USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 41
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James A rovou
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Campbell, that his mind was like a sponge-it absorbed everything with which it came in con- tact. This is true to a very great extent of the subject of this sketch. He is an industrious student, and possesses the power to retain what he reads. His thorough knowledge of the great economic questions of the country, and his well- known fitness for the place, caused his friends to present his name to President Harrison for the vacancy on the Inter-State Commerce Commis- sion. The most prominent men in the Nation, representing upward of three-fourths of the States of the Union, and embracing both of the leading political parties, urged the President to appoint him as a member of that Commission. The President admitted Mr. Campbell's general qualifications for the position; but was of the opinion that some active and experienced jurist should be chosen, and accordingly appointed Judge Veasy, of Vermont. The numerous testi- monials forwarded to the President in Mr. Camp- bell's behalf show the high esteem in which he is held by the leading men of the country. Mr. Campbell's individuality is impressed upon al- most every page of West Virginia's first twenty years of history. With voice and pen he was heard and felt, and largely followed, during the early years of our Statehood. Scholarly, and at the same time possessed of a deliberate judg- ment rarely found in men, he was heard and heeded by his less endowed fellow-citizens. No man in all our borders is better known; and I say it with due respect to other prominent West Virginians, no man is abler and none more highly respected. Mr. Campbell was for a num- ber of years Chairman of the State Republican Committee. In 1868 and 1880 he was the West Virginia member of the Republican National Committee and Republican nominee for elector- at-large. He has been an extensive traveller, and has visited almost every part of the United States, and written extensively for the press upon the vast resources of our country. Mr. Campbell, for years past, has given no attention to business. He has a sufficiency of worldly goods amassed to keep him the remainder of his days, and he is, therefore, taking the world easy. On the 20th of July, 1891, he left the United States for Europe, and remained abroad fourteen months, visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, and Italy. Being
naturally observant, and having taken this trip for the purpose of obtaining information as to the habits and customs of the people in the Old World, as well as for pleasure, he returned to his native State, bringing with him a vast fund of information that could only be obtained by travel and personal intercourse with the people of other and older countries than ours. During his foreign trip, he wrote many letters to his own paper that were read with avidity by those at home who had been reading after him for more than a quarter of a century. West Virginia people, somehow, read everything he writes and believe everything he says. He has such a natural, easy way of saying things that one cannot fail to be interested in his writings. When Mr. Campbell returned to the United States he remained a few months at his home in Wheeling, and then went to Chicago, as a spectator of the World's Columbian Exposition. For eight or nine months, he continued in that city studying the Exposition in all of its phases, and, in the mean time, writing readable and en- tertaining letters to his paper. From these many letters it is evident that he had a com- plete grasp of the vastness of that wonderful exhibit.
JAMES H. BROWN.
HON. JAMES HENRY BROWN, ex-Circuit Judge of Virginia, one of the first Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and historically identified with the formation of the new State, was born in Cabell County, Va., on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1818. A very full sketch of Judge Brown is included in Vol. I. of the West Virginia Reports, by John Marshall Hagans, Reporter to the Supreme Court of Appeals. The same volume includes sketches of Ralph L. Berkshire and William A. Harrison, also members of the first Supreme Court of West Virginia, and gives a summary of the early legislative and political history of the State. As Judge Brown was one of the most active and determined opponents of secession, and had at that time become a conspicuous per- sonage in political and legal circles, this sketch of him from the pen of Mr. Hagans is both inter- esting and historically significant. The writer
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can only draw upon the article, and quote from it freely as a strong presentation of the facts in the career of one of the most unique and cou- rageous men the State of Virginia produced dur- ing the internecine strife resulting from the war throughout her Southwestern domain. A most unfortunate state of affairs then existed, one that threw men and families into deadly strife for a cause national in its bearings and by right wholly foreign to the local interests of the sec- tion; without a "Sumter attack" to emphasize the fierceness of the opposing factions, yet terri- ble, nevertheless, in the determination of the more lawless elements to injure and outdo each other. The better classes on both sides fur- nished the leaders and were divided with a bit- terness that naught but internecine strife could engender; the secession element was impelled by State pride to fight for Virginia against the United States, because the cotton and ultra slave- holding States, like South Carolina, had decided to break their allegiance to the Constitution, having the institution of Slavery first and fore- most in view as the vital cause for such action. Virginia responded with a wonderful sensitive- ness of sympathy, and the peculiar style of warfare at once set up in the Kanawha Valley represented the most intense feeling for and against the Secession doctrine. Mr. Hagans' presentation of the subject and his sketches of the three Judges named are sincere, outspoken, and radical; and have the vivid impress of the times they portray and of the dominant senti- ment existing when they were written. Judge Brown's ancestry on his father's side came from Prince William County, Va. On his mother's side her father, Major Nathaniel Scales, was one of the early settlers from Stokes County, N. C. He and his family cut a pioneer road through the then wilderness, by a bee line, as nearly as possible, for Southwestern Virginia. As the family "Schooner" wagon made its way slowly through the wilds, no obstacle was formidable enough to turn it back. When a precipice was reached, the wheels were taken off, the wagon separated and dropped to the level be- low, while the horses and the family made a detour around and the journey was resumed. Judge Brown's father, Dr. Benjamin Brown, who was the son of George Newman Brown (whose father Maxfield Brown came from Eng-
land and settled on the James River about the middle of the eighteenth century), was a native of the State of Virginia and was born near Dumfries, Prince William County. His mother's father, Major Nathaniel Scales, and his father, Dr. Brown, owned adjoining farms, now the site of the city of Huntington, W. Va., and here at the homestead Dr. Brown lived and reared his family, and here James H. Brown was born. Young Brown was educated in the schools of the neighborhood, dividing his leisure time between the hardy sports of pioneer life with gun and rod, and reading and studying of which he was fond, covering most of the stand- ard works, especially in history and biography, with many of the classics and poets. In 1836, he went to Marietta College, Ohio, and subse- quently graduated at Augusta College, Ken- tucky, in 1840. He acquired the rudiments of practice in the law office of John Laidley, of Cabell, and in 1842 was licensed. His license was signed by Judges Fry, Thompson, and Smith, who commended him for his thorough attainments. Impaired health induced him to relinquish his studies, and in 1842 he sought recreation in travel, returning to Cabell County after an extended absence, restored and ready for his career in the legal profession. He began practice in 1843; his circuit soon embraced Ca- bell, Wayne, Logan, Kanawha, and surrounding Counties, and later the District Court at Parkers- burg, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1848 he removed to Charleston, Kanawha County, and joined his brother-in-law, James M. Laidley, in practice-a partnership that existed up to the year 1852. Mr. Brown's first entry into politics was in 1844, when he was called on to reply to Hon. Allen T. Caperton, the presidential elector on the Whig ticket, and continued the discussion with him in the counties of Logan, Wayne, and Cabell; and by invitation, soon after he, with Hon. William Allen and Governor Brough of Ohio, addressed an immense mass meeting in that State; in the summer of 1854 he was chosen Delegate from Kanawha County to the great Internal Improvement Convention at White Sul- phur Springs, which met to consider the subject of internal improvement; Mr. Brown was elected one of the Vice-Presidents, and earnestly advo- cated the speedy completion of the Covington
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and Ohio, now Chesapeake and Ohio, Railroad, a project then under discussion. In 1854 he was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention at Staunton, when Henry A. Wise was nomi- nated for Governor. In the following year Mr. Brown was a candidate for the State Senate, but was defeated by the " Know Nothing" candidate, Andrew Parks. In 1856 he narrowly escaped being killed; while on his way to address a polit- ical meeting his horse took fright and he was thrown from the buggy, receiving severe in- juries about the head, and sustained a dislocated ankle joint, from which he barely recovered in time to vote at the Presidential election of that year. In the winter of 1856, he represented Kanawha in the Congressional Convention at Parkersburg, which nominated that brilliant Virginian, A. G. Jenkins, who afterward com- manded a brigade under General Wise and met his death on the battle field. The momentous year of 1860 had now arrived, and with it came a rearrangement of political relations, the great issues of the old parties being lost in the greater issue of the life or death of the then Union. James H. Brown, ever pronounced in his views and decided and vigorous in action, without halt or hesitation declared for the Union and at once devoted his energies and influence to its main- tenance at all hazards. It was the beginning of a season that estranged life-long friends and brought about social confusion and local strife of the most pronounced character. Mr. Hagans says :
"In the spring of 1861, while the Convention at Richmond was passing the ordinance of Se- cession, he was a delegate from Kanawha to the Union Convention at Parkersburg, which nomi- nated J. S. Carlisle for Congress. On that occa- sion several resolutions for the consideration of the Convention were drawn up by him. As they give expression to the views of their author at an important and trying period in the history of recent events, it may not be out of place to ap- pend them below: Ist. Resolved, That we have a Country and Constitution worthy of our sup- port, the work of Washington and Madison, transmitted to us by our fathers, challenging the admiration of the world. In this glorious Union we have lived long and happily. In it our rights are equal and our liberties safe. Out of it we have no assurance of either. This Union is now attacked by conspirators, openly and secretly, and every true patriot should rally to its rescue. 2d. That the great question which now swallows up all others is the question of Union or Dis-
union. 3d. That the great aim and desire of Western Virginia is to keep the peace of the Union, failing in that to keep the peace in her own borders. 4th. That to this end, in the pres- ent crisis of impending war, it is the true policy of Virginia to observe a position of neutrality and leave those who began this war to enjoy it to their heart's content. 5th. That we fear no invasion from the United States, to which we owe and acknowledge allegiance, and will not tolerate any invasion from the Confederate States now in a state of revolution. 6th. That taxation should be equal and uniform through- out the State, and that the odious and unjust discrimination which exempts two hundred mil-
lions of slave property from taxation entirely ought to be expunged from the State Constitu- tion. 7th. That any and every attempt of an eastern mob led on by Secessionists and Dis- unionists to overawe and intimidate the repre- sentatives of the people in their deliberations in the State Convention is an insolent outrage and a direct attack upon the liberties of the people. 8th. That the declaration of Eastern Secession- ists to revolutionize the State, if West Virginia shall stand by the Union, is a threat and offence to the people of the West which will not be overlooked; and we say here that if the East are ready to divide the State, we will meet them half way, 'as friends if they will, as foes if we must.'
While at this meeting, the telegraph flashed the news of General Beauregard's cannonade on Fort Sumter; and shortly after this news was received Judge Catron of the United States Su- preme Court arrived at Parkersburg to take boat for his home in Tennessee. He explained the state of excitement at Washington, and it may be remarked that he was the only Judge of the Supreme Court from the South who remained opposed to the Southern cause. Mr. Brown, who realized the course affairs were taking, imme- diately sent this telegram to George W. Sum- mers, who with Dr. Spicer Patrick represented Kanawha at the Richmond Convention :
"Stand firm by the Union. Kanawha will sustain you. Firing on Fort Sumter does not frighten us. J. H. BROWN.'
The suggestion need hardly be made that this patriotic and hopeful dispatch to distant dele- gates in a convention that decided for the South, was a most harmonious and eloquent climax to the resolutions penned by the same hand and reflecting the convictions of the same heart and brain. After the adjournment Mr. Brown in company with Daniel Frost and others ad-
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dressed the people in mass meeting at Parkers- burg and other towns along the Ohio, the effect of which was to deepen the Union feeling and encourage Union people. At Point Pleasant the learned Judge Brockenbrough, of the United States District Court, had addressed the people favoring the Southern cause, and upon Mr. Brown's arrival he was requested by the loyal element to make a speech for the Union, which he did, and which was replied to by Judge Ward for the other side. The loyalty of Point Pleas- ant was fully demonstrated at the polls in sub- sequent elections. Mr. Hagans says :
"On reaching Charleston, his home, he found the excitement intense. The same boat brought the news of the passage of the Ordinance of Se- cession. The anxious inquiry of the people was, 'What shall we do?' His answer was, 'Vote it down.' And that was the burden of his speech and the object of all his efforts till the election was over.
While he was at Parkersburg a Union Mass Convention at Charleston nominated him and Lewis Ruffner for the Legislature. Mr. Brown addressed the people throughout the country; " in some instances, crowds of mountaineers as- sembled in the forest, who held their trusty rifles in their hands while they listened for the Union, resolved to vote or fight." At the election on the 23d of May, 1861, the majority for the Union candidates was overwhelming and exceeded all expectation. During the occupation of the Kanawha Valley by the Confederate forces, Mr. Brown remained a quiet spectator of events. He warned the people that Secession executed would result in a division of the State of Vir- ginia as certainly as the dripping clouds on the crest of the Alleghanies parted their waters to the East and West. Mr. Brown earnestly advo- cated a new State at the Wheeling Convention as the only alternative left the loyal people of the West. He was elected to the Convention to join in framing a Constitution for the proposed new State of Kanawha, which was afterward changed to West Virginia. He also took his seat in the Legislature of Virginia, to which he had been elected the May previous, at the first regular session held in Wheeling in December, 1861, being a member of both bodies at the same time. In the winter of 1861-62 he was elected and commissioned Judge of the Eighteenth Ju- dicial Circuit of Virginia, in the place of that
able jurist, David McComas, who had embarked in the Rebellion. On the 14th of January, 1862, Judge Brown tendered his resignation as a member of the Legislature to take effect on the twenty-fourth of that month. The Eighteenth Circuit of Virginia comprised the counties of Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell, Wayne, Mason, Jack- son, and Roane; a field of contention between the opposing forces.
"On the 18th of February, Judge Brown re- signed his seat in the Convention, and on the day following qualified to his commission as Judge of the Eighteenth Circuit. He entered at once upon the duties of his judicial office, and amid the many perils of civil war and discour- agements held court in every county of his cir- cuit. The records of his courts were captured and carried off or destroyed as fast as he made them, in many of the counties of his circuit, by the Confederate raiders who continually made hostile incursions through that part of the State. And on several occasions he narrowly escaped their repeated efforts to capture the Court."
At Point Pleasant the Confederate Cavalry followed so closely that he was obliged to cross the Ohio River and under heavy fire, to escape capture, and more than once encountered the vanguard of the raiders, but Judge Brown was not the man to shirk the duties required of him and notwithstanding these dangers and menaces he missed no term of court during his term of office. (See sketch of J. M. Mcwhorter, this volume, for further references to raids on the Court.) Mr. Hagans says:
"On the 5th of February, 1863, he was re- elected to the Constitutional Convention, to fill the vacancy from the County of Kanawha occa- sioned by his own resignation, and took his seat in that body on the reassembling to consider the amendment to the Constitution proposed by Congress. He disapproved the action of Con- gress in refusing to admit the State of West Virginia into the Union with the Constitution as adopted by the convention and ratified by the people, with the consent of the Legislature of Virginia. Nor did he think any better of the Congressional dictation manifested in the con- dition precedent to such admission, which re- quired the adoption of the Emancipation clause, at a time and under the unexampled pressure and force of circumstances that left the people no alternative but to adopt it in order to secure their right to recognition and admission as a State of the Union, or by rejecting it be forced headlong into a counter revolution in the very midst of a pending civil war of the most fearful character. Under such circumstances he ac-
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cepted the inexorable logic of events, and voted for the Congressional Amendment, not only as a member of the convention, but also as a citizen at the polls, and advocated in public speeches a like course by the people. As a member of the convention he introduced many propositions, among which the most important were the fol- lowing: 'That the State of West Virignia should assume a just proportion of the State debt of Virginia prior to the ordinance of Secession; that private property should not be taken for public use without just compensation to be pro- vided for in the law authorizing the deprivation ; that it was unwise and impolitic to distract the counsels of the convention by the discussion of the Slavery question.' He proposed the exten- sion of the boundaries of the new State; was opposed to the restriction of the right of suffrage to tax-payers, and to the restrictions upon in- ternal improvements by the State; also to very low salaries of officers and short terms of Sena-
tors. As chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, he had much to do in shaping the structure and framework of that department of the State Government. He took an active part in the duties and labors of several other com- mittees, among the most important of which were the committees on fundamental provi- sions, the legislative department, and the com- mittee of revision. To him the animated and exciting duties of the bar were more attractive than the calmer but more perplexing duties of the bench. As a nisi prius judge, he ever sought to be courteous, yet prompt and decided, ready to hear all that could be said on either side, but when the case was decided the controversy ended. No appeal has ever as yet been taken from his decisions. In the Legislature he intro- duced numerous propositions looking to the pros- perity of the State and the safety of the people, among which were the Elk River Railroad, now converted into the West Virginia Central, bi- secting the State east and west, and the Charles- ton and Winchester Railroad, bisecting it north and south ; the separation of the Kanawha River improvement from the James River and Kana- wha Company and the defence of the State and the border counties against rebel raids. On the subject of Slavery he had his own views, differ- ing in some respects from many with whom he acted. A slaveholder by inheritance, he recog- nized the relation and its correlative duties. He regarded the institution as an evil, destined to disappear under the influence of Christianity, the principles of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, and the bill of rights of Virginia. He was unwilling to invade the rights of property or rudely disturb relations which had grown up under the laws and customs of two centuries, and which had become interwoven with the whole structure of society and government. He was, however, in favor of the doctrine of free-
dom to the post nati, by an act of the Legislature, as soon as the circumstances of the State would admit, and a full and free action of the people could be had to determine with wisdom and prudence the future policy on so important and delicate a subject. To that end he was in favor of keeping the Constitution of the State of West Virginia free from the trammels which the Con- stitution of Virginia had placed upon the Legis- lature on that subject, but he thought it impolitic to go further while engaged in a war for very existence, society greatly disorganized by in- ternal convulsions, and a large proportion of the counties composing the contemplated new State, though deeply interested in the subject, unrep- resented by reason of their occupation by rebel forces, and no prospect of their people being able to vote upon the adoption of the proposed Constitution during the continuance of the war. On the 28th of May, 1863, he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and commissioned by the Governor in June following."
This concludes Mr. Hagans' sketch, and the narrative of events so fraught with historic in- terest is familiar to every well-informed citizen of the State. We now come to the considera- tion of the more important acts and decisions of Judge Brown while on the bench, involving the constitutionality of many of the war measures enacted by the Legislature during the struggle for existence. Perhaps the clearest presenta- tion of the subject yet published is from the pen of Hon. Charles E. Hogg, of Point Pleasant, who represented his district in Congress. It can be found in the " History of the Great Kanawha Valley." Mr. Hogg, in his chapter on the Bench and Bar of Kanawha County, refers to the test oaths and Judge Brown's action in regard to those measures as follows:
" The law referred to was enacted by the Leg- islature of our State in the year 1863, and applied to any person elected or appointed to any office of trust, civil or military, within the State, and the inferior courts held that the language of the Statute embraced attorneys-at-law. This con- struction obtained until Hon. Charles J. Faulk- ner, deceased, of the county of Berkeley, and William A. Quarrier, deceased, of the county of Kanawha, put the matter to supreme test. Mr. Quarrier applied to the Supreme Court of Ap- peals in the month of January of the year 1866, upon being refused admission to the bar by the Circuit Court of his own county, to have the court's action reviewed upon his motion to qualify, and after full argument the action of the court below was reversed and Mr. Quarrier's
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