USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
Mr. Baxter was a Whig in politics, and early in life began to take part in political discussions. In 1844 he was presi- dential elector on the Clay ticket for his district. This was a remarkable compliment to a man only twenty-five years of age. He was subsequently elected two or three times a member of the Legislature, and finally made speaker of the lower House. By this time he was favorably known all over the State, and had much influence with the public men. At the bar he had risen to the very head of his profession in the wide region of his practice.
Notwithstanding Mr. Baxter's success, professionally and politically, and the extensive circle of friends he had won, he
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was ambitious for a wider field of endeavor than Western North Carolina afforded. Knoxville, Tenn., was at that time justly regarded as a promising town and offered larger opportunities than Western North Carolina for a man of ambition. Accord- ingly, in the early spring of 1857 Mr. Baxter opened a cor- respondence with me in reference to locating here. Shortly after, in the month of May, he arrived with his family and servants, having purchased a home before coming. He sought and formed no partnership with anyone, but relied on his own ability to se- cure professional business. He was then, in point of property, almost independent.
I remember well his first appearance in the argument of a cause. It was in a complicated action of ejectment. His argu- ment before the court and jury was so clear and strong that it marked him at once as one of the leaders of the Knoxville bar, then one of the strongest in the State. From that time forward his success was unbroken. Each year, until he was made United States Circuit Judge by President Hayes for the Sixth Circuit, composed of the States of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan, his success was all that his ambition, high as it was, could have desired. He was confessedly the head of the bar in East Tennessee, and I believe he had no equal in the State. His income from his profession after the war was larger an- nually, perhaps, than any lawyer had ever received in the State. So highly were his services esteemed by litigants that he had only to name his fee.
In his profession Mr. Baxter was a hard-working man, and yet he worked so rapidly, his mind gathered the facts of a case and saw the controlling points so quickly, that he had much time for the society of friends. He dashed off his most elaborate briefs with the ease and speed of familiar letter-writing. Minor points he passed over without notice and went at once to the core of the question, which he fortified and strengthened by authorities and by massive and impregnable arguments. If he had no authorities, if the question was new, he brought all his powerful intellect to show what the law should be declared to be. He attached no sacred reverence to precedents and decisions. If they seemed to be founded on reason and common sense, and to be promotive of justice, he accepted them as law; if not, he denounced them as not law. If a new question was presented for his opinion, he would say what the law should be, and what
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it was. If the authorities did not sustain his views, he would with the utmost confidence attack them as erroneous. This was not done in a reckless spirit of bravado and opposition, but in the calm confidence of a powerful mind that rested its conclu- sions on the highest reason.
That Mr. Baxter was a great lawyer, one of the greatest of his day, admits of no doubt. His intellect was massive as well as astute and logical. To compare him with others would be difficult, perhaps invidious, for he was unlike others. There was in him no eloquence, no learning, no adornment of style. He was like a solid block of unpolished granite. Thomas C. Lyon, in his prime, had the reputation, and justly, too, of being one of the ablest lawyers in the State. His arguments on great occasions were lucid, profound, powerful, and clothed in classical, elegant language. But he had nearly run his course, by reason of ill health, before Mr. Baxter came to Tennessee. I doubt whether he was the equal of Mr. Baxter in breadth and com- prehensiveness of intellect, though greatly his superior in all kinds of learning. I was too young to compare Mr. Baxter with the two Mckinneys, who were in their day masters in their profession. The former distinguished Chancellor, Thomas L. Williams, who had known all the great lawyers of Tennessee for a generation back, such as W. E. Anderson, John A. Mc- Kinney, Spencer Jarnagan, Robert J. Mckinney, William H. Sneed, Thomas C. Lyon, and others, said to me in 1852 that Judge Hugh Lawson White was decidedly the best lawyer he had ever known in the State. Never having known Judge White ex- cept by reputation, I cannot compare Mr. Baxter with him.
As before stated, Mr. Baxter was uneducated. His language and pronunciation were faulty. Brownlow and L. C. Houk overcame this early defect. Baxter and Johnson never did. The truth is, that while Baxter was a hard-working man, he had no taste for general reading.
After Mr. Baxter came to Tennessee he took no active part in political affairs until the threatening aspect of the secession movement aroused him in November, 1860. He was a Whig, a Southern man, and a slave-holder. His personal sympathies were naturally with his brethren of the South. He believed at that time that the Union could be preserved by wise, conservative councils, and by the united action of all good men in the South. Accordingly, in the public meeting held in Knoxville in the latter
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part of November, 1860, and in the one held later in December, in which both parties took part (of which a full account is given in another book), he proposed and advocated a Conference or a Convention of Delegates from all the Southern States for the purpose of devising some plan of securing the rights of the people of the South, and thus saving the Union. He advocated the same policy in Brownlow's Whig. He was unquestionably a Union man. But as his proposition was advocated by the known friends of secession, both in Nashville and Knoxville, and as the Union men in these meetings believed that such a course would strengthen secession and not the Union, they opposed his proposition, and in the end voted it down by an overwhelming majority.
There never was any doubt as to the honesty of Mr. Baxter in his course in these two important meetings, but in the first skirmishes of the great civil conflict, when the ideas of men first began to crystallize into definite forms, he came well-nigh giving a fatal direction to those opinions. Fortunately there were other men present to point out the danger.
In the following January Mr. Baxter was thoroughly alive to the danger which threatened the integrity of the Union. When the Legislature, which was convened by Governor Harris, proposed the call of a convention to pass on the question of the secession of the State, and directed the election of delegates to said convention, Mr. Baxter was unanimously selected by a Union mass-meeting as the candidate for Knox county. He at once, in co-operation with the other candidates, took the stump for the Union. In common with the Union leaders through- out the State, he opposed the proposed Convention, and advised the people to vote it down. This was somewhat in conflict perhaps with his previous position. His speeches were able, argumentative, and extremely bitter. I doubt if any man in the State, not even Andrew Johnson, was so bitter in denunciation of secession and its leaders. He was bold in his speeches to the very verge of audacity.
Mr. Baxter was in no sense, except in wonderful ability, a great speaker. He had a poor voice. He had no fancy ; he had no eloquence, except the faculty of grouping facts in a masterly manner, and turning upon them the headlight of his great intellect. And yet he never spoke on a great occasion without producing a profound sensation. If he was deficient
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in rhetoric, in the power to please the fancy, he possessed in a remarkable degree the mind to convince and move men. In the Spring canvass of 1861, following that of February, Mr. Baxter took an active part in opposition to the separation of the State. Like his former efforts, his speeches were daring and bitter and powerful in the presentation of facts. His influence in molding public opinion in East Tennessee, in both these canvasses, was unquestionably very great. He possessed one quality in as high a degree as any man in the State, a quality of greater value at the time than even splendid ability- absolute fearlessness. In this respect he was the equal of Thomas A. R. Nelson-the very type and model of courage.
While Mr. Baxter had made many threats of continued resistance to secession, in the event the State should vote for separation, yet, when the fact happened, his strong practical sense soon convinced him of the folly, indeed the madness of such a course. Accordingly, in the Greeneville Convention, which reconvened twelve days after, the June election, he gave the weight of his influence and his voice in favor of the moderate measures proposed in that body, in opposition to the violent and extreme resolutions presented by Mr. Nelson, which were at first approved by three-fourths of the Convention. Mr. Baxter did his full share in securing the adoption of these peaceful measures, and in thus averting civil war in East Tenn- essee. He deserves credit for this course, but not more than others. He was not the author of the pacific measures that were finally adopted.
Mr. Baxter was unquestionably one of the great Union leaders of East Tennessee. After Johnson, Brownlow, and Nelson, he deserves as much credit as anyone for making East Tennessee so unflinchingly loyal to the old government, and is certainly entitled to more credit than many of the leaders.
When Mr. Nelson was arrested in August, 1861, on his way North as a member of Congress, and was carried to Richmond, Baxter at once followed him there in order that he might render him assistance. There was no sacrifice Baxter would not make in those days for a friend. While in Richmond he came in contact with Governor Zebulon Vance, and other old friends from North Carolina, and to a certain extent doubtless im- bibed their opinions. Vance persuaded him that the true policy of the Union men in such States as Tennessee and North Caro-
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lina was to do as he had done-to join the secession movement, to get control of things, and thus check and prevent excesses. Mr. Baxter came home with the idea in his head. But he soon discovered how inapplicable this policy was to the Union people of East Tennessee. They had taken their stand and nothing could move them.
Soon after Mr. Baxter's return he called at my office, and, explaining his views, urged me to become a candidate in the approaching election for the Confederate Congress. This I promptly and decidedly declined to do. He said in reply: "Then, if you will not run, I shall." I answered that neither he nor I, with our opinions, had any business in the Confederate Congress, and that I could not even vote for him, friend as he was, because I could not take part in that election. The result was, he became a candidate, and was badly beaten by William G. Swan, an original secessionist. The Union men would not vote for Mr. Baxter, because they would do nothing that would seem to sanction the validity of the Confederacy; so they kept away from the polls. On the other hand, the seces- sionists preferred one who had been with them from the be- ginning.
I am not aware of a single Union man who changed his position on account of Mr. Baxter's abandonment of his old opinions. I have elsewhere said that if every Union leader at that time had deserted his standard and his party, the great majority of Union men would have remained unflinch- ingly true to the national cause. When the questions involved were new, as in the latter part of 1860 and the early part of 1861, the mass of the people might have been led astray by the example and the teachings of their trusted leaders; but that time had gone by. They had made up their own minds, and no influence could change them. I wish to repeat with re- newed emphasis that these Union men were the descendants of the brave Scotch Covenanters, who brought the torch of civilization into this wilderness-a people who never yielded and never sur- rendered a conviction.
From this time until the spring of 1862 Mr. Baxter co-oper- ated with the secessionists, and was regarded as one of them, though he sometimes criticised their conduct most severely. Af- ter the attempt to burn the Strawberry Plains Bridge, in Novem- ber, 1861, and the successful accomplishment of the burning
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of five others, when it was reported that the Union men of Sevier County were moving on Strawberry Plains in large numbers in a hostile manner, Baxter took his gun and went with Confederate troops to that point to resist the Union force. The report proved to be a gross exaggeration, as were nearly all the reported gatherings of Union men in a hostile attitude at that time. So, Baxter and his associates came back free from the stain of blood.
In February, 1862, Mr. Baxter started a newspaper of his own in Knoxville called the East Tennesseean. The first number made its appearance on the 27th of that month. In an editorial, stating his reasons for issuing a paper, Mr. Baxter said one was "to harmonize the discordant elements among us, and reconcile the disaffected to the Government of the Con- federate States." There is no ambiguity in that statement. From some cause, I know not what, only one number of that paper was ever issued.
Some time in the spring of 1862 Mr. Baxter went to Mem- phis on his own private business, and while there he was arrested as an enemy of the South, and held as a prisoner for some days. He was finally released and permitted to come home. On his return he charged that Governor Harris had had him arrested. After this he quickly drifted back into the Union ranks, and remained there until some time in the early part of 1864. The emancipation policy of Mr. Lincoln, and other acts of his administration displeased Mr. Baxter and other former Union leaders, and they were quick to denounce these measures. They joined in the McClellan movement, to sup- plant Lincoln as President, and to stop the war. From that time forward, until some time in the 'seventies, Mr. Baxter co- operated with the Democratic party in opposition to the Re- publican party. He made fierce and bitter warfare on Gov- ernor Brownlow, and on his administration of the affairs of the State. He finally went so far as to draw a broadside from the powerful battery of his puissant antagonist, which came well-nigh annihilating him.
In 1870 Baxter was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Tennessee, and received the honor of being made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. This appoint- ment shows conclusively where he stood politically, at that time, for this was as genuine a representative Democratic body as
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ever assembled in the State. Indeed, Baxter owed his election to the fact that no prominent Republican in his county wished to be in that Convention, so the few who voted in the election voted for him, there being no other candidate fit for the position.
In 1872 Mr. Baxter seems to have become dissatisfied with his party affiliations, for in that year a call appeared in some of the newspapers, signed by T. A. R. Nelson, himself, and a few others, calling for a Convention to assemble on a specified day in Cincinnati, for the purpose of organizing a new political party. Whether this Convention ever assembled, or what it did, is a matter of no general interest, and is therefore passed over.
Some time between 1872 and 1875 Mr. Baxter ceased his wanderings, and came back to his old party, where he remained with more or less steadiness until his death. He supported Mr. Hayes for the Presidency in 1876. That he was sincere in these various changes scarcely admits of a doubt, but they certainly show a mental agility that is somewhat remarkable.
The career of Mr. Baxter in the exalted position of a Judge of the United States Circuit Court has been the theme of both high praise and of severe criticism. As I never appeared profes- sionally before him, and saw but little of him in his capacity of a judge, I leave it to those who were familiar with his mode of ad- ministering the law to determine how much of praise or of cen- sure he deserves. Two things will probably be conceded by all, namely, his honesty of purpose and his judicial ability. Preju- dice on the part of a judge, however, may sometimes be as fatal as dishonesty would be. One thing was clear to all, that Mr. Baxter on the bench was no mere neutral character. He was a positive force. The tremendous power of his will and intellect was felt in all he said and in all he did.
Riding together one day, in 1859 or 1860, the question arose between Mr. Baxter and myself in regard to the size of fortune that would satisfy each of us. I named a very moderate sum as sufficient for myself. Mr. Baxter laughed, and said it would take ten times that sum to satisfy him. Now, this was not sordidness on his part, but ambition. He was a very prince of generosity in his days of prosperity. He was ambitious for money because it would give him power and influence. Time wore on, and I more than doubled the sum I had named, and when
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I reached that point, I retired with a competence, ceasing to strive actively for more. Within a few years after this conversation, Mr. Baxter had acquired one-fifth the sum named. This, with his large income from his profession, and afterward from his sal- ary as a Judge, was sufficient to have made him independent for life, and to have enabled him to leave a fair fortune to his chil- dren. But, inflamed with the desire for great wealth, he em- barked in visionary speculations, losing heavily.
Judge Baxter was a striking man personally. He was about five feet eleven inches, with powerful body. He weighed two hundred pounds or more. His head was enormous in size. It was admirably proportioned, and his body corresponded with it in the appearance of strength. The head and body were rugged, rather than graceful. His eyes, large and bright, were of a beautiful hazel color. With an expression of kindness they were charming. His face was altogether an attractive one, especially when irradiated with a smile. In the days of his prosperity, Judge Baxter was a delightful companion and a fine conversationalist. He was always the central figure in every crowd. His mind was essentially honest and independent. It sought the light. It had no sympathy with darkness nor devious ways. While Judge Baxter had many faults, he exhibited many virtues and many noble qualities. Certainly he was one of the striking men of his generation. Of the array of remarkably strong men among the Union leaders in East Tennessee, in 1861, it is by no means certain that he was not the very strongest and the most intellectual. He was a notable man among notable men.
REESE B. BRABSON.
Member of Congress-Lawyer-Whig Elector-Vehement Speaker-Spot- less Integrity.
IN the Whig delegation in Congress from East Tennessee, in 1859 and 1860, as a colleague of Thomas A. R. Nelson and Horace Maynard, was Reese B. Brabson, from the Third, or Chattanooga, District. He was a native of Sevier County, where he was reared. After finishing his education, he entered the profession of law. He married the accomplished daughter of Judge Charles F. Keith, a prominent jurist of his day, and moved to Chattanooga. Here he followed his profession with success. In 1848 he was honored by his Whig friends by being selected as the Whig elector on the Taylor presidential ticket. He made a canvass of the district with Samuel A. Smith, the Democratic elector, then regarded as one of the most promising young Democrats in the State. Smith afterward achieved con- siderable success, and made some reputation, as a member of Congress for several terms from the Chattanooga District. On the stump Brabson sustained the Whig cause, and upheld its banner to the satisfaction of his party friends. He was an impulsive and vehement speaker, and pleased the people.
In 1851 Mr. Brabson was elected to the lower house of the Legislature from Hamilton County, and served his constituents faithfully, fearlessly, and with ability. In 1859 he was selected as the Whig candidate for Congress against Samuel A. Smith, the Democratic candidate, and was elected in a district almost invariably giving a majority on the other side.
In the canvass of 1860 he was a warm advocate of John Bell for the Presidency, canvassing his own district for him. In the Congress of 1859-60 he was an ardent supporter of the Union, and never faltered in his course. During this Congress he made an earnest appeal in behalf of the Union. In the dark days of 1861, when so many trusted leaders fell out of the Union ranks, he never wavered nor turned back. He made speeches for the Union, and exerted all his influence for its preservation. As he was at that time, or recently had been, a
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member of Congress, and a man of spotless integrity, his in- fluence was considerable.
Mr. Brabson's father was a man of wealth, as was also his father-in-law, and from the estates of the two he started life in comfortable circumstances. From his ambition, energy, and popular manners, his career might have become more dis- tinguished than it was, had he not died when he had scarcely reached the full maturity of his power. His death occurred in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, when he was about forty- six years of age. He was of a warm, genial nature; frank, brave, manly and honest ; hence had the faculty of drawing men to him by love as well as by admiration. He was also public spirited, and did much toward laying the foundation of the growth of the flourishing city of Chattanooga.
R. R. BUTLER.
Member of Legislature Eleven Terms - Lieutenant-Colonel - Circuit Judge-Member of Congress Five Terms.
R. R. BUTLER of Johnson County was a comparatively young man during the stormy days of 1861, yet he exerted a decided influence in his county, and possibly beyond it, in behalf of the preservation of the Union. Having been elected to the Legisla- ture in 1859, he was a member of that body when the question of the secession of the State came before it in May, 1861. With unshrinking firmness, he cast his vote against that unwise measure. Both before and after that time he was a brave, outspoken Union man, making speeches in its favor. So out- spoken was he, and so powerful his influence among his own people, that he was arrested three times by the Confederates on the charge of treason.
In the latter part of 1863 he became Lieutenant-Colonel in one of the Tennessee Regiments. In 1865, when the Courts of the State were re-established, he was appointed Circuit Judge of the First Judicial Circuit, which position he held for about two years. In 1867 he left the bench in order to become a candidate for Congress, and was easily elected. At different times he has served in Congress, 1867-73, again in 1886. When not in Congress, he has been a member of the Legislature serving six terms in the lower house and five terms in the Senate. It is doubtful whether any other man in the United States can show such a record of Legislative honors. So hopeless of defeating him has it become that no man of his own party will oppose him. He signifies a willingness to serve his con- stituents, and that is sufficient to secure his nomination and election. He seems to have a life tenure of the office, for no doubt he will be nominated again when his term expires. Be- sides all this, he served one term on the bench after first retir- ing from Congress, 1875 or 1876.
It is not surprising that Judge Butler is thus constantly returned to the Legislature, for he is an able and faithful member. Though a bold and outspoken Republican, he is
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popular with both parties, and can always secure the passage of all measures affecting his constituents. Perhaps no member of that body is so blunt and candid in criticism of the Demo- cratic party, yet all like him personally. He is the Nestor of the Legislature. A strong, clear, vigorous speaker, his infor- mation on all political questions is wide and extensive. It is no surprise to those who know Judge Butler that he has ac- quired and still retains such a tenacious hold on the people of his mountain District, for besides being a man of ability and a very strong speaker, in addition he is simple, affable, ap- proachable, and exceedingly kindly in manner and disposition ; yet under all circumstances he is dignified. In person, he is tall and commanding. When not engaged in legislative duties, he still follows the practice of law. But he is much better known as a politician than as a lawyer.
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