History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 31

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 31

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On the 8th of February, 1852, the Legislature of the State appointed Return J. Meigs, Esq., and Judge Cooper to revise and digest the general statutes of the State. Under this appointment the present code of Tennessee was prepared, and passed into a law by the General Assembly of 1857-58. Both revisers separately went over and digested the whole body of the law, compared together their separate work, and united in the drafts submitted to the legislative committee, and which were adopted by the Legislature almost without modification. The analytic plan of the code is, however, the exclusive work of Judge Cooper.

In 1854, upon the change in the State Constitution giv- ing the election of judicial officers to the people, Judge Cooper was a candidate for the office of attorney-general and reporter, but was defeated, his successful competitor being the Hon. John L. T. Sneed, then a deservedly popu- lar member of the opposite political party, and subsequently one of the judges of the Supreme Court. In October, 1861, he became a candidate to till the vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court, occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. Robert L. Caruthers, and was elected. The courts were, however, almost immediately thereafter closed by the late civil war, and upon the reorganization of the State government in 1865, new judges were appointed by the executive. The enforced leisure occasioned by the war gave to Judge Cooper the opportunity of carrying out a long-cherished plan of a trip to Europe. Some of the fruits of this trip appeared in the Southern Law Review, published in St. Louis after the civil war, under the style of " English and French Law" and " Modern Theories of Government."

Upon the reopening of the courts at the close of the

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war, Judge Cooper resumed the practice of his profession, confining himself to chancery cases. He was in partner- ship for a few years with the Hon. Robert L. Caruthers, his predecessor on the Supreme Bench, and upon his re- tirement with his brother, the Hon. Henry Cooper, late member of Congress. In November, 1872, he was ap- pointed by the Governor chancellor of the Nashville chan- cery district, and in August, 1874, he was elected by the people to the same place. His decisions while upon the bench have been published in three volumes of " Tennessee Chaucery Reports," the last of which appeared in 1879.

In the year 1870, Judge Cooper superintended the repub- lication of the early " Tennessee Reports." He prepared or rewrote the head-notes of the first eight volumes of these reports, with notes and references. These volumes, together with a new annotated edition of " Meigs' Reports," were republished in 1870. Upon the republication of the " Re- ports of the Supreme Court of Tennessee," begun in 1875, by G. I. Jones & Co., of St. Louis, Judge Cooper con- sented to edit the entire work. He has since completed the forty volumes, with annotations and references re- written,-a herculean labor, exhibiting in its results great care, industry, and legal acumen. Of twenty-nine of the volumes he has written the head-notes. He has also just finished re-editing an edition of " Daniels' Chancery Prac- tice" for Little, Brown & Co., law-publishers, of Boston, bringing down the references and annotations to the present time. In this work he has examined nearly a thousand volumes of reports.

In August, 1878, Judge Cooper was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State for the constitu- tional term of eight years from Jan. 1, 1879. The duties of this high and responsible position he is now discharging with the modesty, ability, and address which have charac- terized him in all his official and professional relations, together with his other various and arduous labors in the departments of jurisprudence. His works will be a monu- ment of which his native State will have reason to be proud.

It should be stated, also, that Judge Cooper, among his other labors, has succeeded in establishing a bar association at Nashville, and in building up in connection therewith a law-library now numbering about three thousand volumes. As a suitable tribute the American Bar Association, which convened at Saratoga in the summer of 1879, elected him one of its vice-presidents.

Judge Cooper is now sixty years of age. The longevity of his ancestors and his temperate and orderly habits and cheerful disposition point to the conclusion that many years of useful labor yet remain to him. Those years will yield the greatest benefits to society if consumed in the labors of judicial science. It may with some degree of truth be said of a judge, as of a poet, that he is born, not made. We mean that the judicial temperament is innate in some men. Judge Cooper is one of those men. He loves the adminis- tration of justice. The possession of an ample competence places him beyond the reach of every ambition, except the ambition that has moved the greatest and best of judges,-the desire to do right and to leave behind an hon- orable name. The death of his former partner, the great

and learned Chief Justice Nicholson, reduced the judges of the Supreme Court to five, the number provided for by the revised Constitution of 1870. At the next election Judge Cooper took his place upon the bench. Says a late writer, intimately acquainted with the character and ser- vices of Judge Cooper, " We shall not be contented to see his usefulness limited to that position,"-the Supreme Court of Tennessee. " For twelve years the South has had no representative on the supreme bench of the United States. The exclusion from the national court of last resort of a section embracing one-third of the population of the Union-a section which has contributed to that bench such great names as Marshall, Taney, Catron, and Camp- bell ; a section, too, whose laws and institutions contain so much that differs from those of the rest of the Union- cannot be expected to last much longer. The South is fairly entitled to her representative on that. bench,-unless she is unable to produce lawyers worthy of that high posi- tion. She can certainly produce one such man, and that is the subject of this sketch. When it shall become neces- sary to look to the South for a suitable appointee to that great court the general consent of the bar will, unless we are greatly mistaken, point to him."

HON. JOHN TRIMBLE.

John Trimble, counselor and attorney-at-law, son of James Trimble, was born in Roane Co., E. Tenn., on the 7th day of February, 1812.' He was educated at Nashville at a classic school taught by Moses Stevens, and at the Nashville University, whose president was Philip Lindsley.

In 1836 he was elected attorney general for the Nash- ville district, which position he held for six years.

In 1843 he was nominated and elected by the Whigs to the General Assembly.

In 1845 he was nominated and clected to the State Senate.

In 1847 he refused a renomination, as also a nomination to the United States Congress.

Ile preferred his professional pursuits, and he acquired a large practice in all the courts, criminal, law, and equity, in both State and United States courts.

He soon found himself in possession of as large an estate as he desired to have, and losing his taste for the profes- sion he gradually retired from it. He acquired a taste for literary pursuits, and his ruling passion became love of knowledge and culture, mental and moral. He had ac- quired a large and select library of miscellaneous works, the best English and American authors, and he gave his time almost wholly to the acquisition of knowledge and culture.

In 1859 he was placed by the Whig party on their ticket as a candidate to the State Senate. He was elected with- out canvassing, and almost without opposition.

He was in the extra session of the Senate in January, 1861; also in the extra session of April, 1861, during which session was passed the "ordinance of secession," against which and all acts tending towards secession of the State he voted, being an " unconditional" Union and National man. When the act of secession was passed he resigned his scat as a senator and retired to private life.

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EX. GOV. NEILL S. BROWN .

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During the entire civil war he was well known to be a National Union man, with firm convictions and faith in favor of the United States government.

His firm convictions were that the Rebellion ought not and could not succeed, and if by possibility it did it would be the greatest of calamities to the South and Southwest; and that the State had been betrayed by its public men and forced out of the Union. Yet during the entire war his opinions were respected, and he was treated kindly and with respect by all, which he will ever hold in grateful remembrance.

In 1862, Justice Catron, of the United States Supreme Court and circuit judge for Tennessee, brought with him from Washington a commission for Mr. Trimble from Mr. Lincoln, appointing him United States district attorney. This position he held for two years and then resigned.

In 1865 he was again elected to the State Senate, and as such sat in the " Reconstruction General Assembly," and aided in reconstructing the State government.

While in the Senate at this time he voted for the Thir- teenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution ; also in favor of universal suffrage and the re-enfranchisement of the people of the State.

In 1867 he was elected a member of Congress, and sat as a member of the Fortieth Congress in the House of Representatives. As such member he voted for the Fif- teenth Amendment and for the restoration of the Southern States to the Union.

He declined to be a candidate for re-election, and returned again to private life and his " books."

He liberated his servants before the emancipation procla- mation of President Lincoln, from a conviction that it was an emancipation of the whites from the greatest of evils, and his views were from a white man's standpoint looking at their enlightened interests and welfare.

HON. NEILL S. BROWN.

Hon. Neill S. Brown, ex-Governor of Tennessee, is a native of Giles County, in this State, where he was born on the 18th of April, 1810. His parents were descendants of Scotch Presbyterians, respectable and enterprising people, and were among the pioneers of Giles County when that region of country was a wilderness. In such a new coun- try educational advantages were limited, so that the subject of this sketch received little more than a knowledge of the common English branches up to the age of seventeen, at which time he was thrown upon his own resources, and took to teaching school as a means of promoting his ardent desire to obtain a collegiate education. In this laudable undertaking Le was not disappointed, his energy and ambi- tion being sufficient to carry him through the multiplied difficulties and hardships which beset his path until he had completed, unassisted, his college and his law course, and been admitted to the bar with as brilliant and encouraging prospects as most young lawyers.

In 1836 he served as a soldier in the Seminole war in Florida, and upon his return in 1837 was elected a member of the Legislature from Giles County. He soon acquired in politics not only influence, but considerable ambition, being a fluent and effective speaker both in the hall of legis-

lation and upon the stump. His oratory was of that earn- est and persuasive kind, mixed with anecdote, keen wit, and satire, which renders a speaker popular and effective with juries and before the people. When the great political par- ties were formed he took an active and prominent part as a Whig, and after a very spirited contest was elected Gover- nor in 1847. He was an honorable and popular chief magistrate. In 1850 he was appointed United States min- ister to Russia, and was abroad in that capacity about three years. In 1855 he was chosen to represent Davidson County in the Legislature, and was elected Speaker of the House. From this time he held no political office until 1870, when he was elected a member of the convention called to remodel the existing Constitution of the State.

Governor Brown, though opposed to the war of 1861-65, and an anti-secessionist, yielded to the issue when it was made up, and took sides with the South. Since the war he hay neither held nor sought any public office, but has been an active and open advocate of the Union and of peace and reconciliation. His professional career as a lawyer began in 1835, and he has practiced ever since except when pre- vented by political engagements. Few men in the profes- sion have attained a better standing at the bar, although it is undoubtedly true that public duties have somewhat di- vided his attention and detracted from the full exercise of his powers and abilities in the strict line of his profession. Still, he is one of the ablest lawyers of the county bar, and his services are retained in the most important cases both in the criminal and civil courts.

He took an active part in the political campaigns of 1836, 1840,-1844, 1856, and 1860, and was an elector on the ticket of Judge White in 1836 and of IIenry Clay in 1844. He has always been an ardent friend of common schools and of education in all its branches, and few men are more fully trusted and highly esteemed in the commu. nity in which he resides. We might write much more in his praise, but such is his modesty that we forbear, lest we might inflict a wound where we mean simply to do justice.

GEN. THOMAS T. SMILEY.

Gen. Thomas T. Smiley was born in Nashville, Oct. 8, 1813. He graduated at the University of Nashville in 1833; studied law with Hon. Ephraim H. Foster, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. He has ever since practiced in Nashville. Gen. Smiley was fourteen years clerk of the Circuit Court, from 1844 to 1859.

JUDGE JOSEPHIUS C. GUILD.

Judge Josephus C. Guild was born in the county of Pittsylvania, Va., in 1803; came to Sumner County with his parents in 1806; studied law with Ephraim H. Foster at Nashville, and admitted to practice in 1822; began prac- tice in Sumner County, where he remained till the close of the civil war, and acquired a high reputation at the bar and as a public speaker and lecturer. He was a member of the General Assembly in 1833, 1835, and 1852, and of the Senate in 1837 and 1845; was lieutenant-colonel of the Second Tennessee Regiment, under Gen. Armstrong, in the Florida campaign of 1836; Presidential elector for James K. Polk in 1844; clector at-large for Franklin

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Pierce in 1852; and was elected chancellor for the seventh chancery division of the State in 1860. The court was broken up by the war in 1861. In 1870, Mr. Guild was elected judge of the law-court at Nashville for a term of eight years, and held the office until the court was abolished by the Legislature in 1878.

CHAPTER XXIII.

GEN. JAMES ROBERTSON.

Notices of Him in History-Early Life and Education-Associations with Daniel Boone-Robertson and Sevier-Perilous Mission to the Cherokees-Indian Diplomacy-Settlement on the Cumberland- Civil Administration-His Career as a Legislator-Ilis Appoint- ment as Indian Agent-Treaties with the Chickasaws and Choctaws -Last Hours and Death of Gen. Robertson.

THE life of Gen. Robertson is interwoven with the whole history of Middle Tennessee, and with events which ex- tend far beyond its limits. In this locality, which was more especially the theatre of his action, it is desirable to bring these events together, and, as it were, to focalize them in a personal sketch of the chief actor.

Haywood, speaking of Robertsou's first visit to the Cum- berland, says,-

" He is the same person who will appear hereafter by his actions to have merited all the eulogium, esteem, and affec- tion which the most ardent of his countrymen have ever bestowed upon him. Like almost all those in America who have attained eminent celebrity, he had not a noble lineage to boast of, nor the escutcheoned armorials of a splendid ancestry. But he had what was far more valuable,-a sound mind, healthy constitution, a robust frame, a love of virtue, an intrepid soul, and an emulous desire for honest fame."

Mrs. Dr. Blackie, of Nashville, who is a great-grand- daughter of Gen. Robertson, under date of Feb. 28, 1880, relates the following interview with the historian Bancroft respecting Gen. Robertson :

" I met him more than twenty-five years ago at a dinner- party in New York. Hearing that I was from Tennessee, he soon began to speak of Gen. Robertson, saying he was his 'favorite hero of those times.' He told me how he had become possessed of some of his letters, and of some au- thentic accounts of him, which had won his admiration and respect. I was proud to tell him that he was my great- grandfather. I was much gratified afterwards to see how honorably he was woven into his great history." The pas- sage in Bancroft referred to by Mrs. Blackie is vol. xi. chap. xlvi. History of the United States; November, A.D. 1770.

"This year James Robertson, from the home of the Regulators in North Carolina, a poor and unlettered for- ester of humble birth, but of inborn nobleness of soul, cul- tivated maize on the Watauga. The frame of the heroic hunter was robust, his constitution hardy, he trod the soil as if he was the rightful lord. Intrepid, loving virtue for its own sake, and emulous of honorable fame, he had self- possession, quickness of discernment, and a sound judg-

ment. Wherever he was thrown, on whatever he was engaged, he knew how to use all the means within his reach, whether small or great, to their proper end, seeing at a glance their latent capacities, and devising the simplest and surest way to bring them forth ; and so he became the greatest benefactor of the early settlers of Tennessee, con- firming to them peace, securing their independence, and leaving a name blessed by the esteem and love and praise of a commonwealth."

James Robertson was born in Brunswick Co., Va., on the 28th of June, 1742, and when he was quite young his parents removed with him to Wake Co., N. C. Here he was reared to manhood and married Miss Charlotte Reeves. The influences upon him in early life were such as to lay the foundation of a good moral character, develop personal energy and independence, and imbue his mind with those principles of liberty of which he was in after-years so earnest and faithful an exponent. Wake County, at the time of his residence there, was the centre of the most intelligent and refined society in the colony,-the future capital of the State being in this county,-and it is but reasonable to believe that such associations had a powerful influence in moulding the character of the subject of our notice, and that he went out into the world not unac- quainted with the usages of good society, and with at least the rudiments of an education. Mrs. Elizabeth Cheatham, his granddaughter, now living with her son, Felix R. Cheatham, Esq., in North Nashville, writes under date of Feb. 28, 1880 : " He had as good an education as most gentlemen of his day, and was not indebted to his wife for his knowledge of letters, as Mr. Putnam says. I know that he received his education in his youth ; and I have a letter from uncle Felix Robertson denying this statement of Mr. Putnam's, and saying that he was astonished that he had made such a mistake. I do not suppose he was a rich man in Carolina, but he certainly brought a good many slaves and fine stock and cattle with him to this settle- ment."

Mrs. Cheatham also, in the same letter, speaks of the personal appearance of her grandfather, thus :

"Gen. Robertson was about five feet nine inches in height, heavy built, but not too fat. His head inclined slightly forward, so that his light-blue eyes were usually shaded by his heavy eyebrows. His hair was very dark, like a mole in color, and his complexion, though naturally very fair, was darkened and reddened by exposure. I re- member him as being usually quiet and thoughtful, and full of the cares of business. We all loved and venerated him."

This was when Robertson was quite advanced in years. He was twenty-eight years old when he left North Carolina and crossed the mountains. In his hunting excursions on the Watauga he was an associate of Daniel Boone, and they were probably together on the Holston in 1770. Robertson returned, and is believed to have been engaged with the Regulators in the battle of Alamance, but there is no positive proof of it. It was soon after the battle, in 1771, that he started with his wife and child to an almost unknown country beyond the great range of mountains, never to return to claim the right of citizenship in the old

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GEN. JAMES ROBERTSON.

settled portion of the State. Henceforth his life was iden- tified with that heroic class of frontiersmen whose mission it has been to push the advance of civilization into new countries.

On his arrival at Watauga he met Boone there again, but the latter had no intention of remaining. Boone and Robertson, though intimately associated, were very different types of men. The former was ever on the move. He acted as pilot to new settlements, and continued the pioneer of civilization from the Yadkin, in North Carolina, to the district of St. Charles, in Missouri, where he ended his remarkable and eventful life in 1820, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. Robertson, on the other hand, remained to organize the settlements, and to extend over them the protection of a simple but efficient form of government. In this he was successful both at Watauga and on the Cumberland, being in both places the master-spirit and the principal man in authority, the organizing force and the chief executive head. Nor do we know of a single in- stance in the forty years of his life where that authority was ever abused. His loyalty to the people-his sacrifice of personal ambition to the public welfare-was one of the most remarkable traits of his character; and it places him high above many of the rulers of mankind who have filled the world with their fame.

The tyranny which drove him and his associates beyond the mountains is but another illustration of how new settle- ments and States have been formed. Out of tyranny into liberty has ever been the progress of man. The tyranny of rulers has been the most fruitful cause of the colonization of new countrics. People flecing from oppression have planted the seeds of states and republics. So was it in this case : the refugees from North Carolina laid the foun- dation of the commonwealth of Tennessee. Was there not a providence in it ? Did not the pioneers "build wiser than they knew" ? Were they not sent to open this beau- tiful country, which was destined to send down its blessings of civilization to unborn generations ?

Robertson frequently alluded to the tyranny of British officials in the old State. "This was the best thing," he remarked, "ever done by the British government. Never were threats so harmless, and yet so powerful : they were laughed to scorn. No man feared them out here, whatever they might have done in old Orange and in Wake." Again he said, " These acts made a new set of Regulators, patriots and soldiers out in the mountains; and they were thus preparing to prove themselves such at King's Mountain, and wherever clse God, in his providence, or their country, in her need, should call them."

The part taken by Robertson and Sevier in the battle with the Indians at the Kanawha deserves to be mentioned. This was in the year 1774. The little settlement west of the mountains was in its infancy; yet when the warlike Shaw- Dees and their confederates threatened the destruction of the settlements in Western Virginia, they raised and equipped a company, which they placed under their own officers, and marched to the scene of action. James Robertson and Valentine Sevier held commissions in Shelby's company. On the morning of the 10th of October these men were beyond the encampment looking after deer, and came sud-

denly upon the Indians, who had advanced within half a mile of Gen. Lewis' camp. They were approaching in very regular order, and by a line extending from the banks of the Ohio back to the hills, and across the point towards the Kanawha, evidently intending to confine the Americans to their position on the point between the two rivers. Robert- son and Sevier were within ten steps of the advancing foe : they fired at the front column. It was yet too dark in the twilight of the morning to take sight or deliberate aim, but the fire was so unexpected that the Indians came to a general halt, thus affording Robertson and Sevier time to run into the camp, give the alarm, and arouse every man to arms. Instantly Col. Charles Lewis was ordered to advance with one hundred and fifty men towards the hills, and near the Kanawha River. The little force under Col. William Fleming was directed to the right, up the banks of the Ohio. These forces had scarcely passed the line of sentinels when they were met by the enemy, and a hot and deadly conflict commenced. In a short time the entire force on each side was fiercely engaged, and the battle continued during most of the day. Many feats of daring and indi- vidual contests took place under and along the banks of the rivers, and the dead Americans and Indians were scattered from the waters of one river to those of the other. Before the close of the day the savages had retreated, the firing ceased, and the dead and wounded were gathered and prop- erly attended to.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 31

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