USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 24
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XLV .- Isham G. Harris, Oct. 15, 1877.
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.
IV .- Andrew Jackson, Dec. 5, 1796, to March 3, 1797.
V., VI .- William Charles Cole Claiborne, Nov. 23, 1797, to March 3, 1801.
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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.
VIII., IX., X .- George Washington Campbell, Oct. 17, 1803, to March 3, 1809.
XI .- Robert Weakley, May 22, 1809, to March 3, 1811. XII., XIII .- Felix Grundy, Nov. 4, 1811; resigned 1814.
XIII., XIV .- Newton Cannon, Oct. 15, 1814, to March 3, 1817.
XV .- Thomas Claiborne, Dec. 1, 1817, to March 3, 1819.
XVI., XVII .- Newton Cannon, Dec. 6, 1819, to March 3, 1823.
XVIII., XIX .- Samuel Houston, Dec. 1, 1823, to March 3, 1827.
XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII., XXIV., XXV., XXVI .- John Bell, Dec. 3, 1827, to March 3, 1841.
XXIX .- Edwin H. Ewing, Dec. 1, 1845, to March 3, 1847.
XXX .- Washington Barrow, Dec. 6, 1847, to March 3, 1849.
XXXI .- Andrew Ewing, Dec. 3, 1849, to March 3, 1851.
XXXII .- James M. Quarles, Dec. 1, 1851, to March 3, 1853.
XXXIII., XXXIV., XXXV .- Felix K. Zollicoffer, Dec. 5, 1853, to March 3, 1859.
XXXVI .- James M. Quarles, Dec. 5, 1859, to March 3,1861.
XXXVIII .- Vacant, Dec. 7, 1863, to March 3, 1865. XL .- John Trimble, Nov. 21, 1867, to March 3, 1869. XLI .- William F. Prosser, March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1871.
XLIII .- Horace H. Harrison, Dec. 1, 1873, to March 3, 1875.
CONVENTIONAL RECORD.
The following-named persons served as members of the Constitutional Conventions from this county :
CONVENTION OF 1796, TO FORM THE FIRST CONSTITU- TION OF THE STATE,
convened at Knoxville, January 11th, and adjourned Feb. 6, 1796. Hon. William Blount, President ; William Maclin, Secretary ; John Sevier, Jr., Reading and Engross- ing Clerk.
Delegates from Davidson .- John McNairly, Andrew Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas Hardeman, Joel Lewis.
Of the two members from each county appointed by the Convention to draft the Constitution, Hon. John McNairy and Hon. Andrew Jackson were appointed for Davidson.
CONVENTION OF 1834, FOR THE REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION,
convened at Nashville, May 19th, and adjourned Aug. 30, 1834. William B. Carter, President ; William K. Kill, Secretary.
Delegates from Davidson .- Francis B. Fogg, Robert Weakley. Three only of the members of this Convention from the whole State are living at this writing, viz. : Francis B. Fogg, of Davidson; West H. Humphreys, of Fayette; and Bolling Gordon, of Hickman.
CHAPTER XXI.
BENCH AND BAR OF DAVIDSON COUNTY.
Status of the Legal Profession-List of Admissions to the Davidson County Bar-Bar Association-Biographical Sketches of Prominent Lawyers and Judges.
FROM the earliest period of the history of our country the legal profession has constituted a most valuable and important element in society. In all countries where ju- risprudence has reached the dignity of a science, it has become more complicated and minute in its ramifications from one generation to another, extending through all the frame-work of society, from the greatest to the least of human concerns, and exerting an omnipresent spell and power second only to that of religion itself. To people thus educated reverence for the law becomes a powerful and controlling sentiment, and this reverence attaches in a very large degree to the outward exponents and officers of the law, whose duty it is to expound and apply its principles, to pronounce its authoritative judgments, and to enforce and execute its mandates. .
In proportion as a country is free or despotic, in propor- tion as her laws are oppressive or just and beneficent, does this reverence become a fear and a dread, or, on the other hand, a loving and cordial appreciation of that which is designed to subserve the highest ends of justice and liberty among the people. Hence a very different feeling prevails towards lawyers and judges in a free country from that which exists in a country ruled more or less by despotie power. In the one case they are dreaded as more or less the tools and agents of irresponsible and arbitrary rulers ; in the other they are loved and venerated as the wise and just executors of laws of their own enactment, based upon an authority emanating from the people them- selves and designed to promote the welfare of the humblest citizen. Especially does this reverence become a cordial and an affectionate sentiment, and promotive of the highest influence for good, when the characters of these legal ex- ecutors become conspicuous for honor, for patriotism, for eminent abilities, for learning, for high culture, and for all the domestic and social virtues.
In a free country, like our own, members of the legal profession exert an influence which they can nowhere else attain. They are not merely expounders and adminis- trators of the law, but law-makers also; not only counselors and jurists, but legislators as well. It is not only a fact apparent at the present time that a large proportion of the members of our legislative bodies, both State and national, are lawyers, but it has always been so from the foundation of our government. The fact did not escape the observa- tion of that great statesman, Edmund Burke, who remarked on a very grave and interesting occasion in Parliament, when our national struggle for independence was in progress, that in both the national and colonial Legislatures, and in the first Congress of the Union, a much larger proportion of lawyers were occupants of seats in those bodies than had been elsewhere known. This order of things, which began with the first legislative bodies of our government, has continued to the present time in all the States of the Union.
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BENCH AND BAR.
The influential bar of Davidson County has furnished a striking illustration of this rule, from the time when Jack- son and Grundy, Campbell and Whiteside, Houston and Peyton, Bell and Foster, Cooper and Harris, and many other bright lights, among whom are the Browns, the Ew- ings, the Claibornes and the Trimbles, carried their great talents and abilities from the legal profession to the halls of Congress and the State Legislature. From this profession, too, how many have graduated up to the highest bench of the State and nation, and worn the judicial ermine with honor to themselves and their country !
On looking over the following sketches of lawyers and judges, it will be seen how large a proportion of them have been sent to the legislative bodies, both State and national. The plan of the present subject, the bench and bar of Davidson County, has been arranged in such a manner as to give first a list of the lawyers of the county, with dates of their admission to the bar, and then to follow the list with personal sketches of greater or less length of the more prominent and noticeable members.
MEMBERS OF THE DAVIDSON COUNTY BAR.
The following is a list of the members of the Davidson County bar, with the dates of their admission :
1785 .- William Grubbins.
1789 .- Andrew Jackson.
1790 .- James White, James Cole.
1791 .- Howell Tatum, Hopkins Lacy.
1793 .- James Dougherty.
1796 .- Thomas Stuart, Gideon Davis Pendleton, John Brown, Joseph Herrendon.
1797 .- George Smith, Francis Hall, Robert Hamilton.
1798 .- John Hamilton, Preston Anderson, Howell Tatum.
1800 .- John Dickson, Samuel Henry.
1801 .- Matthew Lodge.
1802 .- Peter Richardson Booker.
1803 .- Hutchins G. Burton.
1804 .- Robert Whyte, Thomas Overton, Washington L. Hannum, William Barton.
1805 .- George W. L. Marr, Robert F. N. Smith, Wil- liam Burton.
1806 .- John E. Beck, Thomas Swann, Thomas K. Harris, Jenkin Whiteside, Blount Robertson, Thomas H. Benton.
1807 .- William Sanders, Thomas Claiborne, L. D. Powell.
1808 .- Felix Grundy, Thomas E. Turnbull, Kinchen Tarner, Eli Talbott, James Rucks, Oliver B. Hays. 1809 .- Gabriel Moore, Joseph Phillips.
1810 .- Alfred H. Lewis, Lemuel P. Montgomery.
1812 .- Stockley D. Hays.
1813 .- Elias K. Kam, John G. Syms, Samuel Smith Hall, Thomas Washington.
1814 .- William R. Hess, Douglass J. Puckett, William Alexander, David Craighead, Henry Crabbe, Patrick H. Darby, James Trimble, Ephraim H. Foster.
1815 .- James G. Martin, John Bell.
1816 .- Robert Goodlett, John J. White, W. L. Brown, John A. Cheatham, Aaron V. Brown, Robert P. Dunlap. 13
1817 .- Robert H. Adams, George W. Gibbs, Argyle Campbell, Aaron V. Brown, Neill S. Brown, Morgan W. Brown.
1818 .- John Catron, Francis B. Fogg, James P. Clarke. 1819 .- Samuel Houston.
1820 .- John P. Erwin, George S. Yeager.
1821 .- David Barrow, Alfred Murray.
1822 .- Alexander Barrow, Thomas A. Duncan, James C. Hays, William Stevens, William Cooper.
1823 .- Benjamin S. Litton, John L. Allen, Nelson Pat- terson, McCoy W. Campbell, Andrew J. Donelson, James Collinsworth.
1824 .- Samuel Yerger, Baylie Peyton, Allen A. Hall, William E. Andrews, John H. Martin.
1825 .- Thomas Haywood, John Colwell.
1826 .- Joseph J. Anthony.
1827 .- Henry Rutlidge, Thomas H. Fletcher, George Washington Barrow.
1828 .- George C. Childress, Samuel Hays, James P. Thompson, Andrew Bachus, Richard S. Williams.
1829 .- Orville Ewing, Felix Catron, George W. Foster, Samuel Watson, Henry A. Wise, William L. Washington, Thomas J. Lacy, Micajah Claiborne, John A. Walker.
1830 .- Thomas C. Whiteside, William Woodson, John M. Bass, John Bruce, James I. Dozier, Henry B. Shaw, John R. Shenault.
1831 .- Charles D. Shewsbury, William T. Brown, Ben- jamin Patton, George R. Fall, David Campbell.
1833 .- William F. White.
1834 .- Joseph W. Perkins, John M. Hays, John Chil- dress, Charles Scott, John W. Goode, Robert B. Castleman, J. S. Yeager.
1835 .- Henry Hollingsworth, David Sheldon, John W. Barker, Augustus L. Hays, John Trimble, Nathaniel Bax- ter (judge), Godfrey M. Fogg.
1836 .- Thomas T. Smiley.
1838 .- Isaac F. Anderson, Jordan G. Stokes.
1841 .- John M. Lea, James Campbell.
MEMBERS OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION.
(Incorporated May 10, 1875.)
1840 .- M. C. Goodlett.
1841 .- W. F. Cooper.
1847 .- D. F. Wilkin.
1854 .- Baxter Smith.
1857 .- Horace H. Harrison.
1858 .- Morton B. Howell.
1858 .- Thomas H. Malone.
1859 .- James Chamberlin.
1860 .- R. McP. Smith.
1860 .- G. P. Thruston.
1861 .- Thomas L. Dodd.
1863 .- D. W. Peabody.
1864 .- John Frizzell.
1865 .- Andrew Allison. 1866 .- John Lawrence.
1866 .- G. M. Fogg, Jr.
1866 .- John Lellyett.
1866 .- Matthew W. Allen.
1866 .- Frank T. Reid.
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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.
1867 .- Nicholas D. Malone.
1867 .- John M. Gant.
1867 .- T. M. Steger.
1867 .- Nathaniel Baxter. 1867 .- J. B. Brown.
1867 .- Edward Baxter. 1867 .- Thomas M. Osment.
1868 .- James D. Park.
1869 .- John Ruhm.
1869 .- C. D. Berry.
1869 .- Wirt Hughes.
1869 .- James Trimble.
1869 .- M. T. Bryard.
1870 .- William E. McNeilly.
1870 .- J. C. Cartwright.
1870 .- William K. McAlister. 1870 .- S. Watson, Jr.
1870 .- Harry Harrison.
1871 .- H. D. Smith.
1871 .- E. T. Morris.
1871 .- Robert S. Overall.
1872 .- A. H. Lusk.
1872 .- George H. Vaughan, West H. Humphreys. 1873 .- J. C. Bradford.
1873 .- James S. Frazer.
1874 .- J. M. Dickinson.
1874 .- Robert B. Lea.
1874 .- Jere Baxter.
1874 .- John L. Kennedy.
1876 .- Edward Gawnaway.
1876 .- William G. Brien, Jr.
1876 .- George C. Hunt.
1877 .- Lewis B. McWhirter.
1878 .- T. E. Matthews.
1879 .- J. P. Helms.
1879 .- Paul Jones.
To this list should be added the following-named mem- bers of the Davidson bar, not members of the Bar Associ- ation, the dates of whose admission to the bar have not been obtained. Some of them are noticed in sketches fur- ther on in this chapter: J. B. White, Neill S. Brown, Thomas T. Smiley, George Stubblefield, Jackson B. White, George Maney, Matthew W. Allen, M. M. Brien, Nathaniel Baxter, J. W. Horton, Jr., E. H. East, John C. Grant.
The above list of admissions to the Davidson County bar contains the names of but three lawyers of any consider- able note up to 1806: these are Andrew Jackson, Thomas Stuart, and Robert Whyte. With respect to Jackson, it may be remarked that he exhibited no special greatness either as a lawyer or as a jurist, nor did he remain long in the profession. His taste, his ambition, and his providen- tial calling led him into other fields in which his great talents were fully displayed, and where he won imperishable renown. The life of Gen. Jackson, as a hero, patriot, and statesman, will be found in another part of this work. It is only necessary to record here the few brief facts respect- ing his early career as a lawyer and judge. He read law and obtained license to practice before emigrating from his native State. When he came to Nashville he was ad- mitted to the Davidson County bar, at the date above given,
1789, and practiced in the courts here with other early lawyers several years. For about six years he exercised the functions of judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, from the autumn of 1798 to the month of June, 1804, when he was appointed major-general, and was succeeded on the bench by Hon. John Overton.
HON. JOHN OVERTON.
Judge Overton was born in Louisa Co., Va., the 9th day of April, 1766. His family was not wealthy, and his edu- cation was only such as could be procured at that day in the best common schools of Virginia. While a youth he taught school for several years, chiefly for the purpose of educating his brothers and sisters; but his attention soon became directed towards the profession of the law, in which numbers of his family connections, the Wythes, Tazwells, and Carrs, had become highly distinguished. He removed to Kentucky before his majority, studied law there, but, it is believed, began the practice in Nashville, Tenn. The lit- igation then was chiefly concerning the titles to real estate, and old lawyers, as well in Kentucky as Tennessee, will re- member that there was a good deal of it, and very profitable it was too. A good land-lawyer was the highest eminence of the profession. Judge Overton at once obtained a full practice, and by his industry and attention to business kept it till he was transferred to the bench. A system of law, based upon the acts of 1777 and 1783 of the North Caro- lina Legislature, disposing of lands in the Territory of Ten- nessce, had to be built up by the bar and bench of Tennes- see, and Overton, as lawyer and judge, exercised considerable influence in moulding the system to suit the wants and ne- cessities of the new community. The English law-books failed to afford a precedent for settling the titles to boun- daries of adjacent wild lands, involving the questions of special entries, younger grants, elder entries, the ages of marks on trees, the authority of plats to control the calls in grants, and various other points springing from the peculiar system adopted by North Carolina; and hence the difficulty of the task which had to be encountered by our earlier judges. The constructions of our land-laws, as ruled whilst Overton was on the bench, became established law, and the points are not now controverted in the courts. He was conscientious in the discharge of his duties, giving to every case, no matter how small the amount involved, a patient attention, and studying it before he delivered an opinion. Ilis private journal, now in the possession of his son-in-law, shows that during vacation he was constantly engaged in studying the cases which had been laid over from the last term, and there is an abstract of the principal points of almost every case that was before the court whilst he was a member.
He was appointed supervisor of the revenue of the United States, and held the office till it was abolished by Congress. The office was one of responsibility and trust, and, as a mark of his industry, it may be proper to state that he kept copies of every letter to his various agents, his correspondence with the department at Washington, and of even the minutest transaction, so that a correct statement of the business and accounts of his office could now, after the lapse of half a century, be accurately made.
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BENCH AND BAR.
In 1804 he was elected a judge of the Superior Court of law and Equity, in place of Gen. Jackson, who resigned, and held the office till the abolition of the court on the 1st day of January, 1810. During this period Judge Overton was also appointed by the Legislature as agent to confer with the Legislature of North Carolina respecting the land- titles of the separate States, and to make such agreement, stipulation, or compromise as might be necessary. The ap- pointment evidences the estimation in which Judge Overton was held as a land-lawyer. In November, 1811, he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court in place of Hon. George W. Campbell, who was transferred to the Senate of the United States, and continued to discharge the duties of said office till his resignation in 1816. Overton's Reports run through a series of years from 1791 to 1817, and are valuable as a repository of the land-law, now almost obso- lete, however, as the healing power of the statute of limita. tions has cured all titles originally defective, and titles at this day are seldom controverted except on principles arising from irregular sales, the construction of wills, etc.
After Judge Overton's retirement from the bench he practiced in important cases, and used the same industry and energy that had characterized his early professional life. Ilis private business also required his attention, and that, with his limited but important practice, kept him constantly engaged. He never knew what it was to be idle, and always did well what he undertook. Judge Overton and Gen. Jack- son were throughout their lives firm and unwavering friends, and it was singular that individuals differing in many points of character should have such an ardent attachment for each other. Gen. Jackson seldom advised with anybody but Judge Overton, and it is said, by those who know, that it was his custom to consult Judge Overton upon all important sub- jects; he certainly had a very high respect for his opinion, and a confidential correspondence was carried on between them till the day of Judge Overton's death. During the Presidential campaigns of 1824 and 1828, Judge Over- ton labored assiduously for the success of Gen. Jackson. He had the happiness to see his early and fast friend elected to the Presidency, and immediately withdrew from political strife. The relations of Gen. Jackson and Judge Overton were most intimate and confidential and unreserved on all subjects of men and measures. A few days before Judge Overton's death he caused all the correspondence of Gen. Jackson, embracing a life-time (for Judge Overton never lost or mislaid a paper or letter), to be brought to his bed- side. Political excitement was then at the highest pitch, and the war between Jackson and the Bank was raging. He reflected that, after his death, many of those letters, in- tended for his own eye, might fall into the hands of his friend's enemies, and garbled extracts find their way to the public,-such a thing had happened and might happen again,-few would be living who could explain the circum- stances under which they were written, time and the events of life might have induced a change of opinion concerning men and things, and with a singular prudence he com- mitted the correspondence to the flames, remarking that, living or dead, he would not betray the confidence of a friend. It is a matter of regret that this correspondence was not preserved and trusted to a judicious and impartial
historian. It would have developed the true character of Gen. Jackson, and have shown that, in addition to all the honorable, noble, and generous qualities of which the world is well aware in the character of that great man, he was also a reflecting, thinking, prudent man,-there was a degree of coolness in all his rashness.
Judge Overton died the 12th day of April, 1833, at his residence, near Nashville. He was an influential citizen. He had some peculiar idiosyncrasies of character, but was universally respected and loved by his family and a chosen body of friends, who cherished for him the warmest affec- tion. His success in the pursuits of life was very great, and, though economical in the smallest particulars, he was liberal towards all public improvements and institutions, and by his will gave handsome legacies to many of his wife's relatives. He predicted the success of George S. Yerger, of Missis- sippi, as a lawyer, and gave him his law library, the largest then in the West ; he was of a discriminating mind, and read character well. Though his life was emphatically one of business, overflowing with private and public duties, and though his large private interests often brought him into con- flict with others, no word of suspicion was ever whispered against his character, and his children are justly proud of the name he has left them.
Judge Overton left three children, two of whom, a son and a daughter (Mrs. John M. Lea), reside in Nashville ; the other daughter married Mr. R. C. Brinkley, of Mem- phis, and has departed this life.
THOMAS STUART.
Thomas Stuart was an active, industrious, and laborious lawyer; was for many years judge of the Circuit Court at Nashville, and retired from that position upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1834. He was then a very old man, and retired to his farm in Williamson County. He practiced law in a feeble way in the courts of that county, coming. into court on crutches, which he was obliged to use from an accidental injury. He died, it is believed, about 1840.
ROBERT WHYTE.
Robert Whyte was a Scotchman by birth, and a very excellent lawyer and judge. He vacated the bench of the Supreme Court in 1834 upon the adoption of the new Con- stitution, having served as an honored judge for many years. He was then a feeble old man ; he lived to a great age, but appeared no more in public life after his retire- ment from the bench. He was a laborious and accurate lawyer, and exceedingly tenacious of his views and opin- ions. His opinions as a judge are remarkable for laborious research and accuracy. (See Haywood's, Peck's, Martin and Yerger's, and 1 Yerger's " Reports.")
JENKIN WHITESIDE.
" Jenkin Whiteside," says Governor Foote, in his " Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest," " has come down to the men of this generation exclusively as a great land- lawyer. No one was more familiar than he with all that Coke and Blackstone and the other English writers have said in their labored and profoundly-reasoned treatises upon the laws of real property. No man had mastered more
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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.
fully than himself the principles involved in the doctrine of executory devises and contingent remainders. No law- yer of his time could talk more learnedly and luminously upon the celebrated rule in Shelley's case ; and he mani- fested a steady energy and masterly dexterity in the man- agement of all the sharp points and subtle devices that appertain to the trial of actions of ejectment, which things gave him many advantages over a sluggish and less wily adversary. No man could be more conversant than was Jenkin Whiteside with the whole history of land-titles in Tennessee, as well as with the operations of the land-offices both in that State and North Carolina,-a species of knowl- edge quite indispensable to success in the arduous but profitable vocation in which he had enlisted, and upon which his attention had been concentrated in a manner rarely exemplified. He was undoubtedly a man of vigor- ous understanding, of wonderful sagacity and acuteness, devoted much to money-making, and especially delighting in what was known as speculation in uncultivated lands, of which he had, in one way and another, at different times, accumulated large bodies, the titles to which were not rarely involved in troublesome and expensive litigation." From an unfortunate speculation in what was called for many years Balch and Whiteside's addition to Nashville, he died insolvent, and his estate became the subject of very extensive litigation. He lived and died a bachelor. He is described as a man " of rough and unimposing cx- terior, of awkward and ungainly manners, and had no relish whatever for those elegant and refined pursuits which are understood to distinguish polished and aristocratic com- munities." Still, he is admitted by all who knew him to have been " civil and unobtrusive in his general demeanor, not deficient in public spirit, and of a coarse and unpre- tending cordiality which made him many friends and no enemies."
THOMAS H. BENTON.
Thomas H. Benton, it will be seen from our list, was admitted to the bar of this county in 1806. He came from North Carolina, where he had received a collegiate education, and taught a small school upon Duck River, not many miles from Franklin, in which latter place he subsequently began the practice of law. From the first it is said that Mr. Benton was " much fonder of political pursuits than of the study of law-books, and greatly preferred the making of stump- speeches to the argument of legal causes." He, however, possessed great powers, as is clearly evinced in his future almost unbounded control of politics in the Territory and State of Missouri, and his unrivaled career of thirty years in the United States Senate, where he was regarded as the peer of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. " No man," says a late writer, " was ever more industrious, more persevering, or more fertile in expedients than Mr. Benton." The same writer, however, thinks that " no amount of rhetorical train- ing could ever have enabled Mr. Benton to cope in lively and splendid forensic eloquence with such persons as Mr. Clay or Felix Grundy," or in legal argumentation " to rival the condensed vigor of a Marshall or a Pinckney." " The ready and rapid flow of choice and appropriate words," says our author, " and of earnest, clear, and forcible logic, some- times bordering upon metaphysical subtlety, and occasionally
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