WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.
JUDGE DOOLY--LAWYERS AND BLACKSMITHS--JOHN FORSYTH--HOW JURIES WERE
DRAWN--GUM-TREE _vs._ WOODEN-LEG--PREACHER-POLITICIANS--COLONEL
CUMMING--GEORGE McDUFFIE.
John M. Dooly was a native of Lincoln County, Georgia, where he
continued to reside until his death, and where he now lies in an
undistinguished grave. He was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary
soldier, whose name, in consideration of his services in that struggle,
has been given to a county in the State. In early life he united
himself to the Federal party, and from honest convictions continued a
Federalist in principle through life. But for his political principles,
his name in the nation to-day would have been a household word,
familiar as the proudest upon her scroll of fame. In very early life he
gave evidence of extraordinary powers of mind. With a limited
education, he commenced the study of the law when quite young. But
despite this serious defect, which was coupled with poverty and many
other disadvantages incident to a new country impoverished by war, and
wanting in almost everything to aid the enterprise of talent in a
learned profession, soon after his admission to the Bar he attracted
the attention of the community, and especially the older members of the
Bar, as a man of extraordinary capacity, and already trained in the
law. So tenacious was his memory of all that he read or heard, that he
not only retained the law, but the author and page where it was to be
found. His mind was eminently logical and delighted in analytical
investigation. In truth, the law suited the idiosyncrasy of his mind,
and it was most fortunate for his future life, that he adopted it as a
lifetime pursuit. Nature, it seems, gives to every mind a peculiar
proclivity, as to every individual a peculiar mind: to pursue this
proclivity is a pleasure; it makes work a delight, and this secures
success. Hence it is fortunate to learn this peculiarity, and to
cultivate it from the beginning. When the mind is strong and vigorous,
this peculiar proclivity is generally well-marked to the inquiring
observer in very early life.
It is related of Benjamin West, the great painter, that at five years
of age he was continually soiling the floor of his good and sensible
mother with charcoal sketches of the faces of the different members of
the family; and of Napoleon, that in early childhood his favorite
amusement was to build forts and array his playmates into column, and
charge these, and assault and enter them. Stevenson, the great
engineer, spent all his idle time, when a boy, in attempts at
constructing machinery and bridges.
In these great minds this natural trait was so strongly marked, and so
controlling in its influence, as to defy and overleap every obstacle,
and develop its wonderful energy and capacity in the most stupendous
manner. In such as these, this manifestation is early and palpable. Yet
the same peculiarity exists wherever there is mind sufficient to
connect cause and effect; but it is proportionate with the strength of
the mind, and in ordinary or feeble minds it is less conspicuous, and
requires close observation to discern it in early life.
The folly and ambition of parents and adverse circumstances too often
disappoint the intentions of nature, and compel their offspring, or the
victims of circumstance, to follow a pursuit for which they have a
natural aversion, and absolutely no capacity: hence we see thousands
struggling painfully through life in a hated avocation, and witness
many a miserable lawyer whom nature designed to be a happy blacksmith.
His toil of life is always up hill, without the possibility of ever
attaining the summit. Sometimes the rebellion of nature is successful,
and the misdirected will shake off the erroneously imposed vocation,
and dash away in the pursuit for which the mind is capacitated; and
immediate success attests the good sense and propriety of the act.
Fortunately, John M. Dooly, selected, under the guidance of natural
inclination, the profession of law. His eminence was early in life, and
the public eye was directed to him as one worthy any public trust. He
was frequently chosen a member of the Legislature from his native
county, and was distinguished for extraordinary ability in the capacity
of a legislator. His conspicuous position and commanding talents
pointed him out as one to take a foremost rank with the first of the
nation; and his friends urged his name as a fit representative in
Congress for the State. At this time the acrimony of party was intense;
the Republican, or Jeffersonian party, was largely in the ascendant in
the State, and would accept no compromise. It was willing to receive
new converts and prefer them according to merit, but would accord no
favor to an unrepentant enemy. At this time there were many young,
talented men rising to distinction in the State, who were Federalists.
With some of them ambition was superior to principle; they recanted
their principles, and, in the ranks of their former opponents, reaped a
harvest of political distinction. Prominent among these was John
Forsyth. He had delivered a Fourth of July oration at Augusta,
distinguished for great ability and high Federal doctrines. Abraham
Baldwin, who, with the astuteness of the Yankee--which he was--had
renounced Federalism, and was now a prominent leader of the Republican
party, spoke of this effort of Forsyth as transcendently great, and
always, when doing so, would add: "What a pity such abilities should be
lost to the country through the influence of mistaken political
principle!" Whether this had any effect upon the views of Forsyth or
not, certain it is that very soon after he repudiated Federalism, and
published a formal renunciation of the party and its principles. From
that time forward his march was onward, and now his name and fame are
embalmed as national wealth.
Dooly was less facile: his convictions were honest and strong, and he
clung to them. He won the confidence not only of his party, but of the
people, for high integrity; but this was all. Out of his county he was
intrusted with no political position, and those who most prized his
talents and integrity could never be persuaded to aid in giving these
to the country. He was more than once beaten for the Senate of the
United States; and once by Forsyth, who was not announced as a
candidate, and who was at the time minister plenipotentiary of the
nation at the Spanish Court. His great legal abilities were, however,
complimented by the Republican Legislature, by placing him upon the
bench of the highest judicial tribunal of the State, where his
usefulness was transcendent, and where most of his life was spent.
As a wit, Dooly never had an equal in the State, and there might now be
written a volume of his social and judicial wit. Its compass was
illimitable--from the most refined and delicately pungent to the
coarsest and most vulgarly broad; but always pointed and telling.
Nature had given him a peculiarity of look and voice which gave edge to
his wit and point to his humor.
The judicial system of Georgia at this time was peculiar. The State was
subdivided into districts, or circuits, as they were denominated; and
one judge appointed to preside over each. These were elected by the
Legislature, on joint ballot, for a term of three years; and until
faction claimed the spoils of victory, the judge who had proven himself
capable and honest was rarely removed, so long as he chose to remain.
Dooly was one of these. Party never touched him, and both factions
concurred in retaining him, because it was the universal wish of the
people of his circuit. The law of the country was the common law of
England and the statutes of the State. In the expounding of these, the
judges frequently differed, and the consequence was that each circuit
had, in many particulars, its own peculiar law, antagonistic to that
which was received as law in the adjoining circuit. The uniformity of
law, so essential to the quiet and harmony of a people, and so
necessary in defining the title and securing the tenure of property, by
this system was so greatly disturbed, that it led to the informal
assembling of the judges at irregular periods, and upon their own
responsibility, to reconcile these discrepancies. This in some degree
obviated the necessity of a supreme court for the correction of errors;
but was very unsatisfactory to the Bar, who were almost universal in
their desire for the establishment of a tribunal for this purpose. But
there was another feature peculiar to the judicial system of the State,
to which her people were greatly attached: that of special juries. They
feared the creation of a supreme court would abolish this, and for many
years resisted it. This system of special juries, in the organization
of her judiciary, was intended to obviate the necessity of a court of
chancery. The conception was a new one, and in Georgia, with her
peculiar population, its effects were admirable. It was an honest,
common-sense adjudication of equity cases, and rendered cheap and
speedy justice to litigants. It was unknown in the judiciary system of
any other State, and I will be excused by the reader, who may not be a
Georgian, for a brief description of it here.
By direction of the law of 1798, the justices of the Inferior Court
took the tax list, which contained the name of every white man of
twenty-one years and upwards in the county, and, from this list,
selected a certain number of names, and placed them in a box marked
"The grand-jury box." The remaining names were placed in another box
marked "The petit-jury box." Those selected as grand jurors were chosen
because of their superior intelligence, wealth, and purity of
character. These selections were made at certain stated periods; and
the jurors thus chosen from the mass never served on the petit jury,
nor were they liable even as talesmen to serve on that jury. The same
act made it the duty of the presiding judge of each circuit to draw, at
the termination of each term of his court, and in open court, a certain
number of names from each box, which were entered as drawn upon the
minutes of the court, to serve as grand and petit jurors at the ensuing
term of the court. The special juries, for the trial of cases in
equity, and appeals from the verdicts of petit juries, were formed from
the grand juries, and after the manner following: A list was furnished
by the clerk of the court to the appellant and respondent. From this
list each had the right to strike a name alternately--the appellant
having the first stroke--until there remained twelve names only. These
constituted a special Jury, and the oath prescribed by law far these
jurors was as follows; "You shall well and truly try the issue between
the parties, and a true verdict give, according to law and equity, and
the opinion you entertain of the testimony." Under the pleadings, the
entire history of the case went before this jury, and their verdict was
final. It was this method of trial which prevented so long that great
desideratum in all judicial systems--a court for the correction of
errors and final adjudication of cases.
Dishonest litigants feared this special jury. Their characters, as that
of their witnesses, passed in review before this jury, whose oaths
allowed a latitude, enabling them frequently to render a verdict,
ostensibly at variance with the testimony, but almost always in aid of
the ends of equitable justice.
The system was eminently promotive of honesty and good morals, as well
as the ends of justice; for men's rights before it were not
unfrequently determined by the reputation they bore in the community in
which they lived. This fact stimulated uprightness of conduct, and
often deterred the wrong-doer. It has passed away; but I doubt if what
has replaced it has benefited the interests or morals of the people of
the State.
Like Mr. Crawford, Judge Dooly relied more upon the practical good
sense of the people as jurors, for justice between man and man, than
upon the technicalities of the law; and especially upon that of special
juries. Dooly had great contempt for petit juries, and evinced it upon
one occasion by declaring in open court that he thought, if there was
anything not known to the prescience of the Almighty, it was what the
verdict of a petit jury would be, when they left the box for the
jury-room. Dooly was an opponent of Crawford through life--a friend and
intimate of John Clark, Crawford's greatest enemy. But his character
was devoid of that bitterness and persistent hatred characteristic of
these two. Crawford and Judge Tate were intimate friends, and between
these and Clark there was continual strife. Tate and Clark were
brothers-in-law; but this only served to whet and give edge to their
animosity. Dooly, in some manner, became entangled with Tate in this
feud; and an amusing story is told of the final settlement of the
difficulty between these men.
Tate, it seems, challenged Dooly to mortal combat. Mr. Crawford was
Tate's friend. Dooly, contrary to all expectation, accepted, and named
General Clark as his friend, and appointed a day of meeting. Tate had
lost a leg, and, as was usual in that day, had substituted a wooden,
one. On the appointed day, Tate, with his friend, repaired to the place
of meeting, where Dooly had preceded them, and was alone, sitting upon
a stump. Crawford approached him, and asked for his friend, General
Clark.
"He is in the woods, sir."
"And will soon be present, I presume?" asked Crawford.
"Yes; as soon as he can find a gum."
"May I inquire, Colonel Dooly, what use you have for a gum in the
matter we have met to settle?"
"I want it to put my leg in, sir. Do you suppose I can afford to risk
my leg of flesh and bone against Tate's wooden one? If I hit his leg,
why, he will have another to-morrow, and be pegging about as well as
usual. If he hits mine, I may lose my life by it; but almost certainly
my leg, and be compelled, like Tate, to stump it the balance of my
life. I cannot risk this; and must have a gum to put my leg in: then I
am as much wood as he is, and on equal terms with him."
"I understand you, Colonel Dooly; you do not intend to fight."
"Well, really, Mr. Crawford, I thought everybody knew that."
"Very well, sir," said Crawford; "but remember, colonel, your name, in
no enviable light, shall fill a column of a newspaper."
"Mr. Crawford, I assure you," replied Colonel Dooly, "I would rather
fill every newspaper in Georgia than one coffin."
It is scarcely necessary to say, that Tate and Crawford left the field
discomfited, and here the matter ended.
Dooly never pretended to belligerency. When Judge Gresham threatened to
chastise him, he coolly replied he could do it; but that it would be no
credit to him, for anybody could do it. And when he introduced his
friend to another as the inferior judge of the Inferior Court of the
inferior County of Lincoln, and was knocked down for the insult, he
intreated the bystanders not to suffer him to be injured. When released
from the grasp of his antagonist, he rubbed his head, and facetiously
said: "This is the forty-second fight I have had, and if I ever got the
best of one, I do not now recollect it."
Judge Dooly was much beloved by the younger members of the Bar, to whom
he was ever kind and indulgent, associating with them upon his circuit,
and joining in all their amusements. His wit spared no one, and yet no
one was offended at it. His humor was the life of the company wherever
he was, and he was never so burdened with official dignity as to
restrain it on the bench. Unbiassed by party considerations or personal
prejudices, and only influenced by a sense of duty and wish to do
right, it was impossible he could be otherwise than popular. This
popularity, however, was personal, not political, and could never
secure to him any political distinction. He was ambitious of a seat in
the United States Senate, a distinction to which he more than once
aspired; but here the grinning ghost of Federalism always met him,
frightening from his support even the nearest of his social friends.
Mr. Crawford's wishes controlled the State, through the instrumentality
of those he had distinguished with his countenance. None doubted the
patriotism or capacity of Dooly for the position; but he was a
Federalist, and the friend of many of the prime movers of the Yazoo
fraud; and these were unpardonable sins with Crawford and his friends.
No one ever charged upon Dooly the sin of a participation in this
speculation, or the frauds through which it became a fixed fact, as a
law of the State, by legislative act. But it was, for a very long time,
fatal to the political aspirations of every one known to be personally
friendly to any man in any way concerned in the matter. They were
pariahs in the land, without friends or caste.
Of all the men prominent in his day, George M. Troup was the most
uncompromising in his hostility to those engaged in this speculation.
It certainly was the work of a few persons only, and did not embrace
one out of fifty of the Georgia Company. All, or nearly all of these,
honestly embarked in the speculation, not doubting but that the State
had the power to sell, and knowing her pecuniary condition required
that she should have money. Had they known that it required bribery to
pass the measure, they would have scorned to become parties to such
corruption; nevertheless they were inculpated, and had to share the
infamy of the guilty few who thus accomplished the purchase, as they
shared the profits arising therefrom. But it did not stop with the
participants. Their personal friends suffered, and no one individual so
fatally as Dooly. He asserted the power of the Legislature to sell--he
was sustained by the decision of the Supreme Court--he was not a
stockholder--he afforded no aid with his personal influence; yet the
public clamor made him a Yazoo-man, and Troup was foremost in his
denunciation of him. On this account it was that, upon a memorable
occasion, Dooly declared that Troup's mouth was formed by nature to
pronounce the word Yazoo. It had been proposed to Dooly, at the time
Forsyth abandoned the Federal party, to follow his example; but he
refused to part with his first love, and clung to her, and shaded,
without a murmur, her fortunes and her fate, which condemned him to a
comparative obscurity for all the future.
It was long years after, and when Mr. Forsyth was in the zenith of his
popularity, that the friends of Dooly proposed his name for the Senate
of the United States. His was the only name announced as a candidate to
the Legislature, but, on counting the ballots, it was found Forsyth had
been elected. Dooly was present, and remarked to a friend that he was
the only man he ever knew to be beaten who ran without opposition. He
saw the aspiring companions of his youth favorites of the people, and
thrust forward into public places, winning fame, and rising from one
position to another of higher distinction. He witnessed the advance of
men whom he had known as children in his manhood, preferred over him;
and, in the consciousness of his own superiority to most or all of
these, rather despised than regretted the prejudices of the
public--influenced by men designing and selfish--which consigned him to
obscurity because of an honest difference of opinion upon a point of
policy which ninety out of every hundred knew nothing about. While the
companions of his early youth were filling missions abroad, executive
offices at home, and Cabinet appointments, he was wearing out his life
in a position where, whatever his abilities, there was little fame to
be won. Still he would make no compromise of principle. In faith he was
sincere, and too honest to pretend a faith he had not, though honors
and proud distinction waited to reward the deceit. As true to his
friends as his principles, he would not desert either, and surrender
his virtue to the seductions of office and honors. Toward the close of
his life, his friends got into office and power. His friend, John
Clarke, was elected Governor, upon the demise of Governor Rabun; but
his day had passed, and other and younger men thrust him aside. Parties
were growing more and more corrupt, and to subserve the uses of
corruption, more tractable and pliant tools were required than could be
made of Dooly.
The election of Clarke was a triumph over the friends of Crawford, who
was then a member of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, and had long been absent
from the State. It revived anew the flame of discord, which had
smouldered under the ashes of time. The embers lived, and the division
into parties of the people of the United States, consequent upon the
disruption of the Federal and Republican parties, and the candidacy of
Mr. Crawford for the Presidency, caused a division of the old
Republican party in Georgia. Clarke immediately headed the opposition
to Crawford, and his election was hailed as an evidence of Mr.
Crawford's unpopularity at home. This election startled the old friends
of this distinguished son of Georgia, and revived the old feeling.
Clarke was a man of strong will, without much mind, brave, and
vindictive, and nursed the most intense hatred of Crawford constantly
in his heart. The long absence of Crawford from the State, and the
secluded retirement of Clarke, had caused to cool in the public mind
much of the former bitterness of the two factions in the State, but now
it was rekindled. There were very many young men, who had been too
young to take any part in these factions, but who were now the active
and ambitious element in the State. Many persons, too, had immigrated
into the new-settled parts of the State, who were strangers to the
feuds which had once divided her people, and which now began to do so
anew. Each party sought to win and secure this element. Every newspaper
in the State, every judge upon the bench, every member of Congress was
in the interest of Crawford; and yet there was a majority of the people
of the State attached to the Clarke faction. He and his friends had
long been proscribed, and they pleaded persecution. The natural
sympathies of the heart were touched by these appeals, and it was
feared the State would be lost to Crawford in the coming Presidential
election. Every effort was now to be made to defeat this faction
against him, headed by Clarke. The election of Governor at this time
was by the Legislature; and it was not anticipated that there would be
any difficulty in the re-election of Rabun, and, consequently, there
had been no agitation of the question before the people at the recent
election of members of the Legislature. Scarcely a tithe of the people
had even heard of the candidacy of Clarke when his election was
announced; and, at the time, so little interest was felt on the
subject, that very few objected to his election. Clarke was a man of
violent passions, and had been, to some extent, irregular and
dissipated in his habits. When excited by any means, he was fierce; but
when with drink, he was boisterous, abusive, and destructive. Many
stories were related of terrible acts of his commission--riding into
houses, smashing furniture, glass, and crockery--of persecutions of his
family and weak persons he disliked. This had aroused in the pious and
orderly members of society strong opposition to him, and at this time
all his sins and irregularities were widely and loudly heralded to the
public. The preachers, with few exceptions, denounced him, and those
who did not were very soon with him denounced. Very soon after his
inauguration, the celebrated Jesse Mercer--the great gun of the Baptist
denomination in Georgia--was invited to preach the funeral sermon of
Governor Rabun. Mercer was an especial friend of Mr. Crawford, and a
more especial enemy of Clarke. In many respects he was a remarkable
man--a zealous and intolerant sectarian, and quite as uncompromising
and bitter in his political feelings. His zeal knew no bounds in
propagating his religious faith, and it was quite as ardent in
persecuting his political opponents. It was doubtful which he most
hated--the Devil or John Clarke. Rabun had been his neighbor, his
friend, and, above all, a member and elder in his church. It was quite
fitting under the circumstances that he should be selected to officiate
in the funeral services in honor of the late Governor. From respect,
Clarke and the Legislature were present. The moment Mercer's eye, from
the pulpit, descried Clarke, he threw open his Bible violently, and for
many minutes was busy searching from page to page some desired text. At
last he smiled. And such a smile! It was malignant as that of a
catamount. Turning down the leaf--as was the custom of his church--he
rose and gave out to be sung, line by line, his hymn. This concluded,
he made a short and hurried prayer--contrary to his custom--and, rising
from his prayerful position, opened his Bible, and fixing his eye upon
Clarke, he directed his audience to his text, and read:
"When the wicked rule, the land mourns."
The expression of his countenance, the twinkling of his eye, all
pointed so clearly to Clarke as to direct the attention of every one
present to the Governor. This was followed by a sermon half made up of
the irregularities of Clarke's life. This was the tocsin to the church,
and it came down in force with the opposition to the Governor elect. It
was, too, the slogan of the Crawford party to rally for a new conflict.
Mr. Crawford's conduct as a representative of the State in Congress,
and the representative of her people in his foreign mission, had been
eminently satisfactory; and his present elevated position as Secretary
of the Treasury of the United States was exceedingly gratifying to
their pride. When it was determined by his friends to present his name
to the nation as a candidate for the Presidency, it was supposed his
support would be unanimous in Georgia. Time had given opportunity for
the prejudices and hatreds of youth to wear out with the passions of
youth. Those, however, who knew John Clarke, were not deceived when he
successfully rallied a party in opposition. So little interest had been
felt in the personal difficulty formerly existing between Clarke and
Crawford, that even those who remembered it attached to it no
importance, and they did not suppose Clarke's election was to be the
commencement of an organized opposition to Crawford's election, and of
the bitterness which was to follow.
There was scarcely the show of opposition to the election of Clarke.
Those who remembered the old feud, and how completely it had pressed
down all the ambitious hopes and aspirations of Clarke, were willing to
forget the past, and, though warm friends of Mr. Crawford, to vote for
Clarke, and honor him with the first office in the State. Some felt his
treatment had been too harsh, and that for his father's Yazoo
antecedents he had been made to pay quite too severe a penalty, and
were desirous to manifest their feelings in their votes. Besides, his
family connections were most respectable. Griffin Campbell and Dr. Bird
were his brothers-in-law, and were men of high character and great
influence. The friends of these gentlemen united in his support. And
there was still another, whose influence, to the writer's knowledge,
carried four young, talented members of the House to the support of her
father--Ann Clarke, the only daughter of John Clarke, who had no
superior among her sex in talent, beauty, and accomplishments, in the
State. During the incumbency of her father she did the honors of the
executive mansion with a dignity, grace, and affability which won all
hearts, and added greatly to the popularity of the Governor. She
married Colonel John W. Campbell, and all her after-life has justified
the promise of her girlhood. Left a widow with many children, she has
reared and educated them to be an honor to their mother, and, as she
was, an ornament to society. She is now an aged woman, and resides in
Texas, honored and beloved by all who know her.
The election of Clarke was illy received by the old and tried friends
of Crawford throughout the State. They knew him. His stern, inflexible
character and indomitable will were sure to rally about him a party;
and his personal bravery and devotion to his friends would greatly aid
in keeping and inspiring these. His position now was one of strength,
with the capacity to increase it, and the material was abundant; yet
there were formidable difficulties in his way. All, or very nearly all
of the leading families of the State--the Lamars, Cobbs, McIntoshes,
Waynes, Telfairs, Cummings, Tatnals, Dawsons, Abercrombies, Holts,
Blackshears, and many others--were Republicans, and active in the
support of Crawford for the Presidency. These apparently insurmountable
difficulties were to be overcome in the organization of new parties.
The complete breaking up of the Republican party of the nation was
favorable; and there was another element which the sagacity of Campbell
soon discovered and laid hold upon. There were many ambitious and
disappointed men and families in the State beside Clarke and his
family.
The overwhelming popularity of Crawford as the head of the Republican
party in the State had enabled his friends to monopolize all the
offices, and give direction to every political movement and fix the
destiny of every political aspirant. Under this _régime_ many had been
summarily set aside, and were soured. The talents of Troup, Forsyth,
Cobb, Berrien, Tatnal, and some others, pointed them out as men to be
honored, because they honored the State. They seemed to hold a
possessory right to the distinguished positions, and to dictate who
should be elected to the minor ones. Young ambition submitted, but, was
restless and impatient to break away from this dominion. Party
stringency had enforced it, but this was loosened, and all that was now
wanting was a head to rally them into a new and formidable party. Every
old Federalist in the State who had clung to his principles attached
himself to Clarke. There were many strong families, wielding a potent
influence in their neighborhoods, attached to Federal principles. The
Watkins, Hills, Walkers, Glasscocks, and Adamses all soon sided with
the new party. A press in its support was greatly needed, and was soon
established, and given in charge of Cosein E. Bartlett, than whom no
man was better calculated for such a service as was demanded of him.
There were not at this time a dozen newspapers in the State. With all
of them had Bartlett to do battle for the cause in which he had
enlisted, and right valiantly did he do it. He was a fluent and most
caustic writer, and was always ready, not only to write, but to fight
for his party, and would with his blood sustain anything he might say
or write. Like most party editors, he only saw the interest of his
party in what he would write, and would write anything he supposed
would further the ends of his party. Almost immediately after the
election of Clarke, the opposition presented the name of George M.
Troup, who had been voted for as an opposing candidate at the time of
Clarke's election. It was but a little while before the State trembled
with the agitation which seemed to disturb every breast. None could be
neutral. All were compelled to take sides or be crushed between the
contending parties or factions; for this division of the people was
only factious. There was no great principle upon which they divided; it
was men only. Clarke and his friends favored the pretensions of Mr.
Calhoun to the Presidency solely because he was the enemy of Crawford,
and they were subsequently transferred to the support of Jackson as
readily as cattle in the market.
For two years was this agitation increasing in intensity, and so bitter
had it made animosities arising out of it, that reason seemed to reel,
and justice to forget her duty. Men were chosen indiscriminately to
office because of party proclivities. Intelligence and moral worth were
entirely disregarded--families divided--husbands and wives
quarrelled--father and sons were estranged, and brothers were at deadly
strife. There was no argument in the matter; for there was nothing upon
which to predicate an argument. To introduce the subject was to promote
a quarrel. Churches were distracted and at discord, and the pulpit, for
the first time in Georgia, desecrated by political philippics. Pierce
then, as now, was the leading minister of the Methodist Church in the
State, and abstained in the pulpit, but made no secret of his
preferences upon the street. Duffie travelled everywhere. He had by
unkindness driven from him his wife with her infant child, and, in her
helpless and desperate condition, she had taken refuge with the Shaking
Quakers in the West, and remained with them until her death. His son
came to him after maturity, and was established by him on a plantation
with a number of slaves; but, having inherited all the brutal ferocity
of his father, it was not long before he murdered one or two of them.
Incarcerated in the county jail, his father invoked party aid to
release him, openly declaring it was due to him for party services in
opposing that son of the Devil--John Clarke. Whether his party or his
money did the work I know not; but the miserable wretch escaped from
jail, and was never brought to trial.
Peter Gautier was another prominent preacher-politician, and exercised
his talents in the service of Clarke. He was by birth an American, but
his parents were French. He was a bad man, but of eminent abilities,
and exercised great influence in the western portion of the State.
After Pierce, he was the superior of all of his denomination as a
pulpit orator; and in will and energy unequalled by any other. Bold,
unscrupulous, and passionate, he, regardless of his profession, mingled
freely, at county musters and political barbecues, with the lowest and
vilest of the community, using every art his genius suggested to
inflame the mad passions of men already excited to frenzy. In after
life the viciousness and unscrupulousness of his nature overmastered
his hypocrisy and burst out in acts of dishonesty and profanity, which
disgraced and drove him from the State. He sought security from public
scorn in the wilds of Florida; but all restraint had given way, and
very soon the innate perfidy of his nature manifested itself in all his
conduct, and he was obliged to retire from Florida. At that time Texas
was the outlet for all such characters, and thither went Gautier, where
he died.
Every means which talent and ingenuity could devise was put into
requisition by both parties to secure their ascendency. The men of
abilities greatly preponderated in the Troup faction; and the pens of
Cobb, Gumming, Wild, Grantland, Gilmer, and Foster were active in
promoting the election of Troup, and thereby regaining the lost power
of the old Crawford or Republican party. Many young men of talent had
espoused the Clarke faction, and, under the guidance of Dooly,
Campbell, and Clarke, were doing yeomen's work for the cause. Among
these was Charles J. McDonald, whose fine character and family
influence rendered him conspicuously popular. This popularity he
retained to the end of his life. It elevated him to the Gubernatorial
chair, after serving in the United States Congress and for years upon
the bench of the Superior Court. His talents were not of the first
order, but his honesty, sincerity, and goodness made him beloved.
Bartlett was struggling with all his energies to write up the
administration and to defend the Governor against the fierce and
reiterated attacks of the opposition. About this period there appeared
some articles in a paper in Augusta, Georgia, reflecting upon Mr.
Crawford, in reply to several papers signed "C.," which were written by
Richard H. Wild, then a member of Congress from Georgia. These articles
were attributed to Colonel William Gumming, of Augusta, and "C.," in
reply, attacked him severely. He was not a man to be badgered by an
anonymous writer in a newspaper. He demanded immediately of the editor
the name of his correspondent, and that of George McDuffie, of South
Carolina, was given. A challenge ensued--a meeting followed, in which
McDuffie was seriously wounded, and which ultimately caused his death.
This affair increased the hatred between the Georgians and Carolinians,
as it did not cease with a single meeting. Gumming renewed his
challenge in consequence of a statement made by McDuffie in a paper to
the public, narrating offensively--as Cumming felt--the particulars of
the affair. A second meeting was the consequence, at which a difficulty
arose between the seconds, and it was adjourned to another day and
another place. At this third meeting, in an exchange of shots,
McDuffie's arm was broken, and this terminated the difficulty; but it
did not appease the animosity of the friends of the parties.
These combatants were both men of remarkable abilities. Colonel William
Cumming was a native of Augusta, Georgia. Born to the inheritance of
fortune, he received a liberal education and selected the law as a
profession. He read with the celebrated Judges Reeve and Gould, at
Litchfield, Connecticut. At the period of his study this was the only
law-school in the United States. Many anecdotes of his peculiarities
during his residence at the school were related by his preceptors to
the young gentlemen from Georgia who followed him in the office in
after years. A moot court was a part of the system of instruction, in
which questions of law, propounded by one of the professors, were
argued by students appointed for the purpose. On one occasion, Cumming
was replying to the argument of a competitor, and was so caustic as to
be offensive. This was resented by insulting words. Turning to the
gentleman, and without speaking, Cumming knocked him down. Immediately,
and without the slightest appearance of excitement, addressing the
presiding professor, he remarked: "Having thus summarily disposed of
the gentleman, I will proceed to treat his argument in like manner."
Upon his return to Georgia, the war with England having broken out, he
procured the commission of a captain and entered the army. He was
transferred to the northern frontier--then the seat of active
operations--and soon distinguished himself amid that immortal band, all
of whom now sleep with their fathers--Miller, Brook, Jessup, McCrea,
Appling, Gaines, and Twiggs. Cumming, Appling, and Twiggs were
Georgians. At the battle of Lundy's Lane he was severely wounded and
borne from the field. He was placed in an adjoining room to General
Preston, who was also suffering from a wound. Cumming was a favorite of
Preston's, and both were full of prejudice toward the men of the North.
Late at night, Preston was aroused by a boisterous laugh in Cumming's
apartment. Such a laugh was so unusual with him that the general
supposed he had become delirious from pain. He was unable to go to him,
but called and inquired the cause of his mirth.
"I can't sleep," was the reply, "and I was thinking over the incidents
of the day, and just remembered that there had not in the conflict been
an officer wounded whose home was north of Mason and Dixon's line.
Those fellows know well how to take care of their bacon."
He was soon promoted to a colonelcy, and was fast rising to the next
grade when the war terminated. In the reduction of the army he was
retained--a compliment to his merits as a man and an officer. He was
satisfied with this, and, in declining to remain in the army, wrote to
the Secretary of War:
"There are many whose services have been greater, and whose merits are
superior to mine, who have no other means of a livelihood. I am
independent, and desire some other may be retained in my stead."
He was unambitious of political distinction, though intensely
solicitous to promote that of his friends. His high qualities of soul
and mind endeared him to the people of the State, who desired and
sought every occasion which they deemed worthy of him, to tender him
the first positions within their gift; but upon every one of these he
remained firm to his purpose, refusing always the proffered preferment.
Upon one occasion, when written to by a majority of the members of the
Legislature, entreating him to permit them to send him to the Senate of
the United States, he declined, adding: "I am a plain, military man.
Should my country, in that capacity, require my services, I shall be
ready to render them; but in no other." He continued to reside in
Augusta in extreme seclusion. Upon the breaking out of the war with
Mexico he was tendered, by Mr. Polk, the command of the army, but
declined on account of his age and declining health, deeming himself
physically incapable of encountering the fatigue the position would
involve.
The habits of Colonel Cumming were peculiar. His intercourse with his
fellow men was confined to a very few tried friends. He never married,
and was rarely known to hold any familiar intercourse with females. So
secluded did he live, that for many years he was a stranger to almost
every one in his native city. He was strictly truthful, punctual to his
engagements in business matters, and honest in all things. In person,
he was very commanding. In his walk the whole man was seen--erect,
dignified, and impetuous. Energy and command flashed from his great,
gray eyes. His large head and square chin, with lips compressed,
indicated the talent and firmness which were the great characteristics
of his nature. Impatient of folly, he cultivated no intercourse with
silly persons, nor brooked for a moment the forward impertinence of
little pretenders. To those whose qualities of mind and whose habits
were congenial to his own, and whom he permitted familiarly to approach
him, he was exceedingly affable, and with such he frequently jested,
and hilariously enjoyed the piquant story in mirthful humor; but this
was for the few. He was a proud man, and was at no pains to conceal his
contempt for pert folly or intrusive ignorance, wherever and in
whomsoever he met it.
In early life he was the close intimate of Richard Henry Wild, and was
a great admirer of his genius, and especially his great and interesting
conversational powers. Unexceptionable in his morals, he was severe
upon those whose lives were deformed by the petty vices which society
condemns yet practises in so many instances and universally tolerates.
It is greatly to be regretted that the talents and learning of such a
man should not be given to mankind. Every one capable of appreciating
these great attributes in man, and who knew Colonel Cumming, will, with
the writer, regret that he persistently refused every persuasion of his
friends to allow them to place him in such a position before the
country as would bring his great qualities prominently forward in the
service, and for the benefit of his fellow-men. His proud nature
scorned the petty arts of the politician; and he doubtless felt place
could only be had or retained by the use of these arts; he was of too
high principle to descend to them, and held in great contempt those
whose confidence and favor could only be had by chicanery. He was not a
people's man, and had in his nature very little in common with the
masses; and, like Coriolanus, scorned and shunned the great unwashed.
He lived out his threescore years and ten, hiding the jewel God had
given him, and appropriating it only to the use of his own happiness in
the solitude he loved.
George McDuffie was a very different man. Born of humble parentage in
one of the eastern counties of Georgia, he enjoyed but few advantages.
His early education was limited: a fortuitous circumstance brought him
to the knowledge of Mr. Calhoun, who saw at once in the boy the promise
of the man. Proposing to educate him and fit him for a destiny which he
believed an eminent one, he invited him to his home, and furnished him
with the means of accomplishing this end. His ambition had often
whispered to his young mind a proud future, and he commenced the
acquisition of the education which was, as he felt, essential as a
means of its attainment. In this he made rapid progress, and at the age
of twenty-five graduated at the university of South Carolina. It was
not long after graduating before he was admitted to the Bar, and
commenced the practice of law in company with Eldridge Simpkins, at
Edgefield Court House, who was, if I mistake not, at the time, a member
of Congress.
The rise of McDuffie at the Bar was rapid; he had not practised three
years before his position was by the side of the first minds of the
State, and his name in the mouth of every one--the coming man of the
South. It was probably owing to the defence made by him of William
Taylor for the killing of Dr. Cheesboro, that he became famous as it
were in a day. This case excited the people of the whole State of South
Carolina. The parties were, so far as position was concerned, the first
in the State. William Taylor was the brother of John Taylor, who at the
time of the killing was Governor of the State. John Taylor, his
grandfather, was a distinguished officer in the army of the Revolution:
the family was wealthy, and extensively connected with the first
families of the State. Cheesboro was a young physician of great promise
and extensive practice. Jealousy was the cause of the killing, and was
evidently groundless. The deed was done in the house of Taylor, in the
city of Columbia, and was premeditated murder. Mrs. Taylor was a lovely
woman and highly connected. In her manners she was affable and cordial;
she was a great favorite in society, and her universal popularity
attracted to her the host of friends who so much admired her. Dr.
Cheesboro was one of these, and the green-eyed monster made him, in the
convictions of Taylor, the especial favorite of his wife. McDuffie was
employed in his defence, and he made a most triumphant success against
evidence, law, and justice. His speech to the jury was most effective.
The trial had called to Columbia many persons connected with the
family; and all were interested to save from an ignominious death their
relative. This, it was thought, could only be done by the sacrifice of
the wife's reputation. This would not only ruin forever this estimable
lady, but reflect a stain upon her extensive and respectable
connections. She was appealed to, to save her husband's life with the
sacrifice of her fame. In the consciousness of innocence, she refused
with Spartan firmness to slander her reputation by staining her
conscience with a lie. Her friends stood by her; and when hope had
withered into despair, and the possibility gone forever of saving him
by this means, the eloquence of McDuffie and the influence of family
were invoked, and successfully.
In the examination of the witnesses he showed great tact, and
successfully kept from the jury facts which would have left them no
excuse for a verdict of acquittal. But it was in his address that his
great powers made themselves manifest. The opening was impassioned and
powerful. Scarcely had he spoken ten minutes before the Bench, the Bar,
the jury, and the audience were in tears, and, during the entire
speech, so entirely did he control the feelings of every one who heard
him, that the sobs from every part of the courtroom were audible above
the sounds of his voice. When he had concluded, the jury went weeping
from the box to the room of their deliberations, and soon returned a
verdict of acquittal.
This effort established the fame of McDuffie as an orator and man of
great mental powers. Fortunately at that time it was the pride of South
Carolina to call to her service the best talent in all the public
offices, State and national, and with one acclaim the people demanded
his services in Congress. Mr. Simpkins, the incumbent from the
Edgefield district, declined a re-election, that his legal partner, Mr.
McDuffie, might succeed him, and he was chosen by acclamation. He came
in at a time when talent abounded in Congress, and when the country was
deeply agitated with the approaching election for President. Almost
immediately upon his entering Congress an altercation occurred upon the
floor of the House between him and Mr. Randolph, which resulted in the
discomfiture of Mr. Randolph, causing him to leave the House in a rage,
with the determination to challenge McDuffie. This, however, when he
cooled, he declined to do. This rencontre of wit and bitter words gave
rise to an amusing incident during its progress.
Jack Baker, the wag and wit of Virginia, was an auditor in the gallery
of the House. Randolph, as usual, was the assailant, and was very
severe. McDuffie replied, and was equally caustic, and this to the
astonishment of every one; for all supposed the young member was
annihilated--as so many before had been by Randolph--and would not
reply. His antagonist was completely taken aback, and evidently felt,
with Sir Andrew Ague-cheek: "Had I known he was so cunning of fence, I
had seen him damned ere I had fought him." But he was in for it, and
must reply. His rejoinder was angry, and wanting in his usual biting
sarcasm. McDuffie rose to reply, and, pausing, seemed to hesitate, when
Baker from the gallery audibly exclaimed: "Lay on, McDuff, and damned
be he who first cries hold, enough!" The silence which pervaded the
chamber was broken by a general laugh, greatly disconcerting Randolph,
but seeming to inspire McDuffie, who went on in a strain of
vituperation witheringly pungent, in the midst of which Mr. Randolph
left his seat and the House. Here was a triumph few had enjoyed. Not
even Bayard, in his famous attack upon Randolph, when the latter first
came into Congress, had won so much. Every one seemed delighted. The
newspapers heralded it to the country, and McDuffie had a national
reputation. Everything seemed propitious for his fame, and every friend
of Mr. Calhoun felt that he had a champion in his _protégé_, who, in
good service, would return him fourfold for his noble generosity to the
boy.
The contest with Cumming whetted more sharply the edge of the animosity
between Georgia and South Carolina. The two were considered the
champions of their respective States, as also the chosen knights of
their respective friends--Crawford and Calhoun. The States and the
friends of the parties in this quarrel very soon arrayed themselves in
antagonism, which was made personal on many occasions, and between many
parties. The young were especially prominent in their demonstrations of
hostile feeling, not excepting the belles of the respective States.
Between them, I believe, it never went beyond words; but they were
frequent in conflict, and sometimes very bitter and very witty ones
escaped from lovely lips, attesting that the face of beauty was
underlaid with passion's deformity. With the young gallants it went to
blows, and, on a few occasions, to more deadly strife; and always
marred the harmony of the association where there were young
representatives of both States. On one occasion of social meeting at a
public dinner-party in Georgia, a young South Carolinian gave as a
sentiment: "George McDuffie--the pride of South Carolina." This was
immediately responded to by Mirabeau B. Lamar, the late President of
Texas, who was then young, and a great pet of his friends, with
another: "Colonel William Cumming--
"The man who England's arms defied,
A bar to base designers;
Who checked alike old Britain's pride
And noisy South Carolina's."
The wit of the impromptu was so fine and the company so appreciative,
that, as if by common consent, all enjoyed it, and good feeling was not
disturbed.
McDuffie was not above the middle size. His features were large and
striking, especially his eyes, forehead, and nose. The latter was
prominent and aquiline. His eyes were very brilliant, blue, and deeply
set under a massive brow--his mouth large, with finely chiselled lips,
which, in meeting, always wore the appearance of being compressed. In
manners he was retiring without being awkward. His temperament was
nervous and ardent, and his feelings strong. His manner when speaking
was nervous and impassioned, and at times fiercely vehement, and again
persuasive and tenderly pathetic, and in every mood he was deeply
eloquent.
In the after period of life these antagonists were, through the
instrumentality of a noble-hearted Hibernian, reconciled, and sincerely
so--both regretting the past, and willing to bury its memory in social
intimacy. McDuffie married Miss Singleton, of South Carolina, one of
the loveliest and most accomplished ladies of the State.
Owing to the wound received in the duel with Cumming, his nervous
system suffered, and finally his brain. The ball remained imbedded in
the spine, and pressed upon the spinal chord. An attempt to remove it,
the surgeons determined, would be more hazardous to life than to permit
it to remain. There was no remedy. From its effects his mind began to
decay, and finally perished, leaving him, long before his death, a
melancholy imbecile. In all the relations of life this great man was
faithful to his duties--a devoted husband, a sincere friend, a kind
neighbor, and a considerate and indulgent master to his slaves. He was
one of those rare creations for which there is no accounting. None of
his family evinced more than very ordinary minds; nor can there be
traced in his ancestry one after whom his nature and abilities were
marked. His morals were as pure and elevated as his intellect was grand
and comprehensive, and his soul was as lofty and chivalrous as the
Chevalier Bayard's. His fame is too broad to be claimed alone by South
Carolina. Georgia is proud of giving him birth, and the nation
cherishes his glory.