History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 28

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 28

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We cannot resist the temptation to introduce a passage or two here from Governor Foote respecting Mr. Bell's in- troduction into politics and a few other incidents of his life. We quote from Mr. Foote's work on the " Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest," page 177 :

" In his first contest for a seat in Congress he had to en- counter as an opposing aspirant the celebrated Felix Grundy. A more excited canvass than that just alluded to has never occurred in any State of the Union. There are some re- markable features about it which imparted to it at the time it was in progress peculiar interest. Mr. Bell was a young man of yet unestablished reputation. Mr. Grundy was a man past the middle stage of life and of world-wide fame. They were both avowed friends and supporters of Gen. Jackson in the coming Presidential election, but Jackson openly declared his preference for Mr. Grundy over his more youthful and inexperienced opponent. Often did the two candidates meet in discussion, and sometimes words were uttered by each of them not altogether comporting with kindness and courtesy. Several of the speeches made by Mr. Bell during this heated conflict are yet referred to often by old residents of Tennessee as master pieces in what may be called political digladiation. The success of Mr. Bell over such a competitor as Mr. Grundy at once gave him a high national attitude.

""When he reached Congress he soon found himself in the midst of a new contest. Mr. Polk and himself were pitted against each other by their respective friends as can- didates for the Speakership of the House, and a bitter political antagonism sprang up between them, which did not sensibly abate for a long series of years. Mr. Polk at-

tained the Presidential station through the election of 1844 ; Mr. Bell was unsuccessfully run for the same high place in 1860. Mr. Polk served in the office of Governor of Tennessee for a single term ; Mr. Bell officiated as senator of the United States for two full terms. They are both now dead, and the questions upon which they were arrayed against each other are at rest, perhaps forever. . . . They were both men of eminently conservative turn of mind and devoted friends of the National Union. . . . Mr. Polk, as a popular speaker, has perhaps never had his equal in Ten- nessee; Mr. Bell occasionally delivered a profound and statesmanlike discourse which would have done credit to any public man that our country has produced."

Governor Foote refers to his great speech, delivered at Vauxhall Garden, in Nashville, in 1836, and relates a very interesting incident connected with it. " Having," he says, " the honor of being on exceedingly intimate terms with Mr. Bell in the latter years of his life, I recollect having said to him, in the presence of his most intelligent and estimable lady, that I thought this Vauxhall speech by far the best I had ever seen of his composition, and that I had heard much as to its effect upon those who listened to it. He very modestly declared that he had taken more pains in preparing it than he had exercised in any other instance. Mrs. Bell said, with that noble and hearty frankness and freedom from false delicacy which so distinguished her, that there was an anecdote connected with that same speech which she would relate to me, which she did, very much in these words : 'I had never seen Mr. Bell until the day on which he addressed the large assemblage at Vauxhall, though I had heard much of him and sympathized with him deeply as a public man. I listened to the whole of it with the warmest admiration. When he had closed, I whispered to a friend that, though I had never before thought of marrying a second time, I did not know how I should be able to refuse a nuptial offer from such an orator and patriot as I had been just listening to with such un- feigned delight. Whether Mr. Bell heard of my commen- dations or not, it is not for me to say ; but not many days elapsed before he called to pay his personal respects, and in little less time we became, as you see us, man and wife.'"

Judge Cooper says in a recent note, " Mr. Bell was a practicing lawyer at the bar, after I came to Nashville, for two or three years. On every occasion in which he under- took to argue a cause he showed a thorough mastery of it, and in one case, certainly, and perhaps two cases, where the cause was worthy of his steel, his forensic efforts were mas- terly. He was possessed in an eminent degree of the power of sarcasm. The late Judge William B. Turley, who was at college with Mr. Bell, once said to me that the young men rated their college-mates much as they stood in after- life, and that they all looked upon John Bell as the most talented man at college,-Cumberland College, now the University of Nashville."

Hon. E. H. Ewing, in furnishing some reminiscences of Mr. Bell, remarks, " He was a man of a powerful and com- prchensive mind, in many respects well fitted to occupy the highest positions as a statesman. Though not a man of learning in the usual sense, he was a man of very extensive reading and information. His knowledge was of the most

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practical and effective character. In speaking he was equally at home before a jury, a crowd at the hustings, a Supreme Court, or the United States Senate. He enlisted attention everywhere by his complete mastery of his subject in all its bearings, and his earnestness and impressiveness in the enforcement of his argument. He had little wit, some humor, no coruscating brilliancy like Prentiss, but a large vocabulary, brought well into use in the clothing mighty thoughts and well-considered opinions."

HON. EPHRAIM H. FOSTER.

Ephraim H. Foster was born near Bardstown, Nelson Co., Ky., on the 17th of September, 1794. His father, Robert C. Foster, located with his family in Davidson County, near Nashville, in 1797. He became a prominent citizen, filling at different times almost every civil office within the gift of the people, was repeatedly elected to both branches of the State Legislature, and was twice made pre- siding officer of the Senate. He died at Col. Foster's resi- dence in 1845, at the advanced age of seventy-six, re- spected and honored by a people among whom he had so long lived. Col. Foster received the best advantages in the way of an education that the schools of a new and sparsely settled country afforded, and graduated in 1813 with the first class that was matriculated in Cumberland College, afterwards known as the University of Nashville.

He immediately commenced the study of law with John Dickinson, a lawyer of fine acquirements, who had emi- grated from Massachusetts, and at that time stood high at the Nashville bar.

While pursuing his studies the news reached Nashville of the Indian massacre at Fort Mimms, and upon a call being made for men he enrolled as a volunteer, and marched under Gen. Jackson to the scene of action. He was taken into Gen. Jackson's military family as private secretary, and manfully endured all the hardships of this perilous cam- paign, bearing himself gallantly in the battles of Talladega, Enotochopee, Emucfaw, and Topeka.

Upon the Indians being subdued and the campaign closing, Mr. Foster was honorably discharged, returned home, and in a short time commenced the practice of his profession.

He soon took rank with the first members of the bar, and by close application to business, combined with a high and manly bearing, and being kind, courteous, and pleasant in his intercourse with all, was soon the recipient of a large and lucrative practice. In 1817 he married the widow of Mr. Dickinson, the gentleman with whom he had prepared him- self for his profession, and about this time, his engagements becoming too arduous and heavy for one person, he formed a partnership with William L. Brown, a man of quiet and retiring disposition, but without a superior in his profession, and who was subsequently placed upon the bench of the Supreme Court.

When Mr. Brown assumed his place upon the bench, Mr. Foster formed a partnership with Francis B. Fogg, who had emigrated from Connecticut to Tennessee in 1817. Mr. Fogg was a retiring, studious man, possessed of an in- exhaustible store of legal learning, combined with a most remarkable knowledge upon all subjects and the most re-

tentive of memories, but so reserved that his practice was limited. The association with Mr. Foster brought him more fully before the public, and his immense powers soon became known and appreciated. In a little while he took rank with the first lawyers of the State, and his services were eagerly sought, especially in the higher courts. This good man and great jurist lived to the advanced age of eighty-five, and was regarded by all as one of the founders of Tennessee jurisprudence. This partnership continued until Col. Foster's political engagements forced him to re- tire from the practice. To the last hour of his life he always regarded his old friend and partner with the affec- tion of a brother.

Col. Foster was a fine speaker, had a noble carriage and commanding presence. His mind was elastic, and his per- ception quick ; his wit and repartee sparkling. He was social and very agreeable in his manners ; very fond of a joke, which he would indulge in and play upon his best friends, either male or female. He was always companionable and pleasant with the ladies, who permitted him to perpetrate a joke that would not be tolerated from another. All in all he was as brave and gallant a man as ever trod the earth ; was a stranger to fear; might be inclined to yield his life,- his honor, never. He was no stickler, either at the bar, in private life, or in politics, bearing himself under all circum- stances as the brave, courteous, and accomplished gentle- man.

With all his good qualities, Mr. Foster was not faultless. What mortal is or ever was ? He had by nature a quick and violent temper, under the influence of which he some- times did things that in his cooler moments no one regretted more than himself. In 1821, while arguing a case in which his feelings were very much enlisted, he became angry at some remark that fell from the bench and threw a book at the presiding judge, who, throwing aside the dignity of the court, sprang towards Mr. Foster, a heavy hickory walking- stick in his hand, and but for the intervention of friends a serious difficulty would have been the result. Peace, how- ever, was restored without bloodshed. Mr. Foster made the proper apology, paid a heavy fine for his rashness, and the honorable but belligerent court adjourned. In a few minutes Mr. Foster was in his office quietly writing, when in came the now venerable Judge J. C. Guild, then a coun- try boy of some nineteen years, a total stranger and without recommendations, and asked permission to study law under . bim. Mr. Foster readily consented, thus exhibiting in a brief period of time two very antagonistic traits of charac- ter. Judge Guild remained in his office until he completed his studies, subsequently rose to eminence in his profession, and, although a zealous antagonist of Col. Foster at the height of his political career, always retained for him the warmest personal attachment, with the most profound re- spect and admiration, and now in his green old age delights in relating incidents, both personal and political, that oc- curred between them in years long gone by.

For years Mr. Foster pursued his profession with great assiduity ; his practice was large and very lucrative. He lived in princely style, and his hospitality was proverbial, and yet, with all his lavish expenditures upon family and friends, he accumulated a fine estate, and his surroundings

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at this time gave every promise of a long and happy life.

In 1832 he gave the first evidence of the political aspi- rations that marked his subsequent career. Previous to this time he had served his county in the State Legislature, but always reluctantly, and never had any formidable oppo- sition when his name was before the people. When a mem- ber, he was invariably elected Speaker of the House, and by his courtly manners and an unequaled capacity for the despatch of business acquired an enviable reputation as a presiding officer.

Hon. Felix Grundy was at this time United States sen- ator from Tennessee, his term of service to expire in March, 1833. Col. Foster's popularity had grown until it was co- extensive with the limits of the State, and his friends de- termined to place him in competition with Judge Grundy for this exalted position. The contests for seats in the Legis- lature were warm. In his own county Mr. Foster's friends were elected by large majorities. When the Legislature assembled the name of Maj. John H. Eaton was brought forward as a candidate whose success would be more than gratifying to Gen. Jackson.

The balloting continued from time to time for weeks, and was terminated on the fifty-fifth ballot by the election of Mr. Grundy. The secret history of this result was known to but few. Mr. Foster became satisfied that Tennessee would be without her full representation in the United States Senate unless some of the aspirants should withdraw, and, fully determined that the President should not dictate who should be the senator from Tennessee, prevailed upon enough of his own friends to vote for Mr. Grundy to secure his election.

Mr. Foster, with a zeal and devotion unsurpassed by any one, had to this time supported Gen. Jackson in all of his political conflicts. In 1835 he united his influence with that of the Tennessee delegation in the United States House of Representatives-with the exception of James K. Polk and Cave Johnson-in prevailing upon Hugh L. White, . then a senator from Tennessee, to permit his name to be placed before the country for the Presidency in opposition to Mr. Van Buren, advocated his election before the people, and ended in giving the vote of Tennessee to this pure and unspotted statesman and patriot. From this time to his death Mr. Foster was a warm, zealous, and devoted Whig. In 1837, Mr. Foster was elected to succeed Judge Grundy in the United States Senate, whose term of service would expire in March, 1839. Soon after this Judge Grundy accepted a seat in Mr. Van Buren's Cabinet, and Mr. Foster received the executive appointment to fill his unex- pired term, and took his seat in the Senate in December, 1838, and continued in office until March 3, 1839. The elections in Tennessee this year proved a Democratic suc- cess, and the Legislature which convened in the fall passed resolutions of instructions which neither Judge White nor himself could obey, and they both resigned. The resig- nation of Mr. Foster was transmitted to the Legislature Nov. 15, 1839, and closed with these words : " I surrender without painful regret a trust which, under the circum- stances, I could not hope to retain without reproach, and now deliver to the representatives of the people the com-

mission I have the honor to hold in their service. It reached my hands without stain or corruption, and I return it without a blot of dishonor."

From this time for years the political strife and excite- ment in Tennessee were intense and bitter. The home of Jackson was battled for by both parties, without any regard whatever to the expenditure of brains, muscle, or money.

In 1840, Mr. Foster was placed upon the Whig electoral ticket for the State at large, and commenced in May the most exciting campaign that had ever been inaugurated in Tennessee, and continued in the field without rest until the election, and made speeches in every county in the State. The Whigs were triumphant by a majority of twelve thousand, and to this result, without doing injustice to others, it can be truly said Mr. Foster contributed more than any other one person.

In 1841 the Democratic majority in the State Senate was one; in the House the Whigs were in the ascendant by three votes, giving them a majority on joint ballot.

The Democratic senators, subsequently known as the " immortal thirteen," refused to join the House in conven- tion for the purpose of a senatorial election, and the State was left without her full representation in the United States Senate.

In 1843 the Whigs were again in the ascendant, and Mr. Foster was elected senator a second time, and served until March 3, 1845. During this term of his senatorial life, Mr. Foster had the severest trial of all his political career. He advocated the admission of Texas into the Union, and his sense of duty to his native South prompted him to part company, for a little while at least, with a party to which he had so long clung alike in defeat as in victory. We give in his own words his painful feelings under the cir- cumstances.

In a letter dated Washington, Feb. 12, 1845, to a de- voted personal friend, he says, " No one can conceive the tortures I have suffered and am suffering in connection with the Texas question. I took my ground, as you will have seen from my declarations in the Senate, without saying a word or giving notice of my intentions to any member of that body. I did so for a reason which I also stated when I introduced my resolutions. This circumstance, in connec- tion with the fixed and I fear deleterious repugnance of the leading Whigs here against the measure, occasioned jeal- ousies and suspicions which it required no little skill and tact on my part to attack and overcome. Whilst all this was going on I was assailed by the locofocos with the most disagreeable flatteries and congratulations, which I always repelled with a true and becoming spirit. And now, when I apprehend from the signs that all hope of annexation during this session of Congress is lost, you tell me that both parties at home, believing it to be in my power to accom- plish the task, look to me to secure the passage of the reso- lutions, and that success is essential to my fate, as some of my friends think. Was ever a poor, impotent devil in such a hopeless, helpless category ? I have done my duty. I have done the best I could, and I shall continue in the same fidelity ; but, alas ! I do despair, and my despair is almost without hope."

The Presidential canvass of 1844 exceeded in excite-

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ment, bitterness, and animosity that of 1840. James K. Polk, one of Tennessee's favorite sons, was the Democratic nominee. The canvass throughout was one continued scene of excitement beyond description. Victory again perched upon the Whig banner, and Mr. Clay carried the State by the bare majority of one hundred and thirteen votes. Mr. Foster was a participant in all this excitement and strife, battling manfully for his now personal as well as political friend, Henry Clay. In 1845 he received the Whig nomination as candidate for Governor, and again made a long and arduous campaign, speaking throughout the entire State. He was unsuccessful, his competitor, Aaron V. Brown, receiving a majority of some fourteen hundred in a poll of upwards of one hundred and fifteen thousand votes. Two consecutive years of intense excite- ment, with the attendant labor of traveling and speaking, made great inroads upon his constitution, and laid the foun- dation of his subsequent sickness and suffering.

In 1847, Mr. Foster lost his wife. She had been to him a " help-meet" indeed, presiding over his hospitable home in a way to win the hearts of all, and in his absence watch- ing with a sleepless eye his personal interest, always dis- playing an energy of character that could not be surpassed. The day of her death was one of mourning with all, high and low, rich and poor alike.

He subsequently lost two married daughters, in whom he had taken great pride, and to whom he had always been most tenderly attached, and was never again the social and pleasant companion of former days.

In 1852, at the earnest solicitation of numerous friends, he consented to prepare an oration for the funeral obsequies of Mr. Clay, but when the day for its delivery came he was stretched upon a bed of suffering, unable to rise, and it was read to a large audience by the Hon. Andrew Ewing. This production has always been pronounced one of the best efforts of his life.

From this time to his death he was a confirmed invalid, and often his sufferings were intense.

He died Sept. 14, 1854, with an abiding hope and faith that he would be reunited in another and better world to venerated parents and an idolized wife and daughters who had gone before.

Upon the monument that marks his grave should be written : " He loved wife, children, and friends; they loved him."

HON. FRANCIS BRINLEY FOGG.

This gentleman, who recently died in Nashville, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, was the oldest member of the Davidson County bar. He was born in Brooklyn, Conn., on the 21st of September, 1795, being the son of Rev. Daniel Fogg, a native of New Hampshire and a worthy minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His mother, whose maiden name was Brinley, came of one of the most respectable families of New England, and was a lady of excellent character.

The first ten years of Mr. Fogg's life were spent under the paternal roof, where he received such instruction as could be obtained at home and at the common schools. He was subsequently sent to an academy at Plainfield, where

he made rapid progress in Greek and Latin, becoming well versed in these languages at the age of thirteen. At the conclusion of these academical studies a relative of his,- Hon. William Hunter, of Newport, R. I., for many years a United States senator, and later in life minister to Brazil, -being delighted with the early talents of his young kins- man, invited him to pursue his studies, including that of law, in his family at Newport and under his own immediate instruction. This was most fortunate for the mental train- ing of our young student, as his instructor was a gentleman of liberal culture and wide acquaintance with literature. While availing himself fully of these accessory advantages he made special preparation in that particular branch which he had chosen as his profession, and at the age of twenty was admitted to the Newport bar.

Declining a generous invitation of Mr. Hunter to estab- lish himself with him on equal terms in the profession at Philadelphia,-an unusually flattering proposition to a young man just admitted to the bar,-Mr. Fogg set his face southward, and after spending a few days in Wash- ington continued his journey, and in February, 1818, reached Columbia, a beautiful and thriving village of Tennessee, about forty miles south of Nashville. Here he opened an office, but was soon induced by Hon. Felix Grundy to remove to Nashville, which he did in the latter part of the year 1818. Since that day Nashville has been his home, the theatre of his various labors and triumphs, and the scene of the checkered experiences of joy and sorrow of his long, useful, and honored life. No man had been more fully identified with all the important legal and judicial proceedings of this county and of the State for the last half-century up to the time of his retirement from active business than the subject of this notice.

Tennessee, at the time of his advent to the then young State, was celebrated for her patriotism and for the "heroic achievements which had closed the last war with England in a blaze of glory." Nashville, though but a respectable village in size and population, was the acknowledged city of the State. Her bar, which in previous years had ac- quired a good degree of fame, was then renowned through- out the State and in many foreign parts for the learning, the great abilities, and the honorable bearing of its mem- bers.

At such a bar Mr. Fogg took his place, then young and inexperienced. He was not a man who, by boldness and self-confidence, would thrust himself into the professional field to reap prematurely the fruits which he knew could only grow and ripen by patience and enlarged study. He could well afford to wait for the fruit to mature, that when the harvest came it might be full, rich, and ample. By his modesty and solid attainments he soon won the confi- dence and esteem of the leading members of the profession, and business followed as a natural consequence, slowly at first, but surely and cumulative, so that in a few years his professional labors were large and remunerative. He was first employed to make up pleadings, a most difficult branch of legal science; but in this his great memory and won- derful acquaintance with law-books became apparent, and he was an acknowledged adept in that department of the profession.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 28

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