recollected by the profession and the people of middle age in the
Fourth Circuit, and are spoken of with great admiration. One of the
last of these in which, though he was then broken down by misfortune
and enfeebled by disease, the fires of his genius and eloquence
shone out in the lustre of his palmiest days, was made in the case
of _Burrow_ vs. _Worth_, in the Superior Court of Randolph in 1830
or 1831. It was an action for malicious prosecution against Dr.
David Worth, a prominent physician, charging him with having falsely
and maliciously caused the plaintiff, Burrow, to be presented for
the murder of one Carter, of whose wife it was pretended he was
the _paramour_. The plaintiff sought to show that not only was the
accusation against him false, but that Worth was himself accessory
to the murder which he alleged had been committed by the wife of
Carter, by poison, which he (Worth) had furnished to her for that
purpose, and he supported his complaint with a well-combined scheme
of perjury and fraud which it required no ordinary skill and courage
to baffle. His chief witness was a married woman who was found to
be a member of a church, whose general character was vouched by her
acquaintances to be good, and who deposed to a conversation between
Worth and the wife of Carter, in which it was agreed that for a
base motive he would provide her with arsenic with which she was to
poison her husband. It was further shown, and this was true, that
Worth had attended the deceased as a physician at the time of the
alleged conspiracy against his life, so that the opportunity, at
least, was not wanting. Such was the aspect worn by the case when
this witness was tendered to Mr. Murphy, the defendant's counsel,
for cross-examination. By a series of questions as to the time,
place and circumstances, the furniture in the room in which the
conversation was located, the relative positions of the parties
and the witness, their previous acquaintanceship, the course of
the dialogue between them, _et cetera_, he involved her in such a
maze of inconsistencies, contradictions, and improbabilities as
to expose the whole story as a base fabrication. The privilege of
cross-examination is often abused, though there is a consistency in
truth and incongruity in falsehood which, even in the case of the
least resolute witnesses, rarely allows such abuse to do much harm.
All perceived, in the case in question, that it was one of the great
tests of truth which cannot safely be dispensed with in judicial
proceedings. The evidence, as usually happens in such cases, was
quite voluminous; we have but delineated its most prominent feature.
Having for his client a personal friend, threatened to be victimized
by a foul conspiracy for daring to perform one of the highest duties
of a citizen, in bringing at least a supposed murderer to justice,
Mr. Murphy in his defense, inspired by the theme, is said to have
delivered a speech which has never been surpassed in the forensic
displays of the State. Analysis, denunciation, wit, ridicule,
pathos, invective were in turn poured forth with such telling
effect that not only was the defendant triumphantly acquitted, but
it would have been dangerous for the plaintiff had the question
of his life or death been in the hands of the jury. The audience
alternately convulsed with laughter, bathed in tears, or burning
with indignation, were enraptured with his eloquence, and could not
be restrained from demonstrations of applause.
Mr. Murphy delighted in the equity practice of his profession, and
was accustomed to speak of this branch of our jurisprudence as
the application of the rules of moral philosophy to the practical
affairs of men. More of the pleadings in equity causes within the
sphere and time of his practice will be found in his handwriting
than in that of any other solicitor, and, with two or three
exceptions, among those named above, he was by far the most adept
as an equity pleader. He wrote with facility and accuracy, even
amid the crowd of courts and confusion of clients, and his neat and
peculiar chirography, to those a little accustomed to it, was as
legible as print.
In the year 1818 he was elected by the General Assembly a judge of
the Superior Courts, and rode the circuits in that capacity for
two years, when he resigned and returned to the practice of his
profession. Under a clause in the criminal law establishing the
present Supreme Court system, passed that session, which authorized
the Governor by special commission to detail a judge of the Superior
Court to sit in stead of a judge of the Supreme Court, in causes
where any one of their number had been of counsel or had an interest
in the result, he was commissioned by the Governor for this service,
and presided in the Supreme Court in several causes, in place of
Judge Henderson, who had been recently elected from the bar. This
provision of the law, being afterwards thought to be in conflict
with that clause of the Constitution which requires the judges
of the Supreme Court to be elected by the General Assembly, was
repealed. In his office as a judge he well sustained his reputation
for learning and ability, which had been so well established at the
bar, and attracted the admiration of the profession and the people
by the courtesy, patience, dignity and justice which characterized
his administration of the laws. Before taking leave of his career
as a lawyer it is proper to mention his tribute to his profession
in three volumes of reports of the Supreme Court of the State,
embracing the decisions of cases of interest from 1804 to 1819.
From 1812 to 1818, inclusive, Mr. Murphy was continually a Senator
from the county of Orange in the General Assembly, and on this new
theatre shone more conspicuously than he had done in his profession.
He inaugurated a new era in the public policy of the State, and for
many years exerted a greater influence in her counsels than any
other citizen. Judging from the public documents which he has left
behind him in advocacy of this policy, no man ever brought into
our legislative halls a more ardent spirit of patriotism, a more
thorough survey and comprehension of her situation and wants, or
proposed bolder or more intelligent measures for her relief. Whether
these measures failed from error in their conception or timidity in
his contemporaries to meet and boldly sustain them, the historian
must pronounce that his reports and other writings in regard to them
are the noblest monuments of philosophic statesmanship to be found
in our public archives since the days of the Revolution. From 1815
to 1823, either as chairman of a committee in the Legislature or of
the Board of Internal Improvement, he annually prepared a report
on the public policy of the State in relation to her improvement
in the means of transportation, and in 1819 he published a memoir
on improvements contemplated and the resources and finances of the
State, dedicated to his friend John Branch, then her Governor;
any one of which papers would have done honor to DeWitt Clinton
or Calhoun, the champions of internal improvement in the State
and Federal governments, respectively, during that period. Fully
appreciating the condition of the world resulting from the general
peace consequent on the battle of Waterloo and the overthrow of the
first Napoleon (since which time there has been a greater advance
in all the useful arts and diffusion of the comforts of life among
mankind than in any five preceding centuries), he applied all the
energies of his intrepid and well-furnished mind to the task of
devising how his native State should most profit in this universal
calm, confer the greatest good on the greatest number of her people,
and resume her proper rank in the Union of which she was a member.
His solution of this important problem he seems to have summed up
in three propositions, namely: first by improving her means of
transportation, in deepening her inlets from the ocean, opening
her rivers for navigation, connecting these rivers by canals, and
constructing turnpike or macadamized roads, so as to concentrate
all her trade at two or three points within her own limits; second,
by building up commercial cities of her own at these points, with
a view to commercial independence of other States, to the better
regulation and control of her currency and exchanges, and to
cherish and stimulate a just State pride; third, by a system of
education commensurate with the State's necessities, embracing
primary schools, academies for instruction in the higher branches,
the University by greatly enlarging its accommodations and course
of instruction, and an asylum for the deaf and dumb. On this last
subject of education he made a report to the General Assembly in
1817, comprehending these several topics, from which, since our
limits will not permit us to recur to it again, we make one or two
brief extracts as exhibitions of his style, his public spirit and
his noble benevolence. The University then was, from causes which he
details, in a state of extreme depression. He says: "When the pride
of the State is awakening and an honorable ambition is cherished for
her glory, an appeal is made to the patriotism and generous feelings
of the Legislature in favor of an institution which in all civilized
nations has been regarded as the nursery of moral greatness and the
palladium of civil liberty. That people who cultivate the sciences
and the arts with most success acquire a most enviable superiority
over others. Learned men by their discussions and works give a
lasting splendor to national character; and such is the enthusiasm
of man that there is not an individual, however humble in life
his lot may be, who does not feel proud to belong to a country
honored with great men and magnificent institutions. It is due to
North Carolina, it is due to the great men who first proposed the
foundation of the University, to foster it with parental fondness,
and to give to it an importance commensurate with the high destinies
of the State." We may here remark that although much improvement
has been made in the interim, yet even after the lapse of forty-odd
years the outline of a system of studies in the University, which
he therein proposed, has not been filled up. Of the necessity of
public instruction for poor children he says: "Such has always been,
and probably always will be, the allotment of human life, that the
poor will form a large portion of every community; and it is the
duty of those who manage the affairs of a State to extend relief to
the unfortunate part of our species in every way in their power.
Providence, in the impartial distribution of its favors, whilst it
has denied to the poor many of the comforts of life, has generally
bestowed upon them the blessing of intelligent children. Poverty is
the school of genius; it is a school in which the active powers of
man are developed and disciplined, and in which that moral courage
is acquired which enables him to toil with difficulties, privations
and want. From this school generally come forth those men who act
the principal parts upon the theatre of life; men who impress a
character upon the age in which they live. But it is a school which
if left to itself runs wild; vice in all its depraved forms grows up
in it. The State should take this school under her special charge,
and nurturing the genius which there grows in rich luxuriance, give
to it an honorable and profitable direction. Poor children are the
peculiar property of the State, and by proper cultivation they will
constitute a fund of intellectual and moral worth which will greatly
subserve the public interest."
His greatest and most persevering exertions, however, were devoted
to the subject of internal improvement. His reports and memoir on
that and kindred topics were examined with high commendation in the
year 1822, in an article in the North American Review, then under
the editorial charge of the Hon. Edward Everett. It must be borne
in mind that in that day the modern resource of the railroad for
transportation at long distances had entered the contemplation of
no one in Europe or America; sluices, canals and turnpike roads
were the only improvements deemed to be practical. To effect these
in the most approved methods, Mr. Hamilton Fulton, an engineer of
much reputation, was brought into the service of the State from
Europe, at a salary of twelve hundred pounds sterling ($6,000) per
annum, who made surveys of all the harbors and rivers, and of many
routes for roads in all sections of the State. The main features of
the plan of Mr. Murphy, and to which he obtained the approbation
of Mr. Fulton, after the improvement of inlets at Nag's Head (if
practicable), Ocracoke, Beaufort, Swansborough, and Wilmington,
consisted in opening for batteau navigation the rivers Roanoke, Tar,
Neuse, Cape Fear, Yadkin, Catawba, Broad, and sundry tributaries,
and by canals to join the Roanoke and Tar or Pamlico, and Neuse, so
as to ship the productions of the country watered by each of them
from Beaufort; and to unite by similar means the Cape Fear with
Lumber River, and at a more northerly point with the Yadkin, and
the Yadkin with the Catawba, so as to bring to the mouth of the
Cape Fear the commerce of our whole watershed trending from the
Blue Ridge, except that of Broad River (which was to be opened into
South Carolina), and thus making commercial marts of Fayetteville
and Wilmington. Places and sections more remote from these waters
were to be supplied by roads. The boldness and comprehensiveness of
this plan, providing, as it proposed to do, for the whole State,
with the only facilities then known to science, must be seen by
all. Whether it was practicable, and if so, at what cost, was a
question for engineers. It was in all probability practicable at a
cost not exceeding the amount which up to this time the State has
invested in railroads, and if accomplished it would evidently have
been a great advance beyond the cart and wagon, then the only means
of transportation in use. Its very comprehensiveness, however, was
probably the reason of its failure. To conciliate favor, inadequate
appropriations for various parts of it in all sections of the
State were made at once, and work was commenced under incompetent
supervision, which resulted in failure. After a few years' trial
the whole was abandoned, and the engineer, whose salary had at no
time been less than twice that of the Governor of the State, was
discharged. Its miscarriage is the less to be regretted since the
iron rail and steam car, then undeveloped in the womb of time, would
have superseded, if not supplanted, the most perfect works which it
contemplated, so far as regards inland transportation at least. But
the fame of its author as a patriot, statesman and sage should not
be dimmed by mistakes or failures in the details of its execution
or the advances made in the science of engineering in a subsequent
age. The expenditures upon it from the State treasury, including
the salaries of the principal engineer and assistants, did not
exceed $50,000, and this was repaid tenfold in the topographical
and statistical information which it elicited and caused to be
published, and in the loyal and true North Carolina patriotism
aroused by Mr. Murphy's discussions of the subject in the hearts
of her people. We have recurred to this matter of expenditure
with some care, for the reason that before the subject of internal
improvement became popular in the State, it was the custom of its
opponents to hold up Mr. Murphy's scheme of improvements as a kind
of South Sea Bubble, from which the treasury had been well-nigh
rendered bankrupt.
While immersed in endeavors to press forward those projects of
improvement, and at the same time assiduously laboring in his
profession, either as a judge on the bench or a lawyer at the
bar, Mr. Murphy conceived the purpose of writing the history of
his native State. He had studied her interests by every light of
political economy and every record of the past within his reach, was
personally acquainted with nearly every citizen of intelligence,
and his talents, public spirit and engaging manners had rendered
him a favorite among the surviving officers and soldiers of the
Revolution. This latter circumstance had made him acquainted
with the traditions of that period, and the great injustice by
omission and commission which the State had suffered at the hands
of the writers of history. He seems to have undertaken this task
with the same motives of zealous patriotism which had inspired
his legislative action. In a letter to General Joseph Graham, of
Lincoln, dated July 20, 1821, he says:
"Your letter to Colonel Conner first suggested to me the plan of a
work which I will execute if I live. It is a work on the history,
soil, climate, legislation, civil institutions, literature, etc.,
of this State. Soon after reading your letter I turned my attention
to the subject in the few hours which I could snatch from business,
and was surprised to find what abundant materials could, with care
and diligence, be collected--materials which if well disposed would
furnish matter for one of the most interesting works that has been
published in this country. We want such a work. We neither know
ourselves nor are we known to others. Such a work, well executed,
would add very much to our standing in the Union, and make our State
respectable in our own eyes. Amidst the cares and anxieties which
surround me, I cannot cherish a hope that I could do more than
merely guide the labors of some man who would take up the work after
me and prosecute it to perfection. I love North Carolina, and love
her more because so much injustice has been done to her. We want
pride. We want independence. We want magnanimity. Knowing nothing of
ourselves, we have nothing in our history to which we can turn with
conscious pride. We know nothing of our State and care nothing about
it. We want some great stimulus to put us all in motion, and induce
us to waive little jealousies, and combine in one general march to
one great purpose."
His habits of labor, his readiness as a writer, and addiction to
literary exercise as a pleasure, the philosophical cast of his
mind, and above all, his sentiment of devotion to North Carolina,
eminently fitted him for this enterprise; and he seems to have
entered upon it with his characteristic industry and zeal. He
gathered materials for the work from a great variety of sources,
public and private, within and without the State. At his instance
the Legislature, through the intervention of Mr. Gallatin, then the
Minister of the United States in Great Britain, caused the office
of the Board of Trade and Plantations and the State Paper Office
in London to be explored, and an index of the documents therein,
pertaining to our colonial history, to be furnished; literary men
in other States, including Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson, readily
seconded his efforts by supplying information sought of them; the
families of deceased public men in the State, including those of
Governor Burke, Governor Samuel Johnston, and Mr. Hooper, opened
all their papers to his inspection; and many officers of the
Revolution, then living, among whom were Colonel William Polk,
General Lenoir, Major Donoho, of Caswell, General Graham, and divers
others, undertook to contribute to him their personal reminiscences
of the war. The memoranda of the gentleman last named, prepared in
accordance with a request of Mr. Murphy, were given to the public
in the pages of our _University Magazine_ in the year 1856. Upon
application of Mr. Murphy, by memorial, the General Assembly at
the session of 1826 granted him authority to raise by lottery a
sufficient sum for the publication of his contemplated history,
the plan of which he set forth in detail. We regret that we have
not at hand a copy of this memorial to lay before our readers the
outline of the work as then prepared. It was more voluminous, and
embraced a greater variety of topics than would have been preferred
by the generality of readers, but its very magnitude showed the
comprehension of his genius and the intrepidity of his mind. Beyond
one or two chapters on the Indian tribes of the State, he appears to
have done but little towards its composition, though his collection
of materials, directing attention to the subject, and rescuing
from oblivion much that was passing away, rendered the undertaking
itself a great public benefit. Decayed health and a ruined fortune
arrested him in mid-career, put a stop to his favorite enterprise,
and clouded with poverty and adversity the evening of his days.
Among his public employments may be classed his mission to Tennessee
as the representative of the University in 1822. The chief
endowments of the University from the State consisted in escheats,
or the estates of persons dying without heirs or next of kin,
which passed to the State by a prerogative of sovereignty. In her
deed of cession to the United States of her Tennessee territory,
North Carolina had reserved the right to satisfy the claims of her
citizens for military service in the army of the Revolution, by
grants of land in the ceded territory, and where her soldiers had
died leaving no heirs, or none who appeared and made claim within
a limited period, their titles were considered as escheats, and
vested by law in the Board of Trustees, and warrants were issued by
the authorities of North Carolina, in the names of such soldiers
for the benefit of the institution. The State of Tennessee took
exception to these proceedings of North Carolina, alleging that
they were in conflict with the provisions of the deed of cession,
and, since her admission into the Union, with her sovereign rights
as an independent State. The controversy became a serious one, and
Mr. Murphy was sent to confer with the Legislature of Tennessee
respecting it, in the year 1822. He was received with the courtesy
due to his high character and the important interest he represented,
and was heard upon the subject at the bar of the Legislature on two
successive days. An adjustment of the dispute succeeded, by which
a portion of the claims of the University were yielded for the
benefit of a similar institution at Nashville, and the residue were
confirmed. From the sales of the lands thus acquired have arisen
a large portion of the investment in bank stocks, on which this
institution is at present maintained.
As a literary character Mr. Murphy deserves to be classed among the
first men of the State; and among those who, like himself, devoted
their time laboriously to professional and public employments, he
has had few superiors in literature in the nation. In the Latin,
Greek, and French languages he attained such proficiency that till
the close of his life he read the standard authors with pleasure
and for amusement, and with the best of the English classics few
were more familiar. To this, though self-taught, he added no
inconsiderable attainments in science. As an epistolary writer he
had no equal among his contemporaries, and in all his compositions
there was an ease, simplicity, and at the same time an elegance of
expression which showed him to be master of his native tongue. When
it is known that a large part of his life was passed in taverns,
on the circuit, where he was immersed in business--and when not
so immersed, such was his proverbial urbanity and kindliness of
nature that his rooms were the resort of all seeking advice and
consultation, as well as of his circle of friends in every county,
attracted by the charms of his conversation--his acquirements are
a marvel to those less studious or less imbued with a true love
of letters. His oration before the two Literary Societies of the
University, in 1827, is a fair exponent of his style of writing, and
also indicates his favorite studies, the subjects of his admiration,
his enthusiastic American sentiment, his characteristic benevolence
and kindness towards young men, and that unaffected modesty which
was so remarkable a virtue in his character. Yet it is tinged with
a vein of sadness, as if life for him was approaching its twilight
and he was walking among the graves of the dead, some of them his
comrades, whom he was soon to follow. Notwithstanding it was the
first in the series of these discourses before the Societies, it
has never been surpassed in appropriateness and interest by those
of any of his successors, though among them have been many of the
most distinguished scholars in the State. Its commendation by Chief
Justice Marshall, in a letter to the author, published with the
second edition, stamps its portraits of public characters with his
approbation and renders it historical.