USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
In recognition of the kindness of his stepmother he generously presented her with his interest in the small estate left by his father, and having obtained recommendations and testimonials of his character and scholarship, he set cut in 1832 on horseback to seek his fortune and a home in the West. Arriving at Florence, Alabama, fatigue and feeble- ness of health caused him to halt, and he determined to seek employment at that place. His intelligence and culti- vated manners made a favorable impression upon the peo- ple, and at the age of seventeen years he was elected principal of the Florence Male Academy. But he had at an early age fixed bis heart on the profession of law, and, having taught one session, he resigned and received the highest testimonials from the trustees of the school. With these as his introduction, he proceeded to Vicksburg, Mis- sissippi, where he became acquainted with the afterwards
.
J. N. Warel
405
THOMAS NEVILLE WAUL.
famous Sergeant S. Prentiss, and a mutual esteem was the natural result of their acquaintance. Mr. Prentiss soon discovered the genius and budding talents of the young visitor and admitted him as a student into his office. Here, in the office of Messrs. Prentiss & Guion, in the glare and glitter of prominent genius and legal talent, he was pre- pared for the bar and inspired with sentiments of the high- est aspiration and the loftiest aims. Having availed himself to the utmost of this excellent and brilliant training, he possessed the warmest friendship of Mr. Prentiss as long as that distinguished man lived.
In 1835 he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and was soon afterwards appointed district attorney for the river district, including the counties lying along the Mississippi and the cities of Vicksburg and Natchez, which at that time contained the most brilliant array of legal talent in the Southwest. During this period he resided a short time in Yazoo City, and, after the expira- tion of his term of office, removed to Grenada, where he - enjoyed a large professional patronage, and in a few years was enabled to abandon the general practice and confine himself to business in the Federal courts and the high courts of the State.
In 1850, having acquired an ample fortune, he removed to Texas and established an elegant and hospitable home on the Gaudaloupe, in Gonzales County ; but his interests in Mississippi requiring his attention, he afterwards located in New Orleans, where he resumed and practiced his profes- sion with great success. While he was never a candidate for a political office during his long residence in Mississippi and Louisiana, he was always a man of strong political sen- timents and frm opinions. He was a great admirer of Mr. Calhoun, a thorough Democrat of the State's Rights school, a strict constructionist of the Constitution, and took an active part in public debates when the principles of his party were assailed. The independence with which he always maintained his own views precluded the imputation of ambitious designs, while the earnestness and eloquence with which he advocated the principles of the Democratic
406
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
party gave him a commanding popular influence. The rapid and aggressive progress of the Know-Nothings summoned him to the hustings, and his efficient opposition to the prin- ciples of that organization was recognized by the Democratic party in selecting him as its candidate for Congress in 1859. In this canvass he gained additional reputation and popu- larity by his eloquence, talents and force of character; and notwithstanding that he was defeated by the independent candidate, Hon. A. J. Hamilton, his party valued the services of its champion, and he was made an elector for the State at large on the Breckinridge ticket in 1860. In this can- vass he predicted the coming storm and advised a united South and unity of action as the only means of averting civil war. His able appeals and their corollaries presented a conscientious acceptance of the situation to those who opposed secession and cemented the subsequent views of the people.
When the State of Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, he was chosen a member of the Provisional Congress which convened at Montgomery, in which he urged the most prompt and comprehensive preparation for the struggle as the most effectual means of securing peace either immedi- ately or prospectively, by treaty or by war. The latter having become inevitable before the expiration of his term, he declined election to the Congress of the Confederate States and determined to devote his services to the field. Returning to Texas, he raised and organized two thousand men into the command known as " Waul's Legion," of which he was elected commander. With this he hastened to join the Confederate troops concentrating for an attack upon the Federals at Corinth, but on reaching Holly Springs, he learned of the defeat of the army under Gen- erals Price and Van Dorn. His knowledge of the topog- raphy of Mississippi enabled him to render most efficient service in covering the retreat of General Pemberton and in the subsequent campaign and siege of Vicksburg. The details of his brilliant military career belong to the history of the country. He and his " Legion " became famous, first for his gallant defense of the Yazoo Pass, which for
407
THOMAS NEVILLE WAUL.
some time saved Vicksburg and the Mississippi River to the Confederacy, and then in the heroic defense of that city. After the surrender of Vicksburg be was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general for his gallant services, and ordered to Texas to recruit his Legion to the complement of a brigade. While thus engaged, the expedition of General Banks threatened an invasion of the State. General E. Kirby Smith offered him the command of one of his best brigades, which he accepted, and led his command with dis- tinguished gallantry and generalship in the battles of Mans- field and Pleasant Hill. After General Walker was wounded he was placed in command of the division, and bore a prominent part in the battle of Saline, or Jenkins' Ferry, in which he was wounded, and in which the Federals were driven from the field, but with heavy loss to the Texas troops.
At the close of the war General Waul returned to his home on the Gaudaloupe, and in 1865 was elected against his wishes a member of the reconstruction convention. His eminent ability and influence could again be of great value to his fellow-citizens. His country demanded his services, and to whatever that required his patriotism yielded obedience. He accepted the position and employed his best efforts to secure the adoption of a constitution which would remove all grounds of sectional animosity and at the same time preserve a recognition of the rights of the people and of the State of Texas. He never viewed the overpowering of the South as a humiliation or felt that sub- mission to the result of the war was a disgrace, and in a spirit of noble manhood and a high sense of honor he demanded a guarantee of the inalienable and just rights of a people vanquished in honorable and justifiable war as the only means of establishing permanent peace and national prosperity. These sentiments he advocated and for these principles he contended with a serene boldness and conscien- tious earnestness, with a firm and unconquerable spirit that excited the admiration of those who coincided in his views and the respect of those who opposed his efforts.
Having lost the greater portion of his property by the
408
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
result of the war, he found it necessary to return to the practice of the law which he had abandoned some time before the beginning of the strife, and promptly yielding to the exigencies of his condition, he removed to Galveston, where his talents and integrity soon gained him a large practice and placed him in the front rank of the lawyers of the State. He has always taken a deep interest in promot- ing and elevating his profession, and was for several years President of the Texas Bar Association.
His wide genius and comprehensive views have led him to devote his practice chiefly to commercial matters and cases in admiralty, and to suits in the Federal courts aris- ing out of large transactions and involving important prin- ciples of Federal jurisprudence. Yet he is equally skilled in all the branches of law and thoroughly conversant with every feature of legal science. His intellectual qualities, naturally of a high order, have been assiduously cultivated to the highest standard of professional attainment. His intuitive perception, close analysis and accurate judgment promptly seize upon and resolve the gist of the most ab- struse legal proposition, while his ready discrimination between the specious and the real, between truth and error, impress his positions with a certainty which it is equally fatal for opposition either to assail or avoid.
He early cultivated the habit of preparing his cases with unsparing pains and thorough research, and his apt powers of analogy and knowledge of precedent afford him abun- dant resources for parity of reasoning and happy illustration, and he is rarely at a loss for imagery and example. Yet he is a man of great intellectual independence, and however well he may be acquainted with the opinions of others, he promptly subjects the solution of every question to the color of his own views and the dictates of his own judg- ment.
While he has made himself a profound lawyer his thirst for knowledge and his love of literature have led him through the fields of general science and his taste has found congenial food in every branch of polite learning ; and this the brilliancy of his intellect and the versatility of his
409
.
THOMAS NEVILLE WAUL.
genius have enabled him to accomplish without apparent detraction from his professional ability. He is particularly fond of botany, and had he devoted his talents to that department of science he would no doubt have roamed as luminously through the blooming parterres of nature as he does through the rugged cope of law and equity.
His dauntless moral and physical courage enabled him to surmount every obstacle, to withstand every temptation and to pursue the path of duty dictated by integrity with un- swerving effort, and his success is the merited reward which virtue bestows upon talent and industry.
His personal characteristics present a clear, well defined, arching over and blending of virtues as polished as the chiseled structure of his intellectual and professional attain- ments. He is a man of amiable qualities and courteous manners. His magnanimity and love of justice subjects his conduct to the regimen of the Golden Rule, and these qualities are chastened and confirmed by the cardinal Christian virtues. He is a consistent member of the Bap- · tist Church, and has planted a noble influence and example in the path of Christianity. He was married in 1835 to Miss Mary Simmons, a cultured and accomplished young lady of Georgia, a lady whose qualities were fashioned in the same mould with his own, whose graces adorn his elegant home and link the golden chain of domestic felicity.
The conduct of this noble lady during the war was illus- trative of the truest type of Southern womanhood. Her career was indeed romantic and inspiring. When her hus- band entered the army she abandoned her elegant home with all its enchanting comforts and became a permanent attache of his command, both in camp and in the field. Her kindly hand was felt wherever there was need of sym- pathy, tenderness and care. She visited the sick and at- tended the wounded until her experience made her a most efficient member of the staff in organizing corps of nurses, and in preparing and regulating hospitals.
On two occasions she was present on the field of battle, and exposed to the danger of shot and shell. She was in Fort Pemberton, on the Yazoo, while it was being bom-
410
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
barded by the iron-clad fleet under General Ross and gal- lantly defended by her husband, and could only be induced to leave it at night upon his urgent solicitation, when she crossed the river in point blank range of the enemy's call- non.
While General Waul was in the thickest of the fight at the battle of Mansfield, one of bis orderlies dashed up and informed him that Mrs. Waul was about one hundred yards in the rear. The General, it may be supposed, had no time then to realize the mingled impulses of surprise, admiration and alarm which must have flashed across his mind ; but he commanded the orderly to return and tell her she must leave the field immediately and return to Mans- field, that he did not wish at that time to be troubled with the care of women. An hour later, after the enemy had been driven back, the orderly returned with a large basket on his arm, and stated that when he delivered the message the lady said: " Well, I knew the General had had no breakfast, that he would have a hard day's work, and I simply wished to bring him a luncheon." The more than timely refreshments were then spread before the hungry staff, and it required no wine or strong drink to inspire the hearty toast and ardent wishes for the health of the noble lady.
After the battle she called on General Taylor, the com- mander-in-chief, at his quarters, and was met by his adju- tant, who in the most courteous manner offered to prefer her wishes to the General; but, politely declining his ser- vices, she desired a personal interview. When General Taylor appeared, as afterwards related by him, she said : " General, I know your time is precious, and I wish to avoid the complication and delay of your regular forms. We have a great many soldiers badly wounded, many dead and many dying. No preparations have been made for them, and they need food, medicine and clothing." The General with his characteristic promptness, turned to his adjutant and said : " Major Surget, issue an order to all quartermasters and commissaries to deliver to Mrs. Waul all supplies of every kind captured from the enemy which she may order for the use of the hospital;" and the hospi-
411
THOMAS NEVILLE WAUL.
tal at Mansfield was one of the best furnished in the army of the Confederacy.
As the author has had occasion to remark in another work, history will ever accord the highest meed of praise to the noble women of the South. At the first sounding of the tocsin of war they buckled on the armor of their hus- bands, fathers, brothers and sons, and bade them go with all the exulting pride and patriotic spirit of the dames of Sparta. And amid all the vicissitudes of war, and all the trials and sufferings that fell to their lot, they maintained the same spirit of defiance, the same calm, dignified de- meanor, an abiding faith and unswerving constancy un- equaled by the maids and matrons of Rome in the palmiest days of heroism. If they did not lop off the head of a Holofernes, sink ships of war, or scale the frowning ram- parts of an Orleans, they inspired the soldiers of the Con- federacy with that valor which gained the admiration of the world. No Susanna, Artemisia, or Maid of Orleans ever displayed a higher degree of genuine womanly fidelity and heroism.
Nor did their devotion wane when the smoke of battle cleared away and the Southern flag lay trailing in the dust ; but with the same lofty spirit and virtuous pride they held the rod of scorn over those of their countrymen who, for one cause or another, would have dragged them down to the level of that state of society which a revengeful policy sought to establish.
The mothers of the South have indeed had a hard time; · but while the years have rolled away, every month and day have left an effacing mark upon the sources of their troubles, and the great clock of destiny has summoned the daughters of the land to a sphere of happiness and useful- ness undreamed of in older days.
All honor forever to the noble women of the South. The seal of their patriotism is stamped with more than mortal superscription. Their virtues will forever embellish the pages of history, and hang upon the walls of time like " apples of gold in pictures of silver."
.
.
412
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
W. P. BALLINGER.
William Pitt Ballinger was born in Barboursville, Knox County, Kentucky, on the 25th of September, 1875. His grandfather, Colonel Richard Ballinger, was a native of Virginia, and an aid-de-camp to General St. Clair at the time of the defeat of that general by the Indians. He re- moved to Kentucky in the early period of its settlement, and was the first clerk of Knox County, was afterwards a member of the State Senate, and lived to a great age, highly respected for his intelligence and personal qualities. His father, James Franklin Ballinger, was a native of Barbours- ville, and spent the greater part of his life as clerk of the courts in Knox County. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and at the age of seventeen years was taken prisoner at Dudley's defeat, and compelled to run the gauntlet for his life. In 1837 he was a member of the Kentucky Legislature, and in 1840 was an elector on the Whig ticket. He removed to Texas in 1868, and died at Houston in 1875, in the eighty- second year of his age, and in the conscientious serenity of a beneficent and useful life.
The early education of William Pitt Ballinger, was ob- tained in the schools of his native town, and, having spent two years at St. Mary's College, near Lebanon, Kentucky, he received a thorough training in the office of his father, and at an early age became familiar with the business of the courts, which laid the foundation of his great success at the bar. In 1843, his health requiring a milder climate, he accepted an invitation from his uncle, Judge James Love, of Galveston, to remove to that place, and immediately began the study of law in his office with a vigor of determination which predestined the attainment of professional eminence.
When the Mexican War began he joined a volunteer com-
413
W. P. BALLINGER.
pany as a private soldier, but was soon afterwards elected first lieutenant of his company, and was appointed adjutant of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston's Texas regiment, with which he served at the storming of Monterey. He returned to Galveston in the fall of 1846, and in the spring of 1847 obtained his license and began the practice of his profes- sion. He was soon afterwards admitted as a partner in the firm of Jones & Butler, who did the largest practice at the Galveston bar, and was thus engaged at the start in the most important cases in the courts. In 1850, upon the recommendation of the judges of the Supreme Court and leading members of the Legislature, he was appointed United States attorney for the District of Texas, and filled that office with efficiency and ability.
In 1859, he was employed as leading counsel in the great cases involving the title to the wharf property and water front of the city of Galveston, 23 Texas, 349. The Congress of the Texas Republic had, in 1836, granted to Michael B. Menard, the east end of Galveston Island for the purpose of building a city, and the question in dispute was whether or not this grant included the adjacent flats which were period- ically submerged, and Mr. Ballinger, in contending for this comprehension of the grant, enters into an elaborate discus- sion of both the common and civil-law definitions of what constitutes a sea shore, and the requisites of a dedication to public uses.
In 1871 he declined a position upon the Supreme Bench, tendered him by Governor E. J. Davis, through his repug- nance to any connection with his administration. He was again appointed an associate justice, in 1874, by Governor Coke, but was induced, by the demands of his private affairs, to resign on the day of his confirmation.
In 1875, he was elected a member of the convention which framed the present Constitution of Texas, and was chair- man of the committee on the executive department, and a member of the judiciary committee. He differed widely in his views from a majority of the convention. He was opposed to an elective judiciary, which he feared would drag the ermine through the mire of political strife, and
414
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS,
prove fatal to the purity and efficiency of the bench, and especially if attended with short terms and constant rota- tion in office. He favored salaries adequate to obtain com- petent public service, and protested against the curtailment of executive functions necessary to an efficient administra- tion of the government ; and, failing to impress these views, he opposed the adoption of the Constitution and voted against it at the polls.
In 1877 he was recommended by the Governor of Texas and all the judges of the high courts, regardless of political views, for the position on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, made vacant by the resignation of Judge Davis, and the Texas delegation in Congress urged President Hays to appoint him to that place; but partisan and sectional spirit reigned supreme at that time in Wash- ington and dictated an opposition which could spring only from that origin. In 1879 Governor Roberts tendered him the appointment as one of the members of the Commission of Appeals, but he declined the office, and has steadily cherished a devotion and application to the duties of his profession, which no allurements of office or public honors could supplant or abate.
Judge Ballinger was a Whig as long as that party main- tained a distinct organization, and still adheres to the main features of its political faith. He was not a sympathizer with the extreme doctrines of the State's rights school, and did not favor the theory and principle of secession. He warmly opposed it as an unwise and fatal measure, but when it became an acccomplished fact and he saw no other alternative but success or subjugation for the South, he repelled the idea of a union by force, and gave his heart and soul to the success of the Confederacy, trusting that a reunion might eventually be accomplished by choice and a returning sense of the folly of disunion. He was one of the committee sent by the people of Galveston to Rich- mond to procure cannon for the defense of the city, and while on this mission he was appointed Confederate States' receiver, and performed the duties of that office during the continuance of the war. After the capitulation of the
415
W. P. BALLINGER.
army of Northern Virginia he was sent by Governor Murray as the representative of the civil authority, in company with Colonel Ashbell Smith, on the part of the military, to New Orleans to negotiate for the surrender of the State, and if possible prevent its military occupation. On . returning to Galveston he resumed the practice of his profession, and, while voting since that time with the Democratic party, he is still independent in his views upon public questions and devoid of all political aspirations.
Beginning the practice of law with ample qualifications, and amid auspicious circumstances, Judge Ballinger has steadily advanced to the attainment of the highest profes- sional eminence until he has no superior at the bar of Texas. With intellectual endowments of a high order, his mind has been trained to a capacity for keen perception and close analysis, his judgment tutored to accuracy and promptness, and his habits of application adapted to the sternest professional requirements. Indefatigable industry and the love of profound study respond to a strong will- power, and in the preparation of his cases no depth of principle or medley of circumstance can escape the edge of his comprehension, no obstacle baffle his determination to eliminate truth and justice, and no presentation allure him from the true elements of the issue.
Subsidiary to these qualities he possesses reasoning powers of a high order. His logic is strong, clear and closely knit, and appeals directly to reason rather than to . sympathy or hallucination. While his language is chaste and correct he does not sacrifice clearness for embellish- ment, nor obscure the stamens of fact with the carollas of speech.
One of the best arguments in the Texas reports was made by Judge Ballinger in the case of Webster v. Heard, 32 Texas, 685. David Webster, who died in the city of Galves- ton in 1856, left a will in which he emancipated his servant woman, Betsy, and bequeathed to her his entire property, coupled with a trust lodged with a lady friend in Georgia. His heirs, residing in the State of New York, contested the validity of the will. Betsy and her trustee employed
.
416
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
Messrs. Porter and Ballinger to maintain her rights, and deeded them certain lots in Galveston as compensation for their services. They established the validity of the will in the face of strong popular prejudice, and afterwards con- veyed the property to Heard. Betsy's rights were safe. and there the matter rested until the year 1866, when a scalawag Radical and grace-fallen preacher turned lawyer and instigated Betsy to bring suit for the recovery of the fees paid her attorneys, upon the ground that her disabili- ties were not removed and her freedom was not consum- mated until established by the result of the war.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.