Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer: Judge Garnett Andrews

Chapter V.

Chapter V. The Middle Circuit—Leading Lawyers—Ned Bacon—The staunch old Methodist and Rebel Preacher—The young Convict. What I have written relates to the Northern circuit of Georgia, in which I have resided; but practicing at one time in one county in the Middle circuit, I cannot let it pass without saying it was remarkable for the courtesy and high breeding of the leading members of its Bar, who always give tone to the rest of the profession and indeed, I may say, in some degree, to the best citizens of the circuit in which they practice. These gentlemen bore themselves towards each other, in the court-house, with the same deference and urbanity they practiced in the drawing-room. Compared to the ill-nature and vulgarity— not to say brutality—I have noticed in some circuits, generally due to one or more leading members of the profession—it was the difference between civilized and savage warfare. For in one as well as the other, Christian and humane men will inflict as little pain and expense on their adversaries as may be compatible with the great aim and end of the contest. There was the courteous and winning Walker, a born and bred gentleman ; the lofty and high-toned Flournoy; the handsome, neat and well dressed Reid—just short of dandyism; the kind-hearted and sunny Longstreet, and the courtly Wilde—immortalized by “My life is like a summer rose”—with his marked, intellectual face; the imaginative and benevolent Carey; the lamented Burnside, who fell in a duel; the restless impetuous political leader, Glasscock, and the stern and honest Holt. They were all fine-looking and talented men, of the first order in the State. I had often heard the older members of the profession speak in raptures of “Ned Bacon”—the “Ned Brace,” of the Georgia Scenes—of his wit, his anecdotes , his personal appearance, his talents and above all, his divine singing.42 At the period of which I now write, he came from South Carolina, across the Savannah River to Columbia County, in the Middle Circuit, to defend Dr. Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer [66] Walsh, who was indicted for murder. Old as he was he was fine-looking and manifested, occasionally, the wit which had so often “set the table in a road,” was not extinct. I thought, however, that he barely sustained his reputation for eloquence. Judge Dooly, as before indicated, was a little jealous of the Augusta gentlemen , yet paid them the compliment of saying that if he had a son to educate and accomplish, he would after his college course and tour of Europe, make him ride the Middle Circuit. They were the only lawyers whom I have ever known to approach the standard of professional courtesy mentioned by an English writer, who, speaking of two advocates of the English Bar, said: “Their daily professional opposition ripened into habits of personal intimacy and affection, for so finely were the minds and characters of these great advocates constituted, that each of them seemed to have a livelier sense of the qualities of his opponent than of his own. “In political opinions they were wholly at variance, nor were their baits of thought more nearly allied. . . . But the natural refinement, breeding, and innate sense of justice, common to both of them, created a sympathy more powerful than all their differences.” But little occurred at this, the only court, at which I practiced, in this Circuit worth mentioning. On the trial of a cause, a very staunch old Methodist was put on the stand to impeach the credit of one of his neighbors. And when the usual question was asked him, he replied, “he did not know anything in the world against his neighbor, except that he was a Baptist, and he would not deny it himself, and, but for that, he would believe him as soon as any man in the world.”* *Note: An old rebel preacher, as stern in politics as the witness was in his religion, getting into “a weaving-way” in a sermon during the war, in his fervor describing how the redeemed would flock to heaven, said, “some would come from the East, some from the West, some from the South, and—and— and—in God’s great mercy, a few may steal in even from the North.” I remember some of the lawyers gave an account of an amusing case tried in Richmond County, of that Circuit...