USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 6
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In 1796, he was elected to the House of Representatives, from Saxe-Gotha-now Lexington District-and, I presume, he was reelected, and served until 1804. On the 18th July, 1802, he was married to Mary Hay, by whom he had eleven children, eight of whom survive.
On the 24th of November, 1802, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and served two sessions, 1802 and 1803. As Speaker, he became, ex-officio, a member of the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina College. In the spring of 1804, he removed to Columbia. In December, 1805, he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina College, and continued, by successive elections every four years, until December, 1821.
On the 5th day of December, 1806, he was elected Solicitor of the Southern Circuit, and was continued until December, 1820, when, strange to say, his Revolutionary services, faith- ful discharge of duty, and his numerous family, were over- looked, and another was placed in his stead. He had acted as Mr. Solicitor Colcock's deputy, on a large part of the cir- cuit, before he was elected.
In the office of Solicitor, he was a terror to evil doers; his pursuit of crime was unwearied, and generally successful He prepared his indictments with great care, and seldom was the most astute able to pick a flaw in them. He arranged
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and embodied his facts in such a way, that he brought out his whole case. His voice was capable of being heard at a great distance, and when he began his argument, he generally gathered all the people lagging around the Court-House into it, and the prisoner would literally be said to tremble before the judgment-seat.
At Barnwell, on one occasion, a party had committed some heinous offence; he fled the State; his death was subse- quently announced in the newspapers; his wife administered on his estate, and at Court she appeared in her mourning weeds. Mr. Stark disregarded all this matter, and at Court was seen swearing his witnesses, and sending the bill to the Grand Jury. The late Colonel Haigood said to him, "surely, Mr. Stark, you are not indicting a dead man?" " Dead or alive, I'll have him," was the reply. And sure enough, at the next Court, the supposed dead man was in Court, to answer to the indictment.
The spring of 1815 was the first Court which I attended at Edgefield: there had been no Fall Term, owing to the sickness of Judge Brevard. Mr. Stark gave out forty bills of indictment, of which thirty-nine were found "true," for every grade of offence, from assault to murder. The late Judge Grimké presided. He was, like Mr. Stark, a terror to evil doers. In the course of the Term, one of the Edgefield row- dies, looking on, said, "this is no place for me-Stark holds, and Grimké skins."
I knew Mr. Stark well, and had much to do with him as Solicitor; and I have no hesitation in saying, that the objec- tion, which was urged against him, that he was " too severe" was altogether untrue. He was a firm, just man, in the dis- charge of his duty; but there was no one who sooner yielded to the just claims of mercy than he did.
In 1814, Mr. Stark and myself defended Colonel Starling Tucker, before the Court Martial ordered to try him, on charges preferred against him by the Commander-in-chief, Governor Allston, in relation to the service of the first class of the militia, ordered into service from the brigade, then ranked as the second, now the tenth. As few survive, who were connected
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with that service, it will, perhaps, not be inappropriate, that a survivor should here write some account of it.
By the order of the Commander-in-chief, the militia was arranged in four classes; those charged with the execution of the order in the second brigade, included all under the age of forty-five, and over eighteen, whether they were liable to ordi- nary militia duty or not; inasmuch, as those not liable to militia duty were regarded as alarm-men. In consequence of this, clergymen, public officers, former officers who had served more than seven years, were subjected to the classifi- cation. The Newberry Artillery, to which I belonged, com- manded by Captain George McCreless, offered themselves as a company for the first class, and were accepted. Among those in Newberry who were not liable to duty, but who were classed, were the Rev. Dr. M. W. Moore and Major Frederick Nance; the former entered upon the tour of duty in person ; the latter sent his son, Robert R. Nance, as a sub- stitute. The detachment, under the command of Colonel Starling Tucker, Majors Robert Wood and Samuel Cannon, were mustered into service on the 1st, 2d and 3d of March, 1814, by the Brigade-Major, Thomas Wright, at Newberry Court-House, and commenced their march on the 4th, for the point to which they were ordered-Camp Allston, two miles below Sheldon Hill, in Beaufort District. I was appointed the Judge-Advocate of the regiment, but was allowed to re- main, as a private in Captain McCreless's company. On the way down, the regiment, below Barnwell, began to meet the discharged soldiers of Colonel Carter's regiment, to the relief of which we were marching. Those first met had been discharged on account of sickness; they were the most squalid, emaciated creatures and were hardly able to walk. They depicted to the soldiers of Tucker's regiment the unne- cessary hardships to which Colonel Youngblood, who had obtained the command, in place of Colonel Carter, had sub- jected them. As might have been expected, it created a feel- ing of indignation, which could not be well allayed. I re- member, on one occasion, when some of Carter's regiment were met, and their narration of hardships, ascribed to Colonel
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Youngblood, had been listened to, that John Toubs, of Edge- field, who belonged to Caldwell's troop of cavalry, but who was the Acting Forage-Master of the regiment, said to Colonel Tucker, "the day you give up the command of your regi- ment, I will shoot you."
At Pocotaligo, the regiment was met by Captain Benjamin Frazier, of Edgefield, and he said to Colonel Tucker, "you are marching right into -. " Yesterday, an order was pub- lished requiring a detail of two companies, to throw up a tête du pont on Port Royal Island, under the direction of Colonel Youngblood." Said he, "the object is thus, by companies de- tailed, to take your command from you." The regiment did not immediately take possession of the ground occupied by Carter's regiment, an old field just beyond a Road leading from Garden's Corner, and a mile from Bull's Point. They en- camped in a wood to the left of the Beaufort road, below Mr. Fuller's. The guard in charge of the magazine was relieved by a guard detailed from Tucker's regiment .* Immediately after the regiment encamped, a council of all the officers of the line assembled, to consult as to what should be done, as to the detailed order to throw up the tête du pont, and they unani- mously advised that it should be disobeyed; and every one, from the highest to the lowest, so pledged themselves. This was not only disobedience, but mutiny, and might have been visited with serious consequences; but there was a great pal- liation in the excited state of the men's minds, and their belief that the duty demanded was to be done under a stern disci- plinarian, and would probably be at the sacrifice of many lives, who were unaccustomed to the climate.
Colonel Tucker, however, managed the thing with great skill. From day to day, he parried Colonel Youngblood's de- mand for this detail; and never gave a positive refusal. The regiment was ordered to be discharged, about the 5th of April, in consequence, I have no doubt, of Dr. Moon's spirited per- sonal remonstrance as to the inutility of the service, and the
* The order before-mentioned. when communicated, proved to be an order pro- mulgated by an extra aid, who had not been announced in general orders, or, in anywise, before known in that character.
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danger to the health of the soldiers from the position. In his order directing the discharge, the Commander-in-chief re- quired the Colonel to state what progress had been made in the tête du pont ; and if none, what had prevented it. Col. Tucker was advised by his officers to state to the Governor, that, owing to the short period of service, and the probable sickness of the troops, and the excited state of their feelings from representations made to them, no progress had been made. Colonel Tucker, unfortunately, returned no answer to the Governor, and this, I have always believed, was the cause of his arrest.
Soon after, the regiment encamped in the woods, below Fuller's-probably the second night-Colonel Youngblood, Captain John King, and Captain John Miller, at about twelve o'clock, mounted their horses at Garden's Corner, and rode, as Youngblood stated on the Court Martial, to the centre of Colonel Tucker's encampment, without being hailed. They then rode to the magazine guard, and were probably brought to by the sentinel on duty, to whom Youngblood stated who they were, and that they were on their way to Bull's Point, to look after the schooner Live Oak, which was expected, with provisions for the regiment. He called for the officer of the guard, who came, and to whom the same explanation was given, and he foolishly permitted them to proceed. After riding to the Point, and returning as soon as they reached the road leading to Garden's Corner, Youngblood said, "there is so much remissness, let us try what an alarm can do." Ac- cordingly, each fired a pistol, which, under an old Act, con- stituted an alarm. The effect was that the whole camp was roused, and a state of confusion rarely seen ensued.
Some notion might be conceived by comparing it to a bee- hive suddenly overturned. Col. Tucker mounted and rode to the right of the encampment, dismounted, tied his horse to a tree, and ordered a scout from the company of cavalry. Capt. Wm. Caldwell detailed three of his best-mounted and most fearless men, John Toubs, George Caldwell, and West- ley Brooks. They galloped to the magazine guard, and were there told of Youngblood's visit. Toubs said, "boys put your
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horses to the top of their speed, and we will overhaul them before they reach Garden's Corner." This was done, and the saddles were scarcely removed from Youngblood's horses until the scout was present. It was fortunate that Youngblood and his party had reached their quarters, for they were pursued by fearless and enraged men, and I have often heard Toubs swear, "if he had overtaken them, he would have made Youngblood a head shorter!" In the pursuit the scout were joined by the Colonel, Capt. Caldwell, and two privates of the cavalry, James Gillam, and Henry Gray.
Before he joined the scout, Tucker had gone among the regiment on foot to aid in the formation : he was heard in- quiring " where is my horse?" Some member of the artillery company, which was next on the right to the cavalry, pointed him out. The regiment was formed by Capt. Wm. Irby, the adjutant, who was an old soldier of '76, after much difficulty. On the return of the scout, the soldiers were permitted to retire. The next day, however, told many a ludicrous anec- dote. Lieut. R. said that one of Capt. B.'s men being much alarmed, fled to a tree, which he had selected, to climb ; he was seen to look up, and heard to exclaim, " Captain is that your tree ?"
The regiment, in a day or two, took possession of the ground previously occupied by Carter's regiment, except the artillery company, which was stationed at Bull's Point.
As I have already said, the regiment was ordered to be discharged about the 5th April. The night after the dis- charge was one of riot and wild confusion in the camp: I presume every cartridge in the possession of the soldiers was fired.
The Colonel was arrested and tried on, I think, fourteen charges-most of them were not proved. Indeed, the real facts were never known'to those who prepared the charges. The Court, as far as I remember, were composed of Col. John J. Chappell, president ; Col. Adam McWillie, Col. Evan Ben- bow, Major Abram Blanding, Major Joseph Mickle, and Major Benoni Robinson. James Dillett, Judge Advocate. Mr. Stark advised a plea in abatement, or bar, be prepared
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against the argument : the plea was overruled. The defence was prepared and read by myself. The Court convicted the Colonel of the charge of disobedience of orders, and sen- tenced him to be suspended ten months from his command. This lenient sentence from such men, showed that Tucker had much to excuse him.
Indeed, the whole affair made Starling Tucker subsequently, the Brigadier of the Tenth Brigade, Major-General Fifth Di- vision, and a Member of Congress.
On the 4th of July, 1819, Solicitor Stark had the misfor- tune to lose his wife. He remained a widower near six years. On the 4th of June, 1825, he married a third time. The lady who then became Mrs. Stark, was Grace H. Baker.
On the 2d day of December, 1826, the Legislature elected him to the office of Secretary of State. Thus they, in some degree, removed the charge of ingratitude, which was incurred in 1820, by depriving him of the office of Solicitor.
He died the 4th day of September, 1830. As a lawyer, Mr. Stark occupied a high position in his day. He had not the advantages which many lawyers have since enjoyed. He was schooled in the camps of the Revolution. He over- came his want of education by diligent and patient study. His arguments, both on law and fact, were lucid and convin- cing. He had extraordinary powers before a Jury, for they believed and knew he was honest.
In all the relations of life, he fulfilled every duty which he could be expected to perform. He was an honest, just, and good man, and I know no higher panegyric which can be bestowed.
In person, he was about five feet eight inches high ; very corpulent : his legs were enormous-one, I think, was twenty- eight inches around, and the other was either twenty-six or twenty-seven ; his complexion was swarthy; his face was the index of the man-cheerful, frank and bold.
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BENJAMIN H. SAXON.
This gentleman's name appears on the roll of Attorneys in Charleston, but the date of admission is not given. He was a practicing lawyer at Laurens, 1st January, 1800 ; he studied with Robert Goodloe Harper, Esq.
He was elected Clerk of the Senate before 1805, and con- tinued in that office until 1810. He was an accomplished clerk, so far as the manual portion of the duties was con- cerned, but his disposition was unaccommodating, and, in consequence of the too frequent exhibition of this imperfec- tion, he lost his office.
In 1811, he was elected Solicitor of the Western Circuit ; in 1818, Warren R. Davis succeeded him. From 1822, he filled various State offices-such as Surveyor-General, Trea- surer of the Upper Division, and, finally, Book-keeper in the Branch Bank, until, perhaps, 1850.
He then removed to Georgia. He was united to the Bap- tist Church when he was more than eighty.
He married a Miss Walton, of Georgia, and removed from Laurens to Abbeville District, and lived there many years. He had a family of several children. His wife lost her reason many years before her death, and died an incurable lunatic, in the asylum, at Columbia. He has told me that he was advised to use the hickory as a means of cure. He was very reluctant to resort to such a measure. He, however, on one occasion, when returning home, cut a switch; as he entered the house, she met him, in one of her wildest frenzies ; he struck her a single blow with the switch : she stopped, looked at him in perfect amazement, and said, " Mr. Saxon do you strike me ?" He threw down the switch, and bore as best he could this saddest affliction-the insanity of his wife. For years he supported her in the asylum, at Columbia.
He died at the house of his son, Robert, in Georgia, after he was more than four-score. He was a well-informed law- yer; he possessed an easy and graceful elocution. He was
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for years, when at the Bar, afflicted with tertian ague: this made him more irascible than he otherwise would have been. The difference between him and Solicitor Taylor, his predecessor, was striking in this respect. Solicitor Taylor was a man of perfect good humor. The most worrying part of a country lawyer's life, in time of Court, is the constant inquiry of witnesses, " mayn't I go home?" To Mr. Taylor, the State witnesses constantly addressed this question ? "Oh, yes, go home," was his reply.
To Mr. Solicitor Saxon, as the evening rolled on, a witness would address an inquiry, "Mr. Saxon mayn't I go home ?" "Yes, go home," was impatiently answered. Another-" Mr. Saxon mayn't I go home?" "Yes, go home," with a furious blasphemous expletive, was the answer. Another-" Mr. Saxon mayn't I go home ?" "Yes, go home," with a super- lative blasphemous expletive, following !
Mr. Saxon was a strictly honest man. He was a kind husband and father. In the insanity of his wife, and the death of many of his children, he suffered much. Still he bore up with unflinching fortitude, and, at last, with the consolations of religion, he triumphed over the last great enemy of man !
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CALEB CLARKE.
Solicitor Clarke was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1st July, 1777.
He received a common-school education only. He came to Charleston in 1800, and lived for a time with his brother Robert, a merchant of that city.
He began the study of the law with Henry Bailey, Esq., the father of Attorney General Bailey, in the City of Charles- ton ; but subsequently came to Columbia, and studied law with Thos. Henry Egan, Esq. He was admitted, I presume, to the Bar in 1805; his name, however, does not appear on the rolls of Attorneys at Columbia or Charleston.
He settled, and commenced the practice of law at Winns- boro', the same year.
In 1812, he married Julia Harrison, of Chester District. Her father, two or three years before, came from Virginia, and settled on the Catawba River, where he died.
Mr. Clarke was elected (it is stated) repeatedly to the House of Representatives of South Carolina. I recollect seeing him in the House of Representatives in 1811, and hearing him make a speech against the union of Laurens, Newberry, and Fairfield, in the same Congressional District. The intercourse between Fairfield and Laurens, he said, was so little, that the people scarcely knew one another, and hence ought not to be united in the same Congressional District. As an illustration of this, he affirmed that he did not know a man from Lau- rens District, " except this here man," (pointing at a member from Laurens,) " old Mr. Burnside."
In 1815, in the place of Mr. Solicitor Johnson, who was elected a Judge, he was a candidate for the office of Solicitor of the Middle Circuit: after repeated ballotings, the Legisla- ture failed to make an election between him and his oppo- nent, Richard Post Johnson. The Governor appointed Mr. Clarke Solicitor pro tem. In November, 1816, he was elected
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over John Wood Farrow, Esq., of Spartanburgh. He was again elected in 1820. In 1824, he declined being a candi- date.
In 1814, he was appointed aid to Brigadier General Turner Starke, with the rank of captain.
He lost his wife, and after several years of widowhood, he married Mrs. McKelvy. He died 29th December, 1849 : his second wife died before him. He left four children of his first marriage surviving him, to wit: Dr. Henry Clarke; Anna, now the wife of Wm. A. Latta; Caroline, the widow of Henry J. Neill; and Julia, the wife of Wm. A. Moore, and the children of his son Matthias, who died before him.
Mr. Clarke abounded in anecdotes, which he always told with spirit and humor. He enjoyed the company of his friends. He was often depressed in spirits, but when not under a gloom, he, in general, was a man of the most buoy- ant and lively disposition.
He prepared his cases with great labor and care, and gen- erally managed and argued them well. He understood the Machiavelian policy too common at the Bar, to take all ad- vantages, and he pursued it.
Fairfield was once very much divided, and two parties, the English or Virginian, and the Irish, were known and acknowledged. Mr. Clarke belonged to the Irish party. He often told me that if he could get his cases before his own party, he was sure of a verdict, and that he always endeav- ored to carry his cases before such a Jury !
When the great case of Liles vs. Liles was tried, Judge Huger presided, and Clarke had made a similar statement to him. It was the first case tried the second week of the term, and, as was usual, was expected to go before Jury No. 1; but, the Judge discovering, as he thought, Mr. Clarke's anxiety to go before that Jury, turned his chair round and ordered it to Jury No. 2. Whether this had any effect, I do not know, but Mr. Clarke's client lost the case.
Mr. Clarke had a large practice in Fairfield, and he had a very respectable practice in Chester and Lancaster.
He was a bold impassioned speaker, with a great deal of
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repetition, and very little order in his speeches. This arose from his imperfect education, and the style which too much pervaded Bar speaking, when Mr. Clarke came to the Bar. The length of a speech was more looked at than the matter, and the notion of Sergeant Scarlett had also its weight, that it was necessary to repeat, in order to hammer an idea into the heads of ignorant jurymen.
Mr. Clarke was quick to resent an insult, and as prompt to strike in a quarrel as any one can be. The following an- ecdote may illustrate this:
A Mr. Ferguson, from Chester District, was quite provoked at not being able to borrow a razor at the tavern where he was stopping. The tavern-keeper petulantly pointed to Clarke's office, and asked why he did not go over there and get shaved ? Mr. Clarke had just come out of the Court House into his office, in a hurry to get a paper, when Fer- guson stepped in, and began to pull off his coat; Clarke observing him all the time very suspiciously. As soon as he laid off his coat, he took a seat, and said to Clarke " shave me." Clarke seized a stick, and said " I'll shave you," ac- companied by a strong imprecation, and rushed upon Fergu- son, who did not wait to be thus shaved, and fled before the outraged attorney could even lather him.
NOTE .- The annexed description by a friend, of a scene in the Court of Equity, in which Mr. Clarke was one of the actors, may amuse. It ought to be known that Col. Gregg was very deaf :
In July, 1846, at Winnsboro', the case of Johnson vs. Lewis (2 Strob. Eq. 157) was tried, Chancellor David Johnson pre- siding: Clarke and Gregg, counsel for plaintiff; McCall and DeSaussure for defendants. The case had then been on the docket for fifteen or sixteen years, " under reference" most of the time. As will always happen, under such circum- stances, counsel themselves had forgotten many of the facts with which they had once been familiar; and the hearing, " like a wounded snake, dragged its slow length along." The trial occupied two or three days-much time being con-
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sumed in search for papers and documents, continually wanted and mislaid in the accumulated mass.
But " the longest day will ha'e its e'en," and about half- past two P. M. of the third day, both sides announced that they had " closed." The weather was intensely hot; the ther- mometer at ninety-seven degrees, and the Chancellor had left the Bench and taken a chair in the aisle, near the clerk's desk, where, on theory, there shined in a draught of air. He had his coat off, and although his bulk doubtless caused him to suffer greatly, he never for a moment betrayed the slightest impatience.
After a pause, the Chancellor observed, "proceed with the argument, gentlemen. How many will argue this cause?"
Col. Gregg perceiving the stop, and not understanding the cause, leaned over to Mr. Clarke, and whispered very low, " what is the matter now, Mr. Clarke ?"
Mr. Clarke, (at the top of his voice.) " the Chancellor says we must go on with the argument."
Gregg-" What! go on with the argument now! Why you have not closed-have you ?"
Clarke-"Oh yes, and you must go on."
Col. Gregg touched Mr. Clarke on the shoulder, and beck- oned him to withdraw to a conference, intended to be private, near the window, and about ten to fifteen feet from where the Chancellor was seated. Being thus in private, and out of hearing, if not out of sight, the conference was continued without a whisper, in a tone which might readily be heard in the Court-yard below, as distinctly as in the Court-House.
Gregg-"You don't mean to say that I have to argue this case now! Why, I wanted to look over the papers; I do not understand as clearly as I would wish what you have been doing to day, [and no wonder,] and I wanted to take the evening to look it over."
Chancellor, (taking part, from his seat, in this private con- versation)-" Tell him, Mr. Clarke, that the argument must proceed. This trial has taken far too much time already ?"
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