At the request of the President and Executive Committee of the State Bar
Association of Illinois, I have attempted to prepare a paper in response to
that request. . In 1844, while residing in another and adjoining state, I
had occasion to visit some of the courts in what at that time was called the
Wabash Circuit, and while attending some of their courts, formed definite
impressions from what I heard and saw of its members while on these
occasional visits. These impressions were much strengthened after I became a
citizen of the state and a member of the Wabash Bar, from association with
its members, in the courts and in social life.
My first visit to an
Illinois court was at Palestine, in Crawford county. I found the venerable
justice, William Wilson, one of the Supreme Judges of Illinois, presiding
over the Circuit Court, and found at the bar E. S. Janey and Augustus C.
French, representing the local bar. Wickliff Kitchell, the first local
member of the bar, had a short time before that removed to the western part
of the state. O. B. Ficklin, then of Mt. Carmel; Justin Harlan and Timothy
R. Young, of the Clark county bar; Usher F. Linder, of Coles county, and
Aaron Shaw, of Lawrence County, were in attendance on the court. These men
were at that time regarded as good lawyers and some of them as very able
advocates.
Of Judge Wilson, the presiding judge, I can only say that
he impressed me as a man of sound judgment; well versed in law as it was
written in the books; courteous to the members of the bar; possessing the
fine social qualities; always urbane and pleasant in his bearing toward
others. He drove to the buggy in which he traveled the circuit a white mule,
to which he was somewhat attached, of the good qualities of which he often
talked to his companions while passing from one court to another. Justin
Harlan says that, while riding with him from Paris to Danville, the Judge,
in speaking of the good qualities of his white mule, said one of its
qualities was never to leave the beaten track over which it had once
traveled, and no matter what inducement or obstruction might lie in the way,
it never required any guidance. While thus discoursing on the subject, the
mule, not feeling the power of the line and tempted by the green grass that
grew on the roadside, left the beaten track and wandered some distance from
the road, gathering as it went mouthsful of luxuriant grass. When the
Judge's attention was called to the fact he attributed its dereliction in
this regard to want of proper food the night before, arguing that a man,
however honest, when hungry would sometimes steal a meal. The Judge, while
thoroughly equipped as a judicial officer, was somewhat deficient in his
orthography, and many stories were told by the clerks and bar as to his
deficiency in this line in making entries in his docket.
Justin
Harlan, a native of Ohio, a sound lawyer, deeply versed in its elementary
principles, while not an orator in the general acceptance of the term,
possessed fine conversational powers, and before court or jury was a
formidable opponent. His sound judgment and personal qualities made him
popular in the profession. After the constitution of 1848 was adopted he was
elected to the circuit bench and filled that position for two full terms
with great acceptance to the bar and the people of the Circuit, and only
left the bench when age and increasing infirmities rendered it, in his
opinion, proper to retire.
Timothy R. Young, a native of New
Hampshire, a citizen of Clark county, was a well educated lawyer and a man
of much promise in his profession, but early in life he was elected to
Congress from his district, and having great taste for the life of a farmer,
at the end of his first term in Congress he left politics and the bar and
became an "honest farmer". He lived till a good old age, more than four
score years, and died respected and honored by all who knew him.
E.
S. Janey, a native of Alexandria, Virginia, came to Crawford county and
settled at Palestine shortly after the state was admitted into the Union. He
was a gentleman of liberal education; well versed in the elementary
principles of the law; was twice elected to the General Assembly of the
state from Crawford county. After several years of successful practice he
quit the profession and turned his attention to farming.
Augustus C.
French, born in New Hampshire, came to Paris, Edgar county, and was shortly
afterwards appointed Register of the land office at Palestine, and made that
his home until later in life, when he removed to Lebanon that he might have
the benefit of the college at that place for the education of his children.
Mr. French was more of a politician than lawyer, and after a second term as
Governor of the state he -abandoned the practice of law, although he
possessed qualities that well fitted him for the bar.
Aaron Shaw, a
native of the state of New York, came to Lawrenceville, Lawrence county,
Illinois, shortly after the organization of the county. He was a fair lawyer
in point of ability; was appointed and elected by the General Assembly,
State's Attorney for the circuit, an office in which he exhibited great
skill in the conduct of criminal cases. He possessed a sharp and incisive
voice, and became a "terror to evildoers" while he held that office. He was
twice elected to the House of Representatives of the state from his county;
one term on the circuit bench, and one term to the Congress of the United
States from his district. While State's Attorney he accomplished from a jury
a verdict of "guilty" without a single witness upon the stand, a fact which
is without parallel in modern criminal jurisprudence. Upon a call of the
people's witnesses, no one appeared; he then called a jury and read the
indictment, and stated that twenty-three grand jurors had sworn on their
oaths that the prisoner was guilty and asked what was the use of introducing
further testimony. Defendant's counsel had nothing to say; the jury retired
and returned a verdict of guilty, very much to the astonishment of the court
and bar. It is useless to say that the verdict was promptly set aside by the
court. Mr. Shaw had a good share of civil practice on the circuit. He was a
good financier; accumulated a nice property to leave to his family when he
died. He was cordial with his friends, but rather unforgiving toward his
enemies.
Orlando B. Ficklin, a native of Kentucky, came to Wabash
county and settled at Mt. Carmel, where he remained for several years.
Afterwards he located at Charleston, Coles county, where he spent the
remainder of his life. He was, when I first met him, in the prime of life
and manhood; a profound lawyer in the full tide of professional success on
the Wabash circuit. He was a man of infinite humor and enjoyed the society
of the judges and his associates at the bar as well as that of his very
general acquaintance outside his profession. His knowledge of the law and
his knowledge of human nature made him a successful lawyer. He was not only
a good lawyer but a politician of considerable note in the state. While
quite young he was elected to the Legislature from Wabash county. He was
three times elected to Congress from his district, and might have remained
there longer, but his taste and inclination led him back to the bar. He was
plain in speech, logical in argument, and at times, when aroused, he
exhibited great power over minds of courts and juries. He had a host of
friends, including all who knew him, except such as professional jealousy
might alienate. In the later years of his life he consented to go to the
Legislature from Coles county, and though age was telling on him, his last
great speech in that body in seconding the nomination of Gen. John C. Black
for the office of United States Senator will be long remembered by those who
had the pleasure of hearing it. He lived his four score years and died full
of honors, to the regret of all who had known him in his active and useful
life.
Usher F. Linder was a native of Kentucky, and a near relative
of the celebrated John J. Hardin. He came to Charleston, Illinois, in the
thirties, and practiced law in the Wabash circuit and courts of the state
until a few years before he died, when he removed to Chicago. He was a
lawyer of fine ability and obtained a first class reputation as such in
Southern Illinois. He possessed two characteristics seldom found in the same
individual. He was both a wit and a humorist. When addressing the court on
some controverted question of law he was clear, logical and forcible. He was
imaginative, and when inclined, was wonderful in tropes and figures; was an
adept in posing and facial expression, could be ridiculous or sublime, as
moved by the spirit within. He possessed a musical voice and could play upon
the passions and emotions of a jury or an audience at his pleasure. As an
orator, I think he excelled any member of the bar in Eastern Illinois in his
time. He was all this when his surroundings were agreeable, but he had some
failings that often destroyed the effect of his speeches. O. B. Ficklin, who
knew him as well, perhaps, as any other man, once said of him: "That if it
were not for his personal vanity and want of moral courage he would have
been the greatest man in Illinois". An attack upon either his personal
habits or arguments would render him for the time being helpless and
incapable of parrying the blows. He was a Whig in politics while that party
was in existence, then for a time became a Free Lance, but eventually allied
himself with the Democratic party. He was twice elected to the General
Assembly of Illinois and was an active member in that body. He died at his
home in Chicago after more than half a century of active professional life.
In the summer of 1845 I had occasion to visit Mt. Carmel while the
Circuit Court was in session. I found a young man who had located in Mt.
Carmel, a graduate of a Maryland college, Charles H. Constable, a rising
young lawyer, who afterwards became an important factor at the bar of
Southern Illinois. He was a young gentleman of pleasing manners with a
highly cultivated mind and fine social qualities, of sober and industrious
habits, as I judged from the preparation of his cases in that court. He
afterwards acquired a good reputation on the circuit as a safe counselor and
an able advocate. Modest and unassuming in his demeanor, he became popular
with his brother lawyers. In 1849 he left Mt. Carmel and took up his
residence at Marshall, Clark county. He attended all of the courts of his
circuit, as was the custom of that time with members of the bar, and in 1859
was elected to the Circuit bench, where he presided until his death. - His
character for honesty and integrity was unimpeachable, and, possessing a
judicial mind, he was a very popular judge, but he was stricken down in the
midst of his usefulness before age came to impair his powers.
While
at the Wabash court I met and made the acquaintance of Battice Webb, of
Carmi, a Virginian by birth, a man then in the prime of life and enjoying in
his circuit a lucrative practice. His father had been a noted lawyer of
Southern Illinois. I was impressed with the idea that the son had a
brilliant future before him, judging from his gentlemanly bearing and his
evidently profound knowledge of the law, but he lived but a short time
thereafter, and died lamented by all who were fortunate enough to have made
his acquaintance.
In the fall of 1845 I had occasion to visit
Greenup, then the county seat of Cumberland county. Circuit Court was in
session in a little school-house in the south part of the village, Judge
Wilson still presiding. I met Alfred Kitchell, a son of Wickliff Kitchell, a
former Attorney General of the state. Alfred Kitchell was a graduate of the
law school at Bloomington, Indiana. He located at Olney shortly after the
village (now city) was adopted as the county seat. He had succeeded Judge
Aaron Shaw as State's Attorney on the circuit. He made a vigorous
prosecutor. His belief in the necessity of enforcing the law and his
observance of the ethics of the profession rendered him popular with the
courts and the people. He was elected for a term to the Circuit bench, but
refused a re-election, preferring to return to the bar, having extensive
property interests in and around Olney. He did much for the improvement of
the county seat. Much to the regret of the people of Olney and vicinity, he
sold his possessions in that place and located at Knoxville, Illinois, where
he resided until his death in 1869, much respected and honored.
At
this same term of court I met a lawyer from Springfield, who had been called
to defend a man indicted for "an assault to kill." When I entered the
court-room the the evidence had just been concluded and the State's Attorney
was opening the argument for the prosecution. After its conclusion a
gentleman of angular build arose to address the jury on behalf of the
defendant. He had an earnest look in his face, but I was not impressed with
his opening remarks. Later he seemed to gather up his mental forces and I
listened with interest to his plain, common sense argument. He was not
eloquent, but evidently knew how to touch the chords that move the hearts of
the average juror, and when he concluded I felt that he was no common man.
Upon inquiring I learned that it was Abraham Lincoln, whose fame afterwards
reached the boundaries of the civilized world, and who fell a martyr to his
love of country and of human rights.
I have thus given a brief
sketch of the prominent members of the bar of the Wabash Circuit in 1844-5
from first impressions, as well as a more extensive acquaintance after I
became a member of this bar in 1847. After this I made the acquaintance of a
number of prominent members of the bar throughout Southern Illinois, of whom
I cannot give notice in this article on account of its length.
Extracted 27 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 446-450.