History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 25

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 25

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embellished and adorned with sublime generalities, to which Mr. Calhoun was indebted for so large a portion of his fame and influence, seemed ever to arouse in Mr. Benton a feel- ing allied to astonishment, not unmixed with an emulation nearly akin to resentment." As a writer Mr. Benton is accorded great excellence : " When he chose to do so, he could express himself on paper with a clearness and precision not often equaled. He had command of a simple, nervous, and idiomatic English style which few of his own genera- tion could boast."

For a year or two of Mr. Benton's residence in Tennes- sce he was the law-partner of the Hon. Oliver B. Hays, who became a resident of Nashville in 1808, but whose name does not appear on our list of admissions at the bar. He was probably admitted in Baltimore, where he had studied law before he came here. Mr. Benton probably removed from Tennessee on account of his difficulty with Gen. Jackson respecting the duel of his brother, Jesse, about 1810. He was exceedingly ambitious, and could not brook the ascendency of his great rival. He therefore concluded that, so far as his own personal competition was concerned, he would withdraw from the immediate arena, and leave Jackson " alone in his glory." He removed to St. Louis, where he had things very much his own way, and erected a throne on which he reigned without a rival for the rest of his days. The career of Mr. Benton in politics is one of the most remarkable in the history of our country .*

IION. FELIX GRUNDY.

This eminent jurist and statesman was born in Berkeley Co., Va., on the 11th of September, 1777, and died in Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 19, 1840. His father was an Englishman, and settled in Kentucky in the year 1780. Felix was educated at Bardstown Academy, and was ad- mitted to the practice of law in the courts of Kentucky, where he soon attained a high reputation. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Kentucky in 1799; a member of the Legislature of that State from 1800 to 1805; was appointed judge of the Supreme Court in 1806, and soon after made chief justice.

Such is a brief outline of his record in Kentucky. In the winter of 1807-8 he removed to Nashville, where his fame had preceded him, and for a long series of years main- tained a position at the head of the bar as a criminal ad- vocate. He was a member of Congress from 1811 to 1814; was in the Tennessee Legislature for several years ; was United States senator from 1829 to 1838, and elected to the same office in 1840. He was a strong Jackson man, and was United States attorney-general from July 5, 1838, to Dec. 1, 1840.

From the sources of information within our reach re- specting Mr. Grundy's forensic character and reputation we select the following. Hon. Edwin H. Ewing, who has kindly furnished us valuable notes on a number of the leading members of the bar of which he himself has long been an honored member, says of Mr. Grundy,-

" He was a fluent and dignified speaker, and ranked high in Tennessee as an orator, an adroit and skillful practitioner,

៛ See " Thirty Years in the Senate."

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Felix Grundy

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especially on the criminal side of the law. He was a keen judge of men and motives. His manner of speaking would now be considered somewhat affected and stilted ; it was, however, very effective for its time. He had very little learning as a lawyer, but was exceedingly quick and skill- ful in taking up and appropriating the knowledge of others. Of his more public history as a member of Congress of both houses and as attorney-general of the United States, I need Dot speak."

Judge Guild says, " Felix Grundy will always rank among the greatest men this century has produced. He was Tennessee's greatest criminal advocate, and he was the peer of any the United States has produced. He was not only a great lawyer, but was a powerful stump-speaker, and ranked with Henry Clay as an orator before he removed from Kentucky to Tennessee, which occurred about the year 1807. He had been a distinguished member of the Kentucky Legislature, a member of the convention that framed the Constitution, and chief justice of that State. He was a member of the United States House of Repre- sentatives from Tennessee, and sustained the war of 1812 with great eloquence. He was a member of the Tennessee Legislature in 1820, and was the author of the relief measures adopted by that body for the purpose of miti- gating the severity of the revulsion of 1819. He was clected to the United States Senate, and was a tower of strength in that body to Gen. Jackson's administration. He was attorney-general under Mr. Van Buren's adminis- tration, the duties of which he discharged with the same marked ability that he had brought to bear in every position he had accepted.

"Judge Grundy was not what may be called a book man or a book-lawyer. To his fine voice and inimitable action there was added a brilliant intellect, through which ran a vein of strong common sense. He was good at repartee, and his wit fairly sparkled. He possessed in a marked de- gree the power to arouse and sway the passions of the heart, to excite sympathy or indignation, to parry the blows of an adversary, and to carry his point by brilliant charge. He was a consummate judge of human nature, and this ren- dered him unrivaled in the selection of a jury. He was unsurpassed in developing the facts of a case, and wonder- ful in the cross-examination of a witness introduced against his client. He generally relied upon his associate counsel to bring into court the books containing the law of the case in which they were employed, and the law was read and commented upon by these associates. And then, when Mr. Grundy came to close the case, so clear were his de- ductions, so striking his illustrations, so systematically would he tear to pieces the superstructure of the opposing counsel, and so vividly portray the right and justice for which he contended, that all who heard him regarded him as the finest lawyer of that or any other age. So thor- oughly did he carry the crowd with him that he may be aptly likened to Paul when he made his great speech before King Agrippa, and extorted from that monarch the expres- sion, ' Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'

" While I was reading law in Nashville, in 1821," says Judge Guild, " Judge Grundy and William L. Brown were engaged on the same side in an ejectment case involving

the construction of the phrase, ' Being in possession of the land under a deed or assurance of title founded on a grant,' contained in the statute of limitations of 1796. Some judges held that the words 'founded on a grant' meant that the deed must be connected by a regular chain of title down to the grantee, while others held the meaning to be that the land must be granted, but the deed under which it was held need not be connected with the grant. This con- flict of opinion rendered the present case all the more impor- tant. The proof was all heard, as also the title-papers, and the case was ready for argument. Judge Grundy had ex- pected to make the closing speech, as was usual with him in all cases in which he was employed, and had not exam- ined the law and the decisions bearing upon the suit. This he had left for Judge Brown to do, intending to avail him- self of that gentleman's research to enable him to make the closing argument. He requested Judge Brown to open the case, but he refused. Grundy appealed to Brown to open the argument, but the latter pointedly refused to do so. Judge Grundy was therefore compelled to open the case, and this was the only occasion, as was said at the time, that he was ever known to make an utter failure. If Judge Brown had opened with his clear and exhaustive ex- position of the law, he would have laid the foundation upon which Judge Grundy would have built a brilliant and mas- terly argument. Judge Grundy was a great manager, and he relied for success upon his knowledge of men, his bril- liant wit, and his unrivaled eloquence, more than upon the dry details of the law.

"The happy personal relations between Mr. Grundy and Mr. Clay were never seriously disturbed by their political differences, and each frequently indulged in sallies of wit and humor at the expense of the other in their political speeches.

" In the Presidential campaign of 1840, Mr. Clay, Mr. Crittenden, and other leading Whig orators visited Nash- ville, and held forth at a great barbecue prepared for the occasion. They came first into East Tennessee and crossed over the mountains. When speaking at Knoxville, Mr. Clay said when he came through Cumberland Gap into Tennessee one of the first questions he asked was, ' Where is my old friend, Felix Grundy ? And,' he continued, 'on being informed that he was away down in Alabama, making speeches for Mr. Van Buren, I raised my hands and ex- claimed, " Ah, yes ! still pleading the cause of criminals !"'

" When Mr. Grundy returned to Nashville he was in- vited to address the people of Rutherford, at Murfreesboro'. He availed himself of the opportunity to say that he had seen the report of Mr. Clay's . Knoxville speech in the newspapers, and regretted that he was not there to reply to it, or that he could not now make a reply in Mr. Clay's hearing. IIe said it was true he had acquired some repu- tation as a criminal lawyer, and expressed a belief that he still retained all his professional faculties; but he felt well assured that if Mr. Clay should be indicted and brought before a court of strict justice for all his political offenses, and he (Mr. G.) were to be retained as his counsel, it would prove to be another Bennett case.

" This elicited a round of applause that made the welkin ring, for everybody seemed to know the fact that of the

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many causes of criminals managed by Mr. Grundy, he never lost but one, and that was the cause of a notoriously guilty client by the name of Bennett, who had murdered a Mr. Hays in Wilson County. For many years the case was continued in the courts, and at last, by a change of venue, Bennett was convicted and hanged in Williamson County."

HON. JOHN .HAYWOOD.

[We extract the following sketch of Judge Haywood, the earliest historian of Tennessee, from the Southwestern Law Journal and Reporter for June, 1844:]

" John Haywood, the subject of the present memoir, was born in the county of Halifax, in the State of North Carolina, on the 16th of March, 1762, of a family engaged in agriculture. His ancestors emigrated originally from England, and settled at an early period in the city of New York, whence they subsequently removed to Norfolk, Va. The latter town was almost entirely consumed by fire in the year 17-, and the fortune of William, his grandfather, was involved in the general ruin. With a view to retrieve his losses, he soon after withdrew from this ill-fated town to the infant colony of North Carolina, and established him- self near the town of Halifax, on the Roanoke. Egbert, the father of John, was a respectable farmer in moderate circumstances, and followed his occupation in the same neighborhood. He discharged with credit to himself such county offices as are usually filled by country gentlemen, but was by no means remarkable for a love of letters. He delighted rather in the amusements of the chase, and other field sports which are known to possess so many attractions for those who ' faterna rura bovibins exercent suis.' From the too great love of these diversions, united with the low state of learning in the colonies, it is probable that the family name, which has been borne by very distinguished individuals in England, fell into obscurity for a time in America. Previous to the Revolution few of the family seemed to have enjoyed the smiles of executive favor, or to have been members of the public councils of the country, or in any way distinguished for literary attainments.

" William, a paternal uncle, from whom the Haywoods of Raleigh, N. C., derived their lineage, was the only one whose fortune it was, previous to the Revolution, to enjoy an office of distinction. He was a member of the Execu- tive Council. His descendants have always filled since that time the highest offices of the State, one of whom was a distinguished United States senator in 1844. John, the subject of our brief memoir, with limited means of instruc- tion, and deprived of the invaluable blessings of a collegiate education, by indefatigable industry, and ardent, exclusive devotion to the profession he had chosen, has acquired for himself a reputation which, if less brilliant than that of many of his contemporaries whose lot it was to enroll their names on the bright page of their country's glory, will be equally appreciated for the lasting and substantial benefits it has conferred on his native and adopted State. He may be considered a pioncer of the law. He was the first lawyer and judge who reported cases decided in the courts of North Carolina and Tennessee, and in future time, on account of his learned decisions, will be regarded as the leading authority on all questions which involve doubt in

the organic laws of these infant States. Doubtless the in- dividuals who have mainly contributed by their industry and learning to fix the meaning and supply the deficiencies of our fundamental institutions have done as much service and deserve no less praise than the most gifted of those who have held more distinguished stations while engaged in framing them.

" The names of Coke, Hale, and Holt, the pioneers of English law, are not less respected, nor are the benefits derived from their exertions likely to be sooner forgotten by their countrymen than the services of their political contemporaries. Who at present ever hears the names of the signers of the great English charter ? and, indeed, most of those inscribed on our own bright roll have nearly faded from the recollections of the people. Not so with our dis- tinguished judges; Wythie, Marshall, Haywood, are as familiar in the mouths of the people as household words.

" We have said thus much to encourage the diligent student with the hope of ample reward, who with pure am- bition exclusively devotes himself to his profession, by the example of one who made it the sole business of his life,- his only pursuit. He was contented with the honors to be derived from his profession alone, and owes whatever repu- tation he has attained to his untiring application and great diligence in its prosecution.

"Of his early education there is not much to be said, for of this he had but little. His father, being in moderate circumstances, had it not in his power, however much he might have inclined, to send him to a foreign country, or even to a neighboring province, for education, which was the general practice at that time of the wealthy colonists. Enabled by their wealth to dispense with domestic institu- tions of learning, they illiberally failed to provide means of education for the gifted sons of their less fortunate neighbors. But this deficiency was in some measure sup- plied by the conductors of private academies, who were generally well grounded in the branches they professed to teach, and the learned languages especially were thoroughly taught. To one of these in a neighboring county, con- ducted by an intelligent minister of the gospel, was he sent by his father at an early age to receive the rudiments of a learned education. In justice to the memory of this gen- tleman, whose name was Castle, it is not useless to remark that another individual, Mr. Harper, of Maryland, equally distinguished for his eminence in the legal profession, was educated at the same school. Honor to these humble bene- factors of mankind, without whose fostering care many a genius of the brightest talents would be left to wither under the blighting influence of poverty and neglect !

" Here Haywood acquired the usual knowledge of Latin and Greek, geography, and the elements of mathematics. Of the higher branches of science, mental and moral phi- losophy, and physics, he learned but little, and perhaps nothing. In after-life, when he had attained distinction in his profession, he relaxed in his diligent pursuit of the law, and turned his attention to more agreeable studies. He made deep researches into history and theology, and became well acquainted with the general results of natural science. Thus it is seen that on his return to his paternal abode he had traversed but few of the wide fields of human knowl-

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edge, and was but scantily prepared to thread with success the intricate mazes of a profession which requires almost universal knowledge. But so strong was the direction which his mind had received from nature towards legal pursuits that he soon after entered upon the task, under difficulties which to minds endowed with ordinary vigor and perseverance would have been unsurmountable. Less fa- vored than other individuals who from a humble beginning have risen to eminence by the vigor of their intellect and untiring industry, he had not the advantages of access to the library of a friend or the benefit of legal tuition in a lawyer's office. In- law he was his own instructor. Com- ing by some accident into possession of an old volume of Raymond's Reports, with this he commenced his study, thus pursuing a course the very reverse of ordinary stu- dents. They usually study the principles of the law, which they afterwards trace in their application to particular cases, while his vigorous intellect traveled at once through the de- tails of a case, deducing from it those great principles on which all law is founded. Nothing so strikingly marks the vigor of his mind and the enthusiastic ardor with which he entered upon his legal studies as the fact that he could master the extremely technical statements of Lord Ray- mond's Reports, interspersed as they are with the old Latin and French phrases which were in use in those times.

" With no preparation, except such as he had made by his own unaided genius, he began the practice of law in his native county, and in a very short time took his stand by the side of such men as Gen. Davie, Nash, McCoy, Badger, and Martin,-men whose learning and ability had placed them at the head of the North Carolina bar. His first ar- gument before the Supreme Court of the State was made when he was about twenty-four years of age, and was said to have displayed as much learning and as comprehensive a view of the great landmarks of the law as any argument which had ever been made before it. From that time his services were engaged in all important causes, and he ad- vanced rapidly to professional honor, and secured a large share of professional emolument.

" As attorney-general for the State, in the year 1794, he had the address to procure a reconsideration of the opinion of the judges of the Supreme Court in a case where the court had decided the act of 1793 unconstitutional, which authorized judgments to be taken by motion without notice against defaulting public officers. After a most learned and elaborate argument from Haywood, the court reversed their judgment, Judge Macay remarking that he "had given such strong reasons that his objections were vanquished, and, therefore, that the attorney-general might proceed,- but yet that he did not very much like it." 1 Hay. R. 40. This was the first innovation on the common law allowing those summary proceedings by motion which are now so common in our courts; and the synopsis of the argument of Mr. Haywood, in Hay. R. 40-50, evinces thus early the power and vigor of his mind.

" During the same year he was elevated to the bench of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity. He entered im- mediately on a vigorous discharge of his duties. In the five or six years during which he occupied a place on the beneb, he collected with great care and published three

volumes of reports of cases decided by the Superior Court of North Carolina from the year 1789 to 1798. In the decision of a great majority of these cases Mr. Haywood took part, either as counsel or judge. And throughout the whole range of subjects which arose in the establishment of the government subsequent to the Revolution, no great question arose which was not elucidated by his learning and generally determined by his great ability. As an instance of the effect which his reasoning had upon the current of decisions in North Carolina, as well as in Tennessee, we need only refer to the case of the State vs. Long, decided at Hillsborough, N. C., April, 1795 (Haywood R. 177, Battle's Ed.). This was an indictment against Long for larceny, on the authority of the English cases, that a bor- rowing with a fraudulent intent to steal the property bor- rowed would constitute larceny. Two of the judges went with the English authorities; Judges Haywood and Williams held that in order to constitute the offense the property should have been taken invito domino; and Long was par- doned. To Haywood's report of this case he appended a note opposing the authority of the English modern cases, and contending for the law as laid down in Coke, Hale, and Hawkins. Upon the authority of this extra-judicial opinion of Judge Haywood, the courts of Tennessee (and of North Carolina, too, it is believed) have uniformly acted : first, in Braden's case, 2 Term (Overton's) R. 68, and then in Martin and Yerg., 526; Wright's case, 5 Yerg., 154; Hite's case, 9 Yerg. R., 205; Dodge vs. Brittain, Meigs' R., 84. In Braden's case, Overton, judge, said, 'THE RULE LAID DOWN IN THE NOTE TO THE CASE OF THE STATE vs. LONG, Hay., 197, IS CORRECT LAW, AND THE REASONING, THOUGH CONTRARY TO MANY LATE DECI- SIONS IN ENGLAND, IS INCONTROVERTIBLE.' But by an act of the Legislature of 21st of January, 1842, the law which had thus been established for fifty years was thrown aside, and the English law established in all its vigor.

" But the ability and learning of Judge Haywood were nowhere so fully displayed as in the celebrated case of the University of North Carolina vs. Toy & Bishop. The Legislature in 1789 conferred upon the university all the property which had or might hereafter escheat to the State ; but by an act of 1800 this right was attempted to be taken from the university, which was resisted by Judge Hay- wood, who was then at the bar. The law divesting the university was declared void and unconstitutional, and the rights of the university triumphantly sustained.

" About the year 1800, Judge Haywood left the bench and entered again into the field of litigation, where he continued to add to the already unequaled reputation which he had acquired as a judge. Giving himself up strictly to the business of his profession, and to those studies which enabled him so long to adorn it, he was en- abled to take the lead in all questions of constitutional and international law, and in the interpretation of the laws of descent, limitations, land-laws, etc., which arose in the courts of his native State. In the case of Crutcher es. Punnell (Murphey's R., 22), Judge Haywood's argument at the bar, in reference to the act of 1715, on the Statute of Limitation, had the effect to produce the decision ' that seven years' possession without color of title will not bar an

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ejectment.' In reference to this argument Judge Murphey remarks (1 Murph. R., 30), ' that it had the effect of changing the current of decisions and unsettling the opin- ions of the profession as to the construction of the Act of Limitations, and at the distance of one hundred years after the passage of the act more diversity of opinion seems to exist as to its meaning and operation than at any former period. Twenty years after the Revolution the doctrine of color of title was introduced, which, being urged with ability, has supplanted the construction which had been given to the act for a century.' Such a compliment from one who heard the argument and felt its force is the highest tribute to his learning and genius.

" Having already secured the highest judicial and pro- fessional honor in his own State, and having acquired a respectable fortune, Judge Haywood in 1807 came to the county of Davidson and settled seven miles south of Nash- ville. Middle Tennessee was then the frontier of the West. Having doffed the judicial ermine in his native State, he came with his family and entered immediately upon the practice of his profession. He was then but little over forty years of age, and almost as well known in Tennessee as in North Carolina. As a judge he had already decided many of the questions which were arising in the courts of Tennessee, and was, perhaps, at that time more familiar with the Constitution and laws of both States than any other member of the bar. Unlike most of the profession, he kept no office in town, but kept his office and library and received his clients at his residence in the country.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 25

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013