USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 33
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Mr. Porter was then dead, and Judge Ballinger made the defense, and Chief Justice Morrill, in his opinion main- taining the validity of the conveyance, observed that " had the plaintiff, instead of expending what she has in this suit, appropriated the same in erecting a monument over the grave of the lamented Porter, and inscribed thereon what he did for her, in the furtherance of the kindness and benevolence of him whose name she assumes, she would thereby have given stronger proof than she now has that her gratitude has not yielded to her avarice."
In 1854 Judge Ballinger formed a copartnership with Thomas M. Jack, a man of strikingly similar personal qualities and professional traits, which inspired a congeni- ality and accord of co-operation between them, which con- duced greatly to the success of the firm; and this association continued until the death of Col. Jack in 1880. He was also a brother-in-law of the latter, having married his sister, Miss Hattie P. Jack, of Brazoria County, in 1850. Immediately after his marriage he established the elegant residence in Galveston which is still his home - a seat of refinement and hospitality, which his accomplished lady adorns with every grace. He subsequently formed a co- partnership with M. F. Mott, to which J. W. Terry has since been admitted ; and this firm continues as one of the most able and successful in the State ..
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J. W. THROCKMORTON.
.T. W. THROCKMORTON.
James W. Throckmorton, ex-Governor of Texas, was born in Sparta, Tennessee, on the 1st day of February, 1825. His father, Dr. William E. Throckmorton, was a physician of high standing and an excellent gentleman, and, having removed to Texas, was one of the first settlers of Collin County, where he died in 1843. The county of Throckmorton was named in commemoration of his virtues.
The subject of this sketch received a good common school education, and removed to Texas in 1841. In 1844 he began the study of medicine at Princeton, Kentucky, under the supervision of his uncle, Dr. James E. Throck- morton, and, having prepared himself for the medical pro- fession, he returned to Texas and enjoyed for a number of years an extensive practice and the reputation of being a skillful physician. During the war with Mexico he volun- teered his services to the army, and was made surgeon of Major Chevallie's Texas Rangers. He afterwards resumed his practice in, Collin County, and pursued the duties of his profession with success until the year 1859, when, in con- sequence of failing health induced by the exposure and irregularity attending an extensive medical practice, he de- termined to follow the dictates of a natural taste and pre- pare himself for the bar, and, having thoroughly studied the general principles of law, he entered upon a successful legal career.
In 1851 he was elected a member of the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1853 and 1855. His efficiency as a legis- lator gained him popular favor and reputation, and in 1857 his services were further recognized in his election to the State Senate for a term of four years.
During his career in the Legislature he exerted himself particularly for the protection of the frontier settlements;
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for procuring the adoption of measures for quieting land titles throughout the State, and especially those pertaining to Peter's Colony, which had been for some time unsettled and endangered ; for the encouragement of the construction of railroads, and for the establishment and endowment of a munificent system of public schools. In his vigorous and able advocacy of these measures he stamped his genius and his name upon the cradle of the remarkable growth and prosperity of Texas, which has since that time spread her lap and her history before the world.
He had been reared a Whig in politics and was one of the electors of Texas on the Scott ticket in 1852, but on the dis- solution of that party at the end of the campaign, spurning the doctrine of the Know-Nothings, which was then urged in * opposition to Democracy, he affiliated with the party of Jefferson, which he believed to be the only palladium left of American liberty and of the principles upon which the American government was founded, and it was as a Demo- crat that he was elected to the Texas Legislature.
While he was conscious and sensitive of the wrongs, both actual and prospective, both perpetrated and threatened upon the Southern people by the advent of the Republican party to power in 1861, he was firmly opposed to secession as the proper mode and measure of the redress of Southern grievances, and, in this respect, harmonizing with General Houston and other eminent Texans, he was elected, while a Democratic member of the State Senate, as a Union man to the Secession Convention, in which he employed his best efforts to retain the allegiance of Texas to the Union and for the adoption of measures for maintaining its rights under the national flag. He was earnest and conscientious in his views. HIe was one of the seven members who voted against the - ordinance of secession, and it is said that when he an- nounced his vote some one hissed in the crowded galleries, upon which he rose to his feet and addressing the chair said: " Mr. President, the rabble may hiss while patriots tremble." Yet he announced that if the ordinance was adopted and ratified by the people, he would maintain the honor of his State and defend her action to the utmost of his ability. This attitude, if it did not attract respect to
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his views, gained him great personal popularity. It ac- quired respect for his integrity and the purity of his motives, and he was applauded.
Texas withdrew from the Union with the voice of an over- whelming popular majority. Mr. Throckmorton had plighted his fidelity to her wishes, and, like Gen. Jubal B. Early, immediately buckled on his armor for her defense. He commanded a company in one of the first regiments or- ganized in the State, and participated in the capture of Forts Washita and Arbuckle, on the Texas frontier, which was accomplished without bloodshed by the boldness and celerity of the expedition. He was afterwards captain of a company in the famous Sixth regiment of Texas cavalry, and rendered important service in the Missouri campaign. He led his company with distinguished gallantry in the Indian fight at Chustennallah and in the two day's battle at . Elkhorn.
In the latter part of 1862 he was transferred to Corinth, Mississippi, where his command was reorganized, and, de- clining re-election to the captaincy in consequence of broken health, he returned to Texas, where he was for sometime disabled by disease for active duty. He afterwards per- formed efficient service in the campaign in Louisiana, and his health again failing, he retired once more, and was af- terwards appointed by the Governor of Texas to the com- mand of State troops, with the rank of brigadier-general, in which position he acquitted himself with honor and efficiency. He was soon afterwards elected to another term of four years in the State Senate, and as soon as the ses- sion of that body was over he resumed his command in the field.
During the last year of the war he was sent by Gen. E. Kirby Smith, the commander of the Trans-Mississippi De- partment, to treat with the Indian tribes inhabiting the Texas border, who had assumed a threatening attitude seriously endangering the safety of the frontier settle- ments. He succeeded in effecting the pacification of the Comanches, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Lipans, Cheyennes, and other fierce tribes, which required great tact and caution.
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At the close of the war he returned to his home and re- sumed the practice of his profession. He quietly accepted the situation, and bent his energies towards the re-estab- lishment of peace and order in conformity with the policy of the President. In 1866 he was elected a member of the reconstruction convention assembled under President John- son's proclamation, and was chosen president of that body. In June, of the same year, he was elected Governor of Texas, under the new Constitution, by a large majority, and was inaugurated on the 8th of August. As Governor, his course was wise and conservative. His efforts were directed to the building up of the waste places scourged by the besom of civil war, and to the restoration of peace and friendship between the dissevered and discordant sections of the country. But his efforts were soon thwarted by the partisan and revengeful process of reconstruction adopted by the Federal Congress, which superseded the more pacific and just designs of the President. On the 9th of August, 1867, he was deposed by a missile containing three lines from an officer of the United States Army at New Orleans, who was temporarily in command of the military district of Louisiana and Texas.
On being thus forbidden to exercise the functions of his office, to which he had been peaceably elected by three-fourths of the Texan people, Gov. Throckmorton retired to his home in Collin County, where, disfranchised in common with thousands of his fellow-citizens, he remained in private life, watchful of the progress of events, yet unable to stay, even so much as by his vote, the tide of vengeance that rolled over his State.
In 1874, on the restoration of the ballot-box to the people, he was elected to a seat in the United States Con- gress by a large majority of the voters of his district, and was re-elected in 1876. At the expiration of his latter term, in 1879, he declined a re-election, and retired per- manently to private life, in which, in spite of the pains of physical debility, he has enjoyed the reward of duty con- scientiously performed, and the highest respect of his fellow-citizens.
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Ex-Governor Throckmorton is a man of versatile genius and varied attainments. His reading has been extensive and his mind has been trained to those habits of calm reflection and steady contemplation which lead to a prac- tical view of things. While he is naturally a man of quick impulses and vehement sensibilities his actions are con- troled by a sound judgment and tempered by a serene dis- cretion. He is a fluent and interesting speaker, enthusiastic in the advocacy of his views, and strikes straight at the crest of opposition. Yet he is plain and terse in his elocu- tion and avoids all efforts at ornation or display.
He is a man of strong and sincere attachments, and few men have more or warmer personal friends. He was mar- ried while he was a young physician, to Miss Annie Ratten, whose father emigrated at an early day from Illinois - a lady full worthy of all he could bestow.
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JOHN HANCOCK.
The subject of this biography was born in Jackson County, Alabama, on the 24th day of October, 1824, whither his father, John Allen Hancock, a native of Vir- ginia and a planter, had emigrated in 1819. Having de- voted several years of his boyhood to the duties of the farm and acquired the habits of industry and economy in- culcated by that most moral of all early training, he was afforded excellent educational advantages in the University of East Tennessee at Knoxville, in which he pursued a thorough course of studies and vigorously availed himself of his opportunities.
In 1843, he began the study of law under the supervision of Judge William Taul, an eminent lawyer of Winchester, and in 1846 was admitted to the bar in his native county. But possessed of an enterprise, an ambition alert for grand- est possibilities, he determined to seek his fortune in Texas, and, having spent several months in prospecting for a suit- able locality, he settled, in 1847, at Austin, where he formed a copartnership with Hon. A. J. Hamilton, and which has since been his constant residence. His close application and fidelity gained him friends and patronage. He soon acquired distinction and a large practice at the bar, and in 1851, when but twenty-six years of age, was elected judge · of the Second Judicial District. His career upon the bench was characterized by honor and efficiency. His searching investigations gave soundness to his decisions. His prompt- ness and dispatch, attended by a dignity and gravity of manner rarely found in one of his age, commanded confi- dence and respect, and he had the reputation of being a just, impartial, and able judge.
In 1855 he resigned the judgeship and formed a copart-
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nership with Hon. Charles S. West, which continued until the latter was elected to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1883, and he then became associated in practice with his present partner, General N. G. Shelley. In conjunction with these gentlemen respectively he has been engaged while not on the bench or in Congress in nearly all the im- portant land cases that have come before the courts in his section of the State. He is thoroughly familiar with the land laws of Texas, with the origin and nature of the various tenures by which the lands of the State are held, and his practice in these cases, especially, has been attended with remarkable success. While he is a man of fine natural abilities and general attainments, his success as a lawyer is largely due to a steady and almost unremitting attention to the business entrusted to him. It has been his rule to spend every business hour in either his office or the court-room, and it is said of him that during the thirty-eight years of his residence in Austin he has not spent that many hours on the streets undevoted to the requirements of his busi- ness, and that during all that time he has never failed to keep a professional, official or political engagement.
Some of the most important cases argued by Judge Hancock are Carter v. Carter, which is a leading case as to the admissibility of parol testimony to show that " a deed or bill of sale absolute on its face is a mortgage," and Han- cock v. Mckinney, 7 Texas, 384, which was a highly im- portant case at the time, as it determined the consideration to be given by the Texas courts to conditional titles to land emanating from the preceding government, when the con- ditions had not been performed by the grantee, and to other questions relating to Mexican titles. The court re- jected his views, but the Constitution of 1875 adopted, in its thirteenth article, the policy for which he contended. These cases were argued by him before his election to the bench.
While judge of the Second Judicial District he intro- duced several important rules, which greatly promoted the facility of the court in the dispatch of business, and which have been followed by his successors. One of which was
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that practicing lawyers should not absent themselves from the court-room during the sitting of the court without no- tifying the sheriff of the place at which they could be found. Upon which a reasonable time would be given for sending for them; but no lawyer would be called as had been the custom and the cause of frequent and pro- longed delays. The other rule was to order parties con- victed and fined into the custody of the sheriff and to stand committed until the fine was paid. Previous to this parties convicted of misdemeanors, especially gamblers, would walk out of court in defiance of the law and regard- less of the penalty imposed by the judge. In addition to this he informed the sheriff that his custody meant confine- ment in the county jail, and the beneficial effect of the · rule was soon obvious upon all classes of society.
One of the most important and interesting questions argued by Judge Hancock after his return to the bar was the habeas corpus case of Peebles and others before the Supreme Court of Texas, in 1864. The history of this case is interesting as it presents a view of the conflict of law and public sentiment which often pervaded whole commun- ities in those unsettled times. It is as follows: -
In 1863, J. D. Baldwin, a lawyer of Houston, wrote and published his views of secession in a pamphlet entitled, " Common Sense; " in which he arraigned its origin, its purpose and the manner in which. it was accomplished, to- gether with the manner in which the war was being con- ducted, and its ultimate consequences.
This work was printed by a German, named Zinke, with whom another German named Hilderbrand was supposed to be associated in the matter, and was covertly circulated. . The work produced feelings of indignation and bitterness against the author and all who were supposed to be accom- plices in its production and circulation. Baldwin was upon terms of social intimacy with Dr. R. R. Peebles, a wealthy planter on the Brazos River, and, before that time, a man highly respected in his community, though a staunch and avowed Union man, and frequently visited his resi- dence. This caused the complicity of Peebles in the pub-
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lication to be suspicioned, and the result of public sentiment was that a military order was issued for the arrest of Baldwin, Peebles, Zinke and Hilderbrand. The prisoners, after having been confined at respective places, were taken to San Antonio, where the public feeling was so exasperated against them that threats were made against their lives, and they would no doubt have suffered the utmost violence had it not been for the prompt and stern protection afforded them by Capt. Thomas E. Sneed, now a prominent lawyer of Austin, who was in command of the company detailed to guard them. This sentiment against them ran so high that the lawyers of San Antonio, Houston and other places, either through condemnation, or fear of public disapproval, declined to take any steps in behalf of the prisoners, notwithstanding that their friends, especially the family of Peebles, had made every effort and offer of inducement to procure counsel for them.
Under these circumstances Mrs. Peebles repaired to Aus- tin and personally sought the services of Judge Hancock in an effort to save, as she supposed, the life of her hus- band, and without fee or reward he undertook their cause, and obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Court, upon which the prisoners were tried and liberated. This result, effected in the midst of popular excitement, he achieved by a calm and deliberate discussion of the principles of constitutional law, the inalienable rights of the citizen, and the obligations of those clothed with judicial authority to conform their adjudications to the written law of the land and to the dictates of human rights. He boldly denounced the assumption of arbitrary power by the military authorities, and his victory was a vindication of the inalienable rights of an American citizen.
In politics, Judge Hancock has always been a Democrat of the Jacksonian school; he was opposed to the doctrines of nullification and secession, and in 1860 was elected to the Legislature on the Union ticket ; but in 1861, declined to take the required oath to the Confederate government, and was deprived of his seat. During the war he maintained a neutral attitude, and divided his attention between the
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practice of his profession and the supervision of his stock farm until he was threatened in 1864 with compulsory mil- itary service in a cause, the policy and character of which were against his convictions. He then repaired to Mexico, and having resided several months in that country, he made his way to the United States and remained at the North until the close of the war.
At the termination of hostilities, Judge Hancock returned to Texas and devoted his efforts to the amelioration of the condition of the people, and had his advice at that period been heeded, and the position he assumed been adopted, it would no doubt have greatly paralyzed the revengeful de- signs of the dominant party at the North, which were pro- . moted by the reluctance of the Southern people to accept the full results of the issue. He was a member of the State Convention of 1866, and used his best efforts in the interest of conciliation and the immediate restoration of harmoni- ous relations between the State and the Federal government as the only means of restoring the peace and prosperity of the people. Time, the great monitor of events, has vindi- cated his sagacity and established the correctness of his views, and he is considered a wise connselor both as a law- yer and statesman.
In 1870 he was tendered the nomination for Congress by a convention held at Seguin, but he declined in obedi- ence to the demands of a large law practice, which he was not disposed to exchange for political honors; but in 1871 he yielded to the popular wishes and accepted the nomina- tion as the Democratic candidate. He was easily elected, and served by re-election until 1877, when, having been defeated for renomination, he resumed the practice of law. His services in Congress had been faithful and eminent. His industrious habits, his business capacity, his practical genius, his kindness of heart, suavity of manners, and pol- ished urbanity, crowned with conspicuous talents, gave him great influence, and he pursued with a steady purpose the accomplishment of that which he conceived to be the best interest of his constituency, his State and the country. So marked had been his efficiency, and so able and beneficent
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his career, that his services were again demanded, and in 1882, he was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress. In 1884 he declined re-election, and after participating in the pro- ceedings preliminary to the glorious inauguration of Presi- dent Cleveland, he once more returned to the practice of his profession at Austin where he is now engaged in a large business.
The brilliant career of Judge Hancock is due to his force of character and the qualities already mentioned. He pos- sesses no superior natural gifts as an orator and has never cultivated the artificial embellishments of speech or the mere flowers of oratory. He disdains all its "flower decked plats and blooming parterres ; " but, with his pur- pose well defined and his object constantly fixed in his view, his acute perception and cultivated judgment marshal every available point in the line of his argument, while a strong, powerful logic presents the merits of his case to the comprehension of common sense, and seizes upon convic- tion with the grasp of reason.
" The fluency of speech in many men and most women," says Jonathan Swift, " is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for whoever is master of lan- guage, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt in speak- ing to hesitate upon the choice of both ; whereas fluent speakers often have but one set of ideas and one set of words to clothe them in ; and those are always ready at the mouth; so people come faster out of the church when it is almost empty, than when there is a crowd at the door."
It is true that there are prominent exceptions to this rule as in the instances of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and Sergeant S. Prentiss ; but these exceptions have their origin in pre-eminent genius and, therefore, only affirm the aphorism.
Judge Hancock is a man of great energy and integrity of purpose, and views with impatience and intolerance every effort of evasion or undue advantage, and has no complacency with mere trifling with matters of importance. His last debate in the House of Representatives was upon the Fortification Bill, reported from his committee on the
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1st of March, 1885. For some reason the calibers of the guns used in the United States navy were assized by odd numbers while those used in the army are varied by even numbers. Judge Hancock contended that the calibers of all should be uniform, so that the same ammunition could be used both on sea and on land, and be interchangeable in the event of a deficiency in either branch of the service, and so that army officers could understand the use of navy guns and naval officers the use of army ordnance without special training.
Some of the members during the debate on this bill in the committee of the whole availed themselves of their five minutes' time to discuss the question of silver coinage. To which Judge Hancock sternly objected, saying that it was not proposed by the bill to fabricate cannon and build fortifications out of silver.
In his speech on " counting the electoral votes," delivered in the House of Representives on the 25th of January, 1877, he said : -
" Nothing is more hateful than a treacherous duplicity and a pretense of fairness merely delusory and intended to de- fraud. Everything which seems to be fair in this act of legislation is merely specious, insincere, and destructive.
" The board is to be at first composed of persons from all political parties, but it is not provided that it shall con- tinue so. A vacancy occurring should be filled with one from the same political party as the last tenant, but it is not promised that it shall be, and those who are to elect can not be made to elect at all. A person interested as a candidate is to be allowed a hearing, but there is no promise that the hearing shall be full or fair. The returning officers are to hear testimony, but it is not provided that they shall do this publicly, or that there may be cross-examination or opportunity for rebuttal, or previous notice to any one in all the world. Their conclusions are to be considered prima facie correct, and may be gone behind in a formal proceed- ing to contest, but their findings as to the material facts are final and it can not be shown that they ought not to have been convinced. To sum all up in a word, they can truly
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