USA > Virginia > City of Lynchburg > City of Lynchburg > Historic and heroic Lynchburg > Part 13
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"And sovereign law, the State's collected will O'er thrones and globes elate
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."
It is a high prerogative of the legal profession that from its ranks must be chosen those who fill this loftiest of functions in civil society. Honor is then due to the Bench, and in paying it, the Chair has selected a gentleman to respond whose name has already twice in successive generations illustrated the qualities which adorn the Bench, and whose distinguished success in legal authorship gives token that the same name may yet stand higher on the roll of our national judicatory.
The Chair read the following, and called on Major J. W. Daniel to respond to it:
The Judiciary-When pure, learned, able and laborious-the guardian of rights, the refuge of the innocent and the weak, the exemplars and instructors of society.
In response, Major Daniel, in his most eloquent vein, said:
Mr. Chairman and Brethren of the Bar: I know of nothing better calculated to disturb the equanimity and pleasurable emotions which attend a festival like this, than the apprehension that you are going to be called upon, "by surprise," of course, to respond to
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some such sentiment as this you now propose, and to have the subject which you are expected to handle selected for you. But I congratulate myself, however, sir, that your own skilled hand has thrown upon the canvas in your opening the principal features of your excellent text, and that if I gave here only a repetition of that text, it would be of sufficient worth to relieve my embarrassment. You have very justly placed among the necessary qualifications of the worthy and honorable judge the element of purity. And, sir, in ascertaining this, in making the analysis of the Honorable Judge, it seems to me that there can be no such thing as a good judge, a mind fitted to pass perfect judgment, without purity. The upright judge must be masculine, independent, earnest, un- fearing secure in the consciousness of right and satisfied to follow his own convictions. (Applause.) We have seen in England the great Lord Bacon holding the position of Lord Chancellor of England, but soiling the ermine by bribery; and the great Cardinal Wolsey, unlike our venerable friend here, after many and great abuses of his power, could only say, in those melancholy days, at the close of his life, "Had I but served my conscience with half the zeal that I have served my king," etc. (Applause.) There is no scene in human history more pitiful than that of Lord Bacon taking bribes, and his humble and contemptible apology for it. There, too, was Lord Thurlow, coming from the lower walks of life, yet earning for himself a distinguished name and a position in Par- liament. He was a man, as you well know, sir, of great learning and ability, and he knew the buttered side of a piece of bread from the opposite one. He earned judicial distinction, but was not par- ticular as to how he obtained it. He was despicable and con- temptible in the character of the judge-a fawning sycophant of the powers that be, and would "bend the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift might follow fawning." His character was well known. While making a speech in the House of Lords he ex- claimed: "When I forget my sovereign, may my God forget me!" and as quick as lightning Wilkes leaped to his feet and cried: "God forget you? He'll see you d-d first." (Laughter. ) And I expect, sir, that he did. (Laughter.)
But, Mr. Chairman, the judge must have something more than mere purity. He may be as pure as the icicle that hangs on Diana's
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temple. But he must be more than this: he must have, also, the instincts of common sense. He must realize and observe the existence and the changes in customs, in modes of business, and social usages. He should know something of languages and of history ; and he can never be a successful lawyer or a good judge unless, with the eye of common sense, he can see how rights have been invaded and how they should be redressed; and without this he will fail, however bright his genius, or however diligent his labor. And he must, as you have said, have those instincts of justice that come from purity. All these pre-eminently adorn the character and give grace to the life of a lawyer; and all these are qualities that are seldom combined in the life of any one man. Chief Justice Marshall, when he was upon the bench with his brother, Story, would often say, "This must be the law, but I leave it to my friend Story to find the authorities." (Laughter.) The judge should be more than simply one who can reach correct conclusions, in order to make the world respect the bench. He may reach a correct conclusion, but the simple conviction of his own conscience is not always satisfactory-does not meet the ends of justice-unless he can make the truth and exactness of that conclusion transparent by reasoning and authority. Then the people will respect the judgment, because they see that it has been reached by wise considerations, and the laws of the land. And furthermore, sir, the good judge must have something more than learning. A man without ability may have learning and nothing more, and his mind will be like an old lumber shop. Without ability, his learning is merely dead capital. The law is not an abstract science, but an applied science, and a science applied to subjects which come nearer to the bosoms of men than, perhaps, any other. It deals with human means, not with the things simply which are external, or which come from the workships. The judge meets the thoughts, the hopes, the lives, the emotions of this over restless age. To them he has to apply the wisdom of the law, and the convictions of his conscience, and ability, learning, labor, and purity must all come to his aid. And when, Mr. Chairman, the judge stands before the world, pure and upright in his conscience, learned in his information, able to respond to the requirements of his position, to wield that knowledge with which he is equipped, and to be laborious in its application to the
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subject before him, then indeed he realizes, as your sentiment so justly states, all that is most noble amongst men. Then, indeed, he stands as a guard to the helpless-gives them a shelter from all the winds that blow (applause) ; then innocence walks in confidence and the weak in strength (great applause), and virtue sits under her own vine and fig tree, with none to make her afraid. (Long continued applause. )
I shall not weary you or my brethren, or our friends and guests, by a further abstract discussion of the qualities of the per- fect judge, for in the guest of the evening, in him in whose honor this banquet is held, I have a living illustration of my text. And will you pardon me if I depart from the toast somewhat and speak of that venerable man? He was the friend of my father, and of my grandfather, and he was my friend also; and in the early days when I first came to the bar, and in some respects, sir, without even the borrowed horse to carry me or the ninepence in my pocket, (for our "little unpleasantness," sir, was rather destructive both to horse and ninepence, whether paid for or otherwise), this old gentleman invited me at this time to his office and there opened to me the stores of his books, and talked to me upon many branches of law. And I hold, sir, that one of the most praiseworthy and beautiful traits in the character of any judge or any lawyer, or any man, whatever may be his position, is a disposition to encourage the honest efforts of the young. (Applause. ) But I must say, sir, that after coming to the bar and meeting him in court as an opponent, and having a few passes with him, I began to think that he was like old Kasm in the Flush Times of Alabama and Missis- sippi, when he was going for me with gloves off. But however dangerous he may have been as an opponent, however furious he may have been when his clients and their interests were behind him, there is no member of this bar who can truly say that any young man ever had any difficulty in practicing before him, or in getting the ear of the judge, when well nigh overcome by the modesty for which our profession is noted. (Laughter and applause. ) And as then he was our friend, so he has been the upright judge, unharmed by any venality, and unswerved by improper propositions. Has he been learned? He did not devote his years to the accumulation of wealth, and if the love of money be the root of all evil, that root
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never found any very fruitful soil in him to grow upon. Has he been able? For scores of years he has devoted himself to study, fought his way long ago to the front rank of the bar, and not only at the bar of Lynchburg, but the bar of the whole State, recognized that in him was a foeman worthy of their steel. Has he been laborious? In criminal and in equity jurisprudence, and in the common law, and in the laws of this State, in all these various branches he is a man, sir, whose attainments prove his labors.
And so he stands among us here tonight, honored and venerated by his fellowmen, with their good wishes attending him in his declining years, and with their blessings and benedictions upon his head. And, sir, in closing the few remarks which I have to make upon this occasion, I have only to say that you have uttered the sentiment of this whole community, and beautifully expressed in words our hope that his old age may be happy and his sun go down without a cloud. (Great applause. )
Other responses to toasts appropriate to the occasion were made by Captain Charles M. Blackford, John H. Lewis, Esq., Robert J. Davis, Esq., Hon. R. Page W. Morris, Captain Stephen Adams, Major Thos. J. Kirkpatrick, Messrs. Thomas N. Wil- liams and William T. Yancey, Hon. J. Singleton Diggs (who succeeded Judge Garland on the Corporation Court bench),* John H. Christian, Esq., Hon. Thomas Whitehead, and Messrs. W. H. Dudley and Randolph Harrison, many of which were printed by the Gazette in full, and were said by it to be "peculiarly appro- priate, learned, brilliant, and thrillingly eloquent." It must have, indeed, been a happy occasion, lasting far into the night, and characterized by rare good fellowship and conviviality as well as learning and eloquence. It is a pleasure to know that the Lynch- burg bar of today is composed of worthy successors to those splendid men of half a century ago.
* A brief intervening incumbency was held by Judge C. P. Latham, who served until Judge Diggs was elected by the Legislature. Judge Garland signed his last orders on December 23, 1882, when he was again honored by the Lynchburg bar, which adopted highly complimentary resolutions of admira- tion and affection, expressing their good wishes to him upon his retirement. He died August 8, 1885.
LYNCHBURG PAST AND PRESENT
Reprinted from Centennial Souvenir of Lynchburg (1886), prepared by Hinton A. Helper
MAJOR DANIEL'S ADDRESS
Expectation was on tiptoe to hear the address of this dis- tinguished orator. As he was escorted to the stand by the committee, and the thousands of expectant eyes caught sight of his splendid face, a murmur of admiration and delight ran through the assembled throng. He was listened to with the closest attention, not a single soul moving or flagging in attention and interest during the hour and twenty minutes occupied in its delivery. This is unprecedented in similar speeches. Usually the crowd dwindles away to a baker's dozen, but Major Daniel held every one in delighted attention till the last echo of his fine and musical voice died away. Owing to its great length, it is impossible in this publication to give the admirable address in full, but the following extracts, representing the most conspicuous portions, will present the general scope of the speech:
Old Father Times marks upon his dial the fulfillment of the first hundred years of Lynchburg's existence.
Her sons and daughters are gathering here to celebrate her birthday, render thanks to the Giver of all good for His blessings, and give welcome to you who, in your pleasant faces, have contributed to the occasion, in every sense, its most attractive feature.
To the wandering children who have returned to look again upon the scenes of youthful days, we give the greetings of the Old Roof Tree; nor can we forget the distant ones, who can only send us messages of fond recollection.
THE LYNCHBURGER AND CAMPBELLITE ABROAD -
The Lynchburger and his Campbellite brother are abroad in all this broad land wherever there are mines to be opened, cities to be built, forests to be felled, or prairies to be ploughed; wherever there are goods to be sold, patients to be doctored, papers to be
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edited, schools to be taught, causes to be pleaded, or good offices to be filled.
Joe Baldwin says in "Flush Times of Alabama and Mis- sissippi": "It makes no odds to the Virginian where he goes, he carries Virginia with him. He never gets acclimated elsewhere. He may breathe in Alabama, but he lives in the Old Dominion. There his treasure is and his heart also. He does not reproach anybody for not being born in Virginia; he thinks the affliction great enough without the reproach."
Some far-away Lynchburger or Campbellite may well have sat for that picture. Wherever he may be, he firmly believes that the sun originally arose out of James River, and that the Peaks of Otter were especially made to accommodate his setting.
He is apt to be sinner enough to follow the Campbell creed that "the lie is the first lick," and is of the opinion that Charles Lynch and William Blackstone "pooled their issues" in founding jurisprudence.
He is convinced that nobody ever taught the young idea how to shoot like Parson Reid, John Carey, Amos Botsford, or Miss Polly Tompkins; that nobody ever defended the mistreated prisoner "at the bar" like Major Risque; and that nobody ever prosecuted a criminal like Major Garland. He knows that the world never saw such ginger cakes as those of Aunt Sally Thurman, and that Blind Billy's fife was more melodious than the Æolian Harp; and the old market house is as indelibly engraven upon his memory as ever was the Coliseum upon that of the ancient Roman. No minstrelsy will ever strike for him refrain so sacred as "Carry me back, oh! carry me back to Old Virginia's shore."
To our kinsfolk in other climes we send the loving greeting of the old folks and the young folks at home.
Campbell County was formed from Bedford in 1774. Two years later the General Assembly of Virginia enacted: "Forty-five acres of land, the property of John Lynch, and lying contiguous to Lynch's Ferry, are hereby vested in John Clarke, Adam Clement, Charles Lynch, John Calloway, Achilles Douglas, William Mar- ten, Jesse Burton, Joseph Stratton, Micajah Moorman, and Charles Brooke, gentlemen, trustees, to be by them or any six of them,
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laid off into lots of half an acre each, with convenient streets," and establish a town by the name of Lynchburg.
Had you looked around for Lynchburg then, this act of Assembly is the only place where you would have found it, for the ferryman's cabin on the river bank and Lynch's ferry were the only demonstrations that civilization had yet made in that particu- lar quarter. Then and now! in the narrow compass of this hundred years that lies between them, what vast upheavals, devel- opments and transformations! In that very year, 1786, Virginia stretched her mighty borders to the great lakes of the Northwest, and Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan were yet a part of her possessions. George Washington having resigned his commission as general-in-chief of the American Army, was in retirement at Mount Vernon. Patrick Henry was, for the second time, governor of Virginia. The thirteen states of America had just won their independence, but the jewels set loosely in the crown of freedom, for the states were without a federal constitution and were scarcely held together by the flimsy thread of those Articles of Confederation fully described as declaring everything and doing nothing. Three years ante-dating the Constitution of the United States, which was in 1779, Lynchburg is bounded in her federal relations by Washington's administration on the one side and Cleveland's on the other, and I hope I may be allowed to say in each case, helped to place the boundary stone.
Since then wonderland has been eclipsed in the startling revolu- tion of progress. The railroad and the steamboat, the telegraph, telephone, and phonograph, the reaper and the mower, kerosene oil, gas light and electric light, the daguerreotype and photograph, the chromo and the picture paper, dime novels and ready-made clothes, free schools and coupon bonds, chloroform and cocaine, the cotton gin and the sewing machine, fast trotters and two-pound butter cows-these are some of the wonders that have been showered out of Time's cornucopia. And what a stupendous fabric of free government has arisen; what a mighty pavilion, whose pillars are the people's hands, covers the continent. Then, while the mother country has increased her ten millions but threefold, our three millions have multiplied twentyfold, and now nearly sixty millions of people, with one thought ever ruling them, present the
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experiment of the eighteenth in the ripe fruit of the nineteenth century. The problem of man's self-government has been solved; peace reigns without a soldier to command it; civil and religious liberty are triumphant.
Thus is the miracle of America grander than any that rushes in the flying engine, flashes in the electric light, or whispers in the ticking wire-the miracle of the million in superb self-control.
God be praised that the ripened harvest and the peaceful home are the trophies that crown the first century's termination; that it closes its eyes with a smile upon its lips.
A VISION OF THE PAST
All these things have come to pass since first we discovered Lynchburg in a legislative act, and elsewhere searched for it in vain. Let us go back and hunt it up, and see what has become of the ferryman's cabin and Lynch's ferry. Ah! would that old Father Time would lift his curtain and give us a peep at those old days of the eighteenth century. Perhaps then we might catch a glimpse of that fiery, red-coated Colonel Tarleton riding after the magazine and stores of the rebels at New London, then our county seat and principal place of this section. Perhaps we might see the redoubtable rebel, Col. Charles Lynch, administering Lynch law amongst the Tories. Perhaps Horseshoe Robinson would ride by, carrying a message between the Northern and Southern rebels; or Patrick Henry might be passing on to court to speak against Johnny Hook; or Thomas Jefferson might be on the road to Bedford and Poplar Forest. Behold our wish is granted ! The view dissolves-grounds and parks, neighing steed and fatten- ing kine* vanish from our sight-the forest closes over the slopes that lie between us and the city-the clustering suburban houses of the landscape, the roofs and steeples that peep over yonder hills- all are gone, wrapped in the thick foliage; we are back in the olden time and the wilderness is about us.
And lo! who is the traveler jogging along on the New London road to Lynch's ferry. A goodly steed he rides-no better at the Fair today; and indeed his countenance is engaging. He is in the
* This speech was made at the old Fair Grounds, now Miller Park.
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prime of life-about forty, we should say-and out of his stirrups would stand "full six feet two." His saddlebags are fat with protruding papers. Horse pistols as long as your arm are in his holsters, but his is a contemplative rather than a martial face, ex- pression somewhat irregular, and clean shaven. We can scarcely call it beautiful-and it is shadowed with lines of care-but the deep-set, greyish hazel eyes, the broad, full brow, from which fall luxuriant chestnut locks, and the beaming benignity and sagacity of his countenance, fix the gaze attracted to them. Behind him, as well mounted, and scarce less well dressed, rides his dark attendant, a figure of aristocratic carriage and conscious importance.
We follow the wayfarer. He reaches College Hill, but not a sign of human dwelling. The hickory and oak, maple and chestnut hold full sway there; Federal, Garland, Court House, Diamond, Franklin and Daniel's Hills are alike forest covered; the deep chasms here and there between them marked only by undulations of the foliage.
He pursues his way over the hill where now is the deep cut of Twelfth Street, along the edge of the chasm at the foot of Diamond Hill, now crossed by Church Street, and filled up with factories; he rides diagonally across the hillside where now are Main, Eleventh and Tenth Streets, and then down them where now is Ninth Street towards the river. There by the bank, near where the depot of the Norfolk and Western Railroad now stands, is the ferryman's cabin, the only "local habitation" in all the area to which "Lynchburg" is about to join "a name." To greet the coming customer there hobbles out on one leg the ferryman, an old soldier, who had marched with Lynch's militia to Guilford battlefield.
"How are you, my old friend?" says the stranger; "and how's that hickory limb of yours getting along? Didn't run at Guilford with the rest of those fellows, did you? I expect you have to thank the British bullet that you didn't. Well, what's the fare across?"
"As to the fare over to Amherst," says the soldier ferryman, "since '76 all things haven't been 'free' here, but they have been 'equal'-a shilling for a man and a shilling for a horse, but as for you, Governor, this ferry is free for passage, and equal for safety, too, even if the load is a big one, and may be a future president !
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And as for Lynch's boys running at Guilford, true enough, Webster's regulars did make them give back rather sudden, and Tarleton's troopers kept them agoing rather lively, but the Con- tinentals got away with Cornwallis at Yorktown, didn't they? And by the way, Governor, I've heard some of the boys say that, judg- ing by the speed you made when that same fellow Tarleton was hurling big game at Monticello, they reckoned if you had been at Guilford you would have kept up with the best of them."
"Ah, Sawney, a statesman is one thing and a soldier is another- it's for one to cut the wood and another to make the fire. But put me over the river now. I wish I had time to hear you play the fiddle, but I am hurrying on to Albemarle Court, and mind that sharp tongue of yours, for everybody is not as good natured as I am. At any rate, I haven't been at Poplar Forest, and some day I may send you my notes on Virginia, when you'll see what I've been doing. But how is my Quaker friend, John Lynch?"
"Oh, fine, sir, fine; and now that the British are done with, he's got his head full of a city. He rides around here and sprees about most every day; thinks these hills are going to bow to him, these wrinkles smooth out to him, and these rocks melt for him. Yes, he's going to build a city right here, he says, and has a splendid one on paper, lacking nothing but places for houses, houses for the places, and people for the houses. If he's going to raise goats, I'd like to go partners with him; but turkeys and possums will be the city folks for a good while, I reckon. Well, if he does, every man will have his own hill certain; if he falls out of his own window he will light in his neighbor's chimney; and if he lives at the foot of a hill he'll have a nice walk into the country to get to the top of it. Build a city here, indeed," and the ferryman laughed and shook his sides till his ruddy jaws were fairly bursting.
"I wish I could ride down to Chestnut Hill and spend the night with John Lynch," said the stranger; "a strong-headed and level- headed man he is. And how's your old Colonel, Charles Lynch; not ailing, as he was, I hope?
'A little Lynch law now and then Is relished by the wisest men,'
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when it is the work with rascals, and it looks from the way they are cutting up in some sections as if we might need such men as he before we get settled down to reap the fruits that we have won. But I must hurry on, friend Sawney; so give me a lift over the river." Here the stranger dropped something into the old soldier's hand, and then fell into a reverie. Horse and man and lackey and horse were ferried over the James as silently as if they were voyaging over the Styx, and on the Amherst side the traveler dashed away like a cavalier on a centaur.
Pausing as he reached the plateau of the Amherst heights, where now are the remains of the earthworks behind which the Silver Grays and the hospital invalids prepared to give Sheridan a reception when he threatened us with a visit in the winter of 1864-65, the rider turned, and his face lightened as he viewed the vista.
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