the humble, but what is in reality the highly honorable vocation of an instructor, is but poorly qualified for anything else. This is a great mistake. This business eminently qualifies a man for the study and practice of the learned professions. In training others the instructor trains himself; in imparting knowledge he acquires it; in teaching others to think he learns to think himself.
Our departed friend found great advantage in this way in the practice of the law, to which he devoted the remnant of his life. It was in this field he particularly exhibited his great talents and acquirements. The success which rewarded his exertions ought to encourage every young man in his efforts.
Without money, destitute of family influence or rich friends, a stranger far from the place of his nativity, depending on his own strength and courage, he commenced the practice of the law in this district. Though he had able competition in this intellectual profession, he never allowed himself to doubt of success. He determined to succeed. Possessed of a quick and retentive memory, much power of research, strong attachment to the metaphysical speculations, and great amenity of manners, he could not fail of success.
He did not seem to require the usual slow and tedious routine through which most men have to pass to eminence.
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In a few years after his beginning, he was known and ap- preciated as a distinguished lawyer. But few of the Bar of the Eastern Circuit have ever been so generally successful in their practice. No one has ever taken so deep a hold on the affections and confidence of the masses.
At the time of his lamented death, he was thought by his colleagues to be the ablest lawyer in the Congressional repre- sentation of South Carolina.
Had he devoted himself with all the energies of his great mind to the profession, he might have aspired to its highest distinctions ; and no one would have worn the judicial dignity with more suavity and usefulness.
In speaking at the Bar, he was plain, lucid, methodical, always instructive, and frequently eloquent. His last efforts at the Bar, just a few weeks before his death, were remarkable productions, far superior to what we usually hear in our Courts of Justice from the Bar or the Bench.
The benevolence of his nature enabled him to do much good in the practice of his profession, not only in prompting acts of kindness and courtesy, but in adjusting difficulties and disputes among friends and neighbors, and in giving such gratuitous advice as prevent litigation and its evils.
It might be expected, from the moral and intellectual quali- ties in the character of our brother, that he would be a popu- lar man. No man in our district ever succeeded in taking deeper hold on the popular feeling. He was emphatically a people's man-not the favorite of a clique, elevated to stations of dignity and responsibility by management and family in- fluence-but the favorite and friend of the masses, who loved him for his social qualities, and respected him for his good sense and talents. With him it was natural and easy to please. His suavity and good humor were the natural out- pourings of a benevolent heart, not the trick and finesse of the demagogue.
For several years he represented the people of Darlington in the Legislature of the State, and in this relation he was faithful and diligent, the constant friend and advocate of the interests of the inasses. He was also the respected represen-
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tative, for several terms, of the now first Congressional district in the national Legislature; and when he fell a victim to the destroyer, he had just passed victoriously through a warm and exciting contest for a seat in the Thirty-first Congress.
How our friend and brother demeaned himself in that more elevated and larger arena, is matter of history. In his political faith he was a Jeffersonian republican-a State-right man of the strictest sort-opposed to all latitudinarian con- struction of the Constitution-a Democrat in sentiment and in practice.
Having a good voice, and an easy elocution, he took part in most of the debates on the floor of Congress, and spoke with good sense and effect.
On the vexed question, which divides the two great geo- graphical sections of the Union, no man was sounder or better understood and maintained our rights. The subject, in all its vast interests and importance, early engaged his attention, and he embodied and published his thoughts on it, in an in- teresting essay, which, at the time, had an extensive circula- tion.
In all his public course he secured the approbation of the people. He consulted their interests and feelings, and they rewarded him with their confidence and friendship.
I do not know that in performing the duty which has been assigned me, I should follow our departed friend into the re- tirement of the domestic circle. 'Tis there, however, the true character is seen-no cloak is thrown over the shoulders around the fire-side of home. There we all throw off the re- straints which the public gaze imposes, and are known in our true likeness. Our brother was a kind and affectionate husband, a doting father, and an indulgent master. As a friend, he was constant and faithful; as a neighbor, friendly, conciliating, and hospitable. That he had faults, all will admit, none can deny. But faults are the common heritage of poor human nature.
Let us throw the mantle of charity over his faults, and re- member them only to avoid them ourselves. Happy is he who, seeing the deficiency of his neighbor, learns to correct and remove those of his own heart.
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But the grave of our departed brother, seen in its solemn stillness, speaks to us in accents of warning. Though dead, we hear his voice filling this sepulchral grove with its deep tones of admonition. It tells us-we must die !
Listen to that voice, my brethren, and while we surround his tomb, and perform the solemn rites of our order, let us resolve to go away from this consecrated spot better and wiser men. Hearken, my countrymen ! as he is, so must you be. This is the end of life, but not the end of living. It is the beginning of existence! In the beautiful liturgy of another order, 'Men appear upon, and disappear from, the stage of life, as wave meets wave and parts upon the troubled waters.' In the midst of life we are in death. He whose lips now echo these tones of solemn warning, in turn will be stilled in the cold and cheerless house of the dead, and in the Providence of God none may escape. Let us all make that preparation which will insure our happiness beyond the grave.
He only is wise who learns to live well, that, at last, he may die well."
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RICHARD W. SINGLETON.
This gentleman was an universal favorite in the sections where most of his life was passed, (Coosawhatchie and Gilli- sonville,) and yet it has been with difficulty that mere shreds of his life could be gathered after he had slept in the silence of the grave for only nine years.
He was born in Colleton District, about 1806 or '7, and was the son of Major Richard Singleton and of his wife Eliza Postell, the daughter of Major John Postell, of Revolu- tionary memory. His mother died when he was about six years old. His father lived freely and died in narrow pecu- niary circumstances. He was about twelve years old when his father died, leaving him a destitute orphan. His uncle William, took charge of him, but death soon deprived him of this his last near relative. But a kind and benevolent lady, of Walterboro,' Mrs. Margaret Ford, took charge of the poor orphan boy, until God raised up for him a friend and pro- tector in Colonel John D. Edwards, who supported and edu- cated him out of his small means. He went to school at Walterboro,' successively to the Rev. Mr. Fowler, Mr. Quer- ton, and the Rev. Mr. Layton. When he was about sixteen he went with his friend and patron to Barnwell. Colonel Edwards sent him to school at the Boiling Springs, where he completed his education. He then taught school in the Village of Barnwell, and studied law with Colonel Edwards. In 1829 he removed to Grahamville, where he taught school. He was admitted to the Bar, in the City of Charleston, on the 27th March, 1833, and settled at Coosawhatchie, where he practiced law. He was mainly instrumental in removing the Court House from Coosawhatchie to Gillisonville. The Act for that purpose was passed on the 21st December, 1836.
During the storm of Nullification, extending from 1832 to 1835, Colonel Benjamin Alston, Richard W. Singleton, and Postell, were the only Union men in St. Luke's Parish, and
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nobly did they breast the storm. They never were shaken in its darkest hours. He was an aid to one of the Governors, and thus acquired the title of Colonel.
In 1849 Richard W. Singleton was elected to represent St. Luke's Parish. He died at Dr. Strobharts', in Grahamville, in the fall of 1850, in the forty-fourth year of his age, without being married. His mature life had been spent first in at- tending schools, which he taught with great success; and secondly, in attending to the practice of the law at Coosaw- hatchie, and afterwards at Gillisonville.
He made little money at either place, and what little he made he divided with a liberal hand with the poor and friend- less. He was kind-hearted and benevolent almost to a fault.
He was one of the most pleasant companions and friends with whom I ever associated; his good humor made even the solitude of Gillisonville pleasant. He was a teetotaller for many years before his death. "He did not keep his spirits up by pouring spirits down."
He was a respectable lawyer, managing and arguing his cases very well.
The business at Coosawhatchie and Gillisonville was so much divided, after his admission to the Bar, that it rarely fell to any lawyer to have more than ten or twelve cases at a term. Under such circumstances "talent was literally wasted on the desert air."
I know that Colonel Singleton was a Baptist in sentiment, and I believe a Christian. His death, therefore, was not the darkness of despair, but was radiant with the hope of a happy immortality beyond the grave.
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ALBERT M. RHETT.
Albert Moore Rhett (formerly Smith) was the seventh and youngest son of the late James Smith of Charleston, and Marianna Gough. He was born in the year 1809, in Bruns- wick County, North Carolina, during a temporary residence of the family there, and spent his early years in the country, where his father was his only teacher. His vivacity in child- hood was so great, that his father found it impracticable to teach him the alphabet ; and, despairing of success, gave him up to his mother's care, who, after some vain efforts, called in the aid of his eldest brother, and he at length accomplished the task. After the return of the family to Beaufort, he was for a short time a pupil of Mr. Hallonquist, a teacher of reputation at that time. In his sixteenth year, he was sent to Philips' Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, and in fifteen months completed his preparatory studies for the Freshman Class of Yale College, which he entered in 1827. From the beginning to the end of his academic life, he had not a competitor, and there was no department of study in which his superiority was not marked. He was pre-eminent in the classical, literary and forensic exercises of his class. But it was in mathematics that his talents shone most brightly. He prepared pari passu with the college curricu- lum-a system of his own, beginning with algebra, and run- ning through the whole range of the pure mathematics, in two manuscript volumes, which, on leaving college, he put into the hands of a friend in one of the lower classes. These volumes were, it is said, within these few years, still in the hands of the students. In this elaborate performance he im- proved in more respects than one on the text of the standard authors, by introducing new arrangements, by simplifying the propositions, and by multiplying sometimes the demonstra- tions fourfold. He was urged by a friend to revise and recast it into an original work of his own, and to publish it by way
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