Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest

25. Twilight

25 Twilight The Lord’s will, not mine, be done.    —Felix Grundy t appears fitting that Grundy characterized his reelection to the Senate as the happiest day of his life. His political life spanned over forty years, from 1799 to 1840, and for much of that period he exuberantly engaged in political battle. Even if more renowned as a criminal lawyer, Grundy defined himself early by his political ambition, and his election to the Senate in late 1839 offset his travails in the 1830s. His last years, however, afforded more than political vindication, as the threads of his life pulled together. Andrew Jackson had dominated Tennessee politics since 1824. When Grundy enthusiastically congratulated Governor-elect Polk on August 12, he mentioned that the Old General and he were shortly going to Tyree Springs. Visitors were drawn to the popular retreat, named for an early proprietor and located about twenty miles northeast of Nashville, because of its white sulfur mineral water and its cool air (the elevation was 1,230 feet). Jackson, Grundy, General Armstrong, and George W. Campbell gathered there with family and friends for a week in August 1839. Josephus Guild, in Old Times in Tennessee , described a sylvan time when an elderly gardener was hired to deliver fresh melons, fruit, and flowers daily. Under the great elms in the parklike setting, a moot court took place every day after breakfast, with Grundy as chief justice and Jackson as associate justice. Young men were indicted for every trivial offense, such as failing to bow when passing a lady. To be tried was to be fined, and Grundy decreed that anyone who objected would be fined double. In a statement that is not necessarily believable, Guild wrote that not a word of politics or public affairs was heard during the pleasant week.1 Grundy’s relaxed retreat with Jackson that summer reflected their changed relationship. Following Grundy’s reelection to the Senate in 1833 over Jackson’s I 251 252 � Jacksonian candidate Eaton, Grundy continued to support the measures of the Jackson administration. As Eaton and Lewis joined forces with those opposed to Jackson , the president’s appreciation of Grundy became more pronounced. On June 11, 1835, in the midst of Hugh Lawson White’s presidential campaign, Jackson wrote to Grundy. Referring to Grundy as the able friend of the measures that had saved the country from the national bank, Jackson concluded, “Believe me, My Dear Sir, with sentiments of the greatest respect for your uniform, and talented support of the great principles of Republicanism, and of gratitude for the manly and generous manner in which you have often vindicated my character from the aspersions of my enemies. Your friend.” Other letters to Grundy from Jackson express similar appreciation. Jackson too advised Van Buren that Grundy would provide good counsel on difficult matters. Grundy’s later letters often refer to evenings or days at Jackson’s home, the Hermitage. After a lifetime of political struggle, these two political warriors, of dramatically different styles but similar objectives, met together with a warmth and affection that had been absent in earlier periods.2 Grundy continued to practice law when he was not in Washington or campaigning , but on a different level. In 1838 or 1839, “S” was being tried for murder in the Hickman Circuit Court, in Columbus, Kentucky. The defense retained only Grundy, occasioning three well-known local lawyers to volunteer to assist the prosecution, since they regarded the failure to employ a local attorney as an affront. In his presentation, one volunteer prosecutor alluded to the fact that the “accused, so desperate was his case, . . . had employed the Honorable Felix Grundy, the most renowned criminal lawyer in the south.” The presiding judge, stopping the speaker, admonished him for disregarding the amenities due to a member of the bar. Grundy rose and asked the court to allow the young lawyers the fullest latitude for their arguments. This, of course, further enraged them, and they warned the jury against Grundy’s skill and power. When Grundy rose to address the jury, he did so in a respectful manner. After noting that the prosecutors had paid him compliments of a doubtful character, he said that they must have supposed that their vigorous assaults would alarm him. He, however, would not be swayed from his duty. He said that he felt very much “like a sawyer [large tree] imbedded in the. . . . Mississippi ; [whose] location becomes known to all navigators as dangerous, and the proud...