t^^tftititi&^K^M&&tftiAttltttttttt^' '
 
 LINTON STEPHENS.
 
 ^.^^/
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS, 
 
 ( Late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia,) 
 
 CONTAINING A SELECTION OF HIS 
 
 LETTERS, SPEECHES, STATE PAPERS, ETC. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JAMES D. WADDELL. 
 
 1 Heu ! quanto minus est cum reliquis 
 Versari quam tui meminisse" SHENSTONE. 
 
 ATLANTA, GEORGIA: 
 DODSON & SCOTT NO. 38 BROAD STREET.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, 
 
 By JAMES I). WADDELL, 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 (Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia,) 
 
 WHO NOW SO WORTHILY ADORNS THE SEAT ON THAT HIGH 
 TRIBUNAL TO WHICH 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS, 
 
 FOR A BRIEF TERM, IMPARTED SPLENDID ILLUSTRATION, 
 
 THESE UNPRETENDING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY 
 AND 
 
 THERE WOULD SEEM TO BE FITNESS, IN THIS HUMBLE WAY, 
 
 IN LINKING THE NAME OF THE ONE WITH 
 
 THE MEMORY OF THE 
 
 OTHER.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE life of LINTON STEPHENS was one of character rather 
 than of incident more the life of a thinker than an actor 
 upon the stage of human affairs. He chose to be a spec- 
 tator of passing events, and was content to weigh their sig- 
 nificance and watch their succession through the "loopholes 
 of retreat," so as not "to feel the pressure of the crowd." 
 He had little relish for the hot arena of the world-strife. 
 The mild dignity that environs the good citizen was more 
 beautiful and more attractive in his eyes, and more grateful 
 to his tastes and habitudes, than "the applause of listening 
 senates," or the victor's wreath of laurel. The blaze of 
 public notoriety he shunned. He shrunk from all manner 
 of self-exposition or display. Vain-glory was not among 
 the imperfections of his nature. He was perfectly satisfied 
 with knowing the truth of anything, or any fact, himself 
 uncaring whether the outside world appreciated his knowl- 
 edge thereof or not; hence, he had no ambition to make 
 history: he was content to study its lessons, interpret its 
 facts, and learn wisdom from its teachings. Although it 
 was impossible for a man of the parts he had, not to be 
 conspicuous among men ; and although his opinions upon 
 every subject large enough to agitate a free people were 
 anxiously sought after, impatiently waited for, and eagerly 
 canvassed, yet he never held, nor left to his own volition 
 ever aspired to hold, high political station. For this rea- 
 son, the general reader of these pages will remark the lack- 
 ing, somewhat, of that significance of events in the story 
 of his life which imparts the chief interest, attraction, and 
 charm to biography.
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 THE paternal grandfather of Lin ton Stephens was Alex- 
 ander Stephens, an Englishman by birth. He was scarcely 
 nineteen years of age when the affair of 1/45 transpired ; 
 yet, young as he was, he ardently espoused the cause of 
 Charles Edward, "the Young Chevalier," as he was called. 
 When fate frowned upon the fortunes of the " Pretender's 
 Son," the vigilance and the vengeance of exasperated 
 power were eluded by seeking refuge in America. He at 
 first found shelter and security among the Shawnee Indians 
 in the colony of Pennsylvania. This was in the year 1746. 
 How long he remained among that tribe is not definitely 
 known probably until near the breaking out of the Revo- 
 lutionary war. Eifty years had rolled over his head, when 
 the curtain rose upon that drama, "yet was his eye not 
 dim, nor his natural force abated." He early and eagerly 
 embarked in the Colonial struggle for independence. We 
 may imagine that the memory of wrongs, real or supposed, 
 which he had suffered in his native land, stimulated the zeal 
 and nerved the arm of the exile in a cause which his judg- 
 ment, without such incentive already approved as just. He 
 enlisted as a private, and when Independence was achieved, 
 his military rank was that of Captain in the Pennsylvania 
 forces. 
 
 Captain Stephens seems to have been of the class of 
 men numerous enough in his day, now almost extinct 
 that "hate ease," are full of enterprise, fond of adven-
 
 2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 turc, restless, always moving, if not always advancing. 
 Before the close of the war, he married Catharine, daughter 
 of Andrew Raskins, a gentleman of repute and the wealthy 
 proprietor of what was then, and for years afterwards, 
 known as Raskins' Ferry, at the confluence of the Susque- 
 hanna and Juniata rivers. The marriage seems to have 
 been displeasing to the father-in-law for what reason we 
 cannot conjecture, unless it was, that he looked upon his 
 son-in-law as a "Soldier of fortune," bred, as he perhaps 
 imagined, in the Dalgetty school, and unworthy of matri- 
 monial alliance with a prospective heiress, who should count 
 her possessions by so many thousands. Re that as it may, 
 after the consummation of the marriage, the daughter was 
 discarded ; and Captain Stephens, some time after the war, 
 and after all attempts at reconciliation had proved to be una- 
 vailing, emigrated to Georgia, in 1795, bringing along with 
 him little other treasure than a wife, a large number of 
 children, and an unbroken spirit. He first pitched his tent 
 in Elbert count}-, but finally settled in \Yilkes, now Talia- 
 ferro count}', where he died in 1813. He lived to the pa- 
 triarchal age of eighty-seven, and his remains lie entombed 
 but a little way distant from the grave-yard of the old 
 homestead. 
 
 Andrew Raskins Stephens, son of Alexander, was born 
 in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1/83. Me was 
 twelve years old when his father moved to Georgia. Fa- 
 cilities for academical instruction were limited and scant 
 throughout Georgia and the Carolinas at that day. Liberal 
 education was the rare distinction of the children of afflu- 
 ence only. Xot to mention board-bills and traveling ex- 
 penses, few could command means wherewith to meet the 
 tuition fees of colleges and schools of learning in distant 
 and more highly favored sections of the country. Andrew, 
 born to no patrimony, shared the common fate of other 
 poor boys of the time and neighborhood. The instruction
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3 
 
 doled out to him must have been essentially rudimental in 
 kind, variety and degree. Indeed, the scholastic acquisitions 
 of an alumnus of an institution, whose curriculum comprised 
 reading, writing and cyphering, and which nothing but the 
 inexorable exigence of such a state of society could create 
 or would tolerate the ' ' Old Field School " could scarcely 
 have been grammatical, much less literary. But nature had 
 dealt more generously with the boy than fortune. lie was 
 endowed with uncommon intellectual faculties ; he had 
 sound practical judgment; he was a safe counselor, saga- 
 cious, self-reliant, candid and courageous. He was held in 
 high estimation as one of the " solid men" of the commu- 
 nity a man of inflexible integrity and great weight of 
 character. He had large influence over the opinions and 
 conduct of his neighbors ; the}' counseled with him on mat- 
 ters of business, unbosomed their cares and vexations to him ; 
 he surveyed their lands for them ; defined the metes and 
 bounds thereof; and he was the common arbiter who set- 
 tled their differences and disputes, and from his decision 
 there was seldom any appeal. He was twice married: first 
 in 1807 to Margaret, daughter of Aaron Gricr and sister of 
 the late Robert Grier, whose name is yet a household word 
 throughout our Southern States.* 
 
 It is among the traditions of the neighborhood, wherein 
 she dwelt and died, that Mrs. Stephens was a woman of 
 capital sense and fair culture ; remarkable for independence 
 of thought; devoted to domestic pursuits; of cheerful, 
 amiable temper, and unobtrusive, elevated piety Three 
 children only of this marriage survived infancy. These 
 were a daughter, Mary, the eldest; Aaron Grier, the next, 
 and Alexander H., the youngest, who was born February 
 i ith, 1812. In 1814, Mr. Stephens married, in second 
 
 s " A quarter of a century ago, " Grier's Almanac" hung beside the 
 chimney-piece in almost every house in the Southern States, wherein a 
 copy of the Bible could be found. The late R. C. Grier, of the Supreme 
 Bench of the United States, was his kinsman.
 
 4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 nuptials, Matilda S. , daughter of Colonel John Lindsay, of 
 Wilkes county. He was of Scotch-Irish stock. He bore 
 a conspicuous part in the struggle for Independence, rose 
 to the rank of Colonel in the Georgia forces, and was es- 
 teemed a gallant officer, and wary, skillful commander. He 
 lost his sword-hand in battle, and in consequence of wear- 
 ing a covering of silver over the stump, he acquired the 
 sobriquet of " Old Silver-fist. " After the war, he grew to 
 be rich in this world's goods, and, at one time, was the 
 owner of valuable landed estates on Little river, near Phil- 
 lips' Bridge ; but good fortune finally forsook him ; he be- 
 came involved in debt by security, and died leaving his es- 
 tate very much reduced. He had eight children, and the 
 patrimony, when divided among them, amounted only to 
 about six or seven hundred dollars to each. He was re- 
 puted to be a man of strong mind, sterling honesty, un- 
 bending will, stormy passions ; the concurrent testimony of 
 all the family traditions is, that he was ardent in friendships, 
 implacable in hate, fond of good cheer, frank, fearless and 
 generous to a fault. Some of these characteristics the 
 daughter, Matilda, inherited. The basis of her intellectual 
 character was good sense ; the basis of her moral character 
 was truth ; her manners were dignified ; her disposition was 
 quiet and cheerful, and in all the relations of social life, she 
 was exemplary and amiable. Five children were born of 
 the second wife, but only three lived to attain majority. 
 The eldest, John Lindsay Stephens, was a prominent lawyer 
 in the western part of the State, who died in his prime. 
 The next was Catharine R., now also deceased. The 
 youngest was 
 
 LIXTOX STKPHKNS, 
 
 the subject of this sketch. He was born at the old home- 
 stead, some two miles northeast of Crawfordville, on the 
 first day of July, 1823. It has been seen that English, 
 Irish and Scotch blood were commingled in his veins. The
 
 JUDGE LIXTON STEPHENS. 5 
 
 remaining narrative of his life will show that each separate 
 current asserted its peculiar quality and power in the con- 
 formation of a character which itself avouched the blended 
 extraction. For we shall see that he had the sturdy com- 
 mon sense, the iron will, the unquailing courage refined by 
 chivalry of Hampden ; the emotional nature, the ardent af- 
 fections, the unselfish devotion, the noble enthusiasm of 
 Grattan ; the subtle discrimination, the cautious circum- 
 spection and metaphysical turn of the 'Scotch mind, as ex- 
 emplified in Reid or Stewart. 
 
 His father died on the /th of May, 1826, and his mother 
 died on the I4th of the same month, just seven clays after, ' 
 thus leaving him a complete orphan before he was quite 
 three years old. At this time, the surviving children con- 
 sisted of Aaron G. and Alexander H., by the first wife, 
 and John L. , Catharine B. and Linton by the second. The 
 family, of course, had to be broken up. The estate went 
 into administration, and the children went to live with their 
 kin on the side of their respective mothers. Aaron G. 
 and Alexander H., to their uncle's, Colonel Aaron Grier, 
 of Warren county, who became their guardian. Linton 
 was committed to his grandmother and a maiden aunt on 
 his mother's side, where he remained for nearly four years. 
 The following extract from a letter to a female friend pre- 
 sents a touching and lively picture of the boy and his sur- 
 roundings during this period. 
 
 His aunt then lived about a mile from Crawfordville : 
 
 MAY 30, 1866. 
 
 The foundation of all my ideas of friendship was laid in 
 the school of solitude. It came to me in the form of a 
 want, not a possession. The first recollection I have of 
 myself, I was an orphan at the age of three years, parcelled 
 out, one by myself, in the distribution of the children 
 among different relations at the sad breaking-up of my
 
 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 father's household. My memory goes distinctly back to 
 that early period of my life. My childhood was without 
 companionship, and was felt to be so then. I had my child- 
 ish griefs and pains,, but there was nobody to whom I could 
 say "I suffer;" nobody to whom I could say "1 have suf- 
 fered." In the main, however, the world seemed very bright 
 and beautiful to me abounding almost in enchantments. 
 I well remember the charms which nature used to have for 
 me in those days. The woods, the streams, the skies, the 
 birds, the luscious fruits, the sweet-scented flowers, the 
 green sward in front of the door, the waving and murmur- 
 ing forest of pines hard by the whole glorious creation as 
 it unfolded itself to my young soul. I remember one day 
 I was so full of the brightness and beauty of the world that 
 I ran to my aunt to know how I ever had come into it. 
 That thought had never got into my head before. 1'Jiat I 
 could and did ask her; but it did not occur to me to tell her 
 how beautiful it all was to me to ask her to share with me 
 in my enjoyment of it all. But there was one short and 
 bright companionship which crossed my path in those days. 
 I was six years old then. It came in the form of a little 
 girl named Cornelia Hays, who came and spent a week a 
 whole week at my aunt's. How she happened to come 
 there I do not recollect ; nor can I even now give a rational 
 conjecture on the subject; for I was the only child on the 
 place, and I can hardly suppose that a little girl came as a 
 playmate for a little boy. However that ma}* have been, 
 she was a playmate; and I thought a glorious one. She 
 was a little older than I, and quite pretty, as I thought then, 
 and still think from my present recollection of her appear- 
 ance. It was in the time of the clog-woods and honey- 
 suckles. How I did delight to climb the trees and bring 
 down these flowers, and lay them at the feet of my little 
 queen, or put them into her hands, and weave some of 
 them into her hair! I loved to serve as her tiring-maid. 
 And she? She seemed to enter into the spirit df it all. I 
 remember that she particular!}' enjoyed a slide down a very 
 steep hill, which terminated at the bottom in a sand bank 
 bordering "the spring branch;" I found a smooth and 
 straight track down this descent, and conceived the idea of 
 running my "slide" down it. If you don't know what a 
 boy's slide is, you can at least form a sufficient conception
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 7 
 
 of it from its name. It is a vehicle which moves in the 
 manner indicated by its name. She and I, seated in tin's 
 rude carriage, and with arms locked around each other for 
 mutual support during the giddy flight, made the descent 
 in a style which was ecstatic to such children as we were. 
 On getting to the .bottom, I would shoulder the little carri- 
 age, and toil with it back to the top again for a repetition 
 of the glorious fun. Well, that little witch got all of my 
 thoughts out of me in that one week. It was so delightful, 
 so charming, to tell her everything. I do not know what 
 has become of Cornelia Hays in the long and terrible years 
 which have succeeded that one bright week. I have often 
 wondered whether she lives, and remembers that week as 
 I do. I scarcely think so, however, for such companion- 
 ship was an every-day thing to her ; while to me it was an 
 oasis in a threat desert. 
 
 During the year 1830, the administration of the estate of 
 his father was wound up. The lands had been sold, and 
 the servants apportioned among the heirs. The patrimony 
 of each child was found to be four hundred and forty-four 
 dollars. John W. Lindsay, his maternal uncle, now be- 
 came Linton's guardian. Mr. Lindsay, vr'ho lived in L T p- 
 son at the time, removed the ward and his effects to that 
 count}'. The residence was not far from Union Hill. 
 There Linton first went to school. His teacher was Master 
 Strange " a good English scholar" as the phrase then 
 was, by which is implied that he was sufficiently familiar 
 with the elementary branches of a purely English educa- 
 tion, and quite equal to the office of instruction therein, 
 to wit : reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar. The 
 school was distant two miles from the house of his uncle ; 
 the scholastic term extended through the winter months 
 only, and having to go and return on foot, it is likely the 
 state of the weather and roads interrupted the regularity of 
 his attendance. In 1836, he was entered as a pupil in the . 
 academy at Culloden, whereof Mr. Ward Bullard was prin-
 
 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 cipal.* There his stay was for about one year only, but 
 the influences over him were salutary. In the autumn of 
 the following year, he was transferred to the guardianship 
 of his brother, the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, and took 
 up his abode at Crawfordville. Then and there it was " his 
 youth awoke first and fully to the life of the mind. " Colonel 
 Simpson Fouche, a gentleman of ripe scholarly attainments 
 and accomplishments, and one of the best educators of 
 youth the century has produced, was at the head of a large 
 and excellent school at. Crawfordville. Under his tuition 
 young Stephens was prepared for admission to college. 
 The following letter from Colonel Fouche furnishes an in- 
 teresting account of the deportment, progress and promise 
 of the pupil : 
 
 JACKSONVILLE, ALA., September 26, 1873. 
 
 MY DKAR SIR Your letter of the iSth instant, asking 
 for my reminiscences of the late Judge Linton Stephens, 
 \vas received some days ago at Rome, Georgia. 
 
 I had charge of the academy at Crawfordville in the year 
 1838. The number of pupils in attendance was very large, 
 approaching very near to one hundred. Two pupils were 
 entered by the Hon. A. H. Stephens, one of them his 
 brother Linton, then a youth of some fourteen or sixteen 
 years of age, as nearly as I can judge. I had been engaged 
 in teaching for a number of years, at Washington in Wilkes 
 county, and at Powellton in Hancock having generally, 
 especially at the latter place, a large number of pupils, and 
 laboring very earnestly and diligently; so that the manage- 
 ment of the very large school at Crawfordville, with but 
 little assistance, was a very heavy task particularly as the 
 youths of that place were pretty wild, and difficult to bring 
 
 * It is a feather in Mr. Milliard's cap that so many of his pupils be- 
 came distinguished in after life. Among the contemporaries of Stephens 
 at that school were the present (Governor of Georgia, |ames M. Smith; 
 United States Senator, Thomas M. Norwood, etc. ; Robert P. Trippe, As- 
 sociate fustice of the Supreme Court, preceded him in the academy by a 
 year or two only.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 9 
 
 under proper discipline. Young Stephens was thus, at a 
 critical age, subjected to all the seductive influences and 
 temptations usually employed by a crowd of thoughtless 
 associates, strongly inclined to idleness and mischief. 
 
 Yet he was regular and punctual in attendance, always 
 blameless and manly in deportment, diligent and successful 
 in study. Indeed, so uniformly correct and industrious was 
 he, that I cannot now remember, nor do I believe that I 
 ever had occasion, for the slightest reproof of him, for any 
 error in deportment or failure in any point of duty, either 
 in school or out of it. His progress in every branch of 
 learning which he was then pursuing was what might have 
 been expected from a youth of fine natural abilities, coupled 
 with habits so exemplary. It was not only rapid, but 
 thoroughly accurate and scholarly. If you ever taught, you 
 can understand me when I say, that instruction to sucJi a 
 pupil is no task, but a positive pleasure. The respectful re- 
 membrance and intelligent testimonial of such a pupil are 
 among the most grateful rewards of a faithful teacher. 
 
 During a very long career as a teacher, I can recall to 
 mind no pupil who excelled few who equalled him in all 
 the characteristics, moral and intellectual, of a thoroughly 
 good pupil. 
 
 He was not of the number of those " born to greatness," 
 nor yet of those who " have greatness thrust upon them," 
 but of that better class who "achieve greatness" by their 
 own manly efforts. 
 
 Such are my reminiscences of Judge Stephens. If you 
 consider them of any worth, use them. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 S. FOUCHE. 
 
 In after life, when he had won his way to honorable fame 
 "greatness achieved " he loved to recur to those privi- 
 leged days and to hold in grateful remembrance the valu- 
 able offices of his academic mentor. But at this, the form- 
 ative period of his life, there was another influence over 
 him, stronger and greater than any other and all other ex- 
 traneous ones, in giving bent to his tastes and mould to his 
 whole character intellectual, moral and social. It was the
 
 IO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 influence of his brother enforced and energized alike by 
 precept and example. Under that influence, theories of 
 mind, of philosophy, of ethics, of religion, \vere discussed 
 and embraced ; the facts of history accepted ; the real'aims 
 of life interpreted, and the high lessons of duty studied, 
 learned and practiced. 
 
 In August, 1839, h e was matriculated a freshman of the 
 University of Georgia, and at the end of the full term of 
 four years was graduated with the first honor, sohts, in a large 
 class of gifted competitors. Among them may be men- 
 tioned the Reverend J. L. M. Curry, D.D., LL. D.. Hon- 
 orable Edward H. Pottle, General L. J. Gartrcll, William 
 Lundy, Ksq., the late John L. Bird*, and others who after- 
 wards achieved honorable distinction in the various fields of 
 labor and life. 
 
 The universal testimony is that his college-life was marked 
 by diligent and assiduous studies, outside as well as inside 
 of the curriculum, by exemplary deportment, by uniform 
 civility to the Faculty of Instructors, and by respectful ob- 
 servance of law. The single instance of a fine having been 
 imposed upon him, throughout the whole term of his four 
 
 * ISird was the cousin of Stephens. He was educated by the lion. A. 
 II. Stephens one of a large number, who was the favored recipient of 
 the like benefaction from the same generous hand. Perhaps no Ameri- 
 can oi the living, or of the dead, lias so liberally aided indigent and de- 
 serving young men to defray their educational expenses as the "Sage of 
 Liberty Hall;" certainly none, when his pecuniary means competent 
 enough for his own wants, but never affluent are taken into account. 
 ]>ird had rare genius ; was full of fun and lit'ii-hoiinc and there were 
 mixed in him the elements of a successful popular leader. He chose the 
 profession of law, and shortly after admission to the bar, was elected to 
 the office of State Senator. He had little relish for the <(Ov/</;v;r of legis- 
 lation as little as the Arabian racer may be imagined to have lor the 
 dray yet, he conscientiously performed the irksome work of the commit- 
 tee-room. On the floor, he rose to the foremost rank of debaters in the 
 Cieorgia Senate, at a time "when there were giants in ihe land/' lie 
 fell a victim of pulmonary consumption just as the auroral flush was 
 brightening into the light of unclouded day.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I 
 
 years' residence at the University, was levied for the "white 
 sin" of "playing the flute during study hours." He was 
 a member of the Phi Kappa Society 
 
 "A school wherein every principle 
 
 Tending to honor is taught, if followed." 
 
 There he won his earliest laurels ; it was the theater of 
 his young renown ; and there he first gave earnest of the 
 marvelous perfection which he afterwards attained in the 
 practice of forensic debate. 
 
 Of this period of his life, the Rev. Dr. Curry writes: 
 
 RICHMOND, VA., December 21, 1873. 
 
 DEAR SIR In fulfillment of my promise to give you some 
 reminiscences of the college-life of Lintdn Stephens, I state 
 that we entered Franklin College in August, 1839, anc ^ con ~ 
 tinned fellow-students until August, 1843, ^'hen we gradu- 
 ated. Having been class-mates and fellow-members of the 
 Phi Kappa Society for four years, I had unusual opportu- 
 nities for knowing him very intimately. 
 
 As a student, he was scrupulously attentive to his duties. 
 His habits were correct, methodical, exemplary. He was 
 too diligent to give much time to social pleasures, and, 
 therefore, the circle of his intimate companions was not 
 large. By uprightness, frankness, conscientiousness, and 
 gentlemanly bearing, he secured the confidence and esteem 
 of all his fellow-students. I cannot recall a single instance 
 of failure in his recitations. He excelled in all departments, 
 and the college records, if preserved, will show that he in- 
 variably received the highest marks in all his monthly re- 
 ports. \Yhen the faculty, at his graduation, awarded to 
 him the highest honor, they only gave official certainty to 
 the unanimous verdict of the students. In the Literary 
 Society, Linton took an active part. His speeches were 
 the fruits of accurate reading and careful meditation, and 
 were rather characterized by fullness of information and 
 closeness of reasoning than by brilliancy or eloquence. To 
 have him on a particular side of a question was, in the later
 
 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 days of his college-life, the earnest of victory. Sometimes, 
 when aroused, he displayed vehemence and power. Fie 
 hated sham and deception, and dealt honestly with his own 
 mind. In the Society, he gave promise of the judicial fair- 
 ness, the logical acumen, the breadth of view, and the firm 
 adherence to principle, which so distinguished him in his 
 brief and useful career. Widely different as were T. R. R. 
 Cobb and Linton Stephens, I never knew two young men, 
 whose college lives so surely gave promise of future useful- 
 ness and distinction. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 J. L. M. CURRY. 
 
 I am indebted to the kindness of Judge William Lundy, 
 another class-mate, for the following interesting reminis- 
 cences : 
 
 MACON, October 6, 1873. 
 
 DEAR COLONEL In compliance with promise, I herewith 
 transmit some reminiscences of the late Judge Linton Ste- 
 phens, and my " impressions of the man, particularly such 
 as cover his college-life and relate to the formative period 
 of his character." At the outset, a remark occurs to me, 
 which I made to a gentleman, with whom I was walking, 
 when we met and exchanged salutations with Judge Ste- 
 phens, in the city of Atlanta, some two or three years ago: 
 "He has not changed, save that time has robbed his face 
 a little of its freshness, and the silvery tracings are visible 
 upon the dark locks of his hair," which then had been per- 
 mitted to grow to an unusual length. It should be pre- 
 mised, however, that I did not know Mr. Stephens during 
 the earlier part of his college course. I was not with him 
 to share the troubles of the timid and often persecuted 
 Freshman. I never witnessed any of his encounters as 
 Sophomore, with the assumptions and arrogance of the 
 more advanced classes at that period when self-reliance 
 (often miscalled self-sufficiency) begins to take deep root, 
 and prepares the boy for the storms which await him in 
 after life. 
 
 Leaving Mercer University, Junior, half-advanced, I ma- 
 triculated at Franklin College in January, 1842. Soon after
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 13 
 
 my arrival, I met an old college friend, named Bailey, who 
 hailed from South Carolina, and who had preceded me suf- 
 ficiently long to become familiar with our new surroundings. 
 With him the following colloquy took place: " Dr. Church* 
 informs me that you have stood your examination and 
 found your same class? ' Yes ; it is a good class ; there are 
 some splendid fellows in it.' 'Name some of the most 
 prominent.' 'There arc Tom White, of Elbert; Lafayette 
 Lamar and Jabe Curry, of Lincoln, etc., but Linton Ste- 
 phens is looked upon as the prospective first-honor man.' 
 'Who is Linton Stephens?' ' He is from Taliaferro, and 
 brother of the Hon. A. H. Stephens.' I ventured to sug- 
 gest that the reputation of the distinguished statesman, 
 who even then was regarded as one of the brightest lumin- 
 aries in the South, may have had undue influence in giving 
 prominence to the younger brother, and secretly resolved 
 to take observations and judge for myself. It was not long 
 before I was ready to acquiesce in the frankly-expressed 
 opinion of my Palmetto State friend. Soon, on the way to 
 the recitation-room, I was introduced to the young man 
 who had been the special subject of our conversation. 
 
 He was of rather stout build, with dark hair and rather 
 heavy eyebrows, giving the eye a deep-set appearance, and 
 conveying the impression of inflexible determination. His 
 countenance was composed, thoughtful, and serious, almost 
 to sadness. He wore a full suit of dark, home-made jeans; 
 for, in those days, there was, perhaps, less said about 
 economy than now; but there was a greater number will- 
 ing to illustrate the good effects and full force of a 'philos- 
 ophy which teaches by example.' 
 
 Permit me to remark, in this connection, that G. J. Orr, 
 now our popular State School Commissioner, is insepara- 
 bly associated in my memory with that old dark, long jeans 
 frock-coat he wore so long and so well ; and Ben. Hill, in 
 those days, rejoiced in the possession of a full suit of light 
 blue jeans, embracing a coat with a skirt of liberal length. 
 Others of these homespun boys m^ght be mentioned, who, 
 let it be added for the encouragement of the young, have 
 since fought the battle of life successfully, and become both 
 useful and distinguished among their fellow-men. 
 
 * Dr. Church was at that time President of the College.
 
 14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Returning from this brief digression, I shall first refer to 
 the scholastic attainments of our deceased friend. I can 
 state, without hesitation, that during the eighteen months 
 I was associated with him and we both belonged to the 
 same division of the class I never knew him to make a 
 failure in the recitation-room. Ranking high in 'all the de- 
 partments, he was peculiarly distinguished for his readiness 
 in the solution of difficult problems in the higher branches 
 of mathematics. During the last term of the senior year, 
 a course of lectures was delivered on railroading, engineer- 
 ing, and what is now more familiarly known in the schools 
 as 'applied sciences.' Every member of the class was re- 
 quired to take notes and write out each lecture the man- 
 uscript, at the close of the course, to be bound and form a 
 volume of valuable and useful information. Not unfrc- 
 quently the notes prepared by Linton Stephens were copied 
 and handed in by other members of the class to save them- 
 selves trouble, so implicit was their confidence in his accu- 
 racy and reliability. Pie was a Phi Kappa I a Demosthe- 
 nean ; and, consequently, I am not so familiar as others 
 with his performances as a debater. Hut I remember that 
 on a certain occasion perhaps immediately preceding our 
 Junior commencement some subject of dispute arose, 
 which caused much excitement and provoked considerable 
 discussion among us. A meeting of students was called in 
 the chapel, and organized by the appointment of a presid- 
 ing officer. A number of speeches were made, crimina- 
 tion and recrimination indulged in, with no peaceful result 
 in prospect. At length, Linton Stephens, who had been 
 quietly listening, arose, and, in a calm, respectful manner, 
 made a short, lucid, well-timed speech., in which the whole 
 subject was thoroughly analyzed. There was no assump- 
 tion no arrogance nothing offensive, but the matter was 
 so clearly held up to the light that it was easily compre- 
 hended. His was the last speech made, and he was sus- 
 tained by the meeting, it being his good fortune, no less by 
 cogency of reasoning than by his respectful bearing, to ac- 
 complish his purpose, and ' pour oil upon the troubled 
 waters. ' 
 
 Usually, he was rather taciturn and meditative, but not 
 selfishly so; and often, in our evening strolls, or on the 
 way to the boarding-house, when anecdote and fun were
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I 5 
 
 uppermost, he joined with the little knot of lively young 
 fellows, whose sallies of wit and quick repartee made the 
 ' high dome ' ring with peals of joyous laughter. While 
 endeavoring to store his mind with the treasures of learn- 
 ing, he was not altogether indifferent to the happy influ- 
 ences of a spice of mirth. As a gentleman, he was unex- 
 ceptional in deportment to both students and professors. 
 He conformed strictly with college regulations ; but I will give 
 an instance of his complicity with a practical joke, which 
 we sometimes played upon Professor James Jackson. Glo- 
 rious 'Old Major!' Peace to his ashes! 'The Major' (as 
 he was universally called) was fond of anecdote and fun ; 
 and a lively disputation with the boys, even on politics, had 
 for him great attraction. The history of the ' Yazoo Fraud : ' ' 
 its repeal, the burning of the obnoxious records on the 
 State House square at Louisville, with fire drawn from Jica- 
 I'cn, and especially the honorable connection which his dis- 
 tinguished father had with procuring a repeal of the dis- 
 graceful act, was a topic on which the Major seemed not to 
 know when he had said enough or heard enough. One 
 evening, after the bell had sounded the recitation hour, it 
 was ascertained, between Old College and the old brick 
 laboratory, in which was his lecture and recitation-room, 
 that only three or foul" of the class had studied the lesson. 
 To avoid the mortification of so large a number answering 
 ' not prepared,' we agreed to take advantage of the Major's 
 pardonable weakness and ' talk against time. ' A young 
 man from Columbia county, who had remarkably fine con- 
 versational powers, (and of whom the Major was wont to 
 say, ' Sir, if you had lived in ancient times, you certainly 
 would have belonged to the School of Sophists, and if your 
 tongue was a sword, sir, you would make an excellent 
 swordsman,') was to begin. Others were to join in and 
 lead the conversation in the direction of politics. The 
 Major was a little restive, and not disposed to be commu- 
 nicative at first perhaps not entirely unsuspicious. But 
 when Linton Stephens, with as much gravity as he could 
 command, asked to be informed as to some facts relative to 
 the early history of Georgia, and more particularly the 
 repeal of the ' Yazoo Act,' the old Professor's countenance 
 lighted up with smiles, and he responded at length. We 
 plied him with questions, which he answered, totally obliv-
 
 1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ious of the passage of time, until the college-bell sum- 
 moned all from recitation-rooms to the chapel and to ves- 
 pers. It was with no little pleasure we heard it announced 
 from the chair: 'Young gentlemen, tak'n, take the same 
 
 recitation for to-morrow. ' * 
 
 I am, very truly, WILLIAM LUNDY. 
 
 When young Stephens entered college, there began an 
 epistolary correspondence between himself and his brother 
 Alexander, which was kept up almost daily save when 
 sickness, or the living epistle, interrupted it for more than 
 thirty years. I have had access to a large portion of that 
 correspondence. Almost every topic of the passing time, 
 whether of general or personal concern men, measures, 
 subjects of philosophy, of history, of morality, of religion, 
 of science, literature, and art, are therein discussed, with 
 that freedom, fullness and candor which the abandon of per- 
 fect confidence only can generate or justify. Of those 
 written by the elder brother during Linton's college-life, 
 there is scarcely one which does not contain some word of 
 warning, of kindly admonition, and of encouragement in 
 the performance of duty ; nor scarcely one wherein he does 
 not assert, and seek to impress still more deeply upon the 
 mind, his own faith in the reality of virtue, of enthusiasm, 
 and the progress of man. A beautiful feature character- 
 izing the letters of each is the pure, fraternal affection with 
 which they breathe and burn. Some conception of the in- 
 fluences under which the subject of this sketch was reared, 
 his principles confirmed, his tastes fashioned, his aspira- 
 tions kindled, his whole character molded, may be formed 
 from the spirit and sentiment of the following letters from 
 that brother: 
 
 * The student* of the college, who sat under the "Old Major's" in- 
 structions, will remember that, when a little excited, with something like 
 a stutter, lie almost invariably said, "Tak'n, take," meaning simply 
 "take." He was an able and popular professor an accomplished 
 scholar; and, while the kindest and most guileless of men, there was no 
 lack of the foil tier in re element in his nature.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, January 26, 1840. 
 
 The poet says: 
 
 " A little learning is a dangerous thing : 
 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." 
 
 And there is as much truth as satire in the couplet. To be 
 a srnatterer to learn enough only to imbibe the errors of 
 the world, and to become puffed up or inflated with the 
 conceitedness of self-importance are no less ruinous to the 
 unfortunate subject than disgustful to the whole circle of 
 his equal!} 7 unfortunate acquaintance. To be a scholar to 
 place one's self above the common level to ascend the 
 steeps of science, and climb the rugged cliff of fame re- 
 quire energy, resolution, time, self-denial, patience, and 
 ambition. These are not the common qualities of a fickle 
 brain, but the higher attributes of genius. He that pos- 
 sesses them by disciplining them and subjecting them to 
 proper obedience to his own master-spirit, can control not 
 only his own destiny, but that of others. . . . Good- 
 bye. Let me hear of your doing well. Fortune is a web, 
 and every man weaves it for himself. Tell John howdy'e, 
 and remember me to Lewis and Joseph LeConte, and James 
 Green. 
 
 f From same tu same. | 
 
 CKAWFOKDVILLE, February 2, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I am in receipt of yours of the 29th 
 ultimo, and see in it nothing that you need be ashamed of, 
 but much that afforded me pleasure particularly its gen- 
 eral spirit of frankness and independence. There is no 
 virtue in the human character more noble than candor 
 plain, real, unsophisticated candor; it is the legitimate off- 
 spring of truth, and always begets independence. The two 
 seldom are separated, and both should be cherished as the
 
 1 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 governing principle of real nobleness of soul and all true 
 manliness. Some parts of your letter savored a little of a 
 morbid excitement ; perhaps you have been stimulating 
 your ambition too much, until that which should have been 
 the embodied and living sentiment of the soul's deep 
 r.'S'i/rc has kindled into a passion, and burns not with a 
 healthful action, but a feverish heat. If so, this should be 
 corrected, and that speedily, too, else the same breast that 
 so fondly cherishes a longing restlessness for fame and dis- 
 tinction ma) r come short of its wishes by falling itself a vic- 
 tim to its own aspirations. "Vaulting ambition," says 
 Shakspeare, "o'erleaps itself;" or, as Byron has most 
 beautifully expressed a similar sentiment in relation to 
 Kirkc \Vliiti\ in his satire on English Bards and Scotch Re- 
 viewers, and paraphrased to suit my present purpose, would 
 read thus: (speaking of White's untimely death.) 
 
 '()!), what a noble heart was here undone. 
 When Aiii/>/tion's self destroyed her favorite son ; 
 Yes, >he too much indulged thy fond pursuit 
 She sow'd the seeds, but death has reaped the fruit. 
 'Twas thine own spirit gave the fatal blow, 
 And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low ; 
 So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, 
 No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
 View'd his own feather on the fatal dart. 
 And wing'd the shaft that <|iiivercd in his heart. 
 Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel, 
 lie nuiVd the pinion which impelled the steel, 
 While the same plumage that had wann'd his nest 
 
 This beautiful allusion, however, to a passion too fondly 
 indulged in, refers more particularly to its elfect on the 
 health of the body than its reaction on the mind itself, 
 while it is to this latter view more particularly I wished to 
 direct your attention. Bulwer, who is one of the finest 
 delineators of character I have ever read, has given main' 
 illustrations of it. Some of these you will see in the char- 
 acter of Warren the artist, in the thirteenth chapter of first 
 book of " '/'fie Disowned," and in the character of Talbot, 
 as related in the twentieth chapter of the same book. I 
 wish you to read both these chapters soon as convenient, 
 as well for you:' amusement as instruction ; and many hints 
 upon the same subject, you recollect, are to be gleaned
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 19 
 
 from the character of Castruccio (the mad poet), in " Ernest 
 Maltravers. " 
 
 You probably judge of the opinions of others towards 
 you from the state of your own feelings, which may have 
 become too much excited for your own success, to be suffi- 
 ciently cheerful in the company of your associates. A man 
 is generally treated by t/ic world as he treats it, and to get 
 from others their good-will, esteem and confidence, he 
 must generally yi*eld the contribution of his own. 
 
 Upon the subject of aristocracy, to which you allude, I 
 would say that there is one kind of aristocracy I with you 
 equally despise, but another kind I greatly admire. The 
 first is the aristocracy of wealth and fashion, etc. a folly 
 that is contemptible. The other is the aristocracy (the 
 aristos cratco] of honor, principle, good-breeding and educa- 
 tion that awards distinction not to birth or to fortune, but 
 to merit and principle, and that, in a word, which proclaims, 
 in the language of the Muse : 
 
 "Honor and shame from no condition rise: 
 Act well your fart there all the honor lies." 
 
 This is the aristocracy of nature, and is cast by no heredi- 
 tary descent, but is an impress given by Dame Fortune to 
 her own favorite children. You should not hastily come 
 to the conclusion, that without cause you are held in low- 
 esteem by your fellows ; and if, after due reflection, such 
 opinion or conclusion should be confirmed, why, then your 
 own independence should cause you wholly to disregard 
 such estimation so entertained : not by evidences of disre- 
 spect on your part evinced towards them in the way of retal- 
 iation for that would prove you affected by their opinions, 
 and not independent and superior to them but by the ap- 
 pearance (which also must be genuine) of a real unfeigned 
 disregard for themselves, their feelings, their esteem, their 
 love or their hatred, their good-will or their prejudice; I 
 say totally indifferent, and neither biased one way or the 
 other by the show of either class of feelings. This is true 
 independence, .and anything short of it is a spurious affecta- 
 tion. To exercise it, I know, requires great self-composure, 
 quick perception, and strength of judgment with feelings 
 high above all prejudice, and such as would cause a man,
 
 2O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 under such circumstances, to praise where praise was due 
 and censure where censure was due, and to preserve, in all 
 his intercourse with such people, the same calm indiffer- 
 ence with which he would attend to his horse or administer 
 to the wants of other bnitcs in the way of giving them food 
 or affording them other relief, or even a little chastisement, 
 if required, irrespective of any demonstration of ill-will or 
 bad-temper that might be given during the performance of 
 his duty. Such I know is a lofty stand for a man to take, 
 and requires great power of superior intellect for him to 
 maintain ; but when one is able to do it, the same fellows 
 who before were snapping and growling and barking at 
 everything he did, will soon be seen fawning and wallowing 
 at his feet, with all the humility and sycophancy of curs. 
 
 But as I stop, I will do so with Burns' closing stanza to 
 his young friend : 
 
 "In plo\vman phrase, 'God send you .speed,' 
 
 Still daily to grow wiser. 
 And may you better reck the rede 
 Than ever did th' adviser." 
 
 [ From same to same.] 
 
 FEBRUARY 28, 1840. 
 
 In relation to the doctrines of the Uni- 
 
 versalists, you allude to in your letter, and particularly in 
 that part wherein you request my opinion, I would barely 
 say, without entering fully into the subject, that I do not 
 agree with him in the belief that there is "no personal 
 devil or fallen spirit, and that what is commonly called the 
 devil is no more nor less than the inclination of men to do 
 evil." What I mean by personal devil is an evil spirit a 
 spiritual intelligence, apostate and fallen. There are doubt- 
 less many spiritual intelligences besides the Deity. Some 
 are pure or holy and sinless, such as we call angels ; others 
 are of natures opposite, being evil, rebellious and disobedi- 
 ent, such as in the Scriptures are called devils. Among all 
 the spirits or intelligences, whether apostate or not, there 
 are doubtless grades : some are superior and some inferior 
 in the scale of existence. There are seraphim and cher- 
 ubim, and perhaps many other grades, amongst the angels;
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 21 
 
 and as Gabriel and Michael and some others seem to stand 
 highest with them, even so Satan seems to stand first, or 
 archangel, amongst the fallen spirits, and is emphatically 
 called "the devil." Now, there may be, and no doubt is, 
 much error in the world about "the devil tempting men," 
 etc. My opinion is, that the devil tempts men just as one 
 bad man tempts another. Mind is subject to influence, 
 and spirit acts upon spirit; and as even amongst men the 
 associations of bad company are contaminating in their 
 influence, so much more will it be the case with him who 
 suffers his desires, propensities or affections to be directed 
 to improper objects, or dwell upon improper subjects: for, 
 in addition to his natural inclination, being himself depraved, 
 the company of his thoughts, by the communion of spirits, 
 will soon be courted by the great evil genius, who is "going 
 about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour" 
 all upon the same law governing the association of men, 
 except the language and such other influences as come 
 through the medium of sense. So, you perceive, I have 
 no doubt either of the existence of such an intelligence, 
 personage or being, or the influence of his associations 
 upon the minds and principles of men. 
 
 Your conclusions from my premises or principles, touch- 
 ing the nature of future punishments, were clearly correct. 
 If punishment or suffering be a necessary result from the 
 laws of the soul, existence or being, in a certain state, it 
 must continue so long as such state continues unchanged, 
 which will be forever. It was certainly a very absurd idea 
 of the preacher's about the two infinite existences, and the 
 11 sequiter" he deduced. But, by-the-by, to put one's self 
 
 to the trouble of following such a fellow as B , and 
 
 detecting his errors and sophistries, seems to be one of 
 those cases in which the doctrine of the maxim, " Opercs 
 pretium non est," would most aptly apply. The labor would 
 cost more than it comes to A. H. S. 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFOKDVILLE, March 3, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I wrote you a letter which left here on 
 last Sunday night's mail, and now send a few more lines, 
 just because I have an opportunity. All the news since
 
 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 that time is that we have been disappointed in our court, 
 in consequence of the ill-health of Judge Andrews. The 
 court that should have been held stands adjourned till the 
 fifth Monday in this month. 
 
 Dr. Bird has moved his quarters to this part of town, 
 and has taken board with us that is, with Uncle Bird. 
 We now have quite a professional club: Mr. Cook and his 
 lady, teachers ; myself, Mark Johnston and Daniel Roberts, 
 gentlemen of t/ic bar; and Dr. Bird, of the liealing art. 
 
 Mr. Baker will take up for you one of my summer coats, 
 which, if it fits, you can wear. But be very cautious in 
 changing your dress as the warm weather comes on. This 
 is the most dangerous season in the year for influenza and 
 such catarrhal affections as sometimes end in consumption. 
 Indeed, I am disposed to think that the spring of the 
 year has more effect upon the general health of the system 
 than any other. It is true that its effects are not so plain 
 and perceptible; that people then are more generally un- 
 healthy ; but that is only owing to the nature of the influ- 
 ence it is exerting it is only more latent or secret; or, 
 what may be more true, it is a kind of seed-tune of disease 
 passing pleasantly by, while it sows deep the seeds of death, 
 leaving summer and fall to attend to the harvest. However 
 this may be, my experience teaches me that spring has 
 always been the critical period with myself, and 1 have 
 noticed a similar effect upon others. The same effect is 
 also witnessed upon trees. Almost all fruit and forest trees 
 (except pine and cedars) seem to sicken, decline, and decay 
 and die in the spring, soon after the commencement of 
 vegetation and the flowing of the sap except when the 
 death may be attributed to some direct cause, such as 
 drought or wounds, etc. The philosophy of the thing I 
 don't pretend to explain ; but it seems that from a change 
 in the circulation, vitality, etc., the equilibrium in the prin- 
 ciple of life is more difficult to sustain. And so with the 
 human system : at that time the circulation is more ob- 
 structed, and some of the organs seem to be loaded with 
 accumulated secretions, producing dullness, while slowly 
 and stealthily disease is making the most dangerous ad- 
 vances upon the constitution. But enough of this. Never 
 grow careless of your health, nor too cautious of it. There
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 23 
 
 is in this, as in all things, a golden mean, which should, if 
 
 possible, be maintained 
 
 I commenced this letter on one-half sheet only, intend- 
 ing to send you a fe\v lines, but some how I have spun it 
 out so that I have called in an additional scrap to conclude 
 upon. Last night, between seven and eight o'clock, we had 
 one of the most gorgeous displays of nature I ever wit- 
 nessed : it was a meteorological phenomenon, which made 
 its appearance directly in the west. The atmosphere had 
 been, and was dry and loaded with smoke, and during the 
 evening it had become somewhat cloudy from the south- 
 west. At the time of the evening mentioned, it was quite 
 dark, and heavy thunder was heard in the distance, off to 
 the southwest, with occasionally a gleam of lightning, 
 brightening or lighting up the atmosphere without any ap- 
 parent source of locality, when directly toward the west a 
 faint light was at first perceived at an angle of about ten 
 degrees with the horizon, as if reflected from some distant 
 fire ; it soon, however, grew brighter and brighter, until, 
 within a few minutes, the whole western hemisphere was 
 encircled in its extent, presenting just such fiery redness as 
 you might suppose would have been the case if some large 
 city, ten miles off, had been wrapt in flames making, in 
 the darkness of the night, the far-off clouds the signal of 
 distress. Many were the spectators to the scene. Some 
 thought Greenesboro was on fire, or some other great fire 
 was raging, while I was fully confirmed in the opinion that 
 it was electrical in its origin. It at last became so bright 
 that the forest trees could be distinctly seen in its direction 
 for a mile off, and presented the appearance of an eastern 
 sky of a thick smoky night just before the moon's disc can 
 be discerned above the horizon's edge. Its continuance 
 was about ten minutes, and was in full splendor when ob- 
 scured by gusts of wind and rain, with thunder and light- 
 ning, which added somewhat to the grandeur of the scene. 
 I was at Scott's Hotel in the piazza, and was the first to 
 observe its appearance and full developments, and I never 
 before saw anything of the kind not even the aurora borcalis 
 in 1836 to equal it in richness and splendor. It was one 
 of nature's grandest shows; and yet, hundreds of this 
 world's groveling crowds gazed upon it with as little thought 
 as they would upon a huntsman's torch so prone to earth
 
 24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 in their cares and afflictions, they have no admiration for 
 the beauties of the heavens and would not be half as 
 much affected by a similar exhibition, even doubled in 
 magnificence, as the}' would be by a single glimpse at the 
 pale and troubled light of the flickering ignis fainns. But 
 I must stop, or I shall have to call in even another scrap to 
 envelop this. I write to-night as a dyspeptic eats with 
 
 a coming appetite 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 A. H. STEPHENS. 
 
 "The progress of the age " has frowned down the old-time 
 custom of the younger brother donning the half-worn 
 clothes of the elder ; but the fact hardly helps to refute 
 the theory, that there are two kinds of progress the one 
 upward, the other downward. 
 
 [ From same to same.] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, March 29, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I hope you arc- 
 studious, and active in exercise. Don't forget or neglect 
 your common-place book. Pen down all interesting 
 thoughts, and don't be too choice in the selections of your 
 interesting thoughts, for fear you will pen none. Recollect 
 that thought is a prolific something, and one always begets 
 another ; begin with something. I should like also if you 
 would send me a copy of your compositions. I want to 
 see what you are doing 
 
 [From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, April 5, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The past week has 
 
 been one of great excitement and labor to me ; indeed, al- 
 most greater than my strength could bear. It was our Su- 
 perior Court week, you know, and the business was not got 
 through with until Friday morning. We sent Kirkland to 
 the penitentiary for seven years : he that procured Far- 
 mer's negro woman to poison her mistress, or to make the 
 attempt.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2$ 
 
 I was glad to see you had taken up the "Last Days of 
 Pompeii." It is a work of great merit, though it hardly 
 does justice to the early Christian advocates. In that par- 
 ticular its greatest defect consist?;. I think Buhver, in one 
 sense, greatly Scott's superior in novel-writing ; his mind is 
 of a higher order he is more profound and metaphysical 
 in a word, more Platonic while Scott is easier, more de- 
 scriptive and can deal successfully in a much greater variety 
 of character. Scott's best characters that is, the best drawn 
 are his lowest Bulwer's best are his highest. 
 
 Among the earliest and deepest impressions made upon 
 the mind of Linton Stephens was that of reverence for the 
 Supreme Being ; he accepted the Bible as a Divine Reve- 
 lation ; no occasion of hilarity, in the society of wild and 
 thoughtless spirits, ever betrayed him into profanation of 
 things deemed sacred ; and for the professors of religion, 
 whose faith was exemplified in their walk and conversation, 
 he ever manifested the highest jespect. While at college, 
 he became a communicant of the Presbyterian Church- 
 then under the charge of the Rev. Nathan Hoyt, D. D. 
 The two letters following, from his brother, relate to that 
 subject, and exhibit a solicitude at once anxious, considerate 
 and beautiful : 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, May 5, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The subject of 
 
 Religion has been one that I have seldom alluded to in my 
 correspondence with you, either in words or by letter. The 
 principle upon which I acted (I believe) required me to 
 pursue such a course. Perhaps, hereafter I may dwell 
 more at large upon the subject. Let me hear from you 
 often. I was going to give you some advice, but iear to 
 do so. If I were with you, I might ; for then I could 
 better judge of its propriety ; but as it is, I cannot. Read 
 your Bible make it your text-book of faith
 
 26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, June 2, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I cannot, how- 
 ever, utter to you the intensity of feeling I sustain, when I 
 think of the temptations and dangers of your nc\v situation. 
 I hope your prudence and confiding reliance upon a Supe- 
 rior Ruling' Providence, whose protection and guardianship 
 are always extended to those who trust themselves to His 
 grace, will preserve you harmless. I never like to be a lec- 
 turer, or to give advice, because I am so sensible of my own 
 errors and imperfections. And this is why I have said so 
 little to you upon subjects of religion, morality and duty. 
 But 1 trust you will not think the less on them yourself, or 
 be more remiss in your actions. If 1 have said nothing, it 
 is not because I felt nothing. I do hope, therefore, that 
 you will not even trust . yourself to your judgment or cau- 
 tion, but ask assistance from One who is able to direct you 
 daily. 1 believe in a special providence. Of all Christian 
 virtues, cultivate humanity and meekness and a spirit of 
 dependence upon the great Ruler of the universe ''for 
 
 ever\' good and perfect gift." 
 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 A. H. S. 
 
 Concerning the opinions and principles of the prom- 
 inent founders of the government their different theories 
 and their personal and political merits we have the follow- 
 ing letter, evoked by one of inquiry from Linton : 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, August 2, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It is Sunday, and I send you a few lines 
 in answer to yours of yesterday. I shall write you again 
 by Tuesday night's mail, sending on fifty dollars, if, in the 
 meantime, I should not get some way of sending it by 
 private, safe hands; and that is why I now write you, that 
 you may, on Wednesday, expect the letter. In refer- 
 ence to that part of your letter devoted to politics, and the 
 opinions of Judge Dougherty about the 'principles of the 
 Federalists, etc., I would barely say that, in the beginning 
 of our government, under the new organization, in 178788,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2/ 
 
 all who were in favor of the ratification of the Constitution, 
 or were friendly to the compact or Fcedits, as it was called 
 assumed the name of Federalists ; those who opposed it took 
 the various names of anti-Federalists, or Democrats, Re- 
 publicans, etc. At that time, Madison and Jefferson were 
 known as Federalists, or friends to the Constitution. Pat- 
 rick Henry, and many other noble sons of Virginia, were 
 opposed to it. After the Constitution, however, was rati- 
 fied, and the government went into operation, many meas- 
 ures were proposed, which some of the friends of the Con- 
 stitution thought were not authorized by that instrument, 
 and which, if carried out, would centralize all power in the 
 General Government, to the subversion of the States. 
 That class, of course, fell back into the ranks of the Re- 
 publicans. Amongst these were Mr. Jefferson and Mr. 
 Madison, and man\ r others ; while Patrick Henry and others 
 fell into the ranks of the Federal class, saying that these 
 powers, the others were then complaining of, were granted 
 in the Constitution, and it was too late then to raise any 
 complaint; that they had warned them of the danger; had 
 foretold these consequences, and it was now too late ; the 
 Constitution was established, and the country had to abide 
 by it. Many of the measures of the Federalists of that 
 time say from 1790 to 1800 were, no doubt, good ones, 
 while others were truly obnoxious particularly the one 
 against aliens, and one upon the subject of sedition, which 
 to this time are known as Alien and Sedition Laws. It was 
 those measures which showed a disposition, on the part of 
 the Federal party, to be grasping powers not delegated, 
 that caused the overthrow of that party, in 1800, by the 
 election of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson, of course, did 
 not take Jiis scat until 1801, (4th March.) The canvass, 
 however, was in 1800. But, considering the merits of most 
 of the obnoxious measures of those days, apart from all 
 party or personal character or bearing, just as you would 
 look at the laws of ancient countries, I believe there is not 
 a great deal more to censure in them than many of the 
 laws we have had passed in much later times. The patriot- 
 ism, however, of those men who were called Federalists, 
 even at the election of Mr. Jefferson, no man can doubt. 
 They were amongst the earliest and most devoted friends 
 and movers of the Revolution, and were among the mas-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ter-spirits that struggled for and aided in the acknowledg- 
 ment of our independence. They were all, no doubt, 
 friends to free government, but differed, as men always 
 will, as to the best method and means of administering it. 
 It is true that Air. Jefferson, in his Anas (some notes 
 published at the end of his works,) intimates, and 
 clearly indicates his belief that a large party then existed 
 in the country, favorable to a monarch}-; but, for my own 
 part, I do not believe one isord of it. His aim was at Ham- 
 ilton; but he was, in point of mind, intellect, integrity, 
 manly bearing, and patriotism, high above all such suspi- 
 cions. Jefferson even intimates openly, in one of his letters, 
 that Washington was aspiring to a throne. With Hamil- 
 ton's notions of government I do not agree ; but that he 
 was in favor of changing it into a kingly government, none, 
 I think, would pretend to believe, who knows anything of 
 his opinions of the formation of the Constitution. He was 
 truly a great man, but his tJicories did not suit the genius 
 of our institutions. You will see a good sketch of his life 
 in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, under the title of his name, 
 I think ; or, maybe it is the American Encyclopaedia. For 
 a full and accurate history of all those, and that which / 
 like, I refer you to a late work called the " Olive Branch." 
 You can get it in the library. I wish you to read it, and 
 at this time, as your mind is now more or less directed to 
 those periods by daily conversation, and on that account 
 more susceptible of receiving and treasuring up a large 
 fund of useful history and good information. I have not 
 seen the book since I was in college, and there I got all my 
 knowledge (except small gleanings occasionally from other 
 quarters) upon the subject. I have written a great deal 
 more than I exptcted 
 
 I dreamed last night you were dead; and, while no be- 
 liever in dreams, I have, nevertheless, all clay been .more or 
 less under the influence of the strange phantasm. 
 
 Thursday I have to be at Camak at a Harrison meeting 
 and barbecue, if I am able. Yesterday was a great day at 
 Raytown a barbecue and speeches from Gamble, Foster, 
 Sayre, Johnson, (of Greene,) and Toombs. The weather 
 was very unfavorable, and yet, I suppose, over two thou- 
 sand people were there.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 29 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, August 26, 1840. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I am in receipt of yours of the 23d in- 
 stant. With its general character and style, I was better 
 pleased than I have been with any received from you in 
 sometime past. I am in hope you will get entirely over 
 your costive habit of letter-writing, and become freer in 
 style and fuller in matter. My "surmise," I think, is hav- 
 ing its desired effect in spurring you up. By-the-by, it 
 was altogether a surmise, or an inference of my own, from 
 data within my own possession. I have but to converse 
 with a man, or see the products of his brain in writing, to 
 form a very satisfactory conclusion touching the state of his 
 mind \vhether idle or industrious, active or indolent, 
 sprightly or sluggish and it was from this source I derived 
 my opinion upon the subjects of your studies during the 
 last term. You must not suffer yourself to fall into care- 
 less and relaxed habits of thought; for you may be sure 
 the effect of such habits will soon reach the discernment of 
 all ; and that I may still keep you on the spur, I will direct 
 your attention to sonrc sentences and forms of expression 
 in your last, that, I think, could have been bettered, and 
 this I do the more readily, as I am so much better pleased 
 with the letter than I have been with any lately received, 
 and because your habit of writing is now forming, and 
 whatever kind you form now, you will be apt to conform to 
 all your life. And at first, it is about as easy to form a 
 good habit as a bad one, and about as easy to adopt an 
 easy, clear and correct style as a dull, clumsy and inaccu- 
 rate one. In your first sentence, then, you say: "I re- 
 ceived your letter only in time to have answered it one mail 
 sooner." The word "only" is out of its proper place; it 
 should have been just before "one mail;" thus: "I re- 
 ceived your letter in time to have answered it only one mail 
 sooner." Again you say: "It (my letter) arrived here 
 much before I took it from the office, "etc. Much before, 
 you perceive, is not a very suitable equivalent for sometime, 
 or several days, etc., as you evidently intended it. Again 
 you say: "But I think if I had have had justice, I should 
 have got the letter from the office," etc. How do you 
 parse "had have had?" You must make it in a kind of
 
 3O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 plu-plns quam-pcrfcct, not 'known to the common standards. 
 The use of this form of expression is a common error in 
 this country. Many persons, who know better, or ought 
 to know better, have fallen into it. In common parlance, 
 it is "if I had of had," or " if I had of gone," or " if I 
 had of seen him," etc. ; or, in common style still, it runs 
 thus: "If I'd a had," or "I'd a gone," or "I'd a seen 
 him," etc. : all wrong alike. The plu-perfect of the verb 
 "to have" is "had had," without the "have." If I "had 
 had justice," etc., "if I had gone," or "had seen him." 
 But again you say: "It is more than probable that my 
 letter to you had been opened, as it might have been sup- 
 posed to have had money in it," etc. This is another form 
 of expression, and a use of the perfect of the infinitive 
 mood, instead of the present, no less common than im- 
 proper. If the letter, from its appearance, had been sup- 
 posed to have had money in it, of course it would have 
 been a previous matter, and there would then have been no 
 inducement to open it ; or, in other words, the appearance 
 of its having had money in it would imply that it had none 
 in it at the time. The expression should have been: "It 
 is more than probable that my letter to you had been 
 opened, as it might have been supposed to have money in 
 it." Read Kirkham's grammar, page 193, and Murray on 
 the tenses. 
 
 Besides these, I would barely hint at your orthography, 
 which, in some instances, might be corrected. Such as 
 government has an // in it, and manner is not properly 
 spelled without two of the same nasal sounds or char- 
 acters. "Mentained, " also, I suppose, you meant for 
 "maintained." The word "reckon," I think, you are 
 beginning to misapply, if not misuse; it is by no means 
 equivalent, in signification, with "think," "suppose," 
 "suspect," or "expect." Georgians misuse this word 
 more than the Yankees do the word "guess." I 
 would %dvise you to read over your grammar, at leisure, 
 cursorily. Much good information is to be got from it; 
 and make it a matter of daily consideration with you to 
 attend to. the minutuc of things, and- to be correct (not- pe- 
 dantic or dogmatical) in all. When aicakc, keep your mind 
 always wide ai^ake. In your history lessons that you com- 
 plain of, I think you might, with a little system, soon get so
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 31 
 
 as to master twenty pages at or for one recitation. The 
 best system is to take the whole lesson in one scope or 
 view. Get the mind fixed upon the prominent events re- 
 lated in it, and the order of their succession, without the 
 author's language ; then the when, the where and the who 
 come in almost of their own accord. With a little close 
 and intense application of the mind at first, in drilling it 
 and bringing it by a rigid discipline to this system, you will 
 soon be enabled even to astonish yourself at the case with 
 which you will acquire (and with accuracy, too) the details 
 of such recitations. It requires labor, study and close at- 
 tention for awhile, but, if properly trained, a faculty of the 
 mind will soon develop itself, not very unlike that which, 
 with a little practice, is so easily acquired in looking upon 
 paintings, and which is so necessary to the proper appreci- 
 ation of the beauties and illusions of the perspective. It 
 is a species of abstraction which some never attain, but 
 only because they do not try in the right way. Read 
 over your lesson first hastily ; get its general import. Plave 
 the outlines fixed deeply, as those of a map, upon your 
 mind. Let this be done with eyes off the book as much as 
 possible ; and then in the same way let the details follow ; 
 instead of marking a name with a pencil, and leaving it in 
 the book, transfer the whole by the process of abstraction 
 to the canvas of your brain, and let the impression be 
 made upon its tablet. 
 
 When I first commenced those "reading studies," as we 
 called them, they seemed the most difficult of any I had 
 met with. I disliked them exceedingly. But after a little 
 exercise in them, and when I found it was useless to at- 
 tempt to know anything about a recitation in one of them 
 without knowing everything, I soon commenced what 
 seemed the intense labor of mastering evcrytliiiig in each 
 lesson by impressing the whole subject upon my own mind, 
 and thinking as little of the book as possible, and it was 
 not long until those were the easiest lessons I had. It re- 
 quires a good deal of time, though, at first. The faculties 
 of the mind are like raw militia: the}' must be trained and 
 drilled before they can effect much, and many of your class, 
 you will find, never will give theirs .the proper training and 
 drilling ; and it is when you get into studies where others 
 fag, that you should especially exert yourself; for these are
 
 32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the only points in the race where anything is to be gained. 
 Where it requires nothing extraordinary, there will always 
 be some to share the place with the first. The commonest 
 fellow can spell "baker," as well as the ablest scholar. 
 There must be something that requires the exercise of 
 stronger mental powers to show the difference, and when 
 you get into a study difficult for the class generally, that is 
 the time to distinguish yourself. 
 
 [ From Linton to A. H. S. ] 
 
 ATHENS, March 14, 1(842. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yours of yesterday was received this 
 morning, and I take the earliest opportunity of answering 
 it, to let you know that the money you put in it has been 
 safely received. The conveyance of that letter seemed 
 somewhat mysterious, though I account for it in this way: 
 at home, yesterday, you wrote it, sealed it, and on leaving 
 for Greenesboro carried it to the post-office with the inten- 
 tion of mailing it, but in the hurry and confusion of start- 
 ing, even the fifty dollars it contained were not sufficient to 
 quicken your memory. That you originally intended to 
 mail it in Crawfordville is clearly indicated by the direc- 
 tion on its back to "charge A. H. S. " with postage. 
 After writing that direction, you must have forgotten 
 the letter, or else you changed your mind and carried it 
 on to " Union Point," hoping to meet with a private con- 
 veyance which would be more safe than the mail. The 
 latter conjecture is extremely improbable, however, unless 
 I consider that you expected to find some acquaintance com- 
 ing here, in which case this service would unquestionably 
 have been preferable to mail conveyance ; but that you 
 should have more confidence in a stripling of a stranger, 
 than in the mails, is somewhat strange. It is also a little 
 mysterious that when I asked for only ten dollars, you have 
 sent me fifty for forty of which I have no use, and if 
 
 John Bird wants any, it is more than I know 
 
 The most judicious disposal I can make of it, however, will, 
 I think, be to divide it with John, so that each of us can 
 advance for board twenty or twenty-five dollars. 
 
 Yesterday, for the first time, I heard a sermon from Judge 
 Longstreet. In the pulpit, to me he appeared awkward, and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 33 
 
 to come much below himself. In preaching, he sometimes 
 used Latin phrases and terms of expression unbecoming 
 his place. In praying, for instance, I recollect he said in a 
 very cold, conversational manner, "Lord, we can hardly 
 generalize our sins, much less specify them," which, though 
 used by a very devout man, seems to be very much op- 
 posed to that earnestness and dignity with which we should 
 address ourselves to a very Superior Being. Though his 
 manner is not suited to the pulpit, yet I think even there 
 he shows he has genius. Next Saturday, I think our society 
 will adjourn for the April examination. You may expect 
 my next circular to show me deficient in attending church. 
 In other respects, I have been perfectly punctual. I ex- 
 pect to be appointed junior orator, and if I should be so 
 fortunate, with your knowledge of my mind, would you 
 advise me to attempt a grave and sensible speech, or one 
 of the gentle and insinuating kind ; or would you rather 
 still advise me to be facetious and zvitty ?. 
 
 In giving me an answer to this question, I beseech you, 
 
 above all things, to spare your sarcasm 
 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, March 20, 1842. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yours of the i6th instant, acknowledg- 
 ing the receipt of the fifty dollars, was received upon my 
 return from the Greene court. I presume you have before 
 this received another from me sent by Judge Dougherty, 
 together with some collars and bosoms. This morning I 
 got a letter from John, mailed yesterday. To-night I go to 
 Augusta, and shall not, or do not expect at least, to return 
 before Wednesday. I regret to hear that you will probably 
 be deficient in anything in your next circular. It is so easy 
 to be punctual in attendance at church ; a deficiency in this 
 particular is the less excusable. I also regret to hear you 
 speak of Rhetoric as being the hardest study you have, and 
 my reason for regretting this is, that it leaves me with the 
 impression that you are not properly drilled in the right 
 way of studying it. Rhetoric, properly taught, is one of 
 the easiest and most improving and useful studies of a col- 
 3*
 
 34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 lege course, and to me it was the most interesting. But it 
 requires some training to get in the right way of learning 
 it. It is to be effected by system, method and generaliza- 
 tion. The usefulness of the study depends mostly upon 
 its effect upon the mind in subjecting it to system and 
 method, and the exercises it imposes upon the memory. 
 It should never be taught or learned by questions and an- 
 swers. You might as well attempt to teach the beauties 
 of a piece of painting, to a mind unacquainted with the 
 art of catching the perspective, by a similar system of in- 
 terrogatories. In the study of rhetoric usefully, the mind 
 must be first taught to put forth its strongest faculties, and 
 survey and scan the entire subject that is, the lecture for 
 any given recitation. The author's object being thoroughly 
 understood, his manner of treating it, and his various sub- 
 divisions, soon occur easily to the mind, which naturally 
 again suggest his ideas, and then the task is performed, and 
 the whole lecture is indelibly impressed upon the mind 
 like a map or chart spread out before you. In mastering 
 a lesson in rhetoric, the author's words should never be 
 studied; if they occur readily to the mind in reciting, they 
 should be used, but in studying, the memory should not 
 be taxed to retain them ; the ideas and the order in which 
 they come in the lecture should be the task of the student. 
 The ideas he should convey in his own words. For when 
 he understands his author, and knows what his ideas are, 
 the student can always have words at command to commu- 
 nicate and make known what they are. But it is a remark- 
 able fact, that with a little practice with this kind of study, 
 so quick does the memory become, and so retentive of an 
 impression, that the student will be enabled to repeat 
 almost the identical words of his author from beginning to 
 end. This strengthens the memory and imparts vigor to 
 the mind, and enables the faculties to encompass a whole 
 subject at once, and understand the whole and every part 
 at the same time. This is exceedingly necessary for writers 
 and public speakers. When a student, therefore, goes to 
 recite a lesson in rhetoric, or moral philosophy, or any such 
 studies, he should know everything in his recitation, and 
 be able forthwith, and without hesitation, to repeat, if called 
 on, every idea in it, just as he would tell, if called on, 
 what he heard a man say on any particular subject on a
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 35 
 
 given occasion. As, for instance: suppose the lesson is in 
 Blair, and the subject is his lecture on "Style." At the 
 first glance, the mind will scan his manner of treating it, 
 commencing with general remarks about the diversity of 
 style in authors, then the various kinds of style, and then 
 the rules for forming a correct style. Under the first head, 
 many smaller and subordinate ideas, where the general 
 plan is fixed in the mind, naturally suggest themselves with 
 little or no effect : such as, that all authors have a peculiar- 
 ity of style distinctive in each, difference between Livy and 
 Tacitus, etc., and other ideas that fill up that view; and the 
 different kinds of style, such as concise and diffuse, then 
 contrasted, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and 
 the instances of authors distinguished for each, etc., which 
 is all easily recollected and repeated that is, the idea, but 
 not the words and the same of the weak and nervous, 
 dry, plain, neat, elegant and flowery, and then on to the 
 simple, affected and vehement: these made all distinct in 
 their order on the mind ; the filling up, or the remarks 
 made upon each, come to the mind almost naturally; and 
 then comes the winding up of the subject, the directions 
 for forming a correct style, to wit: a thorough understand- 
 ing of the subject, frequent composition, acquaintance with 
 good styles, or the style of distinguished authors not, how- 
 ever, running into imitation, or adaptation of the style to 
 the subject and occasion not to be poetical when you 
 should reason ; and, lastly, not to permit the mind to be 
 too much "engrossed" with style to the exclusion of mat- 
 ter ; in other words, that, however important style may be, 
 it should always be held subordinate to ideas, and that 
 more attention should be given to thoughts and sentiments 
 than mere style ; and with this the task is performed. And 
 what is more easy? When once you get in the way of it, 
 you will find it the easiest study learned. The mind will 
 take it readily, and you will be astonished at the amount 
 of learning you can acquire. To me, at first, it appeared 
 very hard, because I had nobody to teach me ; but when 
 Olin became professor, and gave us a few lectures, the whole 
 subject assumed a new appearance, and the study became 
 delightful; and when I graduated, there was no subject 
 in Blair, Paley, Say, Evidences of Christianity, Brown's 
 Moral Philosophy, or Hedge's Logic, that I could not have
 
 36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 told everything about instantly, or as fast as I could have 
 spoken ; and I could have commenced at the beginning o t 
 the catalogue above named and have given substantially 
 everything contained, from the beginning to the end, with- 
 out interruption or suggestion. The same principles of 
 system, method and analysis, I brought to the study of 
 law; and when I was admitted, I could have rehearsed 
 Blackstone in the same way. The whole I attributed to 
 Olin's method of teaching, and I would not have given the 
 advantages to myself derived from that for all my college 
 course besides. It has been of more use to me. It called 
 forth all the powers of the mind, and taught it to exercise 
 its every faculty. My previous instructions were like keep- 
 ing a child forever sliding and crawling. Olin made us 
 stand up and walk. A little assistance was at first neces- 
 sary, while the knees were weak, and before strength and 
 confidence were acquired; but soon we (I mean the whole 
 class, for there was no student in the class that did not un- 
 derstand the studies) began to walk without assistance, and 
 then to run and bound, and become the perfect masters of 
 all our faculties. I wish you to adopt the right system in 
 these studies, and to become perfectly master of them. 
 When a subject is mentioned, be able to give an outline of 
 the whole, and show that you have studied your author by 
 being able, without assistance, to go on and tell what he 
 says. 
 
 But I can say no more to you now. In reference to the 
 subject of your junior speech, if you should be elected 
 orator, I can hardly undertake to give you any advice. 
 Suppose you write several, one of each character you men- 
 tion, and submit them to me. I could then give you an 
 opinion ; and, as for the trouble of writing them, it will 
 cost you only a little time, and you will be benefited by 
 the exercise. A subject of rather a grave character, which 
 I think might be treated well, is a comparison between the 
 ancients and moderns. The general feeling and sentiment 
 is, that the people of this age I mean in the enlightened 
 portion of the world are superior to enlightened men of 
 older times. For myself, I don't believe any such thing. 
 It is true, we have some improvements in the sciences par- 
 ticularly in astronomy and chemistry; but in many things 
 that make man truly great that show the powers of his
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 37 
 
 mind, and the boldness of his conceptions, and the high 
 and lofty sentiments of his soul I think the ancients were 
 greatly our superiors. Look at their works, their build- 
 ings and- temples, and various monuments of their great- 
 ness, which, after withstanding the ravages of centuries, 
 are even still unequaled by anything that man, in subse- 
 quent time, has done or accomplished. Why, even the 
 public roads leading from the city, constructed and made 
 before the Julian day, are now better and more substantial 
 than any in the United States, or perhaps in England or 
 France. A part of a bridge is yet standing over the Dan- 
 ube, which was built soon after the time of the Caesars. 
 What a people must they have been to leave such vestiges 
 behind them ! Why, if this country should be overrun by 
 savages, as others have been, what have we that would re- 
 main one thousand years to tell that such a race as ours ever 
 existed? But Rome is only a small part: Greece, Persia, 
 Egypt and Assyria, all come in for their portion of reflec- 
 tion. What design and architectural skill must it have re- 
 quired to erect such lasting monuments! And the philos- 
 ophy of Cato, Cicero, Caesar, Seneca, Tacitus, Xenophon, 
 Solon, Plato, Socrates and Solomon, has never i>een ex- 
 celled. I should not have omitted Aristotle. I have said 
 nothing of their generals. The whole subject presents a 
 wide field, and, if properly treated, might make an inter- 
 esting topic ; but I can only now suggest, and must con- 
 clude by saying that I believe the people in those days 
 were literally giants to what they are now. 
 
 I write in great haste, and do not know whether you will 
 
 be able to read all or not Write often, and 
 
 with more pains. Try to improve your hand-writing. 
 
 Those who have seen the hand-writing of Mr. A. II. 
 Stephens will smile at the last injunction. Then, as now, 
 it was a task to the unpracticed eye to decipher his manu- 
 script. It has, however, the merit of uniformity uniformly 
 illegible. 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, June 2, 1842. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter of the 2/th ultimo was re- 
 ceived this morning. I was absent yesterday and the day 
 before, at Warrenton, attending the trial of a negro, charged
 
 38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 with the offense of assault and battery, with intent to mur- 
 der, on a white man. I defended him, and he was ac- 
 quitted. But what I meant, in commencing, was to say 
 that, in consequence of the absence, your letter was not 
 received until it had been here nearly two days. In refer- 
 ence to your speaking- at commencement, I can only say 
 that you must not suffer yourself to vacillate one moment 
 between speaking and getting yourself excused. You must 
 speak that is, if you are chosen (and, by-the-by, you did 
 not state whether this was the case or not) and you better 
 set right out in good earnest to writing. There is nothing 
 that a student is more apt to do than to postpone the duty 
 of composition, and no intellectual habit is more injurious 
 when one such is once acquired. The mind should be ac- 
 tive and industrious, and never be suffered to grow slothful 
 and indolent; and it is much easier in one's business to keep 
 ahead of time than it is to keep anything like up with its 
 rapid march when once thrown ever so little in the rear. 
 You will lose nothing by having your speech well com- 
 mitted, even a month before commencement, and it should 
 be a rule of your life, established now, in this your first ap- 
 pearance before the public, never to appear unless you appear 
 well, and also always to appear whenever you can. "The 
 kingdom of heaven suffereth violence," saith the Scripture, 
 "and the violent take it by force." So it is with the world. 
 The most resolute and inflexible bear off the palms and 
 crowns in both. A man's character, standing, reputa- 
 tion, fame and distinction, are the works of his own 
 hands, and the industrious, active, vigilant and energetic, 
 build to themselves great names; while the lazy, careless 
 and indolent live but to die, and, without hope or care ever 
 to be known hereafter, permit the meed of fame to be 
 seized by the more eager and violent, and, in their own ob- 
 scured littleness, soon pass away in one general, common 
 oblivion. Let not this be the character of your ambition ; 
 but in contests for honorable distinction, ever be found 
 amongst the first of the foremost. " Nihil ardimni est ipsc 
 I'oleiitibus, sea 7 , niJiil potest fieri illis invitis." In the selec- 
 tion of a subject for an oration, or an address, upon any 
 occasion, you should pursue the rules laid down in Blair; 
 and, in the first place, make choice of one suited to the oc- 
 casion, the time, the audience, etc. ; and, in the second 
 place, such a one as will allow as much of method as pos-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 39 
 
 siblc in its treatment that is, which will require styles and 
 manner of speaking in its different parts or branches, such 
 as the negative, descriptive, argumentative, and, as Blair 
 has it, the patJictic or sublime. Every discourse should 
 have some part devoted exclusively to the excitement 01 
 the passions and emotions. This is the work of fancy and 
 the imagination, and the subject chosen should furnish the 
 material for the occasional flights or colorings. The error 
 of most young men is trying to make their orations abound 
 with eloquence, and nothing else, and hence, high-sound- 
 ing words and animated descriptions from beginning to end. 
 The consequence is, in trying to be eloquent in everything, 
 they are eloquent in nothing. I can hardly, at this time, 
 suggest any subject to you ; I am in too great haste. 
 "Time" is a good subject; the measure of existence its 
 origin, or its eternity its history the creation and destruc- 
 tion of worlds other than this the changes or revolutions 
 it has traced on earth its passing events, destinies, dura- 
 tion, etc.: thoughts growing out of all these views might- 
 be presented in an interesting garb. The greatest objec- 
 tion to it is that it savors too much of the "all eloquent" 
 
 order 
 
 In my travels this Spring, I have in different sections 
 found the \voods ali've with the singing locusts ; they were 
 in some parts of Wilkes and Lincoln, and throughout the 
 western counties from Morgan, millions of millions. It is 
 
 said they appear every fourteen years 
 
 Affectionately, A. H. S. 
 
 [From same to same.] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, June 5, 1842. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER In reference to the 
 
 riot, I did not exactly understand from your letter whether 
 John Bird was amongst those on the evening of the dis- 
 turbance of the temperance lecture, who fired the pistol, 
 and went back in pursuit of the officers, etc., or wh ether 
 he barely left the church at the same time with others who 
 went into the excesses. I should be utterly astonished to 
 learn that he was in company with and countenancing men 
 engaged in acts and proceedings so utterly disgraceful. 
 But more on this subject, in reference to him, I will not say
 
 4O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 to you. I will write him a letter. It seems strange to me 
 to think in what way the vision will become warped some- 
 times in its observation of men and things, and how, from 
 familiar association, or some other cause, conduct the most 
 improper, ungentlemanly, disreputable, and even base and 
 criminal, can be looked upon as common-place, and very 
 little out of the way. Now, I would not have a student to 
 denounce, or even make mention of the conduct of a fellow- 
 student, however low and contemptible it might be; for 
 it is none of his business; it is even dishonorable to do 
 it ; but, at the same time, from the very bottom of his 
 soul should he loathe and detest a mean deed, or anything 
 that savors of disreputable or dishonorable conduct. A 
 man of correct principles moves on in his own sphere, and 
 permits others to take the same course ; and while his leads 
 to elevation and refinement, he lets them (pursuing theirs) 
 wallow in the dirt and mire if they choose. It is true, that 
 philanthropy will dictate and urge him to relieve all the 
 misery he, can, and by example, persuasion and advice, 
 (when it can be properly given) to prevent as much suffer- 
 ing, and misery, and degradation, as possible ; but never 
 will such a man be brought to bend and stoop to infamy. 
 It is certainly a difficult matter, since so few people accom- 
 plish it, to pursue the even tenor of one's way in this life, 
 commingling with men amidst all their vanities, and contra- 
 dictions, and excesses, and improprieties in conduct and 
 character, without giving improper offense to an}', and se- 
 curing the esteem of all, and, at the same time, to maintain 
 stern, fixed and inflexible principles of honor and integrity; 
 and yet, it is not only possiplc, but easy; and in this con- 
 sists not only the secret of life, but the first principles of 
 politeness and gentility, and the very soul of benevolence 
 and philanthropy. A man should study it. It is the lever 
 by which the moral world is raised. Some men have no 
 talent for this thing. Indeed, most have not; and hence, 
 you see them arrayed class against class, each hating the 
 other with a moral enmity. One is guilty of some impro- 
 priety; the more righteous, in his own estimation, cuts 
 his acquaintance denounces him and would as soon be 
 caught with a leper as found in his company; now, this is 
 wrong and foolish. No man is so bad that he has no good 
 qualities, and even from the thistle, tansy and rue, and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4! 
 
 hoar-hound, honey is extracted : so, even from the worst 
 man, some good thing can be drawn out; but the diffi- 
 culty lies in the difference between being set against a man 
 and his improper act. and necessarily denouncing or cen- 
 suring any one guilty of such an act. It is the difference 
 between being utterly adverse to becoming a leper and a 
 disposition to kick any one who is so unfortunate as to be 
 one. Now, I hold that a man might almost sooner die than 
 be a leper; and yet, be so far from injuring one that is as 
 that he would do all in his power to relieve, assist and com- 
 fort the sufferer ; and so with morals and intercourse with 
 mankind. A man may, from his very soul, abhor a princi- 
 ple, and sooner die than possess it, or encourage, or coun- 
 tenance it in others, and yet, treat with civility and kind- 
 ness the most miserable and wretched victims of its devel- 
 opment. Now, that you may understand me fully upon 
 this subject, I would remark, that when I speak of the 
 " disgraceful conduct" of those engaged in the riot, I speak 
 of it as I would of a "loathsome leper" not that I 
 would shun, or scorn, or condemn, or because I think my- 
 self better, but because it is a most disagreeable and fatal 
 malady ; and as I would be kind and urbane to the bodily 
 sufferer, so I would, in the other instance, to him whom I 
 should consider as destitute of principle more necessary 
 for honorable action, than all that is lost in the life is nec- 
 essary for good and vigorous health. I should be kind and 
 agreeable, and associate with such companions or, in other 
 words, be not distant, or morose, or Pharisaical ; and 
 while -I would pass the individuals themselves this way, and 
 without the slightest duplicity, I would have the most per- 
 fect contempt and detestation of the principles that could 
 induce any one to be guilty of such conduct. This is what 
 I hold to be regard for one's character stern and inflexible 
 honor. Now, what could a set of young men imagine more 
 disgraceful to themselves than w r hooping and hallooing in 
 the streets of a town like a set of savages in a forest? What 
 is there more unbecoming and ungentlemanly? Particu- 
 larly in those who are reaping the advantages of the best 
 school in the country to improve their minds as well as 
 morals and to make themselves better, or better qualified 
 for business in life, than the great mass of their contempo- 
 raries? Young men, whose ambition it should be to be- 
 
 4*
 
 42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 come the exemplars for their fellows, and for future men to 
 follow? And then, as for blowing horns, getting drunk in 
 the square, or old field, and throwing rocks at the vener- 
 able preceptor, to whom they are paying so much to be 
 taught, besides the loss of their time, etc., how utterly 
 little and low, and beneath a man whose mind is as great as 
 a mustard-seed ! Worse conduct could not be expected 
 from a set of negroes as nican, I never knew any of these 
 guilty of ; and shall a young gentleman, a collegian, have no 
 better principles instilled into him than those by which the 
 meanest of slaves are actuated? Is this the effect of ed- 
 ucation this the refinement of the schools this the 
 perfection of intellectual training this the end for which 
 so much time is lost and money spent? Oh, shame! that 
 boys are not better taught that they have no better minds 
 to think and reason with themselves, and see the gross im- 
 propriety of such conduct! But it needs not thought or 
 reason : it seems to me that brute instinct would almost be 
 sufficient to restrain them from such conduct. But the 
 whole, I suspect, is excused on the ground of the insult 
 the threat of the citizens to prosecute if certain impro- 
 prieties were repeated. This was a kind of censure of pre- 
 vious conduct that could not be borne, and hence the row. 
 Well, all that is just of the same character. The first dis- 
 order was either censurable, or not. If censurable, of course 
 a repetition, with great excesses, was no way to make the 
 proper amende. If they were not censurable if they had 
 behaved like honorable gentlemen it was certainly a very 
 bad way of proving it by perpetrating such very dishonor- 
 able acts. If the first disturbance was from momentary 
 feeling, and without an}* intentional or concerted disorder, 
 after it was known that their conduct was misconstrued, 
 they should rather have felt mortified at so dishonorable an 
 action being imputed to them, and their endeavor should 
 have been to show that it was wrong, and this should have 
 been done by their exemplary and good conduct. That is 
 the way to purge a man's self from a charge of dishonor. 
 But I think this narration has also run out far enough. 
 
 The preceding letter was evoked by a memorable disturb- 
 ance which occurred between some of the citizens of Ath-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 43 
 
 ens and a portion of the Faculty on the one side, and a 
 portion of the students of the college on the other. It 
 threatened for a while to become quite serious, and was a 
 matter of painful concern to the friends of the institution 
 throughout the State. As usual in like cases, neither party 
 was wholly right nor wholly wrong. Young Stephens at- 
 tached himself with neither: he maintained the interests of 
 law and good order, and contributed largely, by example 
 and counsel, to restore the peace. 
 
 [ From same to same. J 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, August 7, 1842. 
 
 Your circulars have not come to 
 
 hand yet; when you find out, I wish to know who got bet- 
 ter, or as good circulars as you. Let me know this with- 
 out fail. I will send you the books by the first opportu- 
 nity. You must continue to apply yourself laboriously. 
 You have but one step now to take to place you in the 
 world amongst men, and you have much to learn yet to fit 
 you for that place. Pay strict attention to your writing, 
 and learn within the next twelve months, if you live, to 
 write a good hand. You will never have time or chance to 
 form your hand after that. Tell John to pay more atten- 
 tion to his writing. He had better write from a copy every 
 day. Remember me to Dr. Church, and Professors Hull 
 and Waddell, and tell them I stood the travel very well, ex- 
 cept the heat, which was oppressive for a short time. 
 
 [From same to same. | 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, August 16, 1842. 
 
 I am up to-day. Sunday I was confined to my room in 
 consequence of a blister. I stay at home, however, and 
 attend to no business, except writing letters, and giving or 
 joining in some consultation about the business of the office. 
 I will keep you advised of my situation, and I want you, by 
 all means, not to permit yourself to grow or become uneasy. 
 I don't feel so myself, and do not want anybody to feel so 
 on my account. Life and death, and everything, should be
 
 44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 considered and regarded philosophically. We have all got 
 to die. The end of all of us will come in due season. 
 
 Then, why should we suffer any uneasiness 
 
 from any indication of the immediate approach of death, 
 when we know it must come in due season? Philosophy 
 teaches us to be looking fonvard to this event throughout 
 life, and to direct all of our pursuits and pleasures in refer- 
 ence to this ultimate end. This consummation of earthly 
 existence, and with life thus spent, to die is but to take a 
 journey. Those who are left behind will soon follow, and 
 in reference to my particular friends and relations, I hardly 
 know whether it would be more agreeable to me to take 
 my turn in advance, or to go after. Be, therefore, not dis- 
 turbed, because, in the first place, I think there is no imme- 
 diate cause for it, and perhaps none will occur ; and, sec- 
 ondly, it is wrong in principle. 
 
 [From same to same.] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLK, January 21, 1843. 
 
 It is a general feeling in most of our writers to pay too 
 little attention to style to the selection and arrangement 
 of their words, and the structure of their sentences. And 
 it is a failing the more considerable, because it can be so 
 easily avoided. It would require only a little more labor, 
 and perhaps at first, or in the formation and acquisition of 
 style, a little more time. But what are these when com- 
 pared with the additional beauty and usefulness of their 
 compositions, imparted by such a finishing touch. The 
 application or moral (as the preachers say) of this episode 
 is, that you should pay great attention to your composition, 
 and learn to write, as you would move or walk, neither 
 clumsily, lazily, nor awkwardly, but with ease, grace and 
 elegance 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLK, June 14, 1843. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your two letters of the loth, and the 
 other of the I2th instant, were both received by me this 
 morning, and I send you an answer nou>, as I shall have no
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 45 
 
 other opportunity of doing so before my return from Mil- 
 ledgeville, for I expect to start there to-morrow. My ob- 
 ject in going down so early is to attend to the granting of 
 some lands for a number of friends before the meeting of 
 the convention, as I fear there will be too great a press of 
 that kind of business in the offices, after the general assem- 
 blage of that body, to have it attended to with order and 
 promptness. I shall be absent some six or seven days. 
 This, therefore, in all probability, will be the last letter I 
 shall write to you until after your final examination, and 
 your college course at least, so far as its studies arc con- 
 cerned will have been brought to a close. The occasion, 
 I need not add, to me, is one not without its interests, and 
 the associations which the reflection awakens fail not to en- 
 hance that interest. It seems like a short time since the 
 memorable night I bade you and John adieu, as you took 
 your leave to enter upon that adventurous scene from which 
 you are now about to so shortly return. To me the term 
 of four years in prospect then seemed long and no doubt 
 much longer to you but now they are passed ; the whole 
 is as quickly counted as the incidents of yesterday that is, 
 if we consult our conciousness only of their transit ; but 
 if we reflect and consider awhile, and look about at the 
 great changes effected around us and in us, our thoughts 
 and actions, and in the relations of individuals, families, 
 communities, and the country at large, or even in the sur- 
 face of the earth itself, the period magnifies, the field of 
 contemplation enlarges, and it seems strange that so much 
 could have been wrought in so short a time. You were 
 then young, inexperienced, fatherless, motherless, and 
 almost friendless. Well do I recollect with what solicitude 
 and intensity of feeling, known only to myself, I fitted you 
 out for your departure for college, and then, when all things 
 were ready, the hour arrived, and the last words were 
 spoken, and, in a few moments, when the whirling car 
 rushed recklessly on in the darkness, and I returned lonely 
 to my room ; how I committed you and your fortunes into 
 the hands of that kind and mysterious Providence, who 
 governs the hearts of men and rules the destiny of nations 
 hardly permitting myself at that time, owing to great fee- 
 bleness of health, to indulge the hope of ever living to see 
 the time of your graduation. But now your course is
 
 46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 nearly ended, and that period has almost arrived. In a few 
 short weeks, if you should live, your academic education 
 will be finished, and you must take your stand among men. 
 Have you ever seriously considered, and fully realized in 
 thought, how near you are to so important a crisis in life? 
 If not, it is time the subject, with all its gravity and re- 
 sponsibility, was kept constantly in view. Would that I 
 had time and space to present it in its various shapes. The 
 past has been pleasant: the future is active. You have 
 been agreeably entertained in looking on the world at a dis- 
 tance, and as a stranger, a disinterested person, philosophiz- 
 ing, perhaps, upon its various characters, its pursuits, its 
 inconsistencies, its passions, strifes, struggles, and teach- 
 ings ; but your position is now to be changed, and all these 
 have to be encountered. Some liken a college-life, which 
 you are just finishing, to the world in miniature, and the 
 illustration is not without some aptness; but it is the min- 
 iature of the smooth sailing upon the unruffled surface of 
 the broad river, or the still, widening bay just before it 
 issues from its restricted channel, and the protecting em- 
 brace of its contiguous banks and lofty capes, into the wide 
 expanse of waters just ahead, compared with the breasting 
 and weathering the heaving waves and surging billows that 
 ever heave, and roll, and surge on the ocean's bosom. 
 Life's passage is over a tempestuous sea, and well-con- 
 structed, well-manned, and well-piloted is the gallant barque 
 that safely makes the voyage. Many spread their sails 
 joyously to the courting breeze, but few reach the wished- 
 for haven. Be not inattentive, then, at the present mo- 
 ment. It is an important period of your life. You never 
 did, and never will stand in more need of cool thought, 
 sober reflection, and good judgment, than at present. Let 
 no passion get the sway or control of your feelings. Life 
 is just before you, and the part you act in it has now to be 
 chosen, and the character you wish to sustain is to be 
 formed 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVII.LK, July 2, 1843. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter by John Bird was duly re- 
 ceived, and I should have answered it before now, but for
 
 JUDGE LJNTON STEPHENS. 47 
 
 my absence, first to Washington and then to Augusta. I 
 was indeed gratified to learn th.it you had received the_/?nV 
 honor in your class not that I attach the least importance 
 to the mere show or eclat of such a distinction on the con- 
 trary, there are great evils attending it but gratified to 
 have this evidence, that you had not misspent your time, 
 and that during the four years of your absence, you had 
 not been unmindful of the first of all duties your duty to 
 yourself in the cultivation of your mind and your morals, 
 and in fitting yourself for usefulness in those scenes of life 
 upon which you are now about so soon to enter. With 
 these reflections, I hope you will look upon your distinc- 
 tion with the same views as I do. In rendering yourself 
 worthy of it, you have but done what you ought to have 
 done, and deserve the same commendation due to all peo- 
 ple who pursue a similar course of conduct, and nothing 
 more. From a want of a correct way of viewing such 
 things, many young men, who otherwise, doubtless, would 
 have succeeded well in life, have been utterly ruined by 
 being the favored subjects upon whom such distinctions 
 have been bestowed. Their judgments are not good. The 
 
 nature of true honor by them is not understood 
 
 I say that cool and collected forethought, which dwells 
 upon all these things in such persons, is entirely wanting. 
 I need hardly add, therefore, that you should by no means 
 suffer yourself to grow the least inflated ; and if such feel- 
 ings at any time rise, you have nothing to do to repress 
 them but to look to the future. Your Avork has just begun. 
 The first step has just been reached; the whole mountain 
 
 of life has yet to be ascended 
 
 Idleness is the sure path yea, the highway to ruin, and 
 bad associations and companions grow around and over- 
 power one as imperceptibly, and as irresistibly, as the glow 
 and full force of passion itself. I think it possible I may 
 be in Athens during the corning or ensuing week; in the 
 meantime, write me immediately on the reception of this; 
 or you may wait until after the show of the Fourth is over, 
 and let me know how it passed off, and on what subject 
 
 you intend to write your commencement speech 
 
 I have never read Gibbon regularly through for want of 
 time only. I have found it necessary to consult him upon 
 particularly points, and have been pleased with him as an
 
 48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 author. His style is good, though labored. He had great 
 bitterness of feeling towards the religionists of his day, 
 which shows itself very prominently in several parts of his 
 writings. Affectionately, A. H. S. 
 
 In December, 1843, Linton Stephens visited Washington 
 City, and spent the winter there with his brother, Hon. A. 
 H. Stephens, who was then in Congress. He watched, with 
 interest and instruction, the proceedings of the Congress and 
 of the Supreme Court, and formed acquaintance with many 
 of the illustrious of the land. It may be questioned whether 
 any period of his life, of equal duration, was more privi- 
 leged or more profitably spent. In 1 844, he began the study 
 of the law under the tuition of Robert Toombs, Esq., at 
 Washington, Georgia. Mr. Toombs had then scarcely 
 passed his third decade; but he stood at the head of the 
 profession in the State, both as a jurist and an advocate. 
 Linton remained there, prosecuting his legal studies, with 
 occasional interruptions, nearly a year. In December, 
 1844, he was entered as a student of the Law-school 
 of the University of Virginia. That department of the 
 University had been in high celebrity, under the su- 
 pervision of the late Henry St. George Tucker. At first, 
 Judge Tucker does not seem to have impressed young 
 Stephens very favorably, either as an able and profound 
 lawyer, or as a person of uncommon preceptorial gifts ; 
 nor was he slow or stint in expressing his disappointment 
 dissatisfaction almost disgust. Longer observation and 
 better acquaintance, however, seemed to greatly modify, 
 if not entirely eradicate, his earlier unfavorable impressions 
 of Judge Tucker's juridical ability and attainments, and of 
 his fitness for the office of instruction. 
 
 Anterior to his matriculation, the Presidential campaign 
 of 1844 transpired. The following letters may not be un- 
 interesting to the reader who can recall the high party ex- 
 citement of that day:
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 49 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 4, 1 844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I barely have time to say to you that I 
 am well, and that I am in receipt of yours, acknowledging 
 the reception of my two letters, that seem to have met 
 with some extraordinary delay in their passage. I was 
 glad to hear from, and to know that you were well. I got 
 back from Baltimore yesterday. Berrien, Dawson, T. B. 
 King, General Clinch, Colonel Joseph H. Lumpkin, Colo- 
 nel Sayre, Colonel Joshua Hill, Toombs, Harris ( a young 
 man of Elbert) and myself were the Georgia delegation in 
 the nomination. Chappell was chosen to fill Kenan's va- 
 cancy, but declined to act. An immense concourse of peo- 
 ple were assembled on the second, the day of the conven- 
 tion for ratification. The like was never before seen in this 
 country. The Harrison ratification convention, in the same 
 place, in 1840, was not to be compared to it; nor the great 
 gathering at Bunker Hill last summer, as 1 am assured by 
 those who witnessed each of them. It is impossible to 
 give any adequate or correct estimate of the number pres- 
 ent; the nearest approximation to truth, I think, is to say 
 that there was "a great multitude that no man could num- 
 ber;" not less than thirty thousand, I think, were in the 
 procession, and they were not missed from the crowd when 
 they left. They were not a drop in the bucket, arid the 
 best reflection is, that but one feeling, one spirit, and one 
 hope, animated and actuated every breast in the " count- 
 less thousands." You will learn before you get this that 
 Clay and Frelinghuysen were nominated for President and 
 Vice-President, etc. . . . The debate on the tariff is 
 still going on in the House. Cobb and Chappell, of our 
 State, have spoken ; none of the rest yet. Not much said 
 now about Texas. The treaty will get but few votes in the 
 Senate. I have no time to say more. I must tell you, 
 however, a good anecdote on our friend Cobb. You know 
 "Mr. McFadden " is a pet-name with him, which he has 
 made famous, and you know that hack-drivers always know 
 everybody in town that is, ask them if they will drive you to 
 such or such a place, they always say, " Yes yes, sir, " etc. 
 Well, Cobb, in the usual way,, walked up to a company of 
 hack-drivers, asked them if an} 7 of them could drive him 
 
 5*
 
 ^O WOGRAl'HICAI. SKETCH OK 
 
 to Mr. McFadden's. All sang out, "Yes, sir yes, sir;" 
 and Cobb hopped into one of them the finest one and 
 was soon closed in, and off rolled the hack. After a while, 
 the hackman asked, " Where was it you wanted to go to?" 
 Answered Cobb, "To Mr. McFadden's." "What street 
 does he live on?" asked the hackman. "I don't know," 
 said Cobb; "you told me you could carry me there, and 
 you must." So round about town he got a good ride, look- 
 ing out for Mr. McFadden's 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, GA., May 11, 1844. 
 
 DKAR BROTHER I was truly rejoiced to get a letter from 
 yon. yesterday morning; it was like a green spot in a des- 
 ert. But I find again that my long failure to hear from 
 you has been owing more to the mails than to you; (your 
 letter was dated fourth instant), so hereafter, whenever I 
 get in a dearth of letters, I will not complain, but suffer 
 in silence. I have read several descriptions of the Balti- 
 more Convention. I suppose it was a grand show. But 
 neither you nor the papers have said anything about any 
 speech of yourself or Toombs. Mrs. Toombs has written 
 home that the latter made a speech at Baltimore at what 
 time I didn't hear. The people here expected to hear 
 from both of you. I didn't regard it as certain, but thought 
 it probable, that you would give the crowd a specimen of 
 Georgia eloquence. But in that immense multitude, I 
 suppose you were a small fish, and remained unseen. Reese 
 is very extravagant in praise of Webster's speech. It was 
 undoubtedly a good confession of faith ; but the sketch in 
 the papers doesn't show it to have been anything else. 
 The prodigal has returned, and of course the fatted calf 
 must be slain. Already they begin to call it his great 
 speech. I have no time to write more. It is nearly twelve 
 o'clock-, and as I am going home this evening, I must be- 
 gin to make a little preparation. I go up to see that all 
 your law books are care-fully started to brother John. Me 
 lias written that you had consented to let him have them, 
 and 1 go, at his request, to pack them up and send them to 
 Madison, whence they will be carried by wagon. So no 
 more at present. 
 
 Yours, affectionately. LINTON STKIMIKXS.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 5 f 
 
 P. S. Your account of Cobb's trick upon the hackman, 
 I read in Vickcrs' piax/a, to the threat amusement of the 
 crowd. 
 
 The allusion to Mr. Webster as "The Prodigal" was 
 perhaps generated of the fact that he remained in Mr. 
 Tyler's Cabinet after his defection from the part} 7 that 
 elected him to the Vice-Presidency ; the great body of the 
 Whigs condemned Mr. Webster's conduct at the time ; 
 now there is but one opinion as to the propriety and pa- 
 triotism of his course. 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., May 14, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I wrote you a letter yesterday and dated 
 it the fourteenth, as I did all my other letters of the same 
 day, which I suppose only shows that I am beginning to live 
 too fast in this city of "Treaties." Yours of the eleventh 
 instant has just come to hand, and I now send you a few 
 lines by way of acknowledgment for it, if the mail will 
 ever be so kind or safe as to carry it or I cannot under- 
 stand how it is that you hear so seldom from me. 1 write 
 sometimes everyday, and at no time omit to write more 
 than three or four days at a spell. There must be sonic- 
 thing wrong somewhere. I wrote you yesterday that Van 
 Buren stock was a little on the rise, and I think the tendency 
 this morning is still upwards. Cass' letter has been re 
 ceived, and it is not satisfactory; but this, I believe, 1 men- 
 tioned yesterday. His revised opinion has not yet come to 
 hand so says private minor. And 1 "guess" it is true. 
 There is now some disposition amongst the Southern Demo- 
 crats to take up Tyler. But he cannot get the nomination of 
 the convention. I have not heard from Toombs lately. I 
 expect him back here in a day or two. The last I heard 
 of him, he was speaking at Newark, where he gained 
 many laurels for himself, and much distinction for his State. 
 Lumpkin and Dawson were also with him, but he seemed 
 to outshine the whole grand constellation in that exhibition. 
 My health is as good as usual. The House has been en- 
 gaged all this week in the business relating to this District,
 
 52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 But nothing has yet been done of any importance not even 
 the passage of the bill to pave the avenue to prevent the 
 accumulation of dust, etc. The Senate sometime ago 
 passed a resolution to adjourn on the twenty-seventh in- 
 stant. Yesterday, we amended that resolution by fixing it 
 on the seventeenth proximo. To-day, that body laid the 
 whole matter on the table. It is now thought that we will 
 not get away before July. But I expect the Baltimore do- 
 ings, to come off Monday week, will render the time of the 
 adjournment less doubtful than it now is. The Democrats 
 do not intend to quit here until they see some prospect of 
 land ahead, even though it should be some of the points of 
 Texas 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, GA., June i, 1844. 
 
 UKAR BROTHER Yesterday morning, 1 received your let- 
 ter of the twenty-sixth ultimo, together with the scraps of 
 poetry, and the sketches of Adams and Choate from the 
 ladies' gallery. As you said nothing further of your health, 
 I inferred you were in a measure restored. The poetry was 
 very good. The photographic sketches were, I suppose, 
 the work of your friend Edwards at least, they are just 
 such as I would expect him to perpetrate. The account of 
 your speech on the back of the sketches, I had seen be- 
 fore in the papers, and 1 am now getting very anxious to 
 see the speech itself. There is nothing new here, except 
 the prospect of fair weather or I might almost say fair 
 itself and also that Yickers, the hotel-keeper at Wash- 
 ington, in favor of somebody, or some event or other, 
 has made a deviation from his custom and killed a pig 
 on Tuesday instead of Saturday. Whether the prema- 
 ture fall of that one, however, shall inure to the benefit 
 of his brethren, and save the accustomed victim this 
 evening, remains yet to be seen. The best, however, is to 
 be hoped for. We have got no news here yet from the 
 Baltimore Convention. Democratic news don't move like 
 that of the Whigs. The zeal is wanting to disseminate it. 
 Judge Andrews, his brother, the doctor, and Captain Brown 
 are Texas men. They, however, with a few Democrats, 
 whom probably you do not know, (the Moons for instance,]
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 53 
 
 form the only exceptions to a determined opposition to 
 Texas in this place. I forgot to tell you that Tom Sim- 
 mons is a Tyler-Texas man, and that Bob Burch is for im- 
 mediate annexation, "in spite of h 1." His zeal for Clay, 
 however, is unabated. Dr. Alfriend, too, was flying away 
 on Texas, but Clay's letter clipped his wings, and has re- 
 stored him to the earth and to his senses again. His diffi- 
 culty arose from the necessity of giving an opinion before he 
 knew the position of his party. Many, no doubt, would 
 have obtained a similar relief or rather have avoided the 
 difficulty already, from an earlier publication of their 
 leader's sentiments. The Whigs about Crawfordville were 
 not really disposed to attach any importance to the Texas 
 question, and were inclined to regard it as a humbug; but 
 some of them, through fear of seeming to ivait for an opin- 
 ion, prematurely betrayed themselves into a false position. 
 Old Parson Wilson is a most determined opponent of the 
 Texas clique, and is actually on the point of falling out 
 with Mr. Calhoun 
 
 The following letter, describing a diplomatic dinner at 
 Washington a quarter of a century ago, derives additional 
 interest from the distinguished characters of the persons 
 present, as well as the well-known tastes of the writer: 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, June u, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It is twelve o'clock at night, and I have 
 just got home from the first "diplomatic dinner" 1 have 
 attended during the session or I may say, I ever attended ; 
 and as I do not feel disposed to sleep, I have thought I 
 would give you hastily a "sketch of the scene," as 1 know 
 I shall not have the time to-morrow. The dinner was given 
 by Messrs. Archer and Berrien, who have moved to the hill, 
 and have quarters just on the opposite side of the public 
 grounds from where I am situated. A. and B., you know, 
 are "sort of chums" and live together. Mrs. B. has been 
 here since April. That you may know the particulars in full, 
 I enclose my invitation card, that you may "begin at the 
 beginning," as Benton said in his speech upon Texas. The
 
 54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 hour, you perceive, was half-past six o'clock. I was there 
 to the minute not one minute too soon or too late. I 
 found Air. Barrow, Senator from Louisiana, and the Bel- 
 gian Charge, the only company assembled. But in a few 
 minutes, all the guests were present, to wit : The Brit- 
 ish Minister, the French Minister, the Belgian Charge, and 
 Mr. Thompson, our late Minister to Mexico, Mr. Barrow 
 of the Senate, and Mr. J. R. Ingersoll, Daniel D. Barnard, 
 R. C. Winthrop, Hamilton Fish, Gales, and Seaton, Evans 
 of Maine, Mangum of North Carolina, the Brazilian Charge 
 and myself. Mr. A. sat at one end of the table and 
 Mr. B. at the other. Mrs. B. (the only lady present) 
 sat in the middle of the table with the French Minister 
 on her right, and the British Minister on her left, and 
 
 M directly opposite, between the Cliargcs from 
 
 Brazil and Belgium. I sat on M 's right, and Fvans 
 
 to me on the right, and Ingersoll fronting me, with Bar- 
 nard on his left, while Thompson and Gales filled up 
 the line on towards Barrow's right, and Winthrop, Sea- 
 ton and Fish on the other side, on the left. We were 
 seated at the table in about fifteen minutes of the ap- 
 pointed time for dinner; that is quarter to seven. The 
 table was decorated with flowers, etc., and filled with glass, 
 but nothing eatable was to be seen, except some jellies and 
 strawberries. Everything was handed round by servants. 
 First soup then fish, then beef, then something else, I 
 know not what ; then sweet-breads, then chicken, then birds, 
 then beans and asparagus, then* strawberries, then CJuirlottc 
 dc Russc, with jellies, then ice cream, then cherries and 
 apples. A change of plates took place at each of these 
 courses six wine-glasses were placed near each plate, and 
 in them we first had Sherry, immediately after soup, then 
 Madeira, Claret, Champagne, Brandy, etc., with Hock, and 
 just what each wanted at all times. I forgot to mention 
 Henderson, the late Texas Plenipotentiary, as one of the 
 company; and I forgot to say also that the last course was 
 a snuff-box handed all around. The candles were lighted as 
 dark came on, and we left the table at half-past ten, and 
 repaired to the drawing-room, where coffee was served in 
 the handing order. The whole passed off very well, and 
 nobody got dnink. The whole company was jovial and the 
 conversation spirited. All sorts of subjects were talked
 
 JUDGE I.1NTON STEPHENS. 55 
 
 about, and I was much pleased with Mangum. The servants 
 who handed meats, etc., were called waiters; those who 
 served wine were called bntlers. They were all colored but 
 one, who was a French cook, who figured largely, and all 
 wore silk gloves and had on aprons. Packenham was de- 
 cidedly the best-looking man in the crowd. He is a man 01 
 fine countenance and manly form does not look to be over 
 thirty-five or forty wore a white vest with upright collar, 
 dark coat with shining metal buttons. The French Min- 
 ister, whose name I do not know how to spell, is a pleasant 
 fellow. The Brazilian Charge is small, dark and sprightly 
 tries to show off like a ficc in company. The Belgian 
 Charge is an angular-looking, sober-minded man of reflec- 
 tion and practical life; he is, I should think, fifty. As for 
 
 H , he went from North Carolina, and is about like five 
 
 hundred other men you might see on Tar River anywhere. 
 Mrs. B. is a good-looking woman, affects nothing extra ; 
 she seemed to entertain the two ministers about her very 
 well. But I can say no more ; and this I have said to you, 
 only to write for a few moments before going to bed. I 
 will state this, however, which surprised me: When I was 
 here in 1838, General Thompson was then a member of 
 Congress from South Carolina, and I was introduced to him, 
 etc., and immediately on coming in the room, he came up 
 and recognized me. I had not seen him since 1838. He 
 is a thorough anti-annexation man, and has promised me to 
 beat the mass-meeting in Madison on the 3istof July. 
 Tell Getting of this; I mean tell him that Thompson, late 
 
 Minister to Mexico, will be there I 
 
 don't write such stuff as this for anybody but yourself. 
 
 From Charlottesville, Virginia, Linton \yrites to his bro- 
 ther, in December, 1844: 
 
 [From I,. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 DEAR BROTHER After we parted, the Charlottesville 
 train waited at the "Junction" until the arrival of the 
 Southern train, and then went on without accident to Gor- 
 donsville. We arrived there about two o'clock, and got a 
 dinner which fully realized my ideal of Virginian cooking.
 
 56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 When I left the dinner-house, I felt a good deal like I was 
 leaving home the house was so warm and cheerful, the 
 landlady so neat and accommodating; but, above all, they 
 fed me so well that I felt a very lively regret at leaving; 
 (a dog will take up where he is well fed.) From Gordons- 
 ville, the conveyance was by stage, over a road which,' for 
 the difficulty of traveling it, can't be equaled by any I have 
 ever seen. It was bad not from want of attention, but 
 from the face of the country and the character of the soil, 
 which in wet weather becomes muddy and lets a wheel sink 
 very deep. Upon getting into the stage, the first question 
 of a passenger, who afterwards proved to . be very well ac- 
 quainted with the country, was, if the road was deep and 
 deep it proved to be. The stage arrived here about eight 
 o'clock. The Montreal man who, you may remember, 
 stood outside of the car, and said he was going to Char- 
 lottcsville proved to be quite a genius in his way. He had 
 no humor, and, I think, not the slightest ambition to raise 
 a laugh ; and yet, to laugh was almost the natural conse- 
 quence of his opening his lips. There was an indescrib- 
 able oddity about him that made you laugh without being 
 able to tell why. Montreal is his home now; but he went 
 from this State thither, and when he got to this place, and 
 stood about the bar sometime, one of the waiters recog- 
 nized him, and went up to him and called him Mars, (some- 
 thing that I did not understand.) He shook the negro by 
 the hand and said, " Why, how do you do, Jim? D n 
 it! I'm glad to see you ! " He then went on talking to Jim 
 with as much zest as you would if you were to meet Ben 
 or Bob in Egypt, or as I would if I were to see one of them 
 lie re noii'. The last of the conversation I heard was an in- 
 quiry from Jim about " Mars John, away yonder! " 
 
 The first thing I did this morning, after breakfast, was to 
 walk out about a mile to the university, and present myself 
 to Judge Tucker. About his third remark t<> me \\as 
 the question, "Have you ever seen my Commentaries?" 
 I learned from him that he had two classes of law- 
 students, Juniors and Seniors. The Juniors are now on the 
 subject of "Things Real," in Blackstone, and the Seniors 
 on the subject of "Personalty," in the same book. The 
 Juniors, he says, will graduate in two years, and the Sen- 
 iors in one. He says if I will join the Seniors, and will be
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 57 
 
 diligent, and should prove intelligent, I can graduate at the 
 same time that is, the fourth of July next. Then, after 
 making a few remarks about the advantages which he 
 "could but flatter himself" (was the expression) "were to 
 be derived from Iris Commentaries" he told me the proctor 
 would give me all necessary information. I thereupon quit 
 him and went to see the proctor. I learned from him that 
 1 would have to pay $70.00 professor's fee, $15.00 for the 
 use of public rooms, deposit $IO,OO as a contingent fund 
 to meet my share of damages, etc., (the surplus, if any, to 
 be returned at the end of session,) and if I was twenty-one 
 years old, 1 could have my choice of boarding in or out of 
 the college. The price of board in the college hotels (of 
 which there are two or three in the campus) is $110.00 for 
 the session, and you will have to pay Si6.OO rent for dormi- 
 tory. I am told by Hunt, of Wilkes county, whom I found 
 here, and is an old acquaintance, that board in town can be 
 had for about the same cost. Board, in and out of college, 
 must be paid quarterly, in advance. All these sums have 
 to be paid before I can enter ; so if (I tell you 1 don't like 
 the appcaranccs}'y<j\\ want me to enter, you can tell how 
 much money 1 will need. I now have 78.93. No more 
 room and dark. Yours, affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [i-'rom L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 I Ni\F.ksiTv OF VIRGINIA, December, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter enclosing the half-bills, i 
 received this morning, and the money came all safely, but 
 was delayed one mail from some cause or other. I believe 
 1 shall, to-morrow, offer the proctor one of my half-bills as 
 a pledge for the payment of my tuition-money, etc. If 1 
 wait for the counterparts before I begin to attend lectures, 
 it will probably be Friday before I can commence. To de- 
 posit the half-bill would be evidence of my honest intention 
 to pay, and make it my interest to pay what might be due, 
 for, of course, the remaining half, without the one depos- 
 ited, could have no value. My only objection to doing so 
 is, not the fear of refusal, but the appearance it would carry 
 of doubting any man's confidence in my honor. That men 
 will distrust a stranger's honor is inevitable, but to confess 
 6*
 
 38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 his consciousness of their distrust is rather unpleasant. I 
 believe, on the whole, this consideration will deter me from 
 the step and make me content to sit in my room and read 
 one week longer. 1 should not have said longer, for what 
 1 have already read scarcely deserves the name of a com- 
 mencement. The reason I have not read has been the 
 want of books, and the reason I didn't buy books sooner 
 was, my expectation that the course of study would be con- 
 trolled by the lectures of the professor. I understand now, 
 though, that his lectures are very scanty, and that the chief 
 part ol the course is to be found in the "Commentaries." 
 1 don't know what change the old fellow may work in my 
 opinions, but, with my present knowledge of him, and his 
 system of teaching, I never should have come here. The 
 students here, too, generally, are mean right down mean 
 they look like it ; they are generally a set of striplings very 
 fe\v men amongst them and they have a foolish way of 
 passing a man always without the least notice of him, 
 unless they have gone through the formality of an intro- 
 duction. The assumption of such airs has just disgusted 
 me with the whole concern, and I have resolved to have 
 nothing to do with them. Reese is wrong in a great many 
 of liis prejudices, but he is perfectly right in his contempt 
 for a college-student. The Athens students had traits per- 
 vading the whole that seemed to be derived from the very 
 air they breathed, and to infect everything within the col- 
 lege walls; but here those same traits are immensely mag- 
 nified; and the most prominent of them is self-conceit. . . 
 \ have a constant inclination to the past. I take a gloomy 
 pleasure in viewing it. 1 can't look to the future with any 
 hope, and 1 often wonder how anybody else can. Death 
 and decay are impressed upon everything. What motive 
 is there to do anything in this life? Work to acquire honor 
 and avoid disgrace ? Sixty years will cover both. Work 
 to do good to mankind? If you could shower down bless- 
 ings upon the whole generation that now covers the earth, 
 ho\v long could the}' last? The}' must perish with the sub- 
 jects that receive them. And how short is life? Sixty 
 years will bur}' all the good you can do, too, and when the 
 sixty years have expired, what will it matter whether you 
 have done good or evil ? Some men have left discoveries, 
 and inventions, and thoughts, behind them which may long
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 59 
 
 survive, and continue to others the benefits we now derive 
 from them ; but who can hope to be of that fortunate num- 
 ber? And how many centuries will be required to entomb 
 both great and small alike in one common oblivion? And 
 when those centuries shall have been numbered, what will 
 distinguish a Newton from the thousand worms or ants that 
 
 he daily crushed in his path? 
 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 The compliment paid to Dr. Olin in the following letter 
 will not be deemed extravagant by those who had the good 
 fortune to hear that superlative pulpit orator. It is " Lau- 
 dari a I'iro laudato : " 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, 1). C., 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I attended church at 
 
 the Chapel, and heard Dr. Olin, of whom you have often 
 heard me speak. He looks much broken since I saw him 
 last, twelve years ago, and also appeared in very bad health ; 
 but he preached a very good sermon an eloquent one the 
 best one I have heard in a long time; and perhaps I should 
 except this particular from the dull routine of the day's in- 
 cidents; for it rarely occurs that I am so well pleased at 
 church as I was to-day; and it rarely occurs to any man to 
 hear a better sermon at any time. He had a large audi- 
 ence, and gave great satisfaction. Of course, I bragged on 
 him as being a Georgian, my instructor, etc. Judges Mc- 
 Lean and McKinley were out to hear him. The Chief Just- 
 ice and Judge Story missed the treat. Toombs and Cran- 
 ston were at the capitol. 
 
 Some of the letters which follow will show that devotion 
 to Themis did not occupy all Linton's time and engross 
 all his attention while at Charlottesville. He offered sac- 
 rifice upon the altars of some other divinities as well:
 
 6O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OK 
 
 | Ki-om I,. S. to A. U.S.] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, December, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This morning, I received from you five 
 papers one of which, the Miscellany, ought to have come 
 yesterday; but, what I should have valued more than all 
 the rest, no letter. Yesterday, besides the letter I then 
 answered, I got a copy of the Huntress. I read everything 
 in it, from Henry Clay down to the advertisements, and 
 among them I saw man)" names which I remembered: one 
 was Winters, the man who sold you cigars last session. ! 
 wish you would send me the next Huntress also ; for in that. 
 the old lady promises to conclude a tale which lias interested 
 me enough to make me wish to know how it ends. By 
 the-way, did you notice this sentence in the copy you sent 
 me: " Little Georgian, (in capitals) don't give up the paper." 
 H is a solitary, disconnected piece, and I cannot imagine any 
 meaning for it, unless you have been threatening to stop 
 the old lady's paper, (because she won't describe you,) and 
 she intends tliat sentence as an exhortation to you " to 
 hold on and you'll get the blessing in due season." That 
 you may be better able to interpret it, I cut it out. 
 together with the piece immediately preceding it, and en- 
 close it to you; the preceding piece is to show its want of 
 connection with anything else. The Miscellany T devoured 
 even with more avidity than the Huntress. One piece in 
 it "The Departed One" is very humorous, and for its 
 strain of consolation is elegantly suited to the present con- 
 dition of the poor Whigs. It was very generous, too, of a 
 Loco (Xeal, the author of "Charcoal Sketches,") to be so 
 considerate of his opponents in the hour of their affliction. 
 If Clay could just see it, he would almost congratulate 
 himself upon his defeat the leisure of a beaten candidate 
 is painted in such charming colors. And then, too, Mr. 
 Clay has what that piece considers an indispensable for 
 turning a beating into a pleasant thing "lie's used to it!" 
 
 DECEMBER n. This much I wrote yesterday, but (it 
 being late in the evening when I \ras writing) was pre- 
 vented from finishing my letter by the entrance of the man 
 who came to set up my clock. He detained me some half- 
 hour, and didn't leave me time to finish my letter and mail 
 it bv dark ; so having nothing to write of interest anv wav,
 
 JUDGE LIXTOX STEPHENS. 61 
 
 I deferred it until to-day. It is no\v nearly eleven o'clock, 
 and my clock hasn't made a blunder. I think it is quite a 
 sure-footed animal, and will, in all probability, /told up to 
 the end of the track that is, to the end of the present ses- 
 sion here. But whether it does or not, I have got it war- 
 ranted anyhow. Am I not a perfect Moses Primrose / I 
 believe he had his gross (a whole gross) of spectacles war- 
 ranted, too didn't he? 1 shall make my fortune at trade 
 if I stay here long. A clock for *2/, and a clock out of 
 pure economy! Campbell, the blind phrenologist, told me 
 some years ago that my licad indicated mercantile talent, and 
 notwithstanding the limited field which my genius has had 
 for display in that line, I am likely to establish both the 
 truth of the science and his claims to an understanding of 
 it. The Message which you started for me has not arrived 
 yet : suppose you send me another, if you have a copy by 
 you, as I should take some pleasue in reading even the lu- 
 cubrations of "The Captain,"* when they derive some im- 
 portance from the position he occupies. I have already, 
 though, some hints of its contents, both from your own 
 account and the papers you have sent me. In the Globe 
 you sent me, I sat and read the correspondence upon the 
 subject of annexation. Mexico is certainly pretty belliger- 
 ent, at least, in language, and I presume it was that feature 
 in the correspondence which (as you say in a letter of 
 Sunday's date, and which I received this morning) has 
 somewhat abated the hopes of annexationists. Rut as T 
 am no political!, and you recommend me to continue so, I 
 will say nn more upon annexation. I will mention, ho\\- 
 evcr, that Calhoun advanced a new idea (to me) to prove 
 the independence of Texas that feature of the Mexican 
 Constitution authorizing Texas, or any other of the Con- 
 federated States, to erect an independent government after 
 attaining to a certain degree of population. The idea is 
 not conclusive, but certainly has more plausibility than 
 some I heard from the stump in Georgia upon the same 
 point. And speaking of Georgia: the piece you sent me 
 this morning, upon "Abolition in Georgia," is, as Groelcy 
 
 calls it, "truly a gem." 
 
 The commencement of the rain at Crawfordville corre- 
 sponds to the time of its commencement when I was on the 
 road, and though we had no pour, yet for the next two days 
 
 *" President Tyler was called "The Captain.'''
 
 62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the rain was nearly continuous. My zeal "to make a pil- 
 grimage to Monticello" will never make me encounter such 
 weather as they have in winter: so I believe I shall defer 
 it until Spring. I wonder Cobb didn't come over to pay 
 his adorations, in his holidays, particularly, as he started in 
 this direction. If it just was "Old Hickory's" place of re- 
 pose, wouldn't he bow to it? His devotions would do 
 honor to a Catholic 
 
 [From A. II. S. to I,. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., December, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER We had an inter- 
 esting time in the House to-day, in some skirmishing be- 
 tween Dromgoole, Rhett, et al. But principally between 
 those two. For myself, I think it was the most interesting 
 debate I have witnessed upon the floor of the House since 
 I have been a member. There was no noise no confusion. 
 The House was attentive and the speaking was good. 
 Rhett made decidedly the best speech I ever heard made 
 in the House. It was short, as well as all the rest of them, 
 (and such are generally the most interesting set-speeches 
 I detest,) and the latter part highly impassioned. I do not 
 know how it will appear in the report, or even how it will read, 
 if written just as it was delivered, but it was first rate to 
 hear; and I have long since been of the opinion that elo- 
 quence depends mainly upon action and manner. I will 
 send you the papers of to-morrow, that you may see the 
 proceedings. They were, upon the whole, the most inter- 
 esting we have had. The subject was Dr. Duncan's bill 
 relating to the election of President 
 
 [ From A. II. S. to I,. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., December, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have put up for you 
 
 the (ilobc of last night, which contains the report of the 
 debate yesterday in the House, which I mentioned in my 
 last night's letter; but, just as I expected, it seems like a 
 poor affair in the report, and the meanest speeches such a> 
 were not listened to at all, for instance, quite as good as 
 those which produced such sensation in the House. I be-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 63 
 
 lieve I mentioned that Judge Story always has his bottle 
 of brandy at dinner; he is one of the most incessant talkers 
 you ever heard, and, moreover, always talks good sense. 
 I am much pleased with him. He just seems and talks to 
 the company as if he had always been acquainted with each 
 one. He came into my room yesterday to borrow the 
 New York Tribune. He says we ought not "to work too 
 hard," or try to do too much; but when the clay is spent, 
 we ought to go home and sit down, and look in the far. . . 
 
 It is said that the best spoken speeches rarely read well ; 
 vice versa. One of Charles James Fox's sayings was : ' ' Did 
 the speech read well when reported? If so, it was a bad 
 one." 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, December, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I this morning received from you a 
 number of papers (13) so many that I presume they were 
 not all started at once and had letters, one enclosing one 
 from John Bird, and the other inquiring certain names. 
 That poor postmaster this morning certainly had his tri- 
 umph converted into chagrin and dismay ; his patriotism 
 by now must have reached the fusing point ; its high tem- 
 perature may melt your sealing-wax. In the letter enclos- 
 ing John's, and bearing date of the 1 2th instant, you said 
 you had already written to me that evening; that letter has 
 not reached me yet, but I shall expect it to-morrow morn- 
 ing that is, if, after inquiring, I find the office will be open 
 on Sunday; very probably it will not, and if so, I shall go 
 up to-night when the mail comes. But, no doubt, you are 
 getting uneasy at my silence about old Mr. Barlow. The 
 old fellow's name, as it appears on his sign, is " R. Bar- 
 low." I remember, as you and I were driving on after 
 him down to his house, just before we got to him, you said 
 his name was "Billy Barlow;" that fact made me examine 
 the sign to see how it appeared there, and I remember very 
 distinctly that it was R. Barlow, which I mentioned to you, 
 and you interpreted it to stand for ' ' Bobuel. " The name of 
 "the boy at the grocery," as you uncourteously style him,
 
 64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OK 
 
 is Lcroy ; but as you will have to content yourself with the 
 "old man's initials," it would be good policy to curtail 
 "the boy at the grocery's" name to the same dimensions, 
 in order to give the appearance of not taking the old 
 fellow's name from the sign, but by knowing" it from repu- 
 tation. Let your address, then, be " R. & L. Barlow." 1 
 am sorry that 1 have forgotten the man who wanted you to 
 send him a document to Wrightsboro or Raytown ; it seems 
 to me it is something like Briscom, or Perry, and 1 am not 
 altogether certain that I ever knew it; he put me in mind 
 of Thrcewitt, of Warrenton, but upon what principle of as- 
 sociation, I have also forgotten perhaps from the simi- 
 larity of names but 1 believe it was from some business 
 allusion he made to Threewitt. Now, again, his name 
 seems to be Bryant, and still again he somehow or other 
 reminds me of Hugn Ward, and he contrived to revive in 
 my mind the memory of Daniel \Yatkins, of Kl'oert. If all 
 these materials can be of service to your correspondence, you 
 are welcome to them, and I hope they ma} 7 prove more 
 profitable in your hands than they have thus far proved in 
 mine. 
 
 1 attended another lecture to-day, (the Seniors attend 
 Juniors' lectures,) and have yet found little cause to change 
 my opinion of Judge Fucker. He is a very clever old 
 fellow, and, I will admit, shows more sense than his first 
 appearance promised. Aylett Alct, as they pronounce 
 it- that 1 mentioned yesterday as having the reputation 
 of standing well, is of the Juniors, and, perhaps, does 
 answer best of his class; but Gregg, of the Seniors, is 
 Jar superior to him in an understanding of the author. 
 Gregg boards at my house, and, 1 think, is quite a smart 
 fellow. He has a green look, but also seems both conscious 
 and careless as to its effect. He has a big head, long, light 
 hair, and usually lias a half-reckless, half swaggering, half- 
 good-natured (if a thing can have three haires] smile upon 
 his face. There is in my class one man from Georgia his 
 name is - . I presume he is a relative of - . 1 
 could determine a man's locality by "that air" as readily 
 as you could his origin by "taken" the Taliaferro provin- 
 cialism for I have never vet seen it in a \ortli C arltuy 
 nigger. 
 
 1 see Jones* has changed you from the Committee o! 
 
 s Speaker of the House.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 65 
 
 Claims to that on the District. How do you like the 
 change? Less laborious, no doubt, and perhaps less hon- 
 orable also. 
 
 It is getting late in the evening, and as I want a walk, I 
 will go down town and mail this letter, which I must now 
 close from want of time, room and matter. 
 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From A. II. S. to I.. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., December, 184.4. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER 
 
 I intend to send you a small book upon " Kti- 
 quette," which I want you to read ; the style is pretty good, 
 and it is quite instructive. I commend it the more to your 
 attention, inasmuch as General Clinch, the other day, in 
 his inquiries after you, said that you had "paid more atten- 
 tion to the cultivation of your mind than you had to your 
 manners, and that you ought to devote more attention to 
 the latter than you had done." I only give you the sub- 
 stance of the old General's remarks. They were made in 
 "all kindness," after a free and full conversation about 
 young men, their prospects, etc., and after giving instances 
 by way of illustration. I did not know that he had hardly 
 noticed you, much less that he had paid any attention {.<> 
 your appearance. He, by-the-by, has a high opinion of 
 your ability, but says "a man, to be useful, must, in the 
 present state of society, pay some attention to the graces." 
 That was his language 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, December ]<>, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yesterday I delayed writing to you 
 until nearly dark, through negligence; this evening I have 
 done the same thing through the necessity of entertaining 
 a consummate bore. And if a short letter to you is Ics.- en- 
 tertaining than a long one, why, then, the consequence. 7 
 will very properly fall upon the shoulders that ought tc b til- 
 th em ; for you are the cause of the brevity that must char- 
 acterize this epistle. You may be at a loss to knov." hc-v.
 
 66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 you, at the distance of one hundred and seventy miles, 
 could interfere with my writing here, but many things are 
 true that can't be explained. In this case, however, though 
 you may not imagine the explanation, yet I have the key 
 to the mystery; and to turn the key and throw back the 
 bolt immediately, without any ceremonies at the door T 
 am indebted to you for the visit of the gentleman who has 
 just left me, and whom I have used the freedom to denom- 
 inate a bore. He is a Mississippian, and has not lived be- 
 yond the reach of your notoriety, (I might have said fame, 
 mightn't I?) He knows you as a politician, and takes it 
 for granted that I must be also infected with a love of pol- 
 itics, (Hunt, I suppose, having told him I was your brother. ) 
 He has a brother-in-law who is a big politician, and he him- 
 self certainly is infected with a love of politics though I do 
 not come to my conclusion upon his system of reasoning; 
 nor do I undertake to say that the infection was caught 
 from his brother-in-law. The fact of its existence, however, 
 is certain; nor do I go beyond himself for the evidence of 
 it. Accordingly, the relish for politics which he imparted 
 to me has acted like a charm, and drawn him towards me 
 by the irresistible laws of sympathy. I judge of the motive 
 of his visit by the theme of his conversation ; and though I 
 may have misjudged the one, I certainly shall never forget 
 the other, for misery makes a deep impression. Hut after 
 I have told you that your name received its share of his 
 notice, I am afraid I might exhaust all my evidence and all 
 my spleen without converting you to my opinion of his 
 agreeability. I shall, therefore, not make the attempt, but 
 content myself with giving you his name to be blended with 
 whatever impression you have already taken of the man, 
 and also the name of his big brother-in-law, who " has been 
 called the Father of tJic Wliigs in Mississippi." The name 
 of my acquaintance is , and the name of the " Father 
 of the Whigs" is General ." Do you know him? 
 I have seen his name in some newspaper sometime during 
 the canvass just over 
 
 So free, and full, and frequent was the correspondence 
 between the brothers, that almost every incident of the da}-, 
 every good story, every new anecdote, etc., was communi- 
 cated.
 
 JUDGE LINTON" STEPHENS. 67 
 
 The life of a Congressman at Washington, thirty years 
 ago, was a busier one than now, perhaps, if we take the 
 following description of one as ensample of all. Surely the 
 office should be a sinecure at no time : 
 
 [ From A. 11. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, T). C, December 20, 18.44. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I was cut rather short in my letter last 
 night by the arrival of Henry to carry my mail to the office 
 sooner than I expected. Indeed, I had not been conscious 
 of the lapse of time, or how long I had been engaged in my 
 other correspondence ; for you must know or if you do 
 not, I will tell you that I have almost as man}- letters to 
 write this winter as I had last, of all kinds and characters, ex- 
 cept congratulatory ones, and I may also except " buckets," 
 for in the midst of general depression, I have been spared 
 that mortification. Most letters now received are expostu- 
 lations for intercession in behalf of honest postmasters, who 
 are about to be put under the " law of proscription. " What 
 
 will our country come to? , of Athens, poor fellow, 
 
 is about to be made to walk the plank is at the head of it. 
 He and I, however, have got along thus far remarkably 
 well. - is more distant, but social upon passing. 
 
 Cobb and Lumpkin board at the next door, you know, and 
 we see each other much more frequently. I never was so 
 destitute of leisure hours in my life. I am now living com- 
 pletely by the clock, and each day is but the routine of the 
 succeeding one. I arise exactly at half-past eight, and get 
 read}- for breakfast in just twenty minutes; the next ten I 
 spend in sitting by the fire in a large arm-chair not a 
 rocker, (though 1 have one on the other side of my table,) 
 but a great big cushioned, calico-covered affair, which 
 almost hides me looking over the morning papers just to 
 see if there is anything new to talk about at breakfast, 
 which is announced at nine precisely. After breakfast, I 
 smoke a cigar or rather, two or three finish the papers, 
 and then read miscellaneous matter (I am now upon the de- 
 bates in the Virginia Convention that adopted the Federal 
 Constitution) until twelve. I then go to the House and re- 
 main during the session, which generallv continues until
 
 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 about three. I then return and commence writing letters, 
 and keep at that until dinner, at four o'clock, which lasts 
 generally about an hour. I then resume writing until tea 
 at six, where I remain about five minutes, and then return 
 to close my correspondence by seven, when the mail closes. 
 I then read until twelve o'clock, after which I know but 
 little until half-past eight next day: and these arc my daily 
 habits. I have not yet been to one of the departments at- 
 tending to all business there by correspondence; nor have 
 T yet attended a meeting of our committee. It has not yet 
 been called together. Upon the whole, T am quite a^'irca- 
 
 bly situated 
 
 We had an interesting debate in the House to-day upon 
 the bill to renew the Sub-treasury, which Dromgoole 
 brought up. The speakers were Adams, Dromgoole, Smith 
 of Indiana, (Caleb B. ), Kennedy of the same State, and 
 Schenck, which kept the House in session until past four 
 o'clock, when Yancey got the floor, and there was an ad- 
 journment until to-morrow, when the same subject, I pre- 
 sume, will be taken up. I expect the bill will be passed 
 to-morrow. I can then say, " I told you so," to my worthy 
 constituents. Hereafter, I believe I shall send you no 
 paper but the Globe, and Intelligencer, and the Georgia 
 papers, for I suspect, judging from myself, that it is too 
 great a draft upon your time to look over all the trash that 
 is printed; and, in speaking of your time, how is it you say 
 nothing of moot-courts? Do you have none in the univer- 
 sity? I should also like to know how you answer in your 
 class, compared with others. Have you taken a respecta- 
 ble stand or not? You have not yet told me whether you 
 joined the Senior or Junior class. The letter I got from 
 you last night mentioned the note enclosed in a previous 
 one, which came duly to hand. All your letters have been 
 received, but I have not got them of a night until about 
 half an hour after our mail closes. I sent you last night 
 one sent from brother John the night before, and to-night 
 I send you another which came to hand last night. Hut I 
 
 have not time to say more 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 A. H. STEPHENS.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 6(J 
 
 [From A. II . S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., December 20, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER We had an agreeable 
 
 dinner-party. General Clinch told the best anecdote of 
 any, and a good one it was. It was that of two Georgians 
 one up-countryman and a low-countryman meeting at 
 St. Mary's during the last war. The up-countryman had 
 never seen tide-water, and said it was a ' ' strange river that 
 runs both ways." The low-countryman had never seen any 
 but tide-rivers, and said, " \Vhy, you d d fool! who ever 
 saw a river that didn't run both ways? Why, don't you 
 know if the river always runs the same way, it n>02ild nin 
 
 out r' 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, December 22, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter of the 2Oth instant, and 
 those you sent me from brother John and John Bird at the 
 same time, together with the President's message, all ar- 
 rived here by last night's mail, and I received them and 
 read them this morning, (it being now quarter-past ten A.M.) 
 As your letter reminded me of some omissions I have made 
 in my account of the law-school, my stand in the class, etc., 
 1 will, before I forget them again, (I have several times, 
 but always at the wrong time, thought of giving them,) pro- 
 ceed to supply the omissions. As to nwot-coiirts : such a 
 thing is not dreamed of here. I expected the exercises of 
 such courts to be the chief advantage of coming here, and 
 accordingly, one of my first inquiries was, how often they 
 were held, and how managed? To my surprise, the answer 
 was that there was no such thing known in the concern. 
 The class, however or rather, the two classes of law-stu- 
 dents have formed a contemptible Lai^' Club, (I don't think 
 clubs are efficient instruments witness the defeat of Clay, 
 backed by a nation of them,) which meets once a week at 
 nigJtt, and with which Judge Tucker has no more concern 
 than you have. You may well imagine, the discussions in 
 it are none of the most edifying, nor long in continuance. 
 In fact, I don't think there has been a meeting of the thing 
 since I have been here. I shall make an effort to get into
 
 7O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 it next Wednesday night, the regular time of meeting. I 
 have not informed you of my stand in the class, and cannot 
 do so now, for the simple reason that 1 have none at all. 
 I haven't answered a single question yet. I am making 
 great progress, ain't I ? Hut there are man}' others who do 
 very little better; and then, the difference between them 
 and me is, that they try and I never do. They have ques- 
 tions asked them ; I never have not one yet. Judge Tucker 
 said he would not question me for "sometime," because, I 
 suppose, he took me to be a fool, and didn't wish to ex- 
 pose me until 1 might reconcile myself to my fate by wit- 
 nessing that of others; at any rate, that's what he said; (I 
 don't mean that's the reason he gave.) And 1 don't much 
 regret the course he pursues in excepting me, for his ex- 
 aminations are not close at all, and could, therefore, oper- 
 ate as no incentive nor help to study; and as to display, I 
 am as indifferent to it as to a dish of eollards. There is con- 
 siderable curiosity, however, in the class to hear me ques- 
 tioned. The}- don't at all understand my exemption, and 
 sometimes ask" me why the Judge doesn't call on me to an- 
 swer. 1 never tell them, but leave them in their wonder. 
 By-the-way, the}- consider me a queer chicken here. J don't 
 wear straps to my pants; and then, too, the want of boots 
 completes the oddity of my costume. You may think I 
 am unduly suspicious, but it is a fact as I tell you. 1 have 
 not been in the company of one who didn't cast a sly glance 
 at my feet (perhaps, after all, their size was the only won- 
 der. ) To all this, of course, I'm perfectly indifferent 
 rather enjoy it. Another strange and inexplicable thing is, 
 that any mortal man should get as man}' letters as 1 do; 
 (each morning a list of all the letters in the office is put upon 
 the door, and in that way the}' see how man}' I get.) They 
 say 1 get letters enough to break a common man, and to 
 keep the devil (it's their phrase, not mine) from study, if 
 he answered them all. Then comes the question, "Look 
 here: do you in earnest, though, have to pa}' postage on 
 'em all?" "No." "is it paid at home, or are they 
 franked:'" "I'Yanked." "Well, who the devil franks so 
 man}'?" That's rather a rude question, but still I answer, 
 "A brother." "Your brother's a member from Georgia, 
 then, is he?" "Yes." And by just that series of ques- 
 tions and answers is the only way these I 'irginia/is, or any
 
 jrOGF, I.INTON STKPHKNS. J\ 
 
 of them (Virginians) know that there ever was such a man 
 as Stephens in Georgia. (Great fools, ain't they?) The 
 Alabamians, however, and Mississippians, and South Car- 
 olinians, seem to be pretty familiar with your name. 
 
 But speaking of the Tuckers reminds me to tell you that 
 the Judge is a half-brother to John Randolph. He told it 
 himself, the other day, in the recitation-room. By \.vay of 
 quarreling with the English rule, excluding half-bloods from 
 the inheritance, he said he "could have loved no man more 
 than Mr. John Randolph, who was only his half-brother." 
 After leaving the room, I heard a very strong reason for his 
 love: The Judge, in his young days, went to Kentucky to 
 settle himself. When he had got there, Randolph wrote 
 him that he was unwilling for him to settle over there, and 
 that if he would return, he himself would give him an estate 
 here 
 
 [ From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, IX C., December 22, 1844. 
 
 DKAR BROTHER Judge Story says 
 
 he never told but one anecdote, and he used to tell that on 
 all occasions, until Webster stole it from him, and had the 
 impudence once to tell it in his presence; and after that he 
 had forsworn anecdotes. This he related with a good deal 
 of humor at the table this morning but, of course, it was 
 all fudge, for he is always telling anecdotes, or indulging in 
 jokes, etc. Kwing is a great hand at puns, and is con- 
 stantly indulging in them. For instance: this morning at 
 the table, in speaking of the abilities of the lawyers and 
 judges of England, Story was running down Kenyon and 
 holding up for Buller. McLean and Taney were descant- 
 ing upon the merits of others and amongst them Scarlett, 
 who, you know, is one of the great men of that country. 
 Ewing remarked that he was certainly the deepest red (read) 
 man of any of them. And in speaking of the attack of 
 the Huntress upon the judiciary, which you will see in the 
 papers of this week, the partiality of Mrs. Royall was com- 
 mented upon. For the truth in that matter was, when Mrs. 
 Royall came in, Judge McLean was the only man that got 
 up and cut out, and yet she compliments him. Some one 
 mentioned the fact of how Judge McLean had passed by
 
 J2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Of 
 
 lu:r as she came in at the door. Kwing remarked that he 
 supposed she thought the "Judge did passing well. " Judge 
 Story takes it all in fun, however, and says he must send 
 Mrs. Koyall his card with apology, etc., and that there is 
 as much truth in that narration as in any history, etc. 
 
 If so, 1 pity the world: for to tell you the truth, there is 
 not OIK- word of truth in it hardly. I was at the table and 
 saw I he whole show.* 
 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 A. II. STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UXIVERSITV OE VIRGINIA, December 23, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER After filling a sheet and a half yester- 
 day, I found I had omitted to tell you which class I had 
 joined, ami also to ask your opinion of offering for gradua- 
 tion. I have entered the Senior class, which, in the regu- 
 lar course, graduate next July. A student, however, can 
 pursue the studies he likes without offering for graduation. 
 The only advantage that I know of in a diploma is, that it 
 operates as a license to practice law in this State. The dis- 
 advantage to a student from any other State is, that to get 
 a diploma, he would have to devote a great deal of atten- 
 tion to / 'iiginia law, that might be more profitably em- 
 ployed in other reading. The fact is, I can read just what 
 1 please, and be excused from what I please by asking the 
 indulgence of departing from the usual course. Judge 
 Tucker is just one of those old gentlemen who will let you 
 do anything. I don't think you have any idea of the time 
 ] am throwing away here upon Virginia law. Those in- 
 terminable "Commentaries" are to be the text for a long 
 time yet, and 1 think it would be too liberal an estimate to 
 allow lialf their contents to be common laic doctrine. The 
 largest portion of them is devoted to ]"irginia statutes and 
 discussions, man) T of the latter taken from his own practice. 
 
 I am glad, for the sake of your reputation, that the Sub- 
 treasury bill has passed the House; but your prediction is
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 73 
 
 not yet fully fulfilled, for I think you risked your reputation 
 before the Raytown people, at least, upon the sub-treas- 
 ury's becoming- one of t/tc i/icas?ncs of Polk 's administration, if 
 he should be elected. But 1 suppose, however, even under 
 this construction of your predictions, there was a plain un- 
 derstanding that both branches of Congress should have 
 administration majorities and, yet again, I suppose the 
 Senate of the next Congress will be Democratic, and there- 
 fore, as I said at first, the prediction is not yet fulfilled, but 
 is only in process of fulfillment. It must be confessed, 
 however, that it is fairly "under way" and sailing beauti- 
 fully, with 123 to 65. That measure seems to be decidedly 
 even more Democratic than the repeal of the 2 1st rule. 
 These two acts combined must certainly throw some con- 
 fusion into the Southern wing of the Democracy. They 
 will no doubt, though, take great consolation from the pro- 
 portion of Whig and Democratic votes upon rescinding Hie 
 2ist rule, and on that /took, it must be confessed, they may 
 shuffle off some of the blame on the shoulders of "Feder- 
 alism," as old Blair persists in denominating Whiggery. 
 But this will do for this time so good evening for to-day. 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S.] 
 
 UXIVEKSITV OF VIRGINIA, December 24, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It seems, at present, that the elements 
 intend to smile upon this Christmas; for you will seldom 
 see a more charming day than we have here now, or a finer 
 prospect for a continuance of the fine weather, until the 
 great "natal clay" itself shall have been ushered in. and 
 numbered among the many that have preceded it. Christ- 
 mas, however, seems to be a day of very small importance 
 with the people here, if you judge from the preparation to 
 celebrate its return. Everybody, it is true, speaks of ob- 
 serving the day itself, but don't think of paying any atten- 
 tion to that glorious festive week beyond, which is emphat- 
 ically called "Christmas Holidays," and which in other 
 places, and even in old Georgia, is devoted to joy (per- 
 haps not a very reasonable joy) over our passage through 
 the toils of another year, and feasting upon the good tilings 
 it has yielded to the labors of man and beast 
 
 I have read the debate upon the revival of the sub-treas-
 
 74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ury, and found it very badly reported in the Globe. In the 
 Intelligencer, the report was, if not more faithful, at least 
 much more sensible particularly with respect to the 
 speeches of Adams, Dromgoole, etc.; but as that report 
 stopped about mid-way in the debate, I suppose I have got 
 a very imperfect idea of how the whole passed off. I 
 thought Adams raised a strong objection to the first clause 
 of the bill. Dromgoole attempted to ward off the old 
 man's attack upon the first clause by interposing the 
 clerentJi to support it. But the distinction which, for the 
 purpose of his argument, he drew between transferring and 
 disbursing, certainly has no foundation in the eleventh 
 clause, which makes it obligatory upon .ra^-treasuries to obey 
 the orders of "the treasury," either for transferring or dis- 
 bursing moneys. There seems to be some difference in 
 opinion as to \vhat issues were decided in the late canvass. 
 Tyler says "Annexation" was the issue, Dromgoole, the 
 " Sub-treasury," and Caleb B. Smith says broad, unmeaning 
 "Democracy." "How this world is given to lying." 
 
 But speaking of Congress : didn't Foster make a fine 
 Democratic speech on the bill to reduce the duty on railroad 
 iron. Chappell must have congratulated his sagacity in dis- 
 covering the allies of the South, and applauded his patriot- 
 ism for throwing himself into their arms. I noticed your 
 name recorded against laying that bill on the table -how 
 is that? Did you want to still hold it up, and encourage 
 and persuade the vandals to lay their ruthless hands upon 
 the "great Whig tariff of "42" that source of so man}' 
 blessings? or, would you really like some "modification of 
 detail," but so much as "not to disturb the equilibrium of 
 the bill?" Are you suitingyour remedies to the condition 
 of your patient? You certainly have very carefully exam- 
 ined the pulse of poor sick old Georgia, and perhaps have 
 concluded that the medicine heretofore has been given in 
 too large a'oses, and, like any humane physician would, have 
 determined to diminish the prescription and administer it in 
 broken doses. The next stump-speech I hear you make, I 
 shouldn't be surprised to find something after the following: 
 
 "FellQW-citisciis I always said the tariff of '42 was not a 
 perfect measure; it is beyond human ability to attain per 
 fection in anything, much less in adjusting the difficult 
 subject of a tariff, and the burthens of government press
 
 Jl'DOE TJNTON STEPHENS. 75 
 
 equally upon every nerve (you are fond of medical figures) 
 of this vast and extended people. Our fathers themselves 
 (then you'll wax eloquent) foresaw the necessity of making- 
 changes even in the Constitution itself, and one of the wisest 
 features in the instrument is the power which it lodges in 
 posterity o suiting it to their condition so in all other 
 things, there are imperfections which cannot be developed 
 nor remedied but by the lapse of time and the test of ex- 
 perience. I have been governed by these views (very ex- 
 plicit) in casting my vote, which is now arraigned before 
 the bar of your judgment, and, as a faithful servant, I lay 
 my work before you, and commit my fate to the decision 
 of an honest constituency. The duty on iron weren't right 
 'nohow, 1 and it ought to have been repealed. I al- 
 ways told you jnsi that same," etc. But 1 have been long- 
 enough upon foolishness, and having nothing else to add, 
 I'll "just enclose" for to-night. 
 
 [ From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., December 25, 1844. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER 
 
 I think, upon the whole, that it is best for you not to set 
 for graduation if you have to devote too much of your 
 time to the study of the statute-law of Virginia. But 
 if, with a little additional exertion, you could do it, it would 
 be of great advantage hereafter. Becoming acquainted 
 with the statute-laws of any one of the States, to a lawyer, 
 is a little like acquiring our language to the linguist all 
 others come much easier and crossing such studies does 
 great good. It gives ne\v ideas upon law, and leads to 
 nice discrimination of principles ; and moreover, if you 
 should go to the West, a knowledge of Virginia law will 
 be essential, for almost all their laws are taken from that 
 source. I want you to make the best of your time until 
 July; you can, notwithstanding the character of your in- 
 structor, learn a great deal at the University, \vith proper 
 application, and doubtless your club will hold something 
 like moot-courts, or have discussions upon questions of law. 
 And in all this, if there be such, do not be backward in 
 taking part, nor do you be too indifferent to display.
 
 j BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH OK 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, January 9, 1845. 
 
 DEAR HROTIIKR But : as I am not at 
 
 all disposed to moralize this evening, I will proceed to an- 
 swer your other question, which was, whether I retained 
 my hearing that "come to" on the Welclon Railroad. 
 Now, all the "clearance," though perceptible at the time, 
 was only temporary, and has been succeeded by the usual 
 deafness. You once told me that you thought my mind 
 had been affected by the rupture, or whatever derangement 
 it is in my head. I think so, too. That supposition ac- 
 counts for one of the most (perhaps, the most) prominent 
 defects in my mental constitution, the one which you have 
 so often attributed to me, but which nobody else ever has, 
 (perhaps because all who would take the liberty had the 
 same fault, and consequently didn't see it in me) I mean 
 the want of attention and observation. You see I can heat 
 only on one side, (though on that side as well as others) 
 and the difficulty of hearing naturally made me careless as 
 to what was said especially after experience had so often 
 told me that what I heard was no compensation for the in- 
 creased effort of listening. People generally say so little that 
 is worth hearing, that it is rather a wonder that men with 
 'good cars should not become negligent of hearing what gives 
 them so little pleasure or information when understood. 
 And thus, what was begun in indifference has long since- 
 ripened into a habit, and has now become a source of real 
 mortification to me. I try constantly to stem the current 
 of habit, and shake off a dreamy listlessness which I some- 
 times feel stealing over me, and which, though it has of 
 late yielded somewhat to changes of scene and a rising 
 sense of the responsibilities of life, I must confess is still 
 one of the most pleasing enchantments of my mind. 
 
 The defect in hearing through the right ear was never 
 cured. The inconvenience was a source of occasional em- 
 barrassment to him ; he once laughingly said, he could turn 
 his head to catch a sound, quicker than most men could 
 wink the eye, if he was curious to hear the sound.
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 77 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, January 12, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER There was a failure of the Northern 
 mail last night, (owing, perhaps, to the snow) and conse- 
 quently, as you have often had occasion to complain in 
 your own case, I have nothing to reply to this evening. 
 Yesterday morning, when I awoke, the ground was covered 
 with snow, (the second time this year) but before night it 
 had almost entirely disappeared. The ground was pretty 
 damp from previous light rains, which, I believe, I have 
 faithfully chronicled as they fell, and the melting of the 
 snow, therefore, was very rapid ; there was, however, not 
 much to melt ; for it was at first not deeper than an inch ; so 
 there are no remains of it now, except on the mountains, 
 which always retain it much longer than the level. They, 
 however, still lift their heads, crowned in snow, and will 
 probably for* some days yet to come. None fell during the 
 day yesterday, but the whole fall was during the previous 
 night. To-day the clouds are broken up, but not dispersed ; 
 they still float about, and, before they are completely dis- 
 banded, may yet rally their forces and make another dis- 
 charge upon shivering mortals beneath ; but I will not risk 
 my pretensions to being "weather-wise" by predicting 
 such a result. If such should be the result, however, my 
 hint of the probability will of course justify me in claiming 
 the merit of having foreseen it, and I shall then say, "I 
 told you so," with as much complacency as you can as- 
 sume when you shall congratulate your constituents upon 
 your foresight in predicting the repeal of the 2 1st rule, the 
 revival of the sub-treasury, etc. But if there should be 
 no such result, why, then I will be just as rmitc as you pos- 
 sibly could have been, had fortune been less propitious than 
 she has been in fulfilling your prophecies. This has been 
 a dull day to me, and apathy is still so strong upon me that 
 I have very little expectation of getting to the end of the 
 sheet this time. Again to-day, I have failed to go to church, 
 and for the same reason that detained me last Sunday the 
 trouble of shaving and dressing after breakfast. But you 
 "needn't to say nothing about it" in your answer, for "/ 
 wont do so no more." Experience has so fully shown me 
 the evil ; I shall hereafter avoid it for self-defense, if for no
 
 78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 other reason. Indeed, all punishments seem admirably de- 
 signed to remind us of departure from duty by appearing 
 in immediate succession to the transgression. I have ex- 
 pressed the idea, as "the preacher" would probably do, 
 but not, I believe, exactly according to the truth, for I doubt 
 whether punishments arc designed at all, and should rather 
 say they are necessary evils. Life is a machine, and the 
 Maker of it, fully comprehending its operations, benevolently 
 gave man directions for managing //, and those directions 
 have emanated from perfect knowledge: any departure from 
 them results in disorder, (which we call pain or unhappi- 
 ness) as the clock" must stop when the weight runs down, 
 or a cog is broken in the wheel ; and the stopping of the 
 clock from such a derangement is as little the result, the 
 design, as the punishments that follow in the wake of our 
 sins. The machine was not contrived to run under such cir- 
 cumstances. The design and expectation of the Maker was, 
 that it: should run only so long as all the parts perform their 
 allotted functions, and when that performance fails, the con- 
 trivance is no longer adequate to answer the design, (till 
 after restoration) and disorder and confusion are the conse- 
 quence. Or, another illustration of the idea is to suppose 
 life a difficult journey, and that God, with perfect knowl- 
 edge of the way, has given man, the pilgrim, a chart on 
 which is marked out the way, and all the dangers which 
 beset it, clearly: whenever the pilgrim disregards its direc- 
 tions, he must inevitably wander from the path and en- 
 counter the dangers that hedge it about at ever}- step; yet, 
 his troubles and perils are by no means designed by the be 
 nevolcnt Director. The design is, that the pilgrim shall ar- 
 rive at his home which awaits him at the terminus of the 
 path, and the misfortunes he experiences on the way, so 
 far from being designed, are the result only of his failure to 
 consult the Chart, or his disregard of his directions. But 
 how many a poor fellow in the world can't read the Chart ! 
 The great book of nature and of revelation has no direc- 
 tions for him, and his only reliance is upon the original im- 
 pressions which Nature stamps upon his heart at the begin- 
 ning of the journey ; and how liable arc these, too, to be 
 obliterated by the malice or ignorance of those who are way- 
 farers upon the same great route, or even by his own pas- 
 sions, which discover and pursue beauties that Moat before 
 him to lure him to his ruin !
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. "/fj 
 
 But when I began, I had no idea of preaching a sermon ; 
 (and I doubt whether the doctrine be orthodox) and, in- 
 deed, I didn't know what I would say. But since I have 
 been delivered, you mustn't make any sly allusions to 
 "Combe's Constitution of Man;" (like I did yesterday to 
 Byron) there may be a similarity in our ideas; (ahem !) yet, 
 I have not drawn them from him ; and. moreover, if they 
 are similar, they are not identical, for I have the authority 
 of Sir Edward Coke for saying-, "Quad simile cst, non cst 
 idem." 
 
 [ I'rom A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, January 12, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER You need not have 
 
 cautioned me against intimating a coincidence between your 
 views and Combe's. If I am not mistaken, your plagiar- 
 ism is from a source or quarter which I watch with much 
 more sensitiveness than I do the rights of Combe, or of any- 
 body else. I think you got them from me, and, therefore, 
 will not charge you with taking them from an}- higher au- 
 thority. But I have no leisure to vindicate my rights at 
 this time, and will let it pass for the present. 
 
 There was an amusing spat kept up between them for 
 sometime as to the "plagiarism," so called; but so far as I 
 can judge, it must have been a drawn battle. 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, January 14, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This morning, I read 
 
 the Intelligencer s report of Yancey's speech in reply to 
 Clingman and others having previously read Clingman's 
 speech. To judge from the report, I should imagine that 
 Yancey was quite eloquent especially when I associate the 
 remarks with my recollection of his appearance. I thought 
 he had a fine eye and a prepossessing person ; and in his 
 speech, he soared immeasurably above the whole tribe of 
 the whining Democracy, who speak for nobody but their 
 constituents. You needn't imagine, however, that I was 
 at all carried away by his eloquence, for I found very little
 
 8O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 to approve of after all; and yet, again, I thought he told 
 some truth particularly in his charge of a spirit of disunion 
 upon Massachusetts and he might have added other States, 
 too. Massachusetts either wants to break up the Union, 
 or, by a little blustering, to scare others into making it a 
 little more agreeable with her views. But really, it seems 
 to me, she hasn't much attachment for the Union ; and I 
 should say that she and South Carolina have less than any 
 others the feeling, in the one instance, springing from the 
 ambition of maintaining a reputation for "chivalry," with- 
 out any real chivalry entering into the motive, and the other 
 from pure Yankee contrariness and dogged obstinancy. 
 But because this might have been true, it by no means just- 
 ified Yancey in declaring it to be so. Such a declaration 
 especially when accompanied by Yancey's impassioned 
 manner can, I should suppose, have no tendency for good, 
 but, on the contrary, may do much harm by widening the 
 breach at the same time it was exposed to view. There- 
 fore, I say, I found very little to approve of in his speech. 
 His attack upon Clingman was certainly not justified 
 though, to confess the truth, Clingman deserved a castiga- 
 tion. Yancey, however, I thought, proceeded to an entirely 
 unjustifiable extent. I said he soared above the whiners to 
 their constituents not, however, that I think Yancey's con- 
 stituents were by any means out of his mind, but for the most 
 part he appealed to their pride and endeavored to rouse 
 their indignation ; while the puppy tribe, of which I have 
 spoken, addressed themselves only to the pockets of their 
 constituents by a perpetual cant for retrenchment, and to 
 their vanity by the most unbounded assertions of their 
 "sovereignty." I discovered no instance of such a little- 
 ness in Yancey's speech ; he maintained throughout a re- 
 spect for himself; and though lie may have had an eye 
 upon his constituents, yet I think the ruling motive was to 
 make a fine speech one which should tell upon the House 
 and put him in the papers; in short, that his aim was to 
 
 acquire the reputation of an orator 
 
 .And speaking of yourself and speeches reminds me of 
 "one big lie" that I heard my friend - - tell upon you 
 last night: he told me that, in your discussion at Dahlon- 
 ega last summer, when you rose in reply to his father, sev- 
 eral of the Democrats left the crowd, and that thereupon
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHKNS. 8 I 
 
 you shouted out, "There go those rascally Democrats, and 
 d n 'cm, let 'em go! " He said he was present at the dis- 
 cussion ; but when he saw me smile rather dubiously, he 
 stopped short and said, "But does your brother swear?" 
 I told him I had never heard you swear; whereupon, he 
 faced about and said he reckoned he must have been mis- 
 taken, but that he thought you used "some such expres- 
 sion." 
 
 I am very much interested in the "Federalist," and am 
 becoming a great admirer of Hamilton, by whom most of 
 the numbers I have read were written. Well might Judge 
 Tucker say, "He was every inch a statesman." He rea- 
 soned admirably, and predicted almost as well 
 
 [From I.. S. to A. II. S. j 
 
 UNIVKRSITV OF VIRGINIA, January 21, 1845. 
 
 Daniel asked me if he could propose me as a member of 
 the club. I told him he could. He said he would do so, 
 but forgot it at their last meeting; at the second, however, 
 (which was two weeks ago last night, ) he did propose me, 
 and at the third, I attended, as already said. Of course, 
 however, it would not do so well to speak at my first at- 
 tendance, and I accordingly reserved myself for last night. 
 I went up swelling with a speech against universal suffrage: 
 (they don't discuss law.) Hunt asked me, beforehand, if 
 I intended to speak, and when I told him "yes," he said 
 he was going to carry out a crowd to hear my debut, and 
 that I must be on my "p's" and "q's. " There was, ac- 
 cordingly, a pretty good crowd ; but I am sorry to confess 
 that I was not the chief object of attraction. That honor 
 
 belonged to Colonel , of Tennessee, from "Mr. 
 
 Folk's own district." He is a common jest; and whenever 
 he promises to give a speech, (as he did last night,) he is 
 always able to command an audience. He is a member of 
 the law-class, (Senior,) but has not, I think, given a correct 
 answer to a single question since I have attended recita- 
 tions. He certainly is thus far a very remarkable parallel 
 to Chancellor Kent, who, you remember, Jim Jones said, 
 read Blackstone through without getting an idea. Colonel 
 J - has not yet, it is true, read through, but so far as
 
 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 he has read, it may be safely asserted that he has gathered 
 no idea. In so great demand is his oratory, that he has 
 been appointed by the club to deliver a public oration, on 
 the 22d of February, in celebration of the anniversary of 
 Washington's birth-day. But he has not the least suspicion 
 that he is made a butt of rather sets down his promotions 
 as the sincerest evidence of respect for himself and admi- 
 ration for his genius. If he should hereafter "astonish the 
 nation," and prove himself another Kent indeed, then his 
 college honors will doubtless be recounted by some faithful 
 biographer, as the repeated testimonials of his associates, 
 to his brilliant parts, and as indices of that genius which in 
 mature years burst forth with such splendor upon the " pro- 
 fession. " I have never seen but one parallel to' the Colonel, 
 (whatever similarity there ma}- be between him and Chan- 
 cellor Kent,) and that one is Travis Lindsay; he said once, 
 " if his father would give him five hundred dollars, he would 
 study medicine under Dr. B , * and make a IT. an of 
 himself." I say, "par uobile fratnun!" But as I really 
 feel very little like writing, and have written more for regu- 
 larity than because I had anything to say, I believe I will 
 bring my lucubrations to a close, trusting to-morrow even- 
 ing will find me in a more willing mood ; so, good-bye for 
 this time. 
 
 Affectionately, LIXTOX. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 UXIVERSITV OF VIRGIXIA, February 9, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I was glad to get a letter again from 
 you this morning, after an interval of two days between it 
 and your last; and I was also glad to find from its date 
 (6th) that the failure turned out to be owing to some fault 
 in the mail, and not, as I began to fear, to your being too 
 unwell to write. You were sick last winter just after you 
 made your speech on your right to a seat, and the same 
 happening again, seems to indicate that Congressional speak- 
 ing doesn't agree with you, while .sY.vw/'-speaking, instead of 
 hurting you, seems to act like excitement does on old man 
 
 * Dr. B. belonged to that class of the disciples of Galen, commonly 
 known as " Root-doctors."
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 83 
 
 Adams fattens you. Are you sufficiently skilled in the 
 philosophy of the human frame to assign a cause for the 
 difference? or do you admit that a difference exists ? Your 
 letter of this morning enclosed another from John, mention- 
 ing the death of Tom Simmons. Poor Tom ! Though his 
 was a small sphere in life, and even there, he was a quiet 
 citizen ; yet who, for some time to come, can fill the vacancy 
 his absence makes in his own little town ? To think of 
 Crawfordville without Tom Simmons in it, seems strange 
 indeed. I can scarcely think of a man there who would be 
 missed more. I can scarcely recall a single little scene 
 there, but he, with some of his odd sayings, and his dry, 
 quiet laugh, seems a principal figure in the group. It is 
 hard for me to realize that he is gone ; and it seems strange, 
 too, that a man's misfortunes should put him out of reach 
 of the very sympathy that should soothe it : the only hope 
 of befriending the dead is, to remember and soothe those 
 he would have cherished if alive. Tom's little Emily is now 
 an orphan girl ; and well do I remember the feeling it used 
 to produce upon me, to be told that I was an "orphan boy." 
 Though I had never known a father or mother, yet nothing 
 broke my spirit like being told that I was without them. 
 It seemed to make me an object of pit)- in the eyes of other 
 people, and that, in turn, made me Jnnnblc in my own. The 
 negroes and the neighbors used to speak to me of myself 
 as an "orphan boy," and I never heard it applied without 
 feeling subdued within myself, and lonely in the world. 
 That was the tendency ; and though I may not seem humble 
 or subdued now, or might not have seemed so even years 
 ago, yet what I appeared, could be no measure of the cause 
 at work, and it could be estimated only by what I would 
 have beeit without it ; and if I had been brought up en- 
 tirely free from the sense of dependence, and unconscious of 
 being pitied, I verily believe I should have been one of the 
 wildest wretches on earth. Gleams of such a feeling shoot 
 across me even now, but they are only gleams, and sink 
 and fade ere they have assumed shape and taken direction. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, February, 14, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER He is altogether a 
 
 rare chap, and I cultivate his acquaintance, or permit him to
 
 84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 cultivate mine, that I may have the double pleasure of hear- 
 ing him spin his yarns, (which, true to his sailor's educa- 
 tion, he takes great delight in,) and then of proving them 
 to be lies, as I did the other night, for instance. He was 
 entertaining a crowd with an account of the wonders of Ant- 
 werp, (which he visited in some of his sea-faring wander- 
 ings,) and, among other things, mentioned the steeple on 
 the cathedral there, which, he said, was about three hundred 
 feet high, and was ascended by a flight of steps eleven hun- 
 dred in number, and each a foot in thickness. \Yhen he 
 brought that out, I broke into one of the biggest kind of 
 
 o oo 
 
 laughs (which the crowd did also, though I believe in my 
 heart the}' saw nothing ludicrous, save in the stupendous 
 dimensions of that steeple) and asked him if he didn't mean 
 eleven hundred instead of three hundred only, or else that 
 there were only three hundred steps instead of eleven hundred, 
 each a foot thick. He at first boldly defended himself by in- 
 dorsing his first version, and he immediately brought the 
 crowd to a stand, and (my remarks had by this time pointed 
 out to them the true cause of my laughter) reduced them to 
 the unpleasant predicament of not knowing on whom to throw 
 the laugh ; fearing that they would prove themselves fools 
 by laughing on the wrong side, and equally fearing they 
 would produce the same result by not laughing at all, since 
 a blunder was evidently committed on one side or the other, 
 and not to laugh would be not to perceive or to appreciate 
 it so the\- were brought to a stand; but 1 by no means 
 permitted things to remain -on so critical a balance, but im- 
 mediately put off all my mirth, and by a very few words 
 satisfied every one of them that eleven hundred steps, each 
 a foot thick would (let them id) id as much as they might) 
 inevitably reach eleven hundred feet high ; and I then again 
 immediately relapsed into my former fit of laughter, in 
 
 which I was again followed by the crowd and by 
 
 himself as heartily as the rest 
 
 The person, at whose expense the laugh was created, had 
 just entered the law-school- as a student. He attempted to 
 complete his academic education at three different colleges 
 in vain. Dismissed from each, he tried a sea-faring life. 
 A few months' experience disgusted him with that so he, 
 as a dernier res sort, betook himself to the law.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 85 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 19, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Last night, Mr. 
 
 Clay made a show on the colonization question and such 
 a show I never saw before ! People were here from Bal- 
 timore, Philadelphia and New York, to say nothing of 
 Alexandria and this city. The House of Representatives 
 and galleries were jammed and crammed before five 
 o'clock. The Colonization Society were to meet at 7. I 
 came over at half-past 6, but found I could not get in at the 
 door below, much less to get up the steps leading to the 
 House. The people were wedged in as tight as they could 
 be squeezed, from outside the door all the way up the steps, 
 and the current could neither move up nor down. There 
 were several thousands still outside. I availed myself of my 
 knowledge of the meanderings of an intricate, narrow pas- 
 sage under the rotunda, and round by the Supreme Court- 
 room, into the alley from the clerk's room, into the House 
 at the side-door by the House post-office, and through this 
 Cobb and I, with Robinson, of Indiana, wound our way, 
 finding it unobstructed, until we got to the door, where the 
 crowd was as tight as human bodies could be jammed ; but 
 we drove through the solid mass and got in and passed on 
 the space by the fire to the left of the Speaker's chair, 
 where, by looking over the screen, we could see the chair. 
 When we got to this place, what a sight was before our 
 eyes! The great new chandelier, lighted up with gas, was 
 brilliant and splendid indeed ; and then, what a sea of heads 
 and faces ! Every nook and corner on the floor below, and 
 the galleries above, the aisles, the area, the steps on the 
 Speaker's rostrum, were running over. The crowd was 
 pushed over the railing, and men were standing on the out- 
 side cornice, all around, and the}* were hanging on the old 
 clock and the figure of time. Such a sight you never saw ; 
 none in the Hall could turn ; women fainted and had to 
 be carried out over the solid mass. At about seven, Clay 
 came, but could hardly be got in. The crowd, however, 
 after a while, was opened, while the dome resounded with 
 uninterrupted, continuous "huzza! huzza! huzza!" and 
 when he got to the chair, one fellow Jiolloi^cd " three cheers 
 for Henry Clay, "which were given in the loudest burst
 
 86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 you ever heard; and when he got through, some fellow 
 "hollowed" out, "three more," and again the welkin 
 rang. When this burst was over, altogether cried out, 
 "three more," and so they kept it up. You never saw- 
 such a scene! After a while, order was restored; the busi- 
 ness of the Society was transacted. Dayton, of New Jer- 
 sey, offered a resolution and commenced speaking ; but one 
 fellow cried, ' ' Clay ! Clay !" the cry became general, and soon 
 also became general with " put him clown ! " " put him out ! " 
 "pitch him out the window!" but Dayton held out, kept 
 speaking until lie was literally drowned with " down ! down ! 
 down ! hush ! hush ! Clay ! Clay ! Clay, " etc. , and then the old 
 hero rose. Three more cheers for Henry Clay were sug- 
 gested, and quickly did they come; three more! and they, 
 too, came ; three more ! and they came ; tlircc more ! and 
 they came quicker and louder than any of the others. At 
 length, still and quiet reigned, as if no breath stirred from 
 any bosom: Clay commenced speaking, and all were silent. 
 Of his speech, 1 say nothing. He was easy, fluent, bold, 
 commanding, but, in my opinion, not eloquent. At about 
 nine, an adjournment was announced. Cobb and I made 
 good our retreat through the same narrow passage, and got 
 out in a few moments. I suppose the great mass did not 
 get out in an hour. I understand that i^liole acres of peo- 
 ple had to go away without getting in at all. Shepperd, 
 of North Carolina, whom you know as being more \\liigisJt 
 than Clay'sk, rather snappishly remarked, when we got to 
 our mess-quarters, that he (Clay) could get more men to 
 run after him to hear him speak, and fewer to vote for him, 
 than any man in America. 
 
 [From A. II . S. to L. S. ] 
 WASHINGTON', D. C, February 23, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I dined with Hunt 
 
 at Coleman's. He had a large party, and we had a fine time 
 of it. The best joke we had \vas upon General Clinch, who 
 
 was also present Sometime ago, upon 
 
 a call of the House, the General was not present at first, but 
 came in (having been sent for) just as he heard his name 
 called by the Clerk ; and all vexed and mad, and puffing, 
 and blowing, and sweating, replied or answered to his name,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 8/ 
 
 at the top of his voice, "No," instead of "Hen-," as is 
 usual in such cases. This caused general notice in the 
 House, when I said to him, "General, say 'Here;' it is a 
 call of the House;" to which here plied, "Oh, d n it, I 
 don't care; I am against all they do anyhow," loud enough 
 for all to hear, which caused a great laugh ; and it caused 
 a loud burst, I assure you, at the table. The old General 
 took it finely, and we had some fun. Crittenden told, how- 
 ever, what affected me most. He said that he had just got 
 a letter from a friend in Lexington, who, in giving him the 
 news, etc., remarked that Mr. Clay came that morning to 
 his office as usual, (you know he has gone to hard work in 
 earnest,) when some stranger being present, remarked, 
 "Why, Mr. Clay, have you come from home this morn- 
 ing? it is early." The old Roman replied, "Yes, sir, 
 and walked at that; " and, pulling out his watch, told new- 
 many minutes he had been walking the distance, which was 
 a very short time. When his friend, who seemed to be 
 himself surprised at it, remarked, "Why, indeed! I be- 
 lieve I will enter you in the great foot-race to come off on 
 Long Island next month." "Oh, no you needn't," re- 
 plied Clay, "for if I were to win it, they would contrive 
 some way to cheat me out of it." A noble old fellow, 
 isn't he? 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, May 29, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I wrote to you yesterday, informing you 
 of my safe arrival home, etc., and enclosed you fifty dollars, 
 giving, at the same time, some suggestions touching your 
 return, etc. Since then, I have been reflecting upon a sub- 
 ject that I had before thought a little upon, and have con- 
 cluded to mention it to you, and that is the propriety of 
 your going on to Cambridge and spending the ensuing fall 
 at that school. The additional expense would not be an 
 object, 1 think, compared with the advantages to be de- 
 rived. I am more inclined to this opinion, from the fact 
 stated in one of your previous letters, that you had not 
 taken up the subject of Evidence at all in your present 
 course, which is so soon to come to a close. Nothing is so 
 important to a lawyer as a thorough knowledge of the law
 
 88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 of evidence. At Cambridge, I understand, you can pur- 
 sue whatever study or branch of the law you wish, and 
 I think it very advisable for you to take a course upon Ev- 
 idence and Equity practice. Those subjects are well taught 
 there. You could govern your studies according to cir- 
 cumstances after your arrival. The moot-courts there also 
 would be of great advantage. If you were now to return, 
 you would not get any practice immediately. You, per- 
 haps, had better be improving your mind there, with more 
 facilities than you possibly could at home, though it might 
 and would be at an increased expense. You would have 
 an opportunity of seeing the large Eastern cities Philadel- 
 phia, New York, Boston, etc. with an opportunity of 
 seeing something of Yankee character. You would, of 
 course, go directly to Boston. . . . The commence- 
 ment at Cambridge is in September, and by that time, you 
 can see how you like the place, and by November, or the 
 meeting of Congress, you can determine whether it would 
 be worth while to continue during the winter; if not, you 
 could then return, spend a few weeks in Washington, sec 
 Congress again in session, and come on and set out "your 
 shingle" at the beginning of next rear. \Yhat think you 
 
 o o o * - 
 
 of it? I make the suggestion, and advise you to take that 
 course, believing it to be best 
 
 [From A. If. S. to L. S. | 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, June 11, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yours of the 4th instant came to hand 
 this evening, and I was glad to hear that you had concluded 
 to go to Cambridge ; for there, I think, you will have su- 
 perior advantages to those at the University of Virginia 
 though I do not think your time at that place has been mis- 
 spent. You have made acquaintances learned something 
 of the world, if not much of the law and your reading- 
 there will render you more capable of improvement at the 
 other place. But I suppose I need not venture the opin- 
 ion that you will find everything entirely different, and you 
 will soon discover that you know nothing of law. This, 
 perhaps, you will discover sufficiently early. I will, how- 
 ever, barely suggest to you, in order to put you on your 
 guard : your having graduated at the Law School of the
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 89 
 
 Old Dominion, will cause attention to be somewhat directed 
 to you, and something will be expected of you, and you 
 will not be disappointed in finding that to maintain a stand, 
 you will have to study, and study hard. Nothing but close 
 application will do there. It is for this reason I wished you 
 to go. Your last six months, I take it, have been a sort of 
 holiday; you must now go to work. The Yankees arc a 
 different people from the Virginians. You will find every- 
 thing different the school, the habits and manners of the 
 students, as well as the system of instruction. You must 
 accommodate yourself to the new state of things in which 
 you are placed; and, above all, you must recollect that you 
 go to learn to gain information to acquaint yourself with 
 the principles and practice of law. Let these be your ab- 
 sorbing thoughts. You will find no card-playing, horse- 
 racing, and cigar-smoking there. You must, therefore, 
 drop your Virginia habits, and bend yourself to work. I 
 would advise you to attend to Evidence and Equity prac- 
 tice mainly, and never neglect the moot-court 
 
 He received the diploma of Bachelor of Laws from the 
 University of Virginia, in July, 1845. Immediately after 
 graduation, adopting the suggestion of his brother, as well 
 as attracted thither by the splendid reputation which the 
 genius and learning of the late Joseph Story clan/in ct 
 I'cncrabilc nomcn had contributed so largely to give to that 
 nursery of legal science, he repaired to the Law School at 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts. * 
 
 * Judge Story, at that time Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, \vas, during the sessions, one of " The Mess'' at Wash- 
 ington City, whereof Chief Justice Taney, Judge McLean, Judge McKin- 
 ley, of the Supreme Bench ; Mr. A. II. Stephens, Mr. Jacob Callamer, of 
 the House of Representatives, and others scarcely less distinguished in 
 the juridical or political history of the country, were members. lie was 
 the central figure of the hoard the soul of social hilarity and mirth. 
 When weightier cares did not forbid, the "Attic nights " their social 
 gatherings reproduced recall the club-meetings at Wills', or "The Monk.- 
 of the Screw "- 
 
 " Nights spent not in toys, or lust, or wine, 
 
 But search of deep philosophy, 
 Wit, eloquence and poesy 
 Arts which all loved." 
 
 9*
 
 90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S.] 
 
 HAMILTON, GA., June 22, 1845. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER .... I was very much amused 
 at your account of the first interview with Judge Story, and 
 the more so from my knowledge of the man, and correct 
 idea of just how the scene passed off. He is one of the 
 jolliest old men I ever saw, and is always in a fine humor 
 and great flow of spirits. But you must be somewhat on 
 your guard with him that is, you must be very careful in 
 the observance of certain rules of propriety and decorum. 
 Don't suffer yourself to imagine that he has no sense of 
 dignity, and that respect which his age and character are 
 entitled to from his inferiors. He is free and easy, and in- 
 timate even with inferiors, if they pursue the proper course 
 on their part. You must, therefore, always keep your dis- 
 tance. You may be free and easy, and laugh at his anec- 
 dotes, but never assume an air of equality or familiarity. 
 Forwardness in a young man is extremely disagreeable to 
 Judge Story, and modesty with him is a great virtue. Your 
 conduct, therefore, must be exceedingly circumspect. A 
 high sense of honor he quickly perceives and greatly ap- 
 preciates, and nothing touches or kindles his dislike sooner 
 than the discovery of a principle of lawlessness, or reckless- 
 ness, or disorder, or insubordination, or even that impertin- 
 ence which characterizes so many of our young men of the 
 South. Be careful, therefore, of your actions, and always 
 endeavor to show yourself orderly, attentive, studious, cour- 
 teous and decorous in all your deportment; for you may 
 depend upon it, he is a close observer, however little you 
 might, on first acquaintance, suppose him to be. 
 
 There Linton Stephens first formed the personal acquaintance of Judge 
 Story. It ripened into the warmest friendship to lie dissolved, alas ! too 
 soon, by death ! Judge Story died in September, 1845. J-'.n passant, I 
 heard a gentleman now deceased, then a leader at the bar, and promi- 
 nent in polities, and who was generally very accurate in his statements of 
 fact- say that it was Judge Story's influence over Mr. Webster that made 
 him a Federalist. The truth is, Judge Story never was a Federalist. He 
 was brutally beaten by a mob, in the streets of Salem, in 1812, because 
 he supported Mr. Madison and the friends of the last war with Great 
 Britain he maintaining that the war was necessary and just.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 9! 
 
 After completing his course of legal studies at Cam- 
 bridge, he returned home; and at the March term, 1846, of 
 Taliaferro Superior Court, was licensed to practice law in 
 all the courts of Georgia, except the Supreme Court. He 
 opened an office at Crawfordville, and at once entered into 
 an extensive and lucrative practice. Perhaps no young 
 man in the State ever rose so rapidly and so deservedly to 
 the head of the profession as he unless the solitary excep- 
 tions be found in the instances of his brother Alexander 
 and the late Thomas R. R. Cobb, a gentleman of great 
 gifts, great industry and ripe culture who gave the first 
 years of his manhood unremittingly and exclusively to the 
 "jealous science of the law." Young Stephens' first fee 
 was in a case which fell within the jurisdiction of the Infe- 
 rior Court. Before that august tribunal, he lost his case. 
 It was carried to the Superior Court by writ of ccrtiorari; 
 there again he lost it. Nothing daunted, and contrary to 
 the opinions of gentlemen of the profession, whom he con- 
 sulted, and who were agreed as to the legal accuracy of the 
 judgments rendered, he appealed to the Supreme Court, 
 and his case was there sustained. How many young law- 
 yers any 7 where would, under suck circumstances, have man- 
 ifested so much steadfastness of purpose, so much persist- 
 ence of conduct, and so much faith in the truth of his own 
 convictions! The incident is important only, and is intro- 
 duced here only, because it mirrors forth one of the capital 
 features of his character SELF-RELIAXGE and tJiat un- 
 mixed with arrogance. 
 
 The following letter must have been a stimulant to the 
 ambition of the youthful aspirant for a fair renown, and 
 gratifying to a pardonable pride : 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., February 3, 1846. 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter, written the day after your 
 return from LaGrange, came to hand last night, and I was
 
 ()2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 glad to hear once more from you ; for it had begun to seem 
 long. I suppose you are now preparing yourself for ad- 
 mission to the bar, and you must keep yourself closely at 
 study. You ought to review Blackstone thoroughly, and 
 make yourself familiar with the statutes of the State par- 
 ticularly on Attachments, Garnishments, Civil Process, 
 Bail, etc. ; indeed, you ought to know well all tJic statutes. 
 To do this, and keep up your other studies, your time is 
 short. You ought to recollect that you will have some rep- 
 utation at hazard in your examination ; for not only in La- 
 Grange are you considered a great man, but all your ac- 
 quaintances, and those not your acquaintances, will look 
 for something extraordinary from one who has enjoyed so 
 many extra advantages. Moreover, the impression has got 
 out, by some means, that you are a very smart fellow a 
 splendid young man a great deal smarter than "Ellic"- 
 and you must not disappoint that impression ; for recollect, 
 when I was admitted, Colonel Lumpkin and Judge Craw- 
 ford said I stood the best examination they ever heard. 
 Joseph Sturges told me, the other day, that he saw some- 
 body who told him that you ' ' were a splendid young man " 
 far above ordinary. Some Virginian asked Howell Cobb, 
 the other day, about you. He said you had a great deal 
 better mind than I had : so you see something very great 
 is expected of you, and, to come up to expectation, you 
 must "eat but little idle bread." 
 
 Shortly after his admission to the bar, young Stephens 
 formed a co-partnership, in the practice, with his cousin 
 and class-mate, Bird, of whom mention has been made in 
 preceding pages. It is no mean proof of the high estima- 
 tion in which each was held by their fellow-citizens, that 
 professional partners in a business which makes, however 
 unjustly, personal foes, living in the same village, of con- 
 sanguine relationship, of common opinions, feelings, affin- 
 ities, should have been simultaneously, by a common con- 
 stituency, elected to political station at so early an age. 
 Stephens was chosen Representative, for Taliaferro, in 1849, 
 and re-elected successively to the same office, until he
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 93 
 
 changed his residence to the county of Hancock. Bird 
 was chosen Senator, for Taliaferro and Warren, in 1851, 
 and was re-elected to the same office in 1852 and 1853, but 
 died in October, 1853, and never took his seat under his 
 last election. 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, January 13, 1847. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I must tell you 
 
 a good thing Toombs said in reply to Burt the other day; 
 and first, by way of explanation, I must premise that Burt 
 is anxious to get up an excitement upon the slave question. 
 He wanted Toombs to speak upon that subject, and upon 
 Wilmot's Proviso, etc., and, amongst other things, told him 
 to "peel old Ritchie." Toombs was listening to all his 
 lecture, as if agreeing with him, until he came to the last 
 that is, Burt's injunction to him to "peel old Ritchie." 
 Here Toombs broke by saying : ' ' Now, by George ! skin 
 your own skunk! for I'll be d d if I am going to hunt any 
 such game ! " 
 
 Mr. Stephens was an ardent Whig. His individual pref- 
 erence for President of the United States, in 1848, was Mr. 
 Clay, as it had been in 1844; but, believing that General 
 Taylor could be elected, and that another defeat would fol- 
 low the nomination of his favorite, and that a change in 
 the administration was necessary, he advocated the nomi- 
 nation of General Taylor on the ground of availability only. 
 The canvass was an exciting one, and marked perhaps by 
 more of personal acrimony in Georgia than in any other 
 State of the Union. Stephens entered into the canvass 
 with great zeal and ardor; in it he "won his spurs," and 
 took his place among the knights of the political arena. 
 
 The General Assembly of 1849-50, in either branch, was 
 unusually distinguished for talent and ability. The roll of 
 the Senate was illustrated by the names of Andrew J. Mil- 
 ler, Joseph E. Brown, Richard H. Clark, Charles Murphy,
 
 94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 David J. Baily, John Jones, Edward D. Chisolm, William 
 W. Clayton and others; in the House were A. H. Kenan, 
 J. N. Ramsey, R. P. Trippe, L. J. Gartrell, J. A. Jones, 
 A. C. Walker, \V. T. Wofford, A. T. Mclntyre, Y. L. G. 
 Harris, Alex. McDougald, T. C. Howard, A. J. Lane, and 
 others, then or since distinguished in the history of the 
 State. Conspicuous among the foremost in the bright gal- 
 axy was Linton Stephens. When he rose to speak, no 
 person commanded more considerate and respectful atten- 
 tion, and none better repaid it. An assiduous course of 
 mental discipline had made him master of his faculties; he 
 could call up to his aid, at an}' moment, all his resources of 
 knowledge, logic, illustration, wit, satire indeed, every 
 weapon of his intellectual armory he kept bright, polished 
 and ever ready for use ; and, like the sword of Fitz James, 
 the weapon employed was equally formidable for assault 
 or defense. It was this power conjoined with an emo- 
 tional nature and earnest convictions, animated by the in- 
 spiration which deep feeling can alone breathe into spoken 
 thought that made Charles James Fox the most accom- 
 plished debater that ever appeared upon the theater of public 
 affairs in any age of the world. There are many features 
 of mental and cordal resemblance between Stephens and 
 Fox. In one respect, there was no similitude ; Stephens 
 did not "speak to ever}' question." 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1850. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I send you with 
 
 this a copy of the address drawn up by a committee from 
 the Memphis Convention. Read it. Mills, whose name 
 is to it, is that same Charles C. Mills, of whom you have 
 heard me speak, and who, at one time in my life, gave an 
 important turn to my destiny. He is now here. He has 
 entertained me with strange incidents in his life. Amongst 
 others, the other night, in speaking of the nearest distance
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 95 
 
 to San Francisco, he got off upon the idea of the nearest 
 route from any two points on the same latitude, being on 
 that line of latitude. I told him it was not necessarily so, 
 and attempted to explain by an apple on my table. He 
 saw that, but thought it would not apply to so large a body 
 as the earth ; and then went on to say that he had no 
 doubt that just such a mistake occasioned the loss of the 
 steamship, President, in 1841. He said he went to Europe 
 in 1839, an d had Captain Roberts, I believe it was, in com- 
 mand ; that Captain Roberts told him the same thing, and 
 that he thought he could go to Liverpool much nearer than 
 the usually traveled route or course; that in 1841 he 
 started to go to Europe again ; got to New York, went on 
 board the President to start; there met the same Captain 
 Roberts, who recognized him, and told him that he was go- 
 ing to make the shortest trip ever made between this coun- 
 try and England ; showed him the course he was going to 
 run. Just before the ship started or sailed, he concluded 
 not to go ; had his baggage put off; stood upon the wharf 
 and saw the steamer leave the harbor amidst the shouts of 
 thousands. The President has never been heard of since. 
 He says the captain ran up into the icebergs to find a ncm 
 passage. But enough of this. I was entertained at the in- 
 cident in his life. I asked him what induced him to leave 
 the ship. He said, nothing in the world, but a wJiini en- 
 tered his mind that he could do his business as well by cor- 
 respondence though he had gone from Alabama to go 
 out in that steamer and had got aboard. He had a large 
 amount of cotton in Liverpool. You know that I am a 
 believer in special Providence : hence this made an impres- 
 sion upon my mind 
 
 All who have visited "Liberty Hall" know Harry, the 
 faithful body-servant of Mr. Stephens; frequent visitors 
 there know Eliza, his wife. Linton Stephens had in life 
 no friends, white or black, more sincerely devoted to him, 
 and few mourned him dead with deeper sorrow, than these 
 faithful and* devoted servants. The subjoined letter relates 
 to the marriage of the couple. Shortly after the event, Mr. 
 Stephens purchased Harry.
 
 96 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, March 14, 1850. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER In my letter written at the House to- 
 day, I forgot to reply to the request of Cooler's Harry to 
 take Eliza for his wife. Say to him that I have no objec- 
 tion. And tell Eliza to go to Solomon & Henry's and get 
 her a wedding dress, including a pair of fine shoes, etc., 
 and to have a decent wedding of it. Let them cook a sup- 
 per, and have such of their friends as they wish. Tell them 
 to get some "parson man" and be married like "Christian 
 folks." Let the wedding come off some time when you are 
 at home, so that you may keep order amongst them. Buy 
 a pig, and let them have a good supper. Let Eliza bake 
 some pound-cake, and set a good wedding-supper. 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., March 23, 1850. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your two letters of the i8th instant 
 (one enclosing copy of your expose] were received last 
 night. In a letter I wrote to you yesterday, I gave you 
 my views upon that matter. I think the piece well written. 
 Indeed, to tell you the truth, it is better written than I 
 thought you capable of, if you will pardon this awkward 
 expression. A little more concentration would have made 
 it a powerful paper. I noticed in the Southern Recorder, at 
 the time of the disorganization, a short statement by some 
 anonymous writer, which struck me with its force and vim. 
 But it lacked the substance. It was the mere thunder with- 
 out the lightning. If your argument had been clothed up 
 in the same style, or hurled forth with the same energy, it 
 would have been a paper of unusual ability. In reference 
 to Mr. Toombs' opinion, I will barely say, that the day 
 after I read the piece, I casually, or "artfully," if you 
 please, asked if he had seen the "Whig exposition, or the 
 address of the members of our Legislature in justification 
 of their course in withdrawing from the Houle. " He re- 
 plied that he had, and it was a fine paper, or some words 
 of that import. I told him that, I had received a letter
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 97 
 
 from you stating that you had written it. He replied, 
 ' ' Ah, indeed ! Well, it is a good paper ; I was struck with it, 
 and well pleased with it." This is about the substance of 
 his remarks. Jones has not published it, and I doubt if he 
 noticed it in the Recorder, for I did not ; I saw it in the 
 
 Journal. 
 
 I fear we shall have some weeks now of cold weather. 
 It keeps me in-doors. As to my health, I am in statu quo 
 perfectly well, except that disease which Alfriend calls urti- 
 caria, and which Hall calls cxcina, and which I call the 
 mange. I feel about as I did yesterday after taking a sul- 
 phur vapor bath. The itching is not as aggravating as it 
 has been. 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1850. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I send you to-day two slips from the 
 Baltimore Sun one giving an account of a fire in our vi- 
 cinity yesterday, and the other giving an account of the 
 flare-up in the court here Saturday. It was quite a scene, 
 I understand. I am a May man in the controversy. This 
 is the third or fourth time, I hear, the court has undertaken 
 to set aside verdicts rendered in his favor, on in favor of his 
 clients, when the grounds were not thought by impartial 
 judges- to be sufficient. On Saturday, he gave the court a 
 raking which they will never forget, and perhaps if he had 
 given them a slight touch of the same character before, he- 
 might have been spared the unpleasant duty of laying on 
 so hard at this late date. I detest a court that acts partially, 
 or from prejudice, on the bench. May is a young man 
 Bradley is of long standing. May is struggling his way up 
 against adverse fortunes; Bradley is at the head of the 
 "elite." May stood it as long as he could, and when he 
 did break loose he hurled his thunders with the potency of 
 a young Jove. Now, in my opinion, no court ought to 
 allow any lawyer to make such a remark at the bar, as 
 Bradley did, about the verdict of a jury, without a repri- 
 mand. A jury may act wrongly they may act foolishly 
 they may render an absurd verdict; but it is rare they act 
 corruptly: and they should be treated with respect. 
 
 The House adjourned to-day .immediately after meeting. 
 The death of Campbell, the Clerk, was announced by the 
 
 10
 
 98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Speaker. Gentry then made some remarks, accompanied 
 with resolutions, and the House adjourned. What is to be 
 done, touching the election of a successor, I have no idea. 
 I remained in the Hall but a few minutes, and interchanged 
 views with nobody upon the subject. I expect we shall 
 have a renewal of the scenes we had at the organization 
 that is, we shall probably ballot or vote several days before 
 an election is made. Steele, formerly of Milledgeville, was 
 Campbell's Chief Clerk, and I suppose he will act in the 
 interim. I feel less interest in politics than I ever did in my 
 life. I don't think, if I should live many a year to come, 
 that I should ever again feel any deep interest in the suc- 
 cess of any ticket upon mere party considerations. The 
 principles in issue, and not the men before me combined, 
 shall always hereafter control my vote upon all elections. 
 All parties are corrupt, and all party organizations are kept 
 up by bad men for corrupt purposes. I shall hereafter 
 treat all alike. I am out of party. I have been very much 
 pained lately at seeing the course of men that I once thought 
 so well of, and for whose elevation to office I strove so 
 hard. My only consolation is the consciousness of the in- 
 tegrity of my motives. I was for good government ; I 
 looked to nothing but the common good and prosperity of 
 the country. I was green enough to suppose that there 
 was such a thing as disinterested patriotism. I thought 
 those to whom I have alluded were actuated by that prin- 
 ciple. I find I was mistaken, and I feel mortified at my 
 disappointment; but I bear my mortification as I do a 
 bruise or a sprain I sometimes get by my own negligence 
 or blunder. I shall endeavor to avoid such accidents for 
 the future. The men to whom I now allude are P 
 and . These men, I think, I had put in the cab- 
 inet; I know I contributed to it; I am inclined to think 
 that the responsibility rests upon me ; and I would not 
 have you understand me as saying anything against them, 
 farther than that I have been disappointed in the course of 
 policy they pursue. - is clever, friendly, honest, 
 
 and free, I think, from all intrigue, but he is wholly unfit 
 for his present place. He takes no interest in public affairs. 
 He consults nobody as to the propriety of his appointments ; 
 he makes great blunders in these. He has formed no ac- 
 quaintance with members of Congress, has no complacency
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 99 
 
 of manner, but is rigid, grum and austere in his intercourse. 
 He manifests no concern in what is done in cabinet, or in 
 the public policy of the administration. He has none of 
 the elements of a statesman about him. And as for 
 P , I am much worse disappointed in him ; for I find 
 he is a scheming, intriguing politician. He was elated and 
 transformed by his mere position. Pie was put into a new 
 and higher sphere ; with this change, "a change came over 
 the spirit of his dreams." He is not the man no\v that he 
 was two years ago his opinions have changed his views 
 are different. He was then looking to his district ; he is 
 now looking to the wide horizon of the whole country not 
 to what will contribute to the peace, quiet, honor, renown, 
 and prosperity of all, but to the miserable, petty party feel- 
 ings and prejudices of the different sections, and not even 
 with the view of correcting these, but with the purpose of 
 courting popular applause by pandering to popular favor 
 and feeling. He is a theorist and an enthusiast. He takes 
 up an idea and adheres to it with the pertinacity of a dog- 
 matist. He has clone more to ruin this administration, I 
 think, than all the other members of the cabinet together. 
 He has Taylor s confidence ; he has more influence with him 
 than any other man. Taylor is pure and honest; his im- 
 pulses are right, but he suffers his own judgment to be 
 controlled by that of others, and by no one so much as 
 
 P . The blunder he made was in suffering himself to 
 
 be influenced and duped by Sewarcl. I allude to P 
 now. I have no doubt an alliance was formed between 
 them before Congress met. The extent of the implied 
 understanding, to call it nothing else, I do not know; but 
 the anti-slavery men of the North were to be brought to 
 the support of Taylor by Seward not by the surrender of 
 the sentiment, but by making Taylor the head of the party 
 not as an abolitionist, but as a liberal man of the South, 
 opposed to the extension of slavery, and willing for the 
 majority of the North to carry out any measure they might 
 think proper. The Whig party, in other words, was to 
 absorb the Free-soil party at the North, and become the 
 great Anti-slavery party of the nineteenth century. The 
 Democrats of the North would be put down by their affil- 
 iation with slavery the whole North would be Whig 
 Taylor would be re-elected, and then Seward would sue-
 
 IOO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ceed, and a long list of successions doubtless loomed up in 
 the opening vista. These are the illusions which, I think, 
 broke upon the vision of the Secretary as he began to open 
 his eyes after his transfer to his new sphere of action. In 
 plain English, I believe he formed an alliance with the Frec- 
 soilers; and I believe he is now exerting his utmost power, 
 and all the influence of the government, to prevent an adjust- 
 ment of the slave question upon the plan of Clay's resolutions, 
 McClernand's bill and Webster's speech. I am not with him ; 
 I am done with him ; I have no further use for him ; I have 
 had no unpleasant words with him ; I have told him can- 
 didly and distinctly, that his policy will ruin General Taylor. 
 It will break down the administration North and South. 
 It will leave him with a smaller part}' than Tyler had. I 
 
 have been for months doing all I could to get P to 
 
 look at this matter rightly. I never gave him up as hope- 
 less till last week ; and I will here remark, that, if you re- 
 member last fall when I first came here, I told you Taylor, 
 in my opinion, would sign the proviso. You may now 
 understand why I thought so. That point alone would not 
 have caused me to break with the Whig party, but I soon 
 saw that the expectation was that Winthrop was to be 
 elected by a coalition of the Southern Whigs with the Frec- 
 soilers, and the Whig party was to be the Anti-slavery 
 party. Against that I kicked I detested the idea. I 
 would not act for a moment with a party that had the re- 
 motest hope of accomplishing such a result by my co-op- 
 eration with them. We made a point upon the Whigs; we 
 got up a great row ; we shook the country from one end to 
 the other. The disorganization of the Mouse aroused pub- 
 lic sentiment; the feeling of the North began to give way; 
 we soon learned that the piwiso would be vetoed, if passed ; 
 of this I informed you. But the storm was then up, and 
 it could not be calmed. The Northern Whigs, feeling the 
 great pressure from home, and fearing the}' would be com- 
 pelled to yield their sentiments, and come to a full and final 
 settlement of the question, caved in and let Cobb be elected 
 Speaker. Mr. Clay, who came here a Wilmot-Proviso man, 
 seeing the state of feeling, seixed upon the occasion and 
 brought forward his compromise ; Webster followed, and 
 twenty Northern Whigs, perhaps fort}', in the House, were 
 ready to follow, and settle the whole question. But P ,
 
 JUDGE LIXTON STEPHENS. IOI 
 
 (jealous of Clay, and not willing that his movement should 
 succeed that is, that territorial bills without the proviso 
 should pass, which would always be as good as Clay's com- 
 promise,) set his head against it. I worked with him, hoping 
 he would yield, but he set all his powers against it, and has 
 got General Taylor dead against it; and, if we carry General 
 McClernand's bill, we shall do it over and against the whole 
 power of the government, and the Whig party will be de- 
 funct. Now, you see why I say I am disappointed in P . 
 
 As for , he is with us in this matter, but he is not 
 
 worth a stiver, or he never would have let P got so 
 
 wrong himself before we came here, and he never would 
 have let him got such unlimited control of Taylor. He 
 never would have suffered the whole patronage of the 
 government at the North to go, as it has gone, to sustain 
 the Free-soilers and Sewarcl men. But enough. Good-bye. 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 A. H. STEPHENS. 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., April 19, 1850. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER To be present and 
 
 hear continuous debates for four hours to watch every 
 turn that even a word or an expression may give to the 
 winding current of great national events which will soon be 
 historical is a source of peculiar gratification ; but to rise 
 in the morning after, and sec the whole spread out in a 
 broad sheet for dissemination to the remotest parts of the 
 world, is a matter which excites, or should excite, some- 
 thing higher than gratification. It is true, we have got so 
 used to it that we think no more of it than the air we breathe ; 
 and perhaps the same may be said of them at a distance, 
 who are mostly benefited by it. What a wonder would 
 such a state of things have been in England one hundred 
 years ago ! The first debates of Parliament, I believe, that 
 were ever published were written by Dr. Johnson, and pub- 
 lished in the Gentleman 's Magazine in 1740. He barely got 
 notes of the speeches in the gallery, and wrote them out in 
 his garret. I have been entertained lately in reading some 
 of these debates. Johnson did not give the names of the 
 speakers. The whole was kept up as a fictitious report of
 
 IO2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 proceedings in the legislative councils of the Island of Lilli- 
 put. The questions were stated with such an analogy that 
 no one could mistake the caricature, and they were read 
 with avidity all over England. 
 
 That was the commencement of Parliamentary reports ; 
 and it is a striking fact that the great speech of Pitt, that 
 overthrew the YValpole Ministry in 1740, which is treasured 
 up as one of the brightest ornaments of British eloquence, 
 was written by Johnson in his garret, and never seen by 
 him, who was afterwards Earl of Chatham I mean it was 
 never seen by him until after it was published. Johnson 
 disclosed this fact himself, and in r.ather an interesting and 
 interested way. The speech was highly lauded at a table 
 w r here Johnson and others were. The old rascal could not 
 act the part of Junius and remain sub umbra, but his vanity 
 was so great that he said: "I wrote that speech in a gar- 
 ret." This was some years after its publication, and it led 
 to a disclosure that the whole debates at that period were 
 written by Johnson, as above stated ; and the old Tory-dog 
 Slid he always took care that the Whigs should not get the 
 better of the argument. But he missed it in Pitt's speech ; 
 for whatever he might have thought, the people were of the 
 opinion that Pitt carried his point. Perhaps Johnson was 
 partial to him, individually. But now, if you please, just 
 think for a moment what we and our ancestors were as late 
 as one hundred years ago, and what we and they are now 
 I mean what the people of this country and England, from 
 whom they sprang, were one hundred years ago, and what 
 both peoples are now, in commerce, trade, facility of travel, 
 transmission of intelligence, and everything that marks and 
 distinguishes civilization from barbarism! Why, just in 
 this thing of printing, I suppose I am within the bounds of 
 truth when I say that, in one night after the adjournment 
 of Congress, before the morning session begins, the Globe- 
 office will throw off more printed matter than all London 
 could have done, one hundred years ago, in one month. It 
 is astonishing to step into that office and see the magic 
 genius at work ! The ideas and thoughts of men, as uttered 
 on the respective floors of the two Houses of Congress, are 
 caught in their airy sounds and fixed in strange marks or 
 ciphers; then transformed into English manuscript; then 
 handed to divers compositors, who transform them into a
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IO3 
 
 new language of types, which are bound fast and then put 
 under steam, which throws off five or six hundred impres- 
 sions while one hand would be copying a few sentences, 
 and in a few hours, fifty or a hundred thousand, as the de- 
 mand requires, are ready for delivery. The steam-engine 
 is a wonderful invention. We are in the habit of paying 
 this compliment to it when we think of its power on the 
 railroad, the river and the ocean ; but when I have lately 
 noticed its wonderful agency in the diffusion of news and 
 intelligence by the press, I am disposed to think that its 
 real powers are as strikingly observable there as when driv- 
 ing the iron-horse at his most powerful speed, or forcing 
 the massive ship against the elements of wind and water. 
 But what is this compared to the telegraph ? It may seem 
 strange to us to be told that one printing-office can to-day 
 do more work in twelve hours than any one in London 
 could have done in one whole month a hundred years ago; 
 but how small a matter is that, in contrasting the present 
 with the past, when, we realize the fact, that now we can 
 send, in ten minutes, intelligence from Maine to Louisiana, 
 a distance of two thousand miles, which, one hundred years 
 ago, would have required almost a month by the swiftest 
 couriers known, with relays arranged previously for the 
 purpose. We are certainly making great and rapid strides 
 in making the laws of nature subservient to the uses and 
 purposes of man ; and in this, I think, consists all useful 
 knowledge and science. Whoever contributes a new idea 
 on this subject is a pioneer in knowledge ; and whoever de- 
 vises or contrives any scheme, by which any of the ele 
 ments about us can be turned into a useful purpose, is a 
 benefactor of his race. Science true science is nothing 
 but the knowledge of the laws of nature, and is useful only 
 in so far as it enables mind to get the mastery of matter. 
 Now, what shall we be one hundred years to come? This 
 is a most interesting question. Shall we go on, or shall \ve 
 retrograde? This depends, in my opinion, very much upon 
 the course of political events. Politics and government, in 
 my opinion, have in the main, since the formation of hu- 
 man society, been at war with the best interests of man. 
 Government, place and power have always been the prize 
 which those have sought and struggled for, who have strong 
 passions and mean propensities those in whom the ani-
 
 IO4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 mal and brutal qualities of our nature triumph over the re- 
 fined and intellectual. Hence, those who contend for the 
 prize of government resort to all sorts of means to arouse 
 the worst and basest animal passions of the low and vulgar, 
 to get them, as ministering devils or demons, to accomplish 
 their purposes. The good of the people the elevation, or 
 even comfort, to say nothing of the happiness, of the masses 
 of mankind seldom enter into the minds of those who am- 
 bitiously aspire to rule. They look upon the low, the igno- 
 rant and the humble as fit only to be the tools of their am- 
 bition. This, I think, the history of the world shows. Hence, 
 in the records of the past, we read of little but the wars of 
 kings and princes, the intrigues of courts, and the change 
 of dynasties ; and hence, the history of our race, as we find 
 it in books, is but a melancholy record of blood and carn- 
 age. There is very little consolatory, much less useful, 
 knowledge to be gleaned from it. What a great pity the 
 majority of mankind cannot see their error! The only his- 
 tory of the world, that the great mass of men have any in- 
 terest in, is that which gives them the beginning, the origin, 
 the progress, and advancement of the useful arts and sci- 
 ences. The authors of these have been the real benefactors 
 of mankind. From this list, it is true, I would not exclude 
 a few of the statesmen who have, at long intervals, dotted 
 the annals of the past men who breasted the storm of tyr- 
 anny, and upheld, with heroic virtue, the standard of truth 
 and the rights of their fellows. 
 
 But if I were to write a history, ancient or modern, I should 
 allow the name of no mere politician and trickster, who 
 pandered to the baser passions for power, to have a place 
 therein unless it were to hold it up for scorn and hatred 
 as some more daring pirate that might figure at a particular 
 time. My word for it, politicians are enemies of mankind. 
 I speak of them as a class. They corrupt, debase and de- 
 grade the people, instead of improving, elevating and fitting 
 them, as they should, for further advancement in knowl- 
 edge, refinement and civilization. All the influences of 
 government, therefore, are at war with the improvements 
 of the age. These have sprung up in time of peace in spite 
 of opposing influences. They are the fruits of an active, 
 inquiring, untrammeled intellect. For free inquiry, we may 
 be said to be indebted to government. That may be true
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IO5 
 
 in one sense, but not in the sense in which I speak of gov- 
 ernment; for this very liberality of government was never 
 conceded until extorted by the people, whose interests were 
 at war with the real principles of most governments. Free 
 inquiry, freedom of debate and opinion, were never the fos- 
 ter-offspring of unlimited government; and the only hope I 
 have for the future is in the virtue of the great mass of the 
 people, in our own country particularly, in resisting the temp- 
 tations of those who would deceive, cheat, degrade and de- 
 stroy them for their own individual, political purposes. I 
 am beginning to suspect and to detest all political parties, 
 clubs and combinations. I look upon them as dangerous 
 to the great and permanent interests of the people. The 
 people, in government, should have but one object, and 
 that object good laws I might add, with a faithful exe- 
 cution of them. It is a matter of no sort of consequence 
 with them who may make them, or who ma}' execute them, 
 provided their agents in their behalf be honest, capable and 
 faithful. Integrity is the most essential requisite in a public 
 officer. 
 
 But I am wandering from my question. What shall the 
 people of this country be one hundred years to come? 
 Have they now reached the maximum of discovery and im- 
 provement allotted to men, or shall future efforts of genius 
 elevate them to new and unexplored regions of science? 
 Shall a wider horizon, and even new spheres, yet be opened 
 to their visions? Shall their progress still be onward? 
 Shall those who fill our places a century hereafter contrast 
 their condition with ours, as I now contrast ours with that 
 of our ancestors in the days of Pitt? This, in my opinion, 
 depends upon the government and the government de- 
 pends upon the virtue, intelligence and patriotism of the 
 people. If the people are true to themselves, our progress 
 shall be onward and upward. If we remain at peace with 
 ourselves, and cultivate the arts of peace, a bright and glo- 
 rious future is before us; but if demagogues triumph if 
 civil strife is once ripened into civil war our course will 
 soon be ended, and' we shall add another chapter to the 
 great Book of Chronicles, in which are registered the deeds 
 of warriors, the glory of battle-fields, the wily tricks of cour- 
 tiers and courtezans, and the splendid fetes of emperors and 
 kings. . .
 
 IO6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 The year 1850 is memorable in the annals of the United 
 States for the passage by Congress of the "Compromise 
 Measures" so-called which led to the first serious disrup- 
 tion of old party-ties, upon purely sectional issues. Mr. 
 Stephens joined in with the friends of those measures, and 
 supported the action of Congress and Government in giv- 
 ing, as it was then hoped for, a finality to agitation in the 
 Federal Councils, upon the subject of African slavery. He 
 saw nothing in those measures to endanger the safety of the 
 South or Southern institutions. He was one of the founders 
 of what was known in Georgia as the " Constitutional Union 
 Party," which swept the State by a very large popular ma- 
 jority in the selection of delegates to the Convention of 
 1850, and which framed the celebrated "Georgia Plat- 
 form " of that year. 
 
 In 1851, Mr. Stephens warmly supported the election of 
 Howell Cobb, the nominee of the Constitutional Union 
 party for Governor, against Charles J. McDonald, the nomi- 
 nee of the Southern Rights, or Resistance party. Gov- 
 ernor Cobb was elected by a larger majority of votes than 
 any candidate for that office had up to that time received. 
 
 In the Presidential campaign of 1852, both the great Na- 
 tional parties accepted in their platforms the principles 
 of adjustment set forth in the compromise measures of 
 1850. General Pierce, the nominee of the Democratic 
 party, in his letter of acceptance, unequivocally indorsed 
 those measures in letter and spirit ; General Scott; the nomi- 
 nee of the Whig party, in his letter of acceptance, did not ; 
 he accepted the nomination cum oncrc. Southern Whigs, 
 who were dissatisfied with the position of General Scott, 
 and who could not exactly approve all the doctrines laid 
 down in the Democratic platform, brought forward for the 
 Presidency, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and for the 
 Vice-Presidency, Charles J. Jenkins, of Georgia. Promi- 
 nent among the leaders of this movement were Toombs,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IO/ 
 
 A. H. Stephens, Brooke, of Mississippi, Gentry, of Ten- 
 nessee, etc. Linton Stephens supported the Webster-Jen- 
 kins ticket. The death of Mr. Webster, a few days before 
 the election, frustrated their hopes, if, indeed, any that were 
 sanguine of success ever existed. 
 
 Among the visitors at Milledgeville, during the sessions 
 of the Legislature of 1851-2, was a lady with whom this 
 sketch has interesting relation. She was a young, accom- 
 plished, blooming widow Mrs. Emmeline Bell, daughter of 
 the Hon. James Thomas, of Hancock "a gentleman of the 
 old school," a large and successful planter, and an able law- 
 yer. He presided with ability and acceptance as Judge 
 over the Superior Courts of the Northern Circuit for several 
 years. The daughter, richly endowed with all the gentle 
 attractions of her sex modest, amiable, affectionate, intel- 
 lectual made an easy conquest of the legislator's heart a 
 heart, hitherto, not overly susceptible to female charms. 
 The result was the solemnization of their nuptials in Jan- 
 uary, 1852, at the residence of the bride's father, amid a 
 large throng of delighted relatives and friends. 
 
 This congenial alliance was one of the many felicitous for- 
 tunes in Mr. Stephens' life. Nothing can be more beauti- 
 ful than the pure, ardent, reciprocal affection which charac- 
 terized and illustrated their conjugal relations : she idolized 
 him, while his devotion to her "glowed with an ardor that 
 might almost be called romantic." 
 
 Shortly after the marriage, Mr. Stephens became a citizen 
 of Hancock, and opened a law office in the village of Sparta. 
 He formed a partnership in the practice with Colonel Rich- 
 ard M. Johnston one of his earliest and most cherished 
 friends. Certainly, the unbounded confidence indicated by 
 a correspondence, which covers many years, discloses a rare 
 degree of mutual personal attachment. Their professional 
 relationship was kept up until Colonel Johnston accepted
 
 IOS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the Professorship of Belles-Lettres and Oratory, in the Uni- 
 versity of Georgia, in 1857. 
 
 Mr. Stephens determined to devote himself exclusively 
 to the business of his profession after his removal to Sparta. 
 He took his place at once at the head of a Bar, distin- 
 guished, perhaps, before any other in the State for juridical 
 ability and forensic power. Toombs, A. H. Stephens, Cone, 
 Dawson, Meriwether, Johnson, Saffold, Sayre, Thomas, 
 Cobb, Reese, Foster, Billups, Hill, Miller, Kenan, Harris, 
 Pottle, King, Lewis, are some of the names that imparted 
 celebrity and illustration to the courts of Middle Georgia 
 at that day; and he was abreast with any of these, in the 
 forum, whether standing before the Judge, or the Twelve. 
 Before entering into the law partnership with Johnston, 
 their relations were those of the closest personal intimacy. 
 They were congenial spirits. They frequently interchanged 
 letters; some of them will appear in these pages. The two 
 following are characteristic of the men and illustrative of 
 their personal relations: 
 
 [L. S. to R. M. Johnston.] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, February 25, 185 i. 
 
 DKAR DICK Yesterday I received a letter from E. C. 
 Williamson, (the doctor, I presume is it not?) stating that 
 you had informed him, you had turned over to me his case 
 in Hancock, against B. R. Gardner, and requesting me to 
 make out interrogatories for Drs. Haynes, Smith and Stone, 
 but not giving me one Christian name for either of these 
 gentlemen of that learned fraternity. Xor does he state 
 what sort of a case it is, farther than that his drift seems to 
 be to prove that "she was unsound." Now, whether 
 " she" be a filly, a nigger gal ot a Durham heifer, is to my 
 mind res Texata. I, however, being a man much averse 
 to extremes, incline to the (not golden, but ebon) mean, 
 and planting myself upon a certain dignity of learning, 
 which restrains its votaries from e.vercising its mysteries on 
 the races afflicted with glanders and murrains, are enabled 
 to ronounce with some confidence in favor of the nier.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IOQ 
 
 The shrewdest inferences I can draw, from remote and 
 doubtful premises, have led me to the conclusion that Ed- 
 ward, Edmond or Erasmus C. Williamson now has pend- 
 ing in Hancock Superior Court, against B. R. (known to 
 me as Burton R.) Gardner, an action for breach of war- 
 ranty of soundness on the sale of a certain nigger gal. 
 Acting upon the best lights before me, I have accordingly 
 drawn up intcrro'gatories for the three learned gentlemen, 
 surnamed Hayes, Smith and Stone, leaving* blanks to be 
 filled by your superior knowledge, in such places where my 
 own conjectures are wholly at fault, and particularly trust- 
 ing that you will prefix to the learned witnesses those 
 Christian appellations which are thought to preserve fame 
 from confusion and error among the names of the great. I 
 have thought, too, that the depositions of one Robert Max- 
 well might not be amiss ; and, therefore, I have added a 
 set of interrogatories for him, experiencing in his case 
 many difficulties common to the cases of his more erudite 
 compeers. In each set, you must be careful to supply Ed- 
 ward, Edmund or Erasmus, (as the case may be) and to 
 insert Dinah, Mahaly or Phillis, according to the truth of 
 the matter. When all this has been done, will you then 
 please have commissions attached and have them sent to 
 the plaintiff? All that your information may not compass 
 can doubtless be supplied by Erasmus himself; and when 
 all this is done, why, then just sit down and write me how 
 far I have missed the mark what sort of case I have to 
 deal with. If you have ever said one word to me about it, 
 
 it has wholly slipped my memory 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 LIXTON STEPIIEXS. 
 
 [L. S. to R. M. Johnston.] 
 
 CKAWFORDVILI.I-:, May 12, 1851. 
 
 DEAR DICK When I got your letter, stating you had not 
 fixed the day for your examination, but would fix it about 
 the first of Tune, I thought of requesting you not to have 
 it earlier than the fourth, in order to allow me to attend our 
 Superior Court here on the 28th, and go over on the 3Oth. 
 I have concluded, however, that it might give you some in- 
 convenience ; and in case your appointment should conflict
 
 I IO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 with the aforesaid court, I could leave my business with 
 John and go over anyhow. At that time, however, I had 
 but one case (trover for a negro) of much importance in the 
 Superior Court, and on that case I knew there would be an 
 appeal. Now, the case stands differently. To-day one 
 fellow has instituted proceedings against another fellow for 
 establishing the freedom of several of the last named fel- 
 low's negroes. This same last named fellow has employed 
 me to defend his rights, and the case is to be tried at our 
 next Inferior Court first Monday, and second day of June. 
 It is a very important case, and I must stay and attend to 
 it. If you have not, therefore, fixed the day of your ex- 
 amination, and if a matter of a few days will work no par- 
 ticular derangement of your plans, why, don't have it before 
 the fifth of June, allowing me tii'o days for court (and it 
 may be possible that it will last that long) and one more 
 day to go over. If you have fixed the day, or if compli- 
 ance with my suggestion will incommode you in the least, 
 why, to confess the truth, I should feel, in the escape from 
 the rash promise I have made, a satisfaction almost equal 
 to, and counter-poising the disappointment of not seeing 
 you, and but anon. Dick, this is a dilemma which I could 
 not foresee, and I know you will perceive the obligation 
 upon me. It gives me the less concern, too, because it can 
 involve no serious disappointment to you or your patrons ; 
 for speech or no speech, on the occasion, is just a matter as 
 it may turn up very well in its place, if it only be well 
 placed, and not missed, if it only be not out of place. 
 Write me forthwith and let me know whether I am to take 
 the steam off my speech factory, or whether I shall pile on 
 more fuel. The wear and tear of machinery is too consid- 
 erable to be incurred for nothing. It would be like run- 
 ning a saw-mill without stocks, or a grist-mill without grain. 
 Give my love to all "enquiring friends," and remember 
 me particularly to Mrs. Johnston. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 He made the speech, and had the "satisfaction" of see- 
 ing " D'ck " and her, who was to be his wife. 
 
 But Mr. Stephens was not allowed to gratify his own
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I I 
 
 wishes by remaining in private life. The people of Hancock 
 elected him to the State Senate in 1853. In the guberna- 
 torial election of that year, he supported Hon. Charles J. 
 Jenkins. It was the closest contest of the kind ever known 
 in the State. Governor Herschel V. Johnson was elected 
 by 5 10 majority out of a popular vote of about one hundred 
 thousand cast. 
 
 The resolution he offered in the Senate on the Nebraska 
 question and it was resolved on by himself before he had 
 consulted any one foreshadowed the position he occupied, 
 subsequently, when the principles asserted in the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill were absorbing issues in the politics of the 
 country. 
 
 On the 1 8th of December, 1853, he writes to his brother 
 from Milledgeville: 
 
 " Cooley's speech, which you said in a letter I got several 
 days ago you had sent me, has just come to hand to-day. 
 I have read it through. He's a pretty Judge, isn't he? It 
 is a right strong speech, but the author of it is as bad as 
 Brownlow. These Northern fellows are a nice set; but to say 
 the truth, we are all North and South a nice set. Cooley 
 seems to talk like an honest man who meant something, 
 and the excuse for his epithets is to be charged, I suppose, 
 to the account of provocation. This is a most rascally ad- 
 ministration, beyond all doubt. Cobb is here, McDonald is 
 here, Warner is here, and Jack Jones is here. What it all 
 means is yet to be seen. Our Democratic allies, on the 
 question of bringing on the election of United States Sen- 
 ator, all are firm, they say they tell our people so, and I 
 think they are in earnest. It is said here that Cobb has 
 denounced them. It is also said that he is to address the 
 Democracy to-morrow night. Cobb has been asked what 
 brought him here: he said he came here to get two bills 
 passed one giving the election of town marshal to the peo- 
 ple, and another creating a new county around Athens, with 
 Athens as county site
 
 112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 24, 1854. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have seen a report of your speech in 
 the Herald, and a short synopsis of it in the CJironiclc and 
 Sentinel, taken from the Intelligencer. I was much pleased 
 with it, and I was particularly pleased to see that you put 
 yourself on the same ground which I had taken before. 
 
 Hov?" do you like my Nebraska resolution, which I intro- 
 duced into the Legislature? I suppose you have seen it 
 before now in the papers. It was in these words: " Re- 
 solved, etc., That opposition to the principles of the Ne- 
 braska Bill, in relation to the subject of slavery, is regarded 
 by the people of Georgia as hostility to the rights of the 
 South, and that all persons who partake in such opposition 
 are unfit to be recognized as component parts of any party 
 not hostile to the South. " It passed unanimously ; but not- 
 withstanding that, I called the yeas and nays. Stcll, the 
 President, asked leave to vote, and he stands recorded 
 among the yeas. It also passed the House unanimously, 
 but the yeas and nays were not called there. I voted 
 against Cochran's resolutions on Nebraska (which you have 
 doubtless seen) for several reasons: In the first place, be- 
 cause there was no substantive idea in them, unless they 
 meant to assert that our confidence "in the great body of 
 the North" had been greatly strengthened by the fact that 
 the Nebraska Bill had been introduced in to Congress a dec- 
 laration which I was not prepared to make. To make such 
 a declaration would require a little too much of that spirit 
 which expresses great thanks for very small favors. When 
 the "great body of the North" i'otc [or the bill, then I 
 may feel that I can give the great bod}' of the North a vote 
 of confidence, but not until then. In the next place, I 
 looked upon the resolution as a hobbling attempt to bolster 
 up the administration. In the third place, it asserted the 
 right of instruction, There was no chance to debate it, for 
 they put the previous question on it at the first hop; our 
 men generally voted for it; indeed, there were only five 
 nays in the Senate and none in the House. I have seen a 
 statement in several papers that it passed both branches 
 unanimously. That is a mistake. The yeas and nays were 
 taken in the Senate, and five nays stand recorded against it.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I 3 
 
 I don't think the administration can take much comfort 
 from it in connection with mine. Do you ? Nor do I think 
 our Southern rights, fire-eating contemporaries can take 
 much comfort from it for themselves. Don't you think that 
 they have clearly and unequivocally voted that their own 
 conduct and positions, in 1850-51, were "hostile" to the 
 rights of the South, and that they themselves, upon the 
 measures of past merit, are "unfit" to be recognized as 
 component parts of any party which is not "hostile" to the 
 South? What will men do ! I offered another resolution, 
 declaring that the measures of 1850 were "wise, liberal and 
 just," etc., but some of our own friends were tender on that 
 
 point, and I did not press it to a vote. Our friend 
 
 would have been in some trouble not more, to be sure, 
 than from the one which was passed ; but still some did not 
 seem to see it in that same light. Indeed, the Democracy 
 never suspected, for an instant, that my Nebraska resolution 
 contained anything that, could be construed into a reflection 
 upon their own past course, nor upon the purity and pro- 
 priety of their present alliance 
 
 The life of no professional man is more barren of inci- 
 dents of general interest than that of the lawyer ; for it is a 
 short radius that sweeps in judges, juries and clients only. 
 The year 1854 found Mr. Stephens diligently engaged in 
 the practice of his profession ; and as his reputation grew 
 and spread, the emoluments he reaped were large and rich. 
 The letters following relate to his domestic life and pursuits, 
 and bring out to view some of the gentler and more amiable 
 features of his character: 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, June 28, 1854. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I had heard 
 
 of the death of poor cousin Sabra before I got your letter 
 announcing it. John Stewart (Billy Harrison's son-in-law) 
 was over here and told me of it. I have known her so long 
 and well- have spent so many cheerful, happy moments in 
 her company that her image mingles, at almost every turn 
 II*
 
 114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 and corner, with all the many other figures that flit in 
 throngs, varying and changing through all the scenes which 
 memory wakes. To strike out her existence from the face 
 of the earth I cannot realize it ! It seems strange and in- 
 credible to me that it should be so ! Her days had not 
 been very many, and yet they had indeed been full of 
 trouble. She bore a cheerful spirit through every trial, and 
 evinced in every emergency more of the spirit of true phi- 
 losophy than anybody I ever knew, who was a woman, and 
 had no greater share of intellectual endowment. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, June 29, 1854. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Before 
 
 getting your letter, I had mailed one to you, in which I had 
 spoken of the same subject in a manner which struck me 
 as bearing a singular resemblance to the train of thought 
 suggested to you by the same occasion. Since I have heard 
 of her death, she is constantly in my thoughts, awaking as- 
 sociations with brother, with Billy, and with my school-boy 
 days, that have not been so vividly presented to my mem- 
 ory in many years. It all impresses me painfully with a 
 sense of how they have passed away forever from earth, and 
 how we are rapidly passing away likewise. Life, with its 
 longest continuance, with all its joys, with all its sorrows, 
 with all its associations, with thousands of other existences, 
 seems but a flash blazing but for an instant, and then sink- 
 ing again into impenetrable darkness a mere point, un- 
 marked, in the vastness of that immeasurable FJcrnity which 
 lies behind it and before it. 
 
 The succeeding letter was written on occasion of the 
 death of an infant but a few months old. He was devotedly 
 attached to all his children, as this narrative will abundantly 
 show; but his yearning tenderness seemed ever to run out 
 most fondly for the latest-born, because the youngest and 
 most helpless. It was but the exemplification, in another 
 form, of one strong element of his nature :
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I 5 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, August 24, 1854. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The struggle is over, and little Kate is 
 no more in life. She went out as quietly and beautifully as 
 the day dies away into the twilight and darkness. She is 
 lying robed in white, in her crib. They have scattered 
 flowers around her tiny form, and she holds a white rose- 
 bud in one of her little hands. She seems to be in a sweet 
 sleep. I had not thought it possible for me to feel so 
 keenly the death of one so young. Strange to say, she now 
 has as she never had struck me strongly as having before 
 a likeness to you. It was pointed out to me by Emm, and 
 I had thought I had observed it before, but had not men- 
 tioned it. She died at 6^ o'clock this morning. She will 
 dwell on my memory as she appeared in the beauty of 
 health, but I shall not regret to mingle with that bright 
 image the little pale, sweet face that now sleeps in its last 
 mortal array. One comfort I have, even in this first burst 
 of grief: I feel that, while I am deeply touched and smitten, 
 I might have been desolated and blasted. Good-bye. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 Addison, of all the English fine writers of prose, was the 
 favorite of Mr. Stephens. It was not the unequaled style 
 of the author that attracted him only, but the soul and sen- 
 timent that animate his pages as well. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January i, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Addi- 
 son is to me, of all men, the most pious, rational and en- 
 tertaining upon subjects of a religious bearing. Another 
 very pretty, and to me novel, speculation of his is upon the 
 subject of the Jews as a people. Upon such subjects he is 
 full of piety and free from superstition so abounding in 
 fine philosophy, and so exempt from fine-spun theories, so 
 fruitful of profound suggestions, and so joyous in the health- 
 ful hope of a cheerful spirit, that to read his religious spec- 
 ulations is food equally for the reason, the imagination and
 
 I 1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the heart. I know of no writings having so fine a tendency 
 as his to cultivate a sound and cheerful piety. I don't won- 
 der that the man had friends of so much devotion to him ; 
 for he clearly possessed just that sort of sense, and flowing 
 charitableness and pleasantry, which are so well qualified 
 to inspire attachments amounting to personal devotion. 
 But you don't agree with me about Adclison ; and I verily 
 believe it is because you are not acquainted with him. His 
 fine veins are somewhat rare, but they are rich. A man 
 may be able to say that he has read many of his pieces, and 
 yet no man can appreciate him unless he has read them 
 all 
 
 The nomination of General Scott, in 1852, by the Na- 
 tional Whig Convention, for the Presidency, disrupted the 
 party. A majority, perhaps, of the Old-Line Whigs went 
 into the Know- Nothing organization or, as it was after- 
 wards called, the American party which loomed up so 
 suddenly and so formidably in the summer and autumn of 
 1854. The history of American politics furnishes no in 
 stance with exception, perhaps, of the Anti-Masonic 
 party in 1832 of a political party, which sprang up with 
 such surprising quickness, having such thorough organiza- 
 tion, numerically so powerful, and whose existence was so 
 ephemeral, as the Know-Nothing, or American party. It 
 swept the country North, and West, and Kast with a 
 tide of unbroken success, until the current was first rolled 
 back and lashed into spray as it dashed against the Gibral- 
 tar of the Virginian Democracy. Mr. Stephens was among 
 its earliest opponents in Georgia. He, along with proba- 
 bly twenty thousand Whigs in Georgia, locked shields with 
 the Democrats to defeat it in 1855. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 17, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTH KR The Know-Nothings 
 
 here are holding up their heads high at the news from Phila-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I/ 
 
 delphia about the adoption of the platform, and the seces- 
 sion of the fifty-three Northern members. There is just 
 one remark I have to make now in the hurry of the present 
 moment, concerning that same platform, illustrating the 
 great gulf between that and the fourth resolution of the 
 Georgia platform : A man is about to strike me ; I announce 
 to him that if he does, I shall shoot him. Another man, a 
 by-stander, says to that man, he is wrong to strike me, but 
 says no more. He fails to say I will be right in resisting 
 by shooting. Does that by-stander back my position ? By 
 no means ; he condemns my adversary, it is true ; but .he fails 
 to justify me. He is silent as to the extent of the wrong, 
 and as to the measure of resistance. This Philadelphia plat- 
 form contains no fighting line. It announces a principle, 
 but fails to announce at what hazard it ought to be main- 
 tained, or what ought to be the consequences of its viola 
 tion. It does not place anybody, North or South, upon a 
 platform of resistance. It declares it is wrong for people 
 to spit in our faces. You may not see the force of my criti- 
 cism ; but I tell you, it is just, and I can make you compre- 
 hend it when I see you. There was no fighting line, I know, 
 in either of the late Baltimore platforms; but its omission 
 left an immeasurable distance between them and the Geor- 
 gia platform. You may be inclined to suggest that a fight- 
 ing National platform (one adopted by the people in all 
 sections) would be inappropriate and out of place. I would 
 not have the North to declare that they would themselves 
 fight in our cause precisely, but I would have them affix a 
 value to our rights by announcing a conviction that their 
 violation would justify resistance and separation. Such a 
 recognition would be of vast importance to us whenever the 
 separation might come. Under it we would stand justified 
 in doing what we have said at home we will do when the 
 emergency arises 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 18, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Still no letter from you. What is the 
 matter? I have had none from you since those I found on 
 my return from Savannah last Saturday, now nearly a week 
 ago. Have you made a speech and been busy writing it
 
 Il8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 out? If you have been taken up with that matter during 
 the whole interval between your letters, you surely have 
 been playing it a la Campbell writing what you didrit 
 speak. I observed that you had the floor for Friday ; but I 
 found this morning that neither House of Congress sat on 
 that day, in consequence of the death of Senator Norris. 
 So, I suppose, you delivered your speech Saturday, unless 
 that be, as I think it used to be, private-bill day. But 
 what were you doing all the week before? Monday, the 
 eighth, is the last date I have from you ten days ago or 
 have you only been trying the virtue of that forbidden law, 
 the lex talionis ? or, in English words, giving me tit for tat? 
 It is true, I did not write to yo\i any time during my several 
 days' absence at Savannah ; and it is also true, that just be- 
 fore leaving home, I said I would write from Savannah ; but 
 you would excuse the failure if you knew how poor the 
 chance was there for writing with comfort or convenience. 
 My interpretation of the whole thing throws the onus on 
 
 the mails The Know-Nothings are a 
 
 great power in the State just now greater than you may 
 have imagined in Georgia. They aim at an evil no doubt; 
 but they are on the opposite extreme. The result may be 
 great good to the country; but the man who desires to do 
 right, and to be found in the right ahvays, would desire to 
 be found' on neither extreme, but on the ground of sound 
 doctrine. Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 The two next letters show his opinion of the celebrated 
 speech of Mr. A. H. Stephens, in reply to that of Mr. L. 
 D. Campbell, wherein the resources of Georgia and Ohio 
 were contrasted. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 24, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Henry 
 
 has brought up my mail since our return, and, among other 
 things, I got two copies of your late speech in reply to 
 Campbell. Both copies are in the Globe, and came under 
 your frank. I have already read more than half of your 
 speech, but have laid it down in order to have a few lines
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 119 
 
 for you in the mail of to-day. I will write you what I 
 think of the speech after I have read it all. I will, how- 
 ever, give you notice now, after reading a part only, that I 
 intend to perform a very friendly office towards it, accord- 
 ing to your own estimate of what is friendly and useful 
 criticism that is to say, I am going to find some fault with 
 it. I will say, however, that as yet I have no faults ot 
 matter to charge, but one or two purely of manner. The 
 gravest one is more properly, yet a fault of taste. But for 
 the present, you must be patient, and wait for the whole at 
 once. I never did like to take a bad thing in broken doses, 
 and in administering one, I will be equally considerate. . . 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 24, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER To-day I wrote you a letter, not very 
 short or very long, which has gone, or ought to have gone, 
 by to-day's mail. It is night now, and I have read over 
 your speech twice though, when I wrote to-day, I had 
 read only a part once. I promised you to-day to do a 
 friendly office for your speech by finding fault with it. 1 
 confess that my feeling of fault-finding was stronger then 
 than it is now. From reading the whole speech, I more 
 perfectly caught and appreciated the spirit of the whole, or 
 I became more biased. But I still adhere to my original 
 impression, that part of the speech is not in keeping with 
 the best taste. That part which occurs early in the speech, 
 and which alludes to your record as one that had not been 
 made for an hour, or an electioneering campaign, but for 
 all time, and by which you are willing to abide, living and 
 dead, is somewhat Bentonian in its tone, and, even consid- 
 ered by itself, is to be regarded by good judges as out oi 
 taste. That, however, by itself, might be regarded, not 
 only as free from blemish, but as a noble expression at once 
 of defiance to your own generation, and of appeal to pos- 
 terity; but when you spoke of your "tables" as something 
 that would do "to keep," and that you meant "to keep" 
 the likeness of "old Bullion," became too palpable to be 
 quite agreeable to a delicate sense of modesty. But after 
 reading the whole speech, I could not precisely find it in 
 my heart to say that you had transcended the provocation.
 
 I2O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Without commenting further upon the manner, which I 
 took up first as being of the least importance, I proceed to 
 speak of the matter; and upon that point, I suspect (from 
 the speech itself) that you will be astonished when I say 
 that it is the greatest speech you ever made, and a speech, 
 marking more' distinctly than any other in American his- 
 tory, the commencement of a nciv era. I do not believe, 
 from the speech itself, and from the manner in which you 
 have put it up, that you regard it in the high light in which 
 i hold it. Your speech in reply to Mace foreshadows, and 
 this speech clearly and distinctly reveals, a new idea; and 
 that is, the comparative effects of free and slave labor upon 
 all the developments, and consequently upon the prosperity, 
 of a country. I can truly say, that while to me your general 
 idea is not a new one, yet, that your manner of illustrating 
 it is wholly new, and very striking. Allow me to give you 
 another idea which bears upon the philanthropic view, and 
 which, though obvious, has never been hinted at, by any- 
 body whomsoever, within my knowledge. The office per- 
 formed by the African menial services and manual labor is 
 one which, on universal confession, must be performed in 
 every country by somebody : now, in the view of the philan- 
 thropist, who looks to the interest of mankind, is there any 
 difference between confining these offices to a class of men 
 defined by blood, or diffusing them through a class marked 
 by poverty ? The same amount of that kind of labor is nec- 
 essary to be performed for a given community; and is it 
 any misfortune that it should all (even) be performed by 
 the black man, unless there be some superiority of the black 
 man over the white? But, on the contrary, are there not 
 several strong reasons for throwing it upon the black man 
 rather than the white? I will allude only to the great line 
 of demarkation arising out of color, and to the known su- 
 perior docility of the black race. As a question of humanity, 
 we inquire obviously into the numbers only, and not into 
 the color, of those engaged in pursuits of inferior rank or 
 dignity. This, in my opinion, is the germ of a new and un- 
 touched view of slavery, as a social, and particularly as a 
 humane institution. I could enlarge upon it to a great ex- 
 tent; indeed, I have fora good while been thinking of pre- 
 senting it, in some amplitude, in the shape of an article for 
 some review. 1 only throw it out, however, as a thought
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 121 
 
 to you, and as a most powerful forerunner and auxiliary to 
 the train of thought pursued in your last speech. This 
 idea of mine, when fully comprehended, reduces the whole 
 discussion to two simple considerations the effect of slavery 
 upon the master in regard to physical, moral, and intel- 
 lectual development and progress, and its effect upon the 
 slave, or upon that class, which answers to the condition 
 and offices of the slave, in the same particulars. Upon the 
 latter branch of the inquiry, your argument beams with 
 new light and overwhelming power. The first branch you 
 leave untouched. The views presented by you really per- 
 tain to the most practical branch of the subject; and they 
 are likely to produce (in my judgment) most practical fruits 
 upon the great Yankee nation, who are emphatically a 
 practical, and money-making, and money-saving people. 1 
 merely throw out the hint. If you comprehend my full 
 meaning, I think you may use it to great effect ; and nothing 
 would give me greater pleasure than the reflection of hav- 
 ing furnished you with a hint, which might be worked by 
 you into an argument so magnificent and statesman-like, 
 and which, thus treated, might result in fruits so grand and 
 so just. But I will conclude with saying your speech, in 
 v:evv of its novelty and its probable effects, is the greatest 
 "id grandest of your life, and is not surpassed by any in 
 American history. I am not extravagant I may be mis- 
 <.aken. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 2, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I don't think you 
 
 exactly caught the idea, which I intended to convey, con- 
 cerning a certain view which would have put a finishing 
 stone upon your speech. The natural adaptation of the 
 negro race to slavery is the least part of it, and, indeed, 
 hardly a part of it at all, though it does come directly in 
 aid of it. I was in a great hurry when I wrote the last part 
 of my critique upon your speech, and did not succeed, I 
 imagine, in expressing precisely what I meant; and now I 
 have just got a call, summoning me to town, and I must go, 
 and must finish my letter before I go. I can now only say, 
 12*
 
 122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 in the most general terms, that my idea was, that, as a 
 question of humanity, it is obviously indifferent whether the 
 services performed for us by slaves be performed by white 
 men, or black men, so far as the good of the greatest num- 
 ber is concerned ; the only question is, the nature of the 
 service, and the necessary number engaged in it. What is 
 done by our negroes must be done by somebody, and the 
 only real question, therefore, in point of humanity, is, whether 
 anybody else could perform the same service and be in a 
 better condition. If not, the tears of humanity are shed 
 in vain over the woes of the negro, and ought to be shed 
 over the imperfections of nature, which require men to 
 perform such services. The abolitionist would simply 
 substitute the white man in place of the black. He would 
 not make the bed easier, but only give it a different occu- 
 pant; and humanity is concerned only at what befalls man 
 as such, and not for the fate of one particular man, or class 
 of men, rather than another, \vhen the fate is inevitable to 
 some man, or some class 
 
 Fanaticism is blind, and never stops to reason. It has no 
 capacity to reason. "Menial services and manual labor" 
 are, for the most part, still performed at the South by 
 emancipated slaves, and with poorer reward than in ante- 
 bellum days. 
 
 Governor Herschel V. Johnson appointed Mr. Stephens 
 counsel to represent the State of Georgia in the contro- 
 versy with Alabama. The following letter relates to that 
 subject: 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 7, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER To-day I got your letter of the 3d in- 
 stant, saying that Mr. Phillips had inquired of you about 
 the Answer in the case of Alabama vs. Georgia. I sat 
 down and drew about half of the Answer, but was inter- 
 rupted, and have not since had a good opportunity to finish 
 it. This week, I shall be obliged to attend to other mat-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 123 
 
 ters ; but after that, I will finish it and get the signatures of 
 the Governor, the Attorney-General, and of O. C. Gibson, 
 my associate counsel, and send it to you to be filed. I 
 shall not go to Washington this winter, but I want the An- 
 swer filed 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 8, 1855. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I got your letter this morning, announc- 
 ing the painful news of the death of Lou Toombs. The 
 announcement did not greatly surprise me ; for it was not 
 altogether unexpected ; and yet it shocked me. It fills me 
 with a feeling too near akin to grief to be called by any 
 other name. I almost loved her as a sister. She was so 
 good, so intelligent, so artless, so innocently gay and cheer- 
 ful of spirit, that it was impossible to know her well with- 
 out being touched with a tender and most kindly regard for 
 her. She had the blended virtues of her father and mother, 
 and added a chaplet of gracefulness and quietness, all her 
 ' own. Poor Lou ! poor Lou ! 
 
 In 1855, Mr. Stephens was nominated, by the Demo- 
 cratic and Anti-Know-Nothing party, for Congress, to rep- 
 resent the Seventh District of the State. His repugnance 
 to again entering the turbulent field of politics was pro- 
 nounced and extreme. Indeed, he never had relish for that 
 sort of life. There was a spell about home that he owned 
 and loved ever; and now, all which lends to it most of at- 
 traction and charm wife, children, affluence, good neigh- 
 borhood, the society of cherished friends, ' ' the sweet hours 
 of elegant leisure spent in the library" were his in full 
 fruition. He, however, yielded a reluctant consent to the 
 wishes of the party, authoritatively expressed ; and after a 
 heated canvass albeit characterized by nothing of personal 
 bitterness his competitor, the late Nathaniel Greene Foster, 
 was elected by a small majority. No one regretted the re- 
 sult less than Mr. Stephens. He did not rejoice over his 
 defeat, as it is related of the old Grecian patriot, when
 
 124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKJiTCH OF 
 
 no shell bore his name for a seat in the Amphictyonic 
 Council ; but his purely personal feelings were far from 
 being ruffled, or his hopes in the least disappointed. The 
 satisfaction he derived from the re-election of Governor 
 Johnson, whom, two years before, he had opposed on other 
 issues, and the overthrow of the Know-Nothing party in 
 Georgia, was ample compensation for any unrealized dreams 
 of ambition his candidature may have inspired. 
 
 In the Presidential race of 1856, Mr. Stephens supported, 
 with his wonted ardor, the Buchanan-Breckinridge nomina- 
 tion. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention of 
 that year, and was tendered a place upon the Electoral 
 ticket. That position the exacting cares of a large and labo- 
 rious practice compelled him to decline. He, nevertheless, 
 rendered efficient service to the party with his tongue and 
 his pen. 
 
 I heard him relate, with great glee, an anecdote cor, 
 nected with the mission to Cincinnati, which I have nev^ r 
 seen in print. The Georgia delegates to the nominating 
 convention took Washington City in their way, and re- 
 mained a day or so at the Federal City. Congress was in 
 session. General Toombs, from Georgia, complimented 
 the delegation with a dinner, inviting several other distin- 
 guished Democrats. Many of the aspirants for nomination 
 to the Presidency were present invited guests. Late in 
 the evening, when wit and wine had pretty well performed 
 their office, and the company were about to disperse, Col- 
 onel James Gardner, the Chairman of the Georgia Delega- 
 tion, full of the kindliest feeling, filled his glass, and, sur- 
 rounded by Cass, Douglas, Cobb, Toombs, Breckinridge, 
 and others, who ivonld not have declined a nomination, if 
 tendered, offered as a toast: " Gentlemen, may you all live 
 to be President of the United States!" Douglas, standing 
 close by Cobb, nudged him at the elbow and said: "Well, 
 Cobb, here's a long life to von!"
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 125 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S.] 
 
 SPARTA, June 18, 1856. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The Know- 
 
 Nothings here look chap-fallen ; but they intend to fight. 
 We are to have a meeting Saturday to send delegates to 
 the Fourth-of-July Convention at Milledgeville, and I am 
 to make them a speech. A speech on the right string, at 
 this time or rather, at that time (for all the candidates 
 
 will be out then) may do much good in this county. G 
 
 told me that M and J had declared for Buchanan. 
 
 I don't believe it; but he said so. The nomination is re- 
 ceived well by our friends everywhere, so far as I know, or 
 have heard. Jim Jones is raving like a madman. In his 
 paper, which I got this morning, he invites all lovers of the 
 country to avert the disgrace of electing Buchanan by 
 mounting the "broad platform of Fillmore" a platform 
 consisting of the "leading principles" of another platform, 
 (or the same,) which Jones, only a few weeks ago, pro- 
 nounced unfit for a Southern latitude. "Quern Dcus i'ult 
 perdcre," etc., is a maxim which gives me great comfort 
 under present circumstances. I am glad that Stringfellow 
 brings such good tidings from Kansas. The indications in- 
 spire me with the hope that we shall make a complete rout 
 of the enemy 
 
 The year 1857 was the saddest in the life of Air. Stephens. 
 In January, his wife died. The event, for a time, quite 
 unmanned him : he was prostrated by the blow. The 
 insatiate archer's arrow penetrated his very soul, and pro- 
 duced an anguish an agony of grief such as the tenderest 
 hearts only can feel, and the stoutest withstand. For years 
 succeeding, his letters are laden with expressions of sorrow 
 for his loss deep, boding, eloquent and with testimonials 
 of her worth, and tributes to her memory, of surpassing 
 tenderness and beauty. The precincts of private grief are 
 too sacred to be invaded by stranger-step. But this sketch 
 would fail to present a faithful portraiture of Linton Ste- 
 phens, and do injustice to his memory, if the evidences of
 
 126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 his devotion to her recorded in an epistolary correspond- 
 ence, at once the saddest and most beautiful I ever read 
 were altogether omitted. He exemplified, in his domestic 
 life, all the virtues that make Howe sweet and holy. 
 
 [ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, March 14, 1857. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The day is fast waning towards evening 
 twilight. Since you left, I have written eighteen letters 
 this is the nineteenth my fingers are tired, but I could not 
 close my labors without saying a word to you. You are 
 before this time at home, I suppose safely there, I trust. 
 Long did I watch the carriage to-day as it slowly bore you 
 away. I thought of the muddy roads and chill air you 
 had to encounter, and then the sad scenes you would meet 
 at your journey's end. With a fervent prayer that you 
 might be sustained by that Power above, that rules and 
 shapes our destinies, and that with resignation and forti- 
 tude you would bear up against whatever sorrows or griefs 
 may ever betide you, I watched your progress. When no 
 longer you were in sight, still my heart's yearnings pur- 
 sued you, and though I betook myself to the duties of life, 
 and for a time had my mind absorbed in business, in at- 
 tending to the demands and wishes of men of various kinds, 
 scattered all over the country; yet, after it is all over, my 
 mind is with you. You, above anything else or anybody 
 else, are the object of my solicitude, anxiety and love. I 
 feel for you in your grief I mourn with you in your sor- 
 row I weep with you in your distress. I would fain soothe 
 your pangs if I could; but, after all, human consolation can 
 avail nothing. Look to a Power higher and abler. But do 
 not despair do not let your strength fail you. Bear with 
 fortitude and resignation whatever afflictions may befall 
 you. Don't indulge in despondent feelings; rise early 
 take bodily exercise; devote your mind to some engaging 
 subject; don't be much alone; don't brood over the sub- 
 ject of your grief; above all, don't let your mind be ab- 
 sorbed in thought after you retire at night; seek repose and 
 sleep. Exercise will conduce to this. Be as cheerful as you 
 can; cultivate the feelintr; read such books and seek such
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 127 
 
 company as will conduce to it. Be master of your pas- 
 sions, appetites and weaknesses, whatever they may be, 
 and may God bless and sustain you, now and forever. 
 Yours, affectionately, 
 
 A. H. STEPHENS. 
 
 He was again nominated this year for Congress. The 
 American party was known to have a decided majority in 
 the district ; but it \vas believed that a vigorous canvass on 
 his part, and his great personal popularity, would overcome 
 it. The Hon. Joshua Hill was the nominee of the Ameri- 
 can party undoubtedly their strongest man. The canvass 
 promised to be a spirited one for, the opposing candidates 
 were the idols of their parties, and deservedly so but it 
 had scarcely opened before Mr. Stephens met with an in- 
 jury by being thrown from a stage-coach returning from the 
 burial of his sister, Catharine which so far disabled him 
 that he could not meet his competitor upon the hustings. 
 His right knee received a hurt from which he never en- 
 tirely recovered. Mr. Hill was elected by a small majority. 
 
 Mr. Stephens attended the Democratic Gubernatorial 
 Convention which first nominated Governor Joseph E. 
 Brown for the office which he filled for nearly eight years. 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, June 29, 1857. 
 DEAR BROTHER 1 intend going 
 
 o o 
 
 over to see you and stay with you a day or two ; but I write, 
 lest something should prevent me. I was well pleased with 
 the action of the convention. The Kansas part of the plat- 
 form was drawn by me Brown is a man 
 
 that I know to have decided ability; as a debater, he is far 
 superior to any of those who were before the convention. 
 Indeed, without being an orator, he is a very effective 
 stump-speaker. He is quick, clear-headed, and a close 
 reasoner, with considerable turn for sharp, witty remark. 
 He was a firm Southern-rights man, and one of the most 
 prudent among them. Besides all this, he is a man of fine
 
 128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 personal character, and self-made. He was poor, but bor- 
 rowed money and graduated at Yale College. He stands 
 high in the up-country, and deserves it. I served in the 
 Legislature with him in the sessions of 1849 and 1850. The 
 man, and the section from which he comes, are also an ex- 
 cellent lick for Toombs. I have written to Mr. Cobb to- 
 day, urging him to have Walker recalled. I don't know, 
 nor care much, (as far as I am concerned) what they do. 
 Colonel Foster told, at a party-meeting in Madison the other 
 day, (so Carlos writes) that they need not nominate him, 
 unless they wanted him to take a beating. If they con- 
 cluded that they needed a candidate for a beating, he would 
 not run off for fear of defeat, etc. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, July 4, 1857. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I got a letter this 
 
 morning from Nisbet, of the Federal Union, saying that the 
 Democratic party will not go as far, in relation to Walker 
 and Kansas, as the convention went. He says they will 
 not make \Valker's removal a sine qua non ; and that he has 
 received numerous letters from friends requesting him to 
 write to me, and request me to withhold my letter of ac- 
 ceptance for the present. This is exactly the substance of 
 the letter introduced and closed with great assurances of 
 friendship, etc. I don't know what I shall do yet. I in- 
 tend, however, to wait and see what the Know-Nothing 
 concern may do next week, and then decide on my course. 
 I am at times disposed to run anyhow, on my own plat- 
 form, with defiance to everybody who is against it, and call- 
 ing upon all men, of all parties, to back me in defense of 
 our own section. But the prevailing disposition with me 
 is to set forth my opinions on the present state of affairs, 
 and my reasons for them, and then leave the turf, and all 
 the scramblers for office, and part}' slaves, to take care of 
 themselves. This is what I think 1 shall do. I had begun 
 to feel some interest in the subject, and had begun to oc- 
 cupy myself with it as a drrcrtiscinent ; but now I don't 
 care anything about it
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 2g 
 
 | From I,. S. to A. IJ. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 10, 1857. 
 
 DKAR BROTHER I am sorry 
 
 to hear that Douglas is against the Kansas Constitution. I 
 don't suppose his objection can be that of Forney that 
 the whole Constitution is not submitted for he himself, in 
 his Springfield speech, held that no submission at all was 
 necessary. If the convention had power to complete their 
 work without submitting it at all, or to submit it if they 
 chose, assuredly they might finish one part themselves, and 
 submit another, covering the main topic of difference. 1 
 scarcely suppose he can object to the class of voters; for 
 certainly the convention had the power to prescribe them, 
 and in exercising it, they have not exhibited partiality by 
 excluding anybody. Xor can there be any valid objection 
 to the test-oath, requiring each voter, if challenged, to swear 
 to support the Constitution as adopted ; for any one, who 
 would refuse to take such an oath, would be an enemy to 
 government in the proper sense of the term. Such a man 
 could intend to submit to government, only in the event 
 of government going his own way that is, only provided 
 he could govern liimsclf and other people, too. Such a man 
 is hostile to the compact on which all government rests; he 
 is an outlaw, and ought to be excluded from all participa- 
 tion in the general action. He should not be allowed the 
 chance of getting his own way over other people, while he 
 stands with the defiant declaration that he will not allow 
 other people to have their way over him. Is his objection 
 founded on the provision that the present laws shall remain 
 of force until repealed by the Legislature under the new 
 Constitution ? They surely had the legal power to make 
 that provision ; for, out of their sovereign power to estab- 
 lish a Constitution, they might have instituted a new gov- 
 ernment, entirely cutting off the existing one, and enacting 
 what laws they pleased. To be sure, there is a difference, in 
 this respect, between a State convention and a Territorial 
 convention; and, on this difference, I can well imagine that 
 difference of views might arise ; but if you do not already 
 see the solution, I think I can give it so clearly that there 
 can be no answer to it; but, lest the difference may not 
 have presented itself to you, let me first state it, and then 
 
 13*
 
 1.}O BIOGRAPHICAL SKI-ITCH Of 
 
 show that the difference cannot legitimately affect the mat- 
 ter in hand thq,t is, the legal power of the Kansas Con- 
 vention to do precisely what they did. 
 
 A State convention (assuming always that it is assem- 
 bled in pursuance of the existing Constitution, so as to avoid 
 revolution) would be sovereign, not only in degree, but in 
 time also; for they might immediately inaugurate the new 
 state of things and wipe out the old they could th'ssok't' nn 
 I'.visting Legislature, A Territorial convention, on the con 
 trary, is sovereign in degree only, and not in time. Per- 
 haps it is a better phrase to say, that the power of the State 
 convention would be complete without awaiting action by 
 anybody else ; while the power of the Territorial conven- 
 tion is only inchoate, and needs the admission of the new 
 State, by Congress, to set it in motion. The difference 
 may be illustrated by the departure of a ship out of port : 
 In one case, the captain can sail where he pleases; in an- 
 other case, he must await permission of some one else; but 
 in both cases, suppose him to have power to take aboard 
 what freight he pleases: then my idea is illustrated. The 
 State convention can start when they please, and carry what: 
 they please. On the other hand, the Territorial convention 
 can start only when Congress speaks the fiat; but, then, 
 their power is as great as that of the State convention over 
 the freight. The Constitution, formed by a Territorial con- 
 vention, is like Adam was when his body was formed com 
 plete, but still waiting for the breath of life. It can have 
 no operation until the new State is admitted. How, then, 
 it ma}- be asked, (and 1 say it may be asked, because the 
 question occurred to my own mind,) can the Kansas Con- 
 vention enact that existing laws shall continue in force until 
 repealed by a Legislature under the new Constitution? 
 How can the}' supersede the existing Legislature, or put 
 restraints upon its power, before their own power has had 
 vitality put into it? This question may have given to 
 other minds, as it did, at first presentation, give me, some 
 difficulty. The Constitution which they have formed (if 
 our papers have given a correct synopsis of it) seems, on its 
 face, to attempt to hamper the present Legislature by an- 
 nulling their authority to alter, amend or repeal existing 
 laws. The language of the second section is: "All laws 
 now of force in the Territorv of Kansas, which are not re
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 131 
 
 pugnant to this Constitution, shall continue and be of force 
 until altered, amended or repealed by a Legislature assem- 
 bled by the provisions of this Constitution." And then the 
 seventeenth section declares: "This Constitution shall take 
 effect, and be in force, from and after its ratification by the 
 people, as hereinbefore provided." Now, in my judgment, 
 this will not interfere, nor was it intended to interfere, (but 
 whether so intended or not, in point of fact, cannot legally 
 interfere.) with the intermediate powers of the existing 
 Legislature. Although it is declared that the Constitution 
 shall take effect, and be in full force, from the time of its 
 ratification, yet this, by legal intendment, must be applied 
 to the great, and indeed only end in fvVrr the formation of 
 a Constitution to be presented to Congress, and to govern the 
 country after the State shall be admitted into the Union. 
 The whole work of the convention (and of the people 
 jointly, it being partly submitted for their ratification) was, 
 if you please, to build the ship and rig her off, furnished for 
 sailing, and then turn her over to Congress, who must 
 launch her; and they have simply declared that their work 
 shall not be complete that the ship shall not be pro- 
 nounced seaworthy and turned over to Congress //;//// the 
 people shall put on the finishing rope by ratifying, or reject- 
 ing, the slavery clause. After she is launched, then she 
 passes out, free from all action by Congress, and rigged and 
 freighted just as she was offered at the wharf. Then, and 
 not until then, will the laws existing in Kansas, when the 
 convention adjourned, begin to be in force, (so far as any val- 
 idity is imparted by the Constitution to them,) and continue 
 to be in force until repealed by the State Legislature. In 
 other words, these second and seventeenth sections are only 
 a declaration of the status on which the new State will start. 
 Nor could the convention have meant anything else, be- 
 cause the Constitution expressly provides the manner of its 
 own presentation to Congress, and, therefore, could not 
 have intended that it should go into action, as a government, 
 before Congress should have admitted the new State. Xor 
 would any unfair consequences result to the anti-slavery 
 men there, if the people should reject slavery from the 
 present laws protecting slave property, being included as a 
 part of the new statutes; for they would not be so included, 
 except so far as to protect existing slave property ; because.
 
 132 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 if the people reject slavery, then would all laws protecting 
 prospective slavery be repugnant to the Constitution, and 
 only those are to be "continued in force" which are not 
 repugnant to the Constitution. Such would be repugnant, 
 because the Constitution expressly declares, that if there 
 shall be a majority of votes for the Constitution, without 
 slavery, then shall the pro-slavery clause be stricken out, 
 and it is declared that slavery shall not exist ; and let me 
 further remark, what I was about to omit, that, in the other 
 event, of slavery be-ing ratified by the people, then a status 
 of laws protecting slave property would be of the utmost 
 consequence to slave-holders; for, otherwise, this present 
 Black Republican Legislature might, by repealing all such 
 existing laws, start the new State off with slave property un- 
 protected, allliough the people should have solemnly de- 
 cided in favor of slavery: so that this provision is a /<?//- one 
 and an important one to the pro-slavery men, and just such 
 as cannot possibly impose any unfair disadvantage upon the 
 other side. Indeed, the absence of it would be absolutely 
 unfair to our side. I am afraid I have wearied you, and I 
 will quit. It may be that 1 have only been fighting men of 
 straw ; but, at any rate, this sketch will serve to give you 
 my general analysis of the Kansas Constitution, and my no- 
 tions of its defense. I would like for you to write me how 
 far you agree with me, and also whether or not I have 
 struck any of the points of difficult}"; and yet, there is one 
 other view I must present in relation to the matter of fair- 
 ness: The convention was fairly elected, and was largely 
 pro-slavery, and was under no legal obligation to submit 
 their work to the people. \Ye had won tlif trick, and we 
 are entitled to it. But, again, when we had it in our hands, 
 and might have kept it simply by holding on, isn't it hard 
 that we should be charged with unfairness, when we volun- 
 tarily yielded it up, and gave our opponents another chance 
 at it? But enough. 
 
 I From L. S. tu A. II. S. ] 
 
 Sl'AKTA, December 13, 1857. 
 
 DEAR BROTH KK I am just about to start to Milledgeville. 
 Thomas \V. Thomas is. here, and is going with me. He 
 came over from there, clay before yesterday, on his way to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 133 
 
 Washington City. The Governor appointed him and Ward 
 as counsel in the case of Alabama vs. Georgia. Brown was 
 served with process lately ; and as Johnson had been served 
 with a copy of the bill two years ago, they all concluded 
 then, that this last was a new case ; but they were not sat- 
 isfied ; so Thomas came by to see me. W'hen I explained 
 it, he decided to go back. He says he will not retain his 
 appointment, because it was made under a mistake. Oba- 
 diah Gibson was appointed associate counsel with me, by 
 Governor Johnson, on the 3Oth of October last 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 29, 1857. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It is night again, and again I am about 
 to close a night of work with a letter to you not that I 
 have anything of consequence to say, but merely because, 
 while I am at it, it comes easier. The vis inertia is a pre- 
 vailing law of nature, controlling matter and mind. It is a 
 powerful law with me. I can continue, when tired, more 
 easily than I can commence, when dull or indisposed. Re- 
 sistance to change seems to be stamped upon all things, 
 animate and inanimate ; and yet, alas ! the great tide of 
 change sweeps all things, good and bad, beautiful and loath- 
 some, lovely and horrible, along its own ceaseless and re- 
 sistless course. All things instinctively oppose it ; yet all 
 things are inevitably its victims. It is but the struggling 
 of the fly in the spider's web, or the fluttering of the poor 
 bird under the serpent's charm. It is a hard thing to move 
 and a hard thing to stop ; and yet it is true, that we are 
 forever moving and eternally stopping. What wonder, then, 
 that, in the conflict, there should be a very severing of the 
 joints and the' marrow! The universe is but a vast mass of 
 contending elements in travail. What wonder, then, that 
 the births should be woe ! woe ! woe ! or, it is true that light 
 was indeed stricken out of the darkness of chaos? When 
 does it shine but to make visible the torture and misery 
 which before lay unseen and unfclt in the repose of dark 
 nonentity? Who is the great Intelligence, or what the un- 
 knowing Cause that ever, eternally drives the crushing and 
 relentless wheels of Necessity? But I had no idea of run- 
 ning into such an unavailing train ; such thoughts were not 
 in my mind when I commenced to write to you
 
 134 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Mr. Stephens, from early manhood, was often applied 
 to, by almost all classes of people, in emergency, for pe- 
 cuniary aid. Hardly any one of his acquaintance, needing 
 the benefaction, felt delicacy or sho\ved hesitancy in ap- 
 proaching hint. No worthy applicant was ever turned away 
 empty, if compliance were a possibility; and while he dis- 
 pensed man}- charities, whereof it was impossible the world 
 could be ignorant, he also bestowed uncounted thousands, 
 which will not be known until the common Father shall 
 say: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least, 
 of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 3, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER For the want of 
 
 something else to do, I will tell you of some applications 
 
 which T have lately had for money in charity. 
 
 (whom I took to be a son of , and who wrote me a 
 
 very good letter) asked me to send him to school this year. 
 I agreed to do so, and am to sec his board and tuition paid 
 
 at the end of the year. , (a grandson of old ,) 
 
 asked of me the same favor, and J granted that, too, after 
 passing several letters and, at last, with considerable re- 
 luctance. I did not like the way he wrote, and I gave him 
 some very plain talk. His last letter was in much better 
 taste; but 1 was afraid the improvement arose from a desire 
 to succeed with his application, rather than any real amend 
 
 mcnt of his views. But I hope for the best. 
 
 ( j wrote me, a few days ago, that lie must have eighty 
 
 dollars soon, and called on me to furnish it. I simply re- 
 plied that it was not convenient for me to do so. About 
 
 the same time, sent me a letter, asking the loan of 
 
 twenty-five dollars for three months, saying he was going 
 to clerk for somebody in , and had "no close," and 
 promising, faithfully, to pay me at end of three months. 
 He concluded with a peroration that would have done honor 
 to a finished rhetorician : "/ am poor, but honest!" My 
 reply to him was, that he must call on for my an- 
 swer, and at the same time I wrote to telling him
 
 JUDGK LINTON STEPHENS. J35 
 
 what had written to me, and requesting him to let 
 
 me know if it was true that was going into a clerk- 
 ing business, etc. I authorized him, if it was true, to buy- 
 clothes for him to the amount of twenty-five dollars, and 
 that I would pay for them the first time I might go to 
 
 Crawfordville. I explained to him that I doubted 's 
 
 story, and suspected it might be a mere trick to "make a 
 
 rise," and gave him the history of how fooled you 
 
 about the horse. I reckon it would have been better if I 
 had merely refused the application, as I have just refused 
 's; but I really desired to help him, if it would in- 
 deed be true help ; and so I took the risk of offending 
 
 . 1 tried, however, to put it as kindly as possible. 
 
 1 have heard nothing from him, though sufficient time has 
 elapsed for him to have written. Another application was 
 
 from , of , for me to give her one hundred 
 
 dollars, which she desired to use in restoring her health (if 
 possible) by a trip to Florida. She said she had consump- 
 tion. I declined to do so in a short answer expressed in as 
 civil terms as 1 could command. Besides these, there have 
 been divers others in the county here at home. 1 have re 
 fused most of them, for they were simply bold cases to at- 
 tempt to sponge and rob. By the way, told me 
 
 that had made a similar application to him, (though 
 
 not for any specific amount,) and that he sent her fifty 
 dollars 
 
 [ h'n.m L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 13, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER January 18. 
 
 This letter \ras commenced at the date it bears, but was cut 
 short at the time by an interruption of some of the servants, 
 and has since lain as you find it. I have received your 
 
 letter about young , and 1 am truly sorry I did not 
 
 get it sooner. I suppose he is at school before this time. 
 1 think to educate such a fellow is only to augment the 
 power of a rascal a bad deed instead of a good one. 1 
 
 have never yet heard farther from nor from . 
 
 It was clearly a trick of . 
 
 1 am glad to see the stand you and Mr. Toombs have 
 taken on the Central- American question; and I am glad to
 
 136 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 see that Douglas is with you. I noticed the few words be- 
 tween you and the man who laughed at me for eating 
 ground-peas, about instructions to his committee. It was 
 my turn to Jaugh when I saw it; but indeed I did not use 
 my just privilege, even to the extent of a silent smile. I 
 felt sorry for him. He is manifestly affected with that in- 
 firmity which the Irishman said was worse than being a 
 knave that is, being a fool because, as Paddy had it, he 
 could quit being a knave, but could not quit being a fool. 
 What effect do you think your course on the Central- 
 American question will have on the administration in 
 regard to the Kansas question? / think it will scare 
 them, and tend, at least, to make them stand up. If they 
 have got any sense at all, (?) they must see that they are in 
 danger of losing the whole South, and that they can't af- 
 ford any shuffling on the Kansas question. I discover, from 
 the indications in the Senate, that the Southern Know- 
 Xothings intend to take sides with the administration on 
 the Central-American question. Is it not so? What did 
 fosh Hill mean by voting for Henry Winter Davis for 
 
 Speaker? Dick Johnston has gone 
 
 to Athens. I am almost literally alone in the world. But 
 sometimes I get along pretty well. The return of good 
 weather has helped me. 1 don't think I shall go to Wash- 
 ington this winter, but I do \\v\. yet so decide positively. I 
 should like very much to be with you, but I should be very 
 uneasy about the children. Little Emm has been sick, 
 but is now about well again. She is very fond of me, and 
 so indeed are Becky and Claude. They are about me nearly 
 all the time when I am at the house. Last night, just at 
 twelve o'clock, Becky got out of her bed in the nursery (the 
 folding, or rather drawing doors being open) and came to 
 me at the fire in my room where I was reading, and said 
 she wanted me to go to bed. Everybody else, children 
 and servants, were in profound slumber. I asked her what 
 made her wake? She said because she wanted me to go to 
 bed. I told her I would put her to bed, but she said she 
 wanted me to go, and she would go with me. So I quit 
 my reading and took her to bed with me. I thought it 
 was a singular thing in her. She did not seem to be scared, 
 or at all seeking protection from her fears, but it was just 
 simply a freak that she wanted to see me go to bed, and for
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 137 
 
 her offer to sleep with me was an inducement. That was the 
 spirit of the whole action. But I really fear that I weary 
 you with such details of simple, childish things. I am free 
 to own that such, in anybody else's children, would be of 
 little interest to me. But these little passages with my 
 little ones and me are really the greatest comforts I have, 
 and sometimes I grow tedious on them, no doubt. But it 
 does me a little good to write them, and you can skip them, 
 
 and I will never inquire about it, nor care about it 
 
 Mr. Thomas staid with me the greater part of last week, 
 and is coming back to-morrow to stay the remainder of this 
 week. He went home yesterday evening with a spell of 
 the headache on him ; but Bill was in town to-day and told 
 me he had got over it. He was here professedly on busi- 
 ness, and he really had business, but did little of it, and is 
 coming back. I thought he wanted company. He is just 
 the man to consider it a weakness to feel such a want, or 
 rather to allow the feeling to take him away from business. 
 For my own part, I think the true philosophy is, that the 
 best business is to be happy, so far as that is attainable in 
 life, consistently with innocence, and therefore with happi- 
 ness hereafter But I have no idea of going oft 
 
 into an account of my feelings or griefs, or its variations. 
 At this time, at least, 1 prefer to write in a pleasant vein, 
 if I can do it, and I will not allow myself to-night to call 
 upon you for sympathy, which grieves you, and can scarce 
 assuage a pang for me. So again, good .night, and may you 
 be as happy as possible. 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II . S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 9, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I read Mr. 
 
 Toombs' speech to-day, on the message of the President 
 accompanying the Lecompton Constitution. It is very 
 powerful. I am getting sick and tired of the manner in 
 which the subject of slavery is treated by Northern men 
 Democrats and all. If Kansas is not admitted or rather, if 
 she is refused admission -I am for dissolution. I would not 
 acknowledge allegiance to a government which sets upon 
 14*
 
 138 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 me and my section a brand of sin, and infamy, and degra- 
 dation. Douglas, and h's Black Republican backers, may 
 smile, and split hairs, and swear that they arc honest until 
 they turn black in the face, and I shall not believe one word 
 of it. If Kansas is rejected, it will be simply and purely 
 because she is. considered unfit to keep company with the 
 "Holy Willies "of the canting, Pharisaical North; and 
 u hen that test of association is made, I am for leaving the 
 company that makes it. The bonds of my attachment to 
 the Union are powerfully loosened, and if Kansas is rejected, 
 they will be broken. We scarcely know the Union now, 
 except through its burthens, and I am not willing to pocket 
 its insults. They should not evade the issue by a pretext. 
 The true issue is, and Congress ought to be held to it, and 
 it ought to be so proclaimed to them with a united defiance, 
 whether a State with slavery is fit to be admitted into the 
 Union. If it be decided against us. honor leaves but one 
 course, and that is, for all the slave States to walk out of 
 the Union, and fling their defiance behind them ; and if no 
 other will, I hope Georgia will do it, "solitary and alone." 
 I do trust that, at the right time, you will give them fire 
 and thunder. Read the Georgia platform to them ; and 
 tell them it shall not be evaded by a miserable pretext. Let 
 the hunters of the Presidency know that there will be no 
 Presidency left to be hunted for. I say, if the South sub- 
 mits to the rejection of Kansas, she is a craven, and deserves 
 her fate. She is ready for a master, and if she could be 
 left the poor privilege of choosing one, I should prefer to 
 see her take one, rather than fifteen millions of a lawless mob. 
 A pure Democracy, in a small State of homogeneous in- 
 terests, is tolerable, but in a State divided into two perma- 
 nent antagonisms, with a large numerical majority on one 
 side, is the most despotic of all governments. A mob, 
 when unrestrained by interest, is terrific in its utter irrc 
 sponsibilty. If Kansas is rejected, our government be- 
 comes a pure Democracy; the only law is that of superior 
 numbers; the only power is that of an irresponsible mob, 
 and that mob hostile to us. We have got to fight it, or 
 deter it, or succumb to it. I am for the first, whenever it 
 is necessary, for the second if it can avail, but for the last, 
 ncrer, never I
 
 JUDGE I.1NTON STEPHENS. 139 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 11, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I write to-night with the single design 
 to mark the day as it passes ; to let you know that I am 
 not unmindful of your having this day arrived at one more 
 mile-post on the short road of life. 1 was about to say 
 that I send you birth-day greetings; but, alas! I have no 
 greetings to send if greetings are to imply joy or con- 
 gratulation. But in their stead, 1 can, and do send you 
 the heart-warm good wishes of your affectionate 
 
 BROTHER. 
 
 P. S. It is a sad thing that such a superscription as the 
 above should be so specific without a name, and yet a 
 perfect identification of my individuality. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 13, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have written a 
 
 letter to-night to Josh Hill, and I wish you would contrive 
 to get a chance to read it, so as to give me your opinion of 
 it in point of taste. Considering to whom it is written, I 
 am very doubtful about the good taste of the vein in which 
 it is written. I mean, however, to send it. The part which 
 gives me doubt is intended in pure fun, and I suppose he 
 will take it so. The other part of it, I hope, may produce 
 good, wholesome fruit. I gave him a message for you in 
 the letter as an introduction of the subject: so you may ask 
 him what I wrote, and so see the letter, unless he is re- 
 solved not to let you see it 
 
 IFrom L. S. to A. 11. S. I 
 
 SPARTA, February 17, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have been very 
 
 busy of late, and have not had time to finish the Answer 
 of Georgia. I cannot do it now during the term of court. 
 I read your remarks on Campbell's motion for a continu- 
 ance with a great deal of satisfaction. I only regret that 
 you did not tell them plainly what object the "pretext" 
 was designed to accomplish, so as to show in vivid light the 
 aid and comfort our enemy was receiving from the poor, 
 cowardly dodging of small Southern men
 
 I4O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MARCH 2, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Let me tell you an 
 
 incident that occurred to Becky and Rio just before she 
 was sick. She had got to taking Rio through his manual 
 (of tricks) occasionally, by the aid of a piece of meat, which 
 she would hold up for him as a reward of obedience. On 
 the occasion to which I particularly refer, she made him 
 "sit up" and ''turn over," and then got him stretched out 
 to be dead. After waiting a little while, she gave him the 
 signal to rise; but, somehow or other, Rio had become ob- 
 livious as to the master (or mistress) of ceremonies, and all 
 her "that'll do's" were of no avail to raise him from his 
 death-like posture. She became very energetic at last, and 
 urgent with her "that'll do," but still Rio lay immovable. 
 Becky looked uneasy, and I took occasion to play on her. 
 Said I : "There now! what have you done ? You've killed 
 uncle Eckly's dog! Shall I write to him about it?" At 
 this, the servants (it was just as we had risen from the 
 breakfast-table) all broke out in a laugh, and poor Becky 
 looked like the picture of despair; but she didn't remain 
 long inactive: she looked at me, as if to read my face, 
 (which was solemn as I could make it, ) and then suddenly 
 she jumped at Rio (who, a grand villain, seemed to be en- 
 joying the scene) and shook him pretty roughly. His re- 
 ply to that salute was a very audible Toid. Instantly, tri- 
 umph was in Becky's eye. She stepped a pace backward, 
 having Rio between her and myself, and, with the air and 
 emphasis of a tragedy-queen, demanded of me, "Do you 
 call that dead ?" The effect was irresistible to me, and T 
 exploded, and so did the servants, and so did Rio ; for the 
 scoundrel clearly perceived that the game was up, and he 
 did not hesitate to throw off the sliani, and, in the most 
 marked manner, express his appreciation of the sport. 
 Poor Rio! he .is at Crawfordville, and he was very loth to 
 stay behind 
 
 I do not know what else I can write, unless I tell you I 
 am sad and sorrowful ; but I do not wish to give you my 
 thoughts about that; so I will say, good-bye. 
 
 [ I-Y.mi I,. S. tu A. II. S. ] 
 
 KI.UKKTO.N, March 13, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER You say I 
 
 have never sa,id what. T thought of your speech in Walker
 
 JUDGE LfNTON STEPHENS. 14! 
 
 and Paulding. I saw that speech in due season, and wrote 
 you my opinion of it immediately. I expressed myself as 
 greatly pleased with its doctrine and its style. I thought 
 it was an able exposition of the true doctrine, unanswera- 
 ble, and passing, as the debate showed, with many allusions 
 
 to it, but without any attempt to answer it 
 
 I made one jury speech, at Madison court, in defense of 
 a man who was charged with an assault with intent to mur- 
 der. Thomas prosecuted him. He was acquitted very 
 much contrary to everybody's expectations. The State in- 
 troduced two witnesses, and I got up a conflict between 
 them ; introduced no evidence ; had the conclusion ; and 
 Nash says I will forever be known in Madison as the "Su- 
 sannah man." I was appointed by the court. The fel- 
 low's name was Stephens. That was the second occasion 
 on which I saved the name. The other was the poor fellow 
 
 in Warren I have 
 
 defended one of Thomas' friends here, and acquitted him 
 on a technical point. Thomas did not defend the case at 
 all. I had no fee, nor did Thomas 
 
 [ Krom L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 29, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Have you made 
 
 no speech on the Lecompton Constitution? I have seen 
 none from you. Did you ever get a letter from me, saying 
 what I thought the South ought to do in case Kansas shall 
 be rejected? I wrote it long ago, but you have never at- 
 tended to it. I said we ought to break up the Union. I 
 don't allude to it for the purpose of going into the matter 
 at all at this time, but merely by way of identifying the 
 letter. I think but little about it. Indeed, I am sorry and 
 distressed to see from your letters that you allow yourself 
 to be made so unhappy about it. It is not worth the trou- 
 ble. Fame is a poor thing a miserably poor thing! Life 
 is a poor thing patriotism is a poor thing all the things 
 of this world are poor, beggarly elements ashes and emp- 
 tiness! Almost all men talk in this strain sometimes; but 
 I think he is a poor, deluded man who does not fed it 
 always.
 
 I4 2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 A messenger has just come from my plantation for a 
 doctor to go and sec a negro who is taken suddenly very 
 ill so goes the world. Again, good-night. 
 
 [L. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 30, 1858. 
 
 DEAR DICK I returned home last Friday, after an ab- 
 sence of five weeks at Taliaferro, Madison, Klbcrt, Hart 
 and Wilkes courts. I found nothing, on my return, from 
 you. Will you not be at Hancock court? Arc you all 
 well ? How are you pleased now, and how are you all 
 pleased with your new home since you have all got together 
 again? But is it home? How would you feel in reading 
 
 Q * O 
 
 an instrument, under seal, opening in this wise: "This in- 
 denture, made this, the first day of April, in the year eight- 
 een hundred and fifty-eight, between Richard M. Johnston, 
 of t lie county of Clarke, of the one part?" etc. Wouldn't it, 
 in fact, have the appearance of a transaction, dated with 
 great fitness, on the first day of April ? Wouldn't it be a 
 fooling piece of business? In short, I want you to inform 
 me distinctly inform me whether or not you consider 
 
 yourself suable in the county of Clarke 1 did 
 
 not see the five chapters in the Constitutionalist until the mat- 
 ter was called to my attention, by members of the bar, while 
 I was out last. It was a subject of much talk, and farora- 
 blc talk. Xobody knew the author, or seemed to suspect 
 him; but, to confess the truth, after hearing them talk 
 about it, I couldn't help telling them who he was; and I 
 rather pulled my shirt-collar up, too, when I did it as much 
 as to say, "My old partner, gentlemen mine intimate 
 friend ahem!" Let me tell you a good joke about it: 
 Huff, of Warrenton, said the scene was laid in Warren 
 county, and that Judge Roberts was well acquainted with 
 the characters that figure in it. Xow, I protest that, in all 
 my attempts to connect myself with the honors of this new 
 author, I have confined myself to the truth; but you now 
 perceive that others have been too strongly tempted to be 
 " delivered from evil ;" but in plain, sober narrative, I have 
 heard the piece much praised, and have been greatly de- 
 lighted ; and now. with my warmest good wishes for your 
 happiness here and hereafter, I remain, as ever, 
 
 Yours, most trulv, LINTON STEPHENS.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 143 
 
 The last paragraph has reference to some amusing papers 
 which Colonel Johnston furnished to the Augusta CoJistitii- 
 tiotialist, and which were subsequently published in book- 
 form. They were in the vein of the "Georgia Scenes," 
 and were very popular, and greatly admired by those who 
 have a relish for what is ludicrous in incident or in char- 
 acter. "Philemon Perch" is immortal in the realms of 
 
 funny fiction. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON-, GA., March 31, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Mr. Thomas was 
 
 at my house very sick with headache. I was up with him, 
 and afterwards wrote ten letters. I slept in the cars this 
 evening and dreamed all the way. My dreams were of 
 home, sweet, happy home, as it used to be, and the loved 
 One who use to bless it, but shall never bless it more no 
 more, forever, except in dreams and in memories! These 
 memories are sometimes sweet, and yet always painful 
 often overwhelming. Often, very often, do I cry out, 
 "Oh! had I wings, I'd fly away and be at rest." It's a 
 wear}', weary life to me. When 1 die, one weary head and 
 worn-out heart will be at rest. Good-night. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 [Fro.m L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 WARRENTON, April 5, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Mr. Toombs 
 
 went on to Washington City yesterday evening; 1 parted 
 with him at Camak. The court here will probably be a 
 short one, on account of the absence of him, yourself and 
 Thomas, though no case has been continued yet for the 
 absence of any one of you. I am afraid something is the 
 matter with Thomas, or some of his family. You will hear 
 
 through Mr. Toombs all the news You 
 
 have sent me no instructions about your cases here, nor 
 anywhere else. I will get all continued heir if I can ; for I 
 shall certainly, if possible, avoid the putting of my Warren 
 luck upon you. I have succeeded everywhere else this 
 riding; but I have never succeeded here, and I don't expect 
 to now.
 
 144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 April 6th. This morning, before I got out of bed, 
 in came Dick, (Thomas' man) with a letter to me from 
 Thomas, saying his wife was very ill, and he could not leave 
 
 home Poor Thomas I pity him deeply, 
 
 and fervently do I hope that the cup may pass from him. 
 I also got a letter this morning from Tom Cobb, saying he 
 cannot come to this court on account of a religious revival 
 which is going on in Athens. Tom has got to be very 
 much of a religious zealot. But, withal, he is uncommonly 
 modest, and unobtrusive, and sincere in his religion. Poor 
 fellow! He, too, has been a great sufferer.''' 
 
 [From I,. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 WARREXTOX, April 8, 1858. 
 
 DKAR BROTHER Saving a very 
 
 few objects of affection, life has little that can add to, or 
 take from, the small sum of happiness now left to me. My 
 children, my poor children ! i do deeply pity tJicin. But 
 enough of this, too. I have a great propensity to talk, or 
 to write of my griefs and my sufferings; but 1 cannot help 
 feeling that the ear of the warmest friend is growing dull, 
 and constantly more dull, to the oft-repeated story. No 
 man has a right to make himself disagreeable; and human 
 nature will not pardon disagreeableness long. The man 
 who inflicts his griefs and complaints upon his friends must 
 soon lose his friends. Yet, it is hard to speak otherwise 
 than out of the abundance of the heart. The consequence 
 with me is, that I have but little to say. Silence and soli- 
 tude are my most constant and congenial companions. 1 
 have talked and written of the thoughts that possess me, 
 to you more than I have presumed to do to anybody else. 
 
 And now, good-night 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. U.S.] 
 
 SPARTA, April 13, 1858. 
 
 L)KAR BROTHER The last letter I got from you was dated 
 the /th instant, and was received on the loth, on my return
 
 JUDGE I.TN'TOX STF.PHKN9. 145 
 
 home from Warren court Saturday night. Jack Smith tells 
 me he saw you on the 8th, and that is the last news I have 
 had of you. 1 think my letters to you, while I was on the 
 circuit, were pretty frequent, considering that I was away 
 from home, in crowds at night, and often busy at night. I 
 am sorry yours to me have become so much less frequent. 
 1 wrote you from Warren court, that Thomas had not got 
 there on account of the illness of his wife. He afterwards 
 came, and then came on home with the Judge and me in 
 our conveyance. He and 1 went to church here on Sunday. 
 Monday night, a messenger came to tell him that his wife 
 \vas worse. He started off home that night. Daniel took 
 him in my buggy to Double Wells. He got Dr. Alfriend 
 to go, too. Alfriend got back here on Wednesday morning, 
 and reported that he and Thomas had arrived at Elberton 
 about two o'clock the day before, and found Thomas' wife 
 dead. She had been dead about twenty-four hours, having 
 died about ten o'clock Monday morning. She was dead 
 when the messenger got here. Thomas did not hear of the 
 fact till he had got half way from his back gate to his wife's 
 room. They buried her the same evening of their arrival, 
 and Alfriend left that night. When Thomas left home, his 
 doctor had pronounced her out of clanger, and she had urged 
 him to go to his courts. Little did either of them dream that 
 they were parting to meet no more. They observed no change 
 for the worse until Saturday, and did not regard the change- 
 as serious until Sunday, when they started the messenger for 
 Thomas. Oh ! what a terrible stroke it was to poor Thomas ! 
 1 think of him even' hour in the day, and pity him with a 
 pity that few can comprehend. Poor Thomas! poor 
 Thomas! But he has one great stay and comfort in hav- 
 ing a mother left to him. My own greatest sense of be- 
 reavement has been in the loss of that one single being on 
 whom I leaned in every trouble. It has often seemed to 
 me that I could bear any other affliction as heavy as the 
 loss of her, (if it were possible for any other to be as heavy) 
 if 1 could only have her help me bear it. But she being 
 gone, all is desolation! There is no comfort, and nothing 
 but despair. But I imagine and trust that it is not so with 
 Thomas. It is a great calamity to be dependent on an}' 
 one being, as I was upon my wife. 1 was aware of it to a 
 great extent while she was in life; but 1 had not compre- 
 
 15
 
 146 151OGKAPHICAI. SKI-ITCH OF 
 
 hendcd it all. I had often trembled at the prospect of our 
 separation; but still had cherished a hope, which was a 
 blessed and blissful one, that we should glide gently along 
 through many happy years, and then sink to rest together. 
 Often, often, did we express to each other the fervent as- 
 piration that we might not be separated in our deaths. 
 Oh, God! it seems to me I am cra/.y ! So keen and so sud- 
 den does the sense of my loss strike me at many times, as 
 to deprive me of all sense, and transport me in a twinkling 
 into a world of confusion and doubt. I often doubt whether 
 I exist. It is .TO curious, because it is so sudden and con 
 founding. I am so overwhelmed by a sudden sense of what 
 I miss, that I cannot realize that I am alive. This is a feel- 
 ing that is very frequent with me. I never had anything 
 like it before, and my description of it is but weak. I doubt 
 
 whether you can imagine what it is I intended to 
 
 give you the result of our court here when I commenced to 
 write, but I have not interest enough in it now to do so. I 
 will write more in the morning. I have not gone to Ogle- 
 thorpe court, because from Thomas' absence, and Tom 
 Cobb's absence on account of the religious revival at 
 Athens, it is certain that nothing will be done. I wanted 
 a little rest, but I have not had it yet. 
 
 Old Mr. Prescott, the hotel-keeper in Warrenton, died 
 the night after we left there. He was stricken down with 
 apoplexy the day before we left. Poor old man ! The 
 family seemed in great distress. May God have mercy on 
 us all! '. . 
 
 [ From I.. S. to A. II. S. | 
 
 SPARTA, May 9, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTH KR I yesterday got 
 
 and read the debate between you and \\ inter Davis. In 
 reading his speech, I could easily perceive that he was 
 really replying, or at least shaping his words to meet a 
 speech which followed him. I think I should easily have 
 detected that without any previous intimation that it was so. 
 Your complaint of the report of his speech is a most just 
 one. I can well conceive that if he had spoken the speech 
 which is printed, your reply would have been differently 
 turned, and, in man}- places, differently worded; but I do
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 147 
 
 really think it is bad enough on him as it is; and yet, I felt 
 so indignant that he should at all escape. I cannot draw 
 a full and clear conception from so mutilated a history 
 as the Globe gives ; but I could still very satisfactorily per- 
 ceive that he was badly tlircshcd, in the opinion of the 
 House, and in his own opinion. But I must close. I am 
 sorry you did not come home as soon as the Kansas Bill 
 was passed. You need rest. You ought to come. I like 
 the Conference Bill, after comparing it with the others, 
 better than I do the Senate's original bill ; but I did not 
 like it a bit when I first read it. I thought it had gone off 
 on a new and manufactured issue, and was nothing but a 
 dodge. I felt outraged, to tell you the truth; but I held 
 my peace. I did not then understand the Senate Bill. I 
 perceive the issue was an original one, and a meritorious 
 one. I like the Conference Bill a good deal better than the 
 other, since I have come to understand both. Good-bye. 
 Affectionately, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, May 10, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have found 
 
 several of our friends who did not like the "Conference 
 Bill," and 1 think many, very many, are lukewarm towards 
 it ; but I have not met with one who did not change his 
 mind upon being correctly informed as to the comparative 
 merits of that and the original Senate Bill. The truth is, 
 the Conference Bill is not what I wished to see. 1 wanted 
 the naked issue of admission or rejection, under the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution, decided by Congress. The Conference 
 Bill does this theoretically, but not practically. It declares 
 it, and, therefore, recognizes the right and the principle, 
 but it leaves to a future vote the decision of the result. 
 While this is true, I still have no quarrel with that bill. It- 
 accomplishes all that could have been accomplished by any 
 bill. The issue which I desired was not decided, because 
 it \vas not presented. It came in company with another 
 issue, which complicated it, and which was obliged to be 
 separated from it, unless you had submitted to be swindled 
 oat of the public lands. That the true issue was not prac- 
 tically and finally decided by Congress is the fault, not of
 
 1^8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Congress for the}' have done all that could be done but 
 it is the fault of the Constitutional Convention of Kansas, 
 who presented that issue on terms that were wholly unallow- 
 able. The only course, therefore, was to do what you have 
 ('one decide the issue and leave them to reform their terms, 
 it is not Congress who fixes a condition, but it was Kansas 
 herself who offered a very unreasonable condition. You 
 have told her all that you could tell her that you admit her 
 into the Union if she will remodel her Constitution and make 
 it reasonable. There is no further action needed on your part. 
 You have placed her in a position from which she puts herself 
 into the Union as soon as she comes to reason. Indeed, the 
 legal effect of the Conference Bill is so clear and decided 
 that I am amazed that any Northern man could support it, 
 who had voted against the other bill because it failed to sub- 
 mit the Constitution. The Conference Bill does not submit 
 the Constitution; nor does it even submit the question 
 whether they will conic into the I'nion under tlic Lecoinpton 
 Constitution. It doesn't submit the Constitution ; for it says 
 expressly that this is your legal, valid act, and if you don't 
 come in under this Constitution, the offer of grace is with- 
 drawn from you. and you are remitted to the general rule, 
 which requires more population than you have got; nor 
 does it submit the question whether the}' will come into the 
 Union under the Lecompton Constitution. I know there 
 are in it some words that seem to bear that import; but, in 
 my judgment, they do not admit of it. There are other 
 words following in the same sentence which control the 
 first. The effect of the whole sentence is this: a vote 
 against the proposition submitted shall be deemed an ex- 
 pression of unwillingness to come into the I'nion on the 
 tenns proposed. The real question the exact, precise ques- 
 tion which is submitted is, whether Kansas will consent t<> 
 come into the Union with less land titan site has demanded. 
 I could still further illustrate my analysis of this bill, but 1 
 must close 
 
 | From L. S. to A. If. S. | 
 
 SPARTA, May 29, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The last letter 
 
 i uot from you was yesterday, on my return home, it an
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I4Q 
 
 nounced the result of the Ohio contested election. I am 
 truly glad that Vallandigham got his seat. I had two cases 
 at the Supreme Court, and was plaintiff in error in both 
 cases. I gained one, but lost the other. Thomas lost the 
 one I gained, and he was pretty mad about it. Reese and 
 I were together in it. It was the case of Nolan's will, from 
 Wilkes. Mr. Toombs was of counsel with Reese and mv- 
 
 J 
 
 self. If you happen to think of it when you are with him, 
 1 wish you would tell him we gained the case 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. j 
 
 SPARTA, June 3, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have neg- 
 lected for some weeks to write you what I intended to write 
 immediate]}- upon its occurrence. Lamar, of Newton, 
 wrote to me, inquiring whether I desired to be a candidate 
 for Congress next time, and saying that the friends of Har- 
 per desired to bring him forward for the race if I should 
 not be in the field. He said that his inquiry was not 
 prompted by a wish for me to decline ; for, he said, there 
 was no man in the State whom he would prefer to see in 
 Congress rather than myself; but he said his object was 
 solely to be informed what my intention was, so that the 
 friends of Harper might govern their course accordingly. 
 He assured me that, under no circumstances, would Har- 
 per, or his friends, interfere with me ; for, he said, Harper's 
 friends were my friends. 1 replied to him, immediately, 
 that I should not run the race any more; and that I should 
 be gratified to see the choice of the party and the district 
 settle on Harper. I consulted nobody about it ; I needed 
 no consultation ; for none could have changed my decision ; 
 that decision had long been made up, irrevocably. It was 
 a painful thing to me to express, among those who had all 
 been warm friends to me, a preference for any one; but I 
 never did like neutral people. Harper is a noble fellow, 
 and lie ought to be the man. His qualifications, and the 
 complexion of the district, alike point to him as the man, 
 and I felt that it would be a selfish regard for my own com- 
 fort and pleasant relations to refrain from saying so ; and so 
 1 said it. 
 
 I agree with you entirely in the view you express about
 
 I5O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 our proper course towards the British ships which have out- 
 raged our rights. We ought to catch them, or sink them, 
 and be ourselves the party to render an explanation, instead 
 of demanding one ; and the explanation should be a very 
 short and pointed one: simply that we had punished indig- 
 nity and insolence as they deserved: that could give no 
 offense to anybody, except to those who back and defend 
 the indignity and insolence; an offense to st/c/t people, I 
 should not regard. I think the defect in our national ad- 
 ministration is a want of clear views of courage. I think 
 they are quite as good as any we have had since Folk's 
 time; but that is not saying much. Don't understand me 
 as expressing admiration of Folk's administration; but he 
 had a policy and a will, and he carried both out with stead- 
 iness and ability 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, June 7, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Among other 
 
 things, Mr. Thomas talked about the British aggressions on 
 our ships. He had seen Mr. Toombs" position announced, 
 about seizing or sinking. He said he thought that right. 
 He went on to say that he thought we ought to seize the 
 offenders and keep them until their government disavowed 
 their acts or backed them. If a disavowal should be the 
 result, he said we ought to punish them ; if an indorsement 
 should come, we ought to turn them loose, and then declare 
 war against England. I asked him why we should turn 
 tlicm loose, and then declare war? I asked him what he 
 would do after declaring war, and after he had turned them 
 loose, except to go right straight to trying to catch them 
 again? And I asked him if he did turn them loose, how 
 much start he would give them ? The old gentleman smiled 
 and gave it up by a severe silence. The rest all laughed, 
 and I went on with somewhat of a war harangue. It does 
 seem to me to be a very clear case, that we ought to cap- 
 ture the offending ships. Of course, if Kngland disavows 
 their acts, she cannot claim to screen them from our just 
 punishment; and if she backs them, it is only to declare 
 that she had already thrust a state of war upon us. As a 
 peace question, it is q. clear one; for we are only punishing
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 151 
 
 individual breaches of the peace. As a war question, it is 
 equally clear ; for, in that case, we would seize not only 
 the offending vessels, but all other British vessels that we 
 could catch. What can be a more legitimate act of war 
 than to capture the enemy's vessels? That is one main 
 aim of warfare. The only question, then, is, shall our en 
 cmy be entitled to an advantage by making war covertly? 
 Tf she had declared it, of course, our plain duty is to cap- 
 ture all her vessels that we can. Shall we be restrained 
 from capturing them because she has done acts of war with- 
 out declaring war? If there is no war, we seize and pun- 
 ish ; if there is open war, we seize ; and shall we lose the 
 right to seize by reason of secret or covert war? It does 
 seem to me, however, that, after seizing the offending ves- 
 sels, we ought to detain them, without punishment, until we 
 know whether they are to be treated as malefactors, or as 
 prisoners or prizes of war not to let them loose to go to 
 doing us all the harm they may be able to do, but to detain 
 them as prisoners of war, or to punish them as offenders. 
 Hut I believe I shall cease to tax you on the war ques- 
 tion, which you doubtless understand too well to be enter- 
 tained by anything I can say on it. I think Mr. Toombs' 
 recent debates on the internal improvement question are 
 crushingly powerful. I have been delighted with his 
 speeches on that subject. In my humble judgment, no- 
 body in this country, now or formerly, has ever understood 
 that subject so well as he does. He, himself, gets better 
 on it the longer his mind runs on it. It looks like a Her- 
 culean labor and so it is but I do believe the power of 
 his arguments will burst up the abominable system. It 
 seems to me that the error is obliged to fall under the ter- 
 rible batter}- he has opened upon it. He is fighting it 
 alone, and I love to see him stand as the solitary cham- 
 pion. He is more than a match for them all 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, June 8, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Dickenson 
 
 (my overseer) is very ill indeed. I wrote you yesterday 
 that I had him brought up to my house to take care of him. 
 He was delirious all night, last night, and is still so. He
 
 152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 has no rationality about him. While I am writing, I have 
 Travis with him to keep him from tearing off a blister which 
 is drawing over his stomach and bowels. I have somebody 
 with him all the while; but nobody can control him, when 
 I am away, but Travis. Poor fellow! He is constantly 
 talking about his crop, and wanting his hat and clothes to 
 go to business. He is a very worthy young man, 1 think, 
 and I am very sorry for him. I sent for his father this 
 morning. He lives ten or twelve miles distant. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 | From !.. S. to A. II. S. | 
 
 SPARTA, June i i, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTH KR Dickenson, poor fellow, is dead. He 
 died last night a little after 10 o'clock. For more than 
 sixty hours, he had lain without any rational connection in 
 his thoughts, and he so continued to the last. He is to be 
 buried thirteen or fourteen miles from here, and I am going 
 to the burial. I want to return this evening, and go to my 
 plantation to-morrow. I have seven or eight cases of fever 
 there, but none bad. I think poor Dickenson killed him 
 self by keeping up so long after he \vas attacked. I don't 
 think that any of my negroes will have to encounter that 
 difficulty. Under these circumstances, it will be out of my 
 power to meet you at Crawfordvillc on your return home. 
 I trust you will come over here immediately. I have al- 
 ready written you that we are to have an adjourned court 
 here, next Monday, to try cases of Mr. Thomas', wherein 
 you are interested 
 
 [ From I... S. to A. II. S. | 
 
 SPAKTA. July 2, 185^. 
 
 DKAK BROTHER -Yesterday, 1 was thirty-five years old 
 just the half-way house in the road allotted to life. Manx- 
 break down long before they reach the goal, and very many 
 bcfore they attain the half-way house. 1 low much longer 
 I shall endure on the route, I cannot know 
 
 In the summer of iS6<S, the t\vo brothers took a recrea- 
 tive journey to tin- Northwest, passing by and stopping at
 
 JUDGE LTNTOX STEP H. FA'S. 153 
 
 Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Nashville, Mammoth 
 Cave, Louisville, Lexington, Ashland, where they were the 
 guests of the Hon. James B. Clay, the son of the great 
 statesman ; thence to Cincinnati, North Bend, Indianapolis. 
 Terre Haute and Chicago, returning by the Illinois Central 
 to Cairo, where they took steamer clown the Mississippi to 
 Memphis; thence the\- returned home by the Memphis & 
 Charleston Railroad, etc. They were absent four or five 
 weeks. This was the first travel, for recreation only, the 
 elder brother had ever taken. The following letter refers, 
 in part, to that travel : 
 
 ['From I,. S. to K. M. Johnston. ] 
 
 SPARTA, September 3, 1858. 
 
 MY DKAK DICK Again I am about to leave home; and 
 one of the last things I shall do, before getting off, is to 
 send you a word of remembrance and farewell. I have just 
 finished a long letter to Cosby the first one 1 have written 
 him since he went up the country. He has written to me 
 none at all. He had promised to write to me, and I had 
 resolved not to write to him until he had fulfilled his prom- 
 ise, but I have heard that the old fellow has been sick, and 
 my heart softens towards him. He and John DeYVitt are 
 now both at Dr. Connell's, and are both convalescent, as I 
 hear. But I mustn't run off the handle at the start; for I 
 haven't time to afford it; so I must, at once, answer some 
 points in your last letter. I mentioned to Kilic the subject 
 of his "speech," at Athens, the first time 1 saw him after 
 getting your account of it. He professed to be very well 
 satisfied with it: neither elated, as with a triumph, nor de- 
 pressed under a sense of failure. He seemed to think that 
 he had got over a hard place in very good order; and fur- 
 ther seemed to think that it was rather a sharp thing to do 
 that. He insisted on my telling him what von had written 
 me about the speech, and I rallied him on his anxiety about 
 your report, as an evidence that his own complacency on 
 the subject was assumed. He protested that it was a de- 
 cent, respectable speech though not exactly to be Called 
 a "hit "-and still insisted on hearing your account of it.
 
 154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH OF 
 
 I put him off by telling him I would read it to him the first 
 time he should be at my house. He has been here once 
 since, but did not call for the letter ; and so it now stands. 
 You ask me about our Northwestern trip, and about Doug- 
 las and his prospects. The trip was a pleasant one, and a 
 very remarkable one in one respect: We travelled about 
 twenty-five hundred miles, and never had an accident, never 
 lost a connection between routes, and were not delayed one 
 hour beyond the usual time of arrival at any place what- 
 ever. I may have made the same remark to you in my 
 last letter; for it is a thing that has rather dwelt on my 
 mind. As for Douglas, we did not sec him. We were ten 
 days in Chicago, while Healy was painting our pictures, 
 but Douglas was off in distant parts of the State, stumping 
 for dear life. I rather thought he would succeed ; but, re- 
 ally, I formed no satisfactory opinion on the subject. I was 
 very clear, however, that he ought to succeed in the fight 
 he has nmv on his hands. I certainly disapprove of his 
 course on Lecompton as much as anybody does; but I do 
 not like the mode of expressing my disapprobation of one 
 act, by electing over his head another man who backed him 
 to the fullest extent in that act besides his many 
 other damning sins from which Douglas is free. To beat 
 him with a worse man is rebuking him, not for doing badly, 
 but for not doing bad enough. Douglas is this day making 
 a bold, gallant and manly fight against the Black Republi- 
 can heresies of his opponent; and how any Southern man 
 can wish to see his defiant plume go down in the conflict is 
 passing strange to me ! He has my heart}' sympathies in 
 this fight I think some of the newspapers Dem- 
 ocratic as well as American have made asses of themselves 
 about Ellic's visit to Illinois. It had no more to do with 
 Douglas* election than it had to do with the moon ; he 
 talked about the election, and talked very freely, too, while 
 he was there ; and so the moon shone on him while he was 
 there, too; but he went there to talk about the election. 
 just as much as he went there for the moon to shine on 
 him, and no more. It is a great outrage on decency and 
 comfort, that a gentleman cannot be permitted to make a 
 visit of recreation and pleasure without being dogged by 
 the imputation of unworthy motives from friends as well as 
 foes. It is a shame. But it is of no consequence ; for
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 155 
 
 nothing that has been said about it has given him the least 
 uneasiness. He took it as coolly as a duck takes a shower. 
 
 I treated cases of typhoid fever among my negroes, and 
 last night the third death occurred. All three who died 
 were young and grown. There are two more very ill in- 
 deed. I have taken such thorough precautions that I hope 
 there will be no more cases. They have suffered greatly 
 from disease and from alarm, and I do feel most deeply for 
 them, and particularly for poor old Abram and Charlotte, 
 who have lost two children, and now have another at 
 death's door. The fatality in that particular family is 
 strange ; for no two of them, who have died, resided in the 
 same house, and one of them lived at Mr. Thomas', where 
 no other case of the disease has occurred. He was striker 
 in the blacksmith-shop, and only went home once a week 
 to see his parents and brothers and sisters. Your old 
 friend, Isaac, of the same family, has recovered from a hard 
 spell. Kindest remembrance to your wife and all the chil- 
 dren. Can't say now when I can be at Athens. 
 
 As ever, most truly yours, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 The speech referred to in the foregoing letter, concern- 
 ing the merits of which Mr. A. H. Stephens was curious to 
 ascertain the opinion of Professor Johnston, was that deliv- 
 ered before the Sophomore declaimers, at Athens, on acca- 
 sion of presenting the prizes to the successful competitors. 
 
 The canvass which Judge Douglas was then making 
 "stumping for dear life" was the celebrated one in Illi- 
 nois, between himself and Abraham Lincoln, for the United 
 States Senatorship. The result was the election of a Dem- 
 ocratic Legislature and the return of Douglas to the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 [ From L. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 26, 1858. 
 
 MY DEAR DICK "Auld lang syne," when you and I 
 were boys, some ill-natured person put out a report on my
 
 T56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH OF 
 
 old uncle Bird, that he had said that baptism with sand 
 would do as well as baptism with water. The old fellow 
 heard of it, and denounced the report as false ; indeed, he 
 went, in the glow of his honest wrath, so far as to declare 
 that it was a "d d lie." Years afterwards, I asked him 
 whether he had used the terrible epithet which I have just 
 quoted. I shall never forget the grandeur of the old man 
 as he rose and replied, "Yes, I did; and, cousin Linton, 
 it "iVas a d d lie it was so monstrous a lie that God Al- 
 mighty condemned it as soon as it was uttered." Now, I 
 have brought up this incident in the life of a good man, not 
 for the sake of any parallel between it and anything which 
 I am going to say, but simply as an authority for a little bit 
 of "cussin," which I am about to perpetrate, and which, I 
 think, I can explain away as effectually, at least, as he ex- 
 plained away his. The remark which I had in contempla- 
 tion to make, and which I do now utter, is simply this: 
 You are a rfaw>icdma.n. The oft-quoted, ever-to-bc-admired 
 and immortal Shakspeare said (through the mouth of a 
 character, to be sure, but still Shakspeare said it): 
 
 Now, you and 1 have been for sometime " laying on " in 
 scribbling to one another, and you have been the "first" 
 to cry, "Hold, enough! " So, on the authority of the im- 
 mortal bard, you arc "damned;" and, on the authority of 
 a great man in Israel, 1 am authori/.ed to pronounce you so. 
 I do remember me, that, in some' of my hasty effusions, I 
 dropped an indiscreet intimation, to the effect that I did not 
 expect you, in this the season ot your business pressure, to 
 answer all my scribblings; but surely you didn't take me to 
 be in earnest, did you? I thought you were too well ac- 
 quainted with that vile old sinner. Human Vanity, not to 
 know that he has a favorite trick of covering himself with 
 divers transparent pretensions to modest}- and humility. 
 Besides, 1 said I did not expect you to answer all my scrib- 
 blings, and you have presumed upon this to answer none. 
 Why, you are worse than Loren/.o Dow said the Calvinists 
 were. The Scriptures say, "Come unto me all that are 
 wean"," etc. ; but he said the Calvinists construed this to 
 mean, "Come unto me a part of ye," etc. ; and hence, his
 
 JUDHK UNTON STEPHENS. 157 
 
 common designation of them was, "The, A double 1 a 
 part people." I said you needn't answer all, and you have 
 construed it to mean that you needn't answer one ; hence, 
 you are an "A double 1 " one now; and so you are 
 worse than the Calvinists, inasmuch as a part may embrace 
 more than "one;" and you have, therefore, detracted 
 more than they did from the natural fullness and glory of 
 A double 1 all." So you see what a bad fellow you are, 
 and how fully justified I am in following old uncle Bird's 
 example in dealing with your case. So readeth a part of 
 the first chapter of the book of "Cussin," according to 
 Bird, Shakspeare and Dow. Look out for the rest of it, 
 unless you mend your ways. 
 
 I sat down with the intention to give you a sketch of an 
 amusing scene which 1 witnessed a few days ago between 
 two of our lady friends; but the Dow part of my discourse 
 was not anticipated at the start, and has run it to too great 
 a length to leave room for anything else ; besides, as I have 
 written so long a letter, with absolutely nothing in it, I have 
 a fancy to keep it undefiled, even to the end, by a single 
 semblance of anything which might mar the beaut}' of uni- 
 formity. The only exception which I shall allow is in sub- 
 scribing myself, 
 
 Yours, most truly, LINTON STKPHKNS. 
 
 [ From I.. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, November 15, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTH KR I shall probably 
 
 not return home from Glasscock before going to Athens. 
 I have seven cases to represent at the Supreme Court, if 
 Gibson should give me the brief in your Burkhalter case; 
 and 1 am defendant in error in all, except one from Hart 
 yes: there is another (making the eighth) from this county, 
 tried by Judge Cabaniss, where I am for plaintiff in error. 
 1 am also under a sort of promise to Tom Daniel to help 
 him argue the Pierce Bailey case; but I think I shall not do 
 it. 1 did not promise, but said I might do it, or something 
 to that effect. I don't know anybody for whom hanging 
 would be so good as for old P , and the temptation 
 is very strong to put in against him. It seems to me that 
 I am obliged to gain all the cases, except the one from
 
 158 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Hart; and as that was not my case until the present stage 
 of it, I believe I should not argue it but for one considera- 
 tion: it would be too bad a thing for the court to allow one 
 man to gain all his cases, having so many ; and I am rather 
 glad, therefore, of one bad one for them to throw off on. 
 That one, I trust, will prove a safety-valve. My next 
 weakest case is a new-trial case, from Warren. The Judge 
 granted it; but I am afraid they may reverse him. If that 
 were my only case, I should be very confident of their sus- 
 taining him ; but Pottle is against me in it, and he is against 
 me in several others, which I am obliged to gain and he to 
 lose. It is, therefore, dangerous. They will want to throw 
 him a bone, and I am afraid they may make that bone out 
 of my case 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 4, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your letter in 
 
 relation to Harry, and the list of your notes, I have laid 
 away with your will. Should it be the fortune of our lives 
 for Harry to fall to my care, your injunctions shall be ob- 
 served in regard to him, because they are your injunctions, 
 and because my own estimate of Harry is not below yours. 
 I sympathize most deeply in the vein of sadness which per- 
 vades your letter. My heart was very full when I left your 
 house, and I felt that it was nearly running over. 1 was 
 almost on the point of telling you, as we lay in bed the 
 night before, that I felt as if it were the last night we would 
 ever spend together. 1 did feel so; but I knew you were 
 sad, and I forebore to say one word to make you more so. 
 If I had given way at all, the dam would have burst and 
 the flood swept through 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 5, 1858. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have often 
 
 told you of my observation about things going in streaks or 
 schools. 1 had rather a striking instance of it the day I left 
 you. I bought a horse once, and lent him to Jimmy Cox, 
 at his request, and since then, I don't think I have ever had
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 $9 
 
 an application of exactly that kind until Mary made 
 
 hers. Well, I gave her fifty dollars towards buying her a 
 horse, the morning I left you. Before I got home, I met 
 
 N P , and he wanted me to buy him a horse; 
 
 and when I got home, I found a letter from B B , 
 
 wanting me to buy him a horse. Wasn't that a streak of 
 applications, for one day, in the single article of horses? 
 
 B B I flatly refused. I had already bought a 
 
 tract of land and put him on it, and I was satisfied that he 
 simply wanted me to maintain him in idleness. I signified 
 as much to him in my answer though not in the same 
 words I have used about it now and told him plainly that 
 I had done quite as much as I intended to do. As for 
 N , he assured me that what he wanted with a horse 
 was to move him to Florida, and I consented to oblige him 
 upon the idea that it would be a good investment. He is to 
 have the horse on the express condition that if he does not 
 go to Florida, (I will, however, give him the full benefit of 
 substituting any other place as far off,) the horse is to be 
 taken back. In this adventure, Mr. Thomas and I are co- 
 partners, entitled to equal profits, and bound to bear equal 
 
 losses. Mr. Thomas says he knows that N intends 
 
 to get the horse, and then have something to happen to 
 him, so he can't get off; and it was he who insisted on the 
 condition about returning tire horse. He long ago declared 
 
 that N should never have another cent out of him ; 
 
 but when I proposed the horse-scheme, he said I had come 
 at him in a shape that was irresistible, and he immediately 
 bethought him that he himself had an old mule that would 
 precisely answer the purpose. The reason why I proposed 
 
 the matter to Mr. Thomas was, that N had already 
 
 clone so, as he informed me, and his request, as expressed 
 to me, was, that Mr. Thomas and I jointly should furnish 
 the horse. He assured me that if we would, just for this 
 one time, overlook his wrong-doing towards us, (and he freely 
 admitted it had been manifold and grievous,) he would go 
 "clean off," and never be any further trouble to any of us. 
 
 So I confidently expect soon to see N strike for the 
 
 " Land of Flowers," drawn by a mule. I did not have the 
 heart to ask him about the efficacy of his remedy for fits. 
 Poor fellow ! He is incapable of taking care of himself, and 
 he has just capacity enough to prevent anybody else from
 
 l6o BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 taking care of him. He has an idea that he is a badly used 
 man, because people don't divide their estates with him; 
 and if it were done, he would come again in two years for 
 another division. There are a great many very close ap- 
 proximations to poor N , in this world; but he is, on 
 the whole, about the poorest specimen of his class that 1 
 have ever encountered 
 
 | From I.. S. to A. II. S. | 
 
 SPARTA, December 14, 1858. 
 
 DKAR BROTIIKK \Yhoop! I am out of the woods my 
 Answer is finished a long explanatory letter to Obadiah 
 Gibson is finished another to the Governor, and another 
 to the Attorney-General, are all, all finished, and now lying 
 before me, in three packages, read}' for the mail ; and 1 
 have clone it all in one day, sure enough, as 1 said I would, 
 if 1 could get a fair lick at it; and it is a very small day's 
 work at that. The Answer contains onlv six pages of this 
 same sized paper on which I am now writing. 1 think 1 have 
 packed it pretty well; and my Answer almost presents the 
 argument. 1 don't mean to say that I think much of it, for 
 1 do not. It is up to the case, but the case ain't uu/c/i. 
 When 1 got to the close of the last sentence above, except 
 l wo, they called me to supper, and while 1 was at supper, 
 Alfriend came. lie has just gone, and it is now 9 o'clock. 
 1 have a notion of going to bed sooner to-night than usual, 
 but how it may turn out is very doubtful. It is strange 
 how 1 do hate to go to bed, and how little I do sleep! 
 Last night, the clock struck one before 1 got to sleep, and 
 1 had then been in bed half an hour. I woke just after 
 three, and lay awake until 1 heard it strike six. After that, 
 1 got the most of my sleep. Last night was a pretty fail- 
 sample of the rest. The children also woke last night while 
 1 was restless and wakeful; but, supposing 1 that every- 
 body else was buried in profoundest slumber, little Emm 
 suddenly struck up a s<)/t'. I never heard her sing before, 
 and 1 thought it was Claude, who is quite a singer. So 1 
 called Claude, but there was no answer; the little one 
 turned into calling her, too -"Cordy," (so she calls her,) 
 " papa call you, Cordy!" and she soon had Claude, and 
 iiecky, too, awake with her. No light was struck, how-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. l6l 
 
 ever, and they all soon again subsided into silence and 
 sleep. Not so I. What more shall I write? I know not, 
 unless I pursue the present theme by giving you some of 
 the annoyances which keep me from sleep, or wake me 
 from it. I am reminded of them by Sport's squealing a.\. this 
 moment, and in the saloon. He literally squeals; it comes 
 a sudden, sharp, piercing squeal, which \vould infallibly 
 wake me, though it doesn't seem to affect other people so. 
 The cause of it is pains in his car. It is very annoying to 
 me, but my pity always predominates over my vexation. 
 I am truly sorry for the poor dog, and he often leads me to 
 remember poor Rio, too, in sorrow and pity. Another of 
 my evil genii is William's snoring. I can sleep under one 
 of his cannonades about as well as I could if a saw-mill was 
 making planks out of my body; but my main one is sleep- 
 lessness. Oh, the miserable, wakeful hours I have spent in 
 trying to drop the burden of the day, and get rid of thought 
 in the blessed oblivion of sleep ! And then, when nature 
 can maintain the struggle no longer, and at last takes refuge 
 in slumber, how brief the respite often is! Dreams come, 
 and sometimes take up and carry on the weary thoughts of 
 the day, or introduce strange vagaries of their own, which 
 are often not less tormenting; but, after all, the dreams 
 have a balancing in them ; for some of them are far sweeter 
 than sights or sounds that greet me during the day ; some, 
 too, are so strange as to entertain me afterwards with their 
 unaccountable whimsicalness. I dreamed, for instance, a 
 few nights ago, that you and I were dining with Judge 
 Story nobody else present. He brought a bottle (which 
 I thought was wine, of course) and said, "Here is a bottle 
 of first-rate dondy" (that's the word, "dondy, ") and I 
 thought, what is "dondy?" but you immediately said, 
 " Linton, I have often told you of dondy, and now you must 
 drink some. " I thought it very curious that you should 
 say you had often told me of what I had never heard men- 
 tioned before in my life ; and, still thinking it was some 
 kind of wine or spirits, I thought it was no less strange that 
 you should urge me (as your manner did) to drink it. I 
 tasted it, and said it tasted like apple-jelly; whereupon, you 
 and the Judge laughed very heartily. Why you laughed, 
 I never knew ; and, to this hour, I am utterly unenlight- 
 ened, by dreams or other agency, as to what "dondy" is. 
 16
 
 l62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Such was that dream pointless vagary and yet, it woke 
 me ; and long was it before I again fell to sleep. Life is a 
 weary, weary thing to me ! But I am going to bed soon 
 to-night; and so good-bye. 
 
 Affectionately. LINTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 In January, 1859, Mr. Stephens went on to Washington 
 City to argue the case of Alabama vs. Georgia, then pend 
 ing in the Supreme Court of the United States. From 
 that city, he writes to his friend Johnston: 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., January 13, 1859. 
 MY DEAR DICK Your letter of the 8th instant was re- 
 ceived to-day, saying that you expected to return to Athens 
 the following Monday. Already, no doubt, you have gone 
 from Sparta. At my distance from both places, it might 
 seem that it would be a matter of indifference with me at 
 which place you ma}' be, but it is not so. It is a sad thing 
 to think you have gone away from the place that knew you 
 
 so well Has the obituary notice of 
 
 your mother yet appeared in the Christian Index? I sup- 
 pose it appeared in the paper which ought to have come to 
 Sparta the day before I left home, but which had not come 
 when I left. I expected it to appear in the paper of the 
 
 week before, as it had time to do, but it did not 
 
 The case which I came here to try cannot be heard until 
 the second Monday in February, and ma}' not be heard 
 then. The opposite side have proposed to me that as their 
 earliest time, and it will be accepted by our side, if (iibson 
 consents. lie is not here, and has given me no intimation 
 of an intention to come. 1 find that the time of hearing 
 cases of original jurisdiction (in which only States and 
 public ministers are parties, you know) is fixed by content, 
 out of deference to the dignity of the parties concerned; 
 and I, of course, do not feel at liberty to agree to any time 
 without consulting my associate. 1 am almost tempted to 
 say that I will not argue it until the second Monday in next 
 December, and go straight home. I shall remain here a few 
 days longer to make up my mind on that point, and in the 
 hope of getting some money from home wherewith to buy 
 some books. Speaking of books : I have not bought either of
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 163 
 
 the two novels which you commended to me. I inquired 
 in all the book-stores here for " Debit and Credit," but none 
 of them had it. For the life of me, I could not think of 
 the name of the other one; and so, as yet, I don't know 
 whether they have Wilhelm Meistcr's "Apprenticeship" or 
 not. When I finish this letter, and one or two more to 
 those at home, I shall take another excursion among the 
 book-stores to find out -being now refreshed, as to the 
 name, by your letter. I delivered your message to Kllic 
 about your expectation, founded on a parting promise, that 
 he would write to you. He said he had a distinct recollec- 
 tion of the parting interview between him and you, and that 
 his understanding was that you were to write first. 1 sim- 
 ply replied, that when a fellow is caught in a scrape from 
 his own rcmissness, there is nothing more natural than for 
 him to try to at least divide the blame with somebody else 
 by getting up a squabble at which he laughed and so it 
 passed off with an additional remark from him, that he had 
 thought of writing to you very often, and had wondered 
 why he had not heard from you. Your letter was my first 
 news of Fed Brooking's death. Poor old fellow! There is 
 more and more desolation. Most deeply do I feel for his 
 poor old mother; she is now ruined and forlorn. Life is 
 despoiled of all its beauty, and her little remnant of exist- 
 ence is but a mockery of life. Her poor, tottering frame 
 will linger among us yet a little while, but her heart is not 
 here. " Her heart is awa' ! her heart is awa' ! " May God 
 have mercy upon the stricken hearts everywhere that will 
 
 mourn, and will not be comforted! If I had 
 
 been elected to Congress the first race, I should have liked 
 it, I have but little doubt ; but I am now satisfied that it 
 would not have suited me since then, nor ever will suit me 
 
 again. Good-bye 
 
 Yours, most truly, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [ From I,. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., January 22, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR DICK I am glad that you had decided to send 
 to this place your answer to my last letter ; for, sure enough, 
 I was still here this morning to receive and welcome it. It 
 did me much good, because it breathes such strong and
 
 164 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 friendly interest in my welfare Without 
 
 an accident, I shall start home Monday night next. Yes- 
 terday, we took an order of court, setting our case clown 
 for a hearing on the second Monday of next December. I 
 should have started home last night but for the prospect 
 of spending Sunday at the dull little place, called Kings- 
 ville, in South Carolina. The weather also is bad for trav- 
 eling just now. There was a great fall of rain here yester- 
 day; and, in consequence of it, brother expresses some ap- 
 prehensions about the safety of the railroads. It will, how- 
 ever, have to be very extraordinary weather which detains 
 me longer than Monday night this being Saturday so 
 your next must be sent to Sparta sent home. I got a 
 letter, last night, telling me that my children were well. I 
 have been disappointed in the pleasure of my sojourn here, 
 and yet, I am loth to leave. Night before last, I heard the 
 famous Piccoloinini. She is a good singer, but her chief 
 charms are outside of her singing: it is her beauty and her 
 acting. The latter is admirable. She sang a little English 
 song "I Dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls," etc. and her 
 acting in it was irresistible coquettish and winning in a 
 high degree. Her pouting was capital. I was pleased with 
 her far beyond my expectations, and beyond the pleasure 
 I ever received from any other musical wonder. I have 
 been to see Mrs. Craig twice since I have been here She 
 is staying at the President's. I saw Miss Lane both times. 
 I like her very much. She is sensible, modest, and, I 
 should think, very amiable 
 
 In May, 1859, Judge Charles J. McDonald, in conse- 
 quence of advancing age and infirmity, resigned the posi- 
 tion he occupied and adorned on the Supreme Bench of 
 Georgia. Governor Brown appointed Linton Stephens to 
 fill the vacancy thereby occasioned. He was the youngest 
 man that ever sat upon the bench of that court in Georgia- 
 he had not completed his thirty-sixth year ; he was the 
 youngest lawyer he had been at the Bar but little over 
 thirteen years; and, in the opinion of many, competent to 
 pronounce upon the subject, the ablest Judge: high enco- 
 mium ; yet, I believe, severely just. His published deci-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 165 
 
 sions are models of logic cogent, compact, Attic the per- 
 fection of judicial eloquence. But his claim and title to the 
 character of a great judge have been portrayed by a pen 
 dipped in the "Well of old English, undefiled " of one 
 whose intimate knowledge of the subject he handles per- 
 fect candor, sharp, critical acumen, and rare fitness, in all 
 respects, for such a performance will relieve the tedium 
 of my narrative : I gladly avail myself of the obliging kind- 
 ness of the Hon. Logan E. Bleckley, long the learned head 
 of the Atlanta Bar now Associate Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of Georgia for the following: 
 
 ESTIMATE OF HON. LINTON STEPHENS AS A JUDGE, FOUNDED 
 ON HIS JUDICIAL OPINIONS, PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA RE- 
 PORTS. VOLS. 28, 29 AND 30: 
 
 It was not the lot of Judge Stephens to occupy the bench 
 at a time when exceptionably great questions were pre- 
 sented to the Supreme Court for adjudication. Indeed, it 
 may be doubted whether the points that came before him, 
 taken in the aggregate, were of average magnitude or mo- 
 ment. He delivered not a single opinion on the principles 
 of Constitutional law. Only three times did he have occa- 
 sion even to mention the Constitution twice in discussing 
 the agreement of statutes witii their titles, and once in the 
 still more narrow inquiry as to what term oft 1 e court, with 
 reference to the return of writs of error, was to be regarded 
 as the first term, and the effect of failure to make return in 
 due season. The cases with which he dealt were such only 
 as make their appearance in ordinary times, and represent 
 the ordinary current of judicial business, touching contracts, 
 wills, crimes, the practice of the courts, and the duty of 
 officers. He was thus without the advantage of great pub- 
 lic questions upon which to found a reputation. Neither 
 was he long enough in office to add anything to his judicial 
 stature by the mere force of experience and continued ser- 
 vice. He presided, altogether, but a little more than one 
 year, havi' '^ come in with May tern, 1859, and gone out 
 with June term, 1860. What mark he ma.de as a judge was 
 due, therefore, to what he was when he came to the bench
 
 1 66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 to his learning as a lawyer, and his sheer fitness for judicial 
 functions not, in any degree, to the materials on which he 
 wrought, or to long-continuance in labor. His earl}' opin- 
 ions ar~e quite as good as his later ones the first as good as 
 the last. Indeed, he was ripe and ready for the bench at 
 his first sitting, and needed no judicial education. lie was 
 not a pupil, but a master. 
 
 In the second month of his service, a case was decided 
 by a majority of the court contrary to his views of the law; 
 and his dissenting opinion (the only one which he ever had 
 occasion to deliver) is a model of strength and clearness. 
 The case was that of Hill rs. The State, reported in 2<S Ga. 
 R., 604; and the rule for which he contended was, that on 
 an indictment for murder, charging the prisoner with the 
 offense as principal in the first degree, it was not compe- 
 tent to convict him if, in fact, he was guilt}" as a principal 
 in the second degree. He insisted that there is a substan- 
 tial difference, under our penal code, between being the 
 actual perpetrator of the crime, and being present, aiding 
 and abetting in its commission by another. The reasons 
 for his dissent from the judgment of his learned colleagues 
 are so forcible in themselves, and stated by him with such 
 overwhelming power, that they have exerted a controlling 
 influence over subsequent decisions of the court. See 36 
 Ga. R. , 222; 40 Ga. R., 120. It is, perhaps, not going too 
 far to say that the majority opinion, in so far as it conflicts 
 with his, stands virtually overruled, and that the principle 
 of his opinion is now established as law. In announcing 
 his conclusion, that the verdict ought to be set aside, 
 there is a degree of pith and point in his language quite 
 characteristic: "The verdict is not the tnit/i. I do not 
 know what more can be said against any verdict." An- 
 other able opinion, which he delivered in the same month, 
 was upon the question, whether a deed to laud, made in the 
 face of adverse possession, was void? On this point, there 
 had been earl}' decisions in the affirmative, and later ones 
 in the negative the former on the line of Judge' Lumpkin's 
 opinion, and the latter on the line of Judge Benning's. 
 Judge Stephens agreed with Judge Lumpkin, and thus re- 
 stored the earlv rule ; but he placed his judgment entirely 
 on the common law, and not at all on the adoption of the 
 statute of 32 Henry V11I. He was not the first judge to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPITKXS. 1 67 
 
 suggest the application of the common law to the question, 
 but was the first to turn the statute of Henry out of the 
 dispute. The unanswerable argument of Judge Bcnning 
 against the application of that statute to the condition and 
 circumstances of our Colonial population, commanded his 
 concurrence and frank acknowledgment ; but he contended, 
 nevertheless, that conveyances made by a claimant, out of 
 possession, while an adverse claimant was in possession, 
 were void by a rule of the common law, and that the rule 
 (not as modified by the statute, but the naked rule itself) 
 came over with our ancestors, and was applicable to their 
 situation. In a few pointed sentences, he demonstrated 
 the policy of discouraging, in a new country, trade in occu- 
 pied lands, under circumstances where immediate posses- 
 sion could not be given to the purchaser, and of inducing 
 purchasers to push out into vacant territory and get land 
 itself, instead of the mere chance for it at the end of a pro- 
 tracted and expensive litigation. Sec 29 Ga. R., 121. 
 
 Judge Benning, who was so well prepared on the statute 
 of Henry, took time to consider before settling down into 
 a final position on this theory in reference to the common 
 law. After examination, he hurled at it his powerful dis- 
 senting opinion, in Gresham i>s. Webb and Williams, 29 
 Ga. R., 320; but the doctrine stood as established, until 
 changed by act of the Legislature. From the time of this 
 last case until the present, it has never been made a ques- 
 tion before the Supreme Court, whether, prior to the new 
 statute, a deed executed, pending an adverse holding, was or 
 was not void. From this circumstance, the inference may be 
 drawn that the argument of Judge Stephens was convincing 
 to the professional mind of the State, and that even the 
 great ability of Judge Benning failed to supply the logic 
 and learning requisite for successful reply. 
 
 In January, 1860, was decided the case of Jones vs. The 
 State, 29 Ga. R., 594 -the case, of all others, which will 
 probably be the longest associated with the name and fame 
 of Judge Stephens. The main question was, as to the 
 meaning of the rule that drunkenness is no excuse for crime ; 
 and Judge Stephens, in the splendid opinion which he de- 
 livered for a majority of the court, (himself and Judge 
 Lumpkin,) undertook to show how and why drunkenness, 
 as a fact, may be allowed to avail the accused, even upon
 
 1 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the question of malice, without trenching, in the least, upon 
 that rule, properly understood. That drunkenness might 
 be urged to disprove the physical constituents of crime, was 
 probably never doubted ; but with reference to the mental 
 constituents, the distinction between ascertaining them and 
 excusing them has not always been discerned. It \vas the 
 great achievement of Judge Stephens, in this opinion, to 
 bring out that distinction, and display it in the broadest 
 legal daylight. Until there is a case of crime ascertained in 
 all its elements mental as well as physical there is noth- 
 ing to excuse; and so long as the process is one of investi- 
 gation, and not of palliation, the drunkenness of the ac- 
 cused, just as any other fact, may be relevant on either 
 branch, or on both branches, of the alleged criminal action. 
 Not to screen the accused from responsibility for what he- 
 has done, but to find out exactly what his deed was, and 
 how to grade it in the scale of legal offenses, which scale is 
 precisely the same for all, whether drunk or sober, is the 
 purpose for which drunkenness is to be considered. What- 
 ever demerit there is in drunkenness, it is not to be stripped 
 of the protection which everything in God's universe is en- 
 titled to claim the protection of truth. If, in very truth, 
 there was a crime, notwithstanding the drunkenness, then 
 should drunkenness count as nothing; but if the fact of 
 drunkenness shows there was no crime, or would have been 
 none if the same mental and physical elements had coin- 
 cided without the drunkenness, then should the drunken- 
 ness, as evidence, though not as excuse, furnish a ground 
 of acquittal. 
 
 Without reading carefully the opinion of Judge Stephens 
 in this case, it is quite impossible for any person to take 
 his full measure as a judge. It may be doubted whether 
 half a dozen of his contemporaries on the bench could have 
 written that opinion. 
 
 Two classes of persons arc, however, liable to misunder- 
 stand it, and misconceive its whole scope and bearing: 
 these are the very inattentive and the very timid. If it is 
 not read with attention, it will break into fragments; and, 
 to be comprehended, being a connected argument, its con- 
 nections must be preserved. So, if it be read by one in a 
 nervous state of apprehension, as to the d-'.nger of tender- 
 ness to drunken men, it will probably fail of its due effect,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 169 
 
 through seeming, to a mind in such a state, more tender to 
 them than it really is. 
 
 The capacity of Judge Stephens to construe conveyances, 
 and apply the dry law of estates, may be seen by reference 
 to the following cases: Brown vs. Weaver, 28 Ga. R. , 377; 
 Adams vs. Guerrard, 29 Ga. R., 651 ; Mason vs. Deese, 30 
 Ga. R., 308; Burton vs. Black, 2^638; Tennille vs. Ford, 
 id 707 ; and Springer vs. Congleton, id 9/6. The opinion 
 in Burton vs. Black is especially able, and, both in sub- 
 stance and in style, would have satisfied Lord Coke himself. 
 There is reason to think that, in the estimation of Judge 
 Stephens, that opinion ranked above any other which he 
 ever delivered not excepting even the one in Jones vs. 
 The State. An example of an interesting question, well 
 treated, in less than two pages, is seen in Springer vs. Con- 
 gleton. Very many of the minor opinions are well worthy 
 of notice, though but few of them can be commented on here. 
 Striking sentences occur in several, not to quote some of 
 which would be to omit touches essential to accuracy in 
 drawing the portrait which this paper is designed to reflect. 
 In one case, he says : " We think there was a capital judge, 
 but no law." 29 Ga., 56. In another: "Argumentative- 
 ness may be a good objection against an answer, but it will 
 scarce!}' serve against a speech;" and "He who has rea- 
 sons for his judgment is, at least, as good a witness as he 
 who has none." Id 82. In another: "Communications 
 between husband and wife are protected forever. This is 
 necessary to the preservation of that perfect confidence and 
 trust which should characterize and bless the relation of 
 man and wife. Each must feel that the other is a safe and 
 sacred depository of all secrets ; and the protection which the 
 law holds over the dead is the very source of greatest secu- 
 rity to all the living. " * Id 470. In another : ' ' Estates, like 
 everything else in life, are generally better off in the hands 
 of their friends than in the hands of their enemies." Id 519. 
 
 *This sentence occurs in the judgment of the court, pronounced in the 
 case of Lingo i's. The State ; he was indicted for murder. Those present 
 when it was delivered can never forget how Judge Stephens thrilled the 
 audience, by the awful grandeur of his manner, when he uttered the 
 words: "Thank God! there is no running law in Georgia!" The sen- 
 tence does not appear in the printed dec'sion. ED,
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 In another: "The law docs allow the owner, overseer or 
 employer of the slave to furnish him such quantity as the 
 oii'iier, overseer or employer may deem beneficial to the slave's 
 health; but the law has not done so foolish a thing 1 as to 
 put this same discretion in him who sells the spirits, nor 
 can it be put there by delegation from him who has it. If 
 it were placed there, the quantity supplied would generally 
 depend much less upon its reasonableness or healthfulness 
 than upon the amount of money the slave might happen to 
 have. How man}' '''vendors would consider that a purchaser 
 was transcending the limits of reason, or health, so Ions, 
 he was paying for all he got?" Id 522. In another: 
 was said that any girl, with or without an estate, has a ri 
 to get relieved of a toothache, and make her guardian pay 
 for it. If this doctrine is conceded in favor of gallantry, 
 (and it can hardly be conceded on any other score,) still, 
 some care must be taken not to make the guardian pa}' for 
 anything but relieving the toothache. Now, it is very pos- 
 sible that the toothache, in this young lady's case, could 
 have been relieved, as the toothache of her grandmother 
 had no doubt often been relieved, by a plug of cotton with 
 a little laudanum on it, instead of fine plugs of gold." 30 
 Ga., 35. In another: "Surely there ought to be some 
 compensation for the suffering endured. The pain from 
 the wounds must have been great, and the dread of the ap- 
 proaching collision between the two engines, though brief, 
 must have been terrible. Mental agony has been known 
 to turn a head gray in a night, and gray hairs are often but 
 the effervescence of some great mental anguish." Id 146. 
 In another: "Proof of hand-writing is, in its nature, the 
 identification of an acquaintance." Id 476. In another: 
 " What more verity is there in a gesture, or exclamation of 
 surprise, than in plain words, expressing the same emotion? 
 It would be exceedingly difficult to distinguish this from 
 the case of spoken language ; it is acted language the one 
 being quite as voluntary as the other." 29 Ga., 285. In 
 another: "A privy in estate is a successor to the same 
 estate not to a different estate in the same property." Id 
 374. In another: "The question 1 ask is, whether all 
 promises on which the parties rely must not be in the writ- 
 ing I do not mean representations f These last relate to the 
 truth of existing or past facts, and not to engagements in the
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I/ 1 
 
 future but promises, if they are to have any efficacy, must 
 have it in the future." Id 461. In another: "The pen- 
 alty falls not on him who shoots and kills, but on him who 
 shoots and misses. Its penalty, therefore, seems to be 
 leveled at bad shooting. " 28Ga.,395. In another: "But 
 it was said they had ceased to be counsel when they were 
 served. The reply is, that under the statute prescribing 
 service on attorneys, for the purpose of receiving service, 
 they couldnt cease. " 29 Ga., 29. 
 
 The opinion in Bowie vs. Maddox and Goldsmith, 29 Ga., 
 285, deserves attention as a specimen of carving all the law 
 in the case, as it were, into slices, with a few strokes of the 
 knife, and making an end of the matter at once. Three 
 points are not only ruled, but reasoned out exhaustively, in 
 less than a page and a quarter. Roddy and Wife vs. Cox, 
 id 298, shows how the body of a case can be squeezed until 
 the points protrude like broken bones. Prince and Stafford 
 vs. The State, 30 Ga., 27, shows as tight a grip not used 
 for exposing points, but for deciding: "It may be that a 
 riot was brewing ; but, if so, Prince spoiled the riot by an 
 assault and battery." Id. 
 
 Among the most excellent opinions is that in Lively i'S. 
 Harwell, 29 Ga., 509, touching the revocation and probate 
 of wills. In stating the views of himself and fudge Ben- 
 ning, on a point not directly in judgment namely, whether 
 the simple revocation of a subsequent will revives a prior 
 revoked one lie makes a presentation of the reason for 
 holding the negative, that ought to settle the question 
 for all time in all parts of the world. Nothing can possibly 
 be more conclusive. 
 
 Though he delivered but one dissenting opinion, proper, 
 he differed with a majority of the court upon one of the 
 points in another case- that of Kctor rs. Welsh and Ector. 
 29 Ga. , 443. The point was one of practice, and turned 
 on the construction of a statute which declared that, unless 
 exceptions to interrogatories and the answers of witnesses, 
 examined under commission, were taken and determined 
 before submitting the case to the jury, the testimony should 
 be received, subject only to objections for irrelevancy. He 
 contended that hearsay was to be treated as irrelevant tes- 
 timony, and was open to objection at any time on that 
 ground. The argument which he made on this line, drawn
 
 1/2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 from the object and purpose of the statute, is very cogent, 
 and, in the absence of anything to countervail it, from the 
 other members of the court, seems absolutely convincing. 
 
 In still another case Mason vs. Deese, 30 Ga., 308 
 each one of the judges had his separate views, and the 
 judgment was formed by Judge Stephens yielding to the 
 course favored by Judge Lumpkin, which was a kind of 
 middle ground. The question was on the construction of 
 a marriage settlement, and related to the exclusion of the 
 husband from the property after the wife's death. Judge 
 Stephens thought he was excluded; Judge Lyon thought 
 he was not; and Judge Lumpkin thought it was not clear 
 either way, on the lace of the instrument, and that the 
 paper should be referred to a jury for construction in the 
 light of the surrounding circumstances. This was done. 
 In all other instances of a divided court, the concurring 
 judges were Stephens and Lumpkin the dissenting judge, 
 Benning or Lyon. 
 
 The whole number of opinions delivered by Judge Ste- 
 phens is one hundred and fifty-three ; and, assuming that 
 his colleagues each delivered as many, the cases in 
 which he presided would number about four hundred and 
 fifty. One hundred and thirty of his opinions contain no 
 citation of authority. Those citing authority refer chiefly 
 to the Georgia Reports; Blackstone is ciiecl three times; 
 Jarman on Wills, twice; Story on Agency, twice; Adams 
 on Ejectment, once ; and an English Common Law Report, 
 once. He respected authority, but the use he had for it 
 was as a guide to principles not as a prop on which to rest 
 his judgments. When the principles were found, he rested 
 his judgment on tlicni, and not on the authorities that had 
 led to their discovery. When he could render a legal rea- 
 son, he preferred to state the reason itself rather than cite 
 the volumes and pages from which he had drawn it. He 
 thus gratified his taste for brevity and directness; for he 
 had the power of condensing the substance of many au- 
 thorities into a few sentences; and, I doubt not, he was 
 averse to that appearance of judicial pedantry which be- 
 longs to parading books and eases in long strings of cita- 
 tion. I am tempted to think that he must have prescribed 
 to himself some very rigid rule on th~ subject; for there is 
 nothing more striking than the extreme rareness of his di-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 173 
 
 rect appeals to authority ; yet, he made calls for it more 
 than once, not satisfied with what had been produced. See 
 29 Ga., 310, 449, 465, 469, 470. His precise position with 
 reference to precedents may be understood by quoting from 
 his opinions. In one case, he says: "I thought, and still 
 think, that the case is not within that statute, upon a sound 
 and safe construction of it ; but my colleagues informed me 
 that a different construction had prevailed in the courts for 
 a great number of years, and with entire uniformity, to the 
 extent of their knowledge on the subject. I was not pre- 
 pared to dispute it, and, therefore, acquiesced in what 
 seemed to be established by authority." 30 Ga., 8. In 
 another case, in refusing to interfere with a former decision 
 of the court, he says: "Without considering its original 
 propriety, the decision ought to be maintained noiv. It was 
 made nine years ago, and attracted the universal attention 
 of the profession at the time. The Legislature, with full 
 knowledge of the decision for nine years, not having changed 
 the law declared by it, may fairly be considered as having 
 acquiesced in it. The great body of the common law derives 
 its authority from the decisions of courts and legislative ac- 
 quiescence in them." Id 232. In another case : "Wheth- 
 er the rule be a reasonable one or not is not the question ; 
 it is too firmly fixed in the law to be disturbed by courts. 
 It is a case for the Legislature only." Id 280. But, in his 
 estimation, there were two classes of precedents one of 
 them strong and the other very feeble. On page 104, of 
 the 29th Georgia Reports, he says: "A decision, pro- 
 nounced upon full argument and consideration, is justly en- 
 titled to great weight indeed, to a controlling influence on 
 subsequent decisions; but such decisions as this court, from 
 the nature of its organization, is sometimes obliged to ren- 
 der, without argument and on short consideration, ought, 
 in my judgment, to carry but slight authority for subse- 
 quent decisions." His view of the relation of principle to 
 precedent is admirably stated in the same volume on page 
 515: " Where a principle is sound, it ought to be carried to 
 all strictly analogous cases, unless stringent authority for- 
 bids ; but if the principle be unsound, analogy ought not to 
 be allowed to carry it to a single case beyond the impera- 
 tive demands of authority the cases in which it has been 
 already planted by decisions."
 
 174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 The legal force and literary excellence of his opinions are 
 so interwoven that they strike the attention in almost equal 
 degree. He had the grace, as well as the power, of logic; 
 his strength was chaste and elegant. Never ornate, but 
 always correct, he makes the impression of an artist who is 
 so masterly in drawing that he has no use for colors. He 
 simply engraves never paints. That his mind was sharp 
 without being narrow, and broad without being blunt, con- 
 stituted, I think, his great intellectual characteristic. When 
 he concentrated, he did not con tract ; and when he expanded, 
 he did not become vague. His thoughts moved, with equal 
 vigor and accuracy, inward to the very center, or outward 
 to the very circumference. He could both grasp and pierce ; 
 he seized his logical prey, and then slaughtered it. However 
 extended the outlines of his subject, he reached out to them 
 in all directions, and penetrated every inward part. I wen 
 his briefest opinions are exhaustive. The beginning and 
 the end may be ever so close, but you feel that what lies 
 between them is ail that should have been interposed that 
 greater fullness would have been artificial cramming, and 
 not natural growth. There is a staid relevancy in all he 
 writes no straying into sentiment, and no swelling into 
 passion. You would not know, from anything he has re- 
 corded, that he had any hopes or fears, any pit}', any anger, 
 any indignation- or that he knew of any abuses to correct, 
 or any reforms to introduce. He champions no cause, no 
 class, and attacks nothing but error in the record. The 
 prominent moral trait which he discloses to us is love of 
 truth, evincing, in himself, perfect truthfulness of character. 
 He was genuine, through and through no counterfeit no 
 pretender no humbug. 
 
 Such a man was fit and worthy to preside in an}' court; 
 and had he made judicial administration the chief labor of 
 his life, he would have gone down to posterity as a very 
 illustrious judge. 
 
 L. K. BI.KCKI.KV. 
 
 When Mr. Stephens was appointed to the office of Just- 
 ice of the Supreme Court, one partisan gazette in the State- 
 expressed strong dissatisfaction thereat; the burthen of 
 complaint and criticism was "the atrocious crime of being
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1/5 
 
 a young man," as the elder Pitt said in his reply to Wai- 
 pole. 
 
 One person of the legal profession, commenting on the 
 appointment and the appointee, said, in language he deemed, 
 doubtless, classical, but which "Cosby" certainly consid- 
 ered coarse: "Stephens is a leather-headed fop." 
 
 Professor Johnston furnished to another newspaper, in 
 vindication of the prudence and propriety of Governor 
 Brown's action, "the piece " alluded to in the following 
 letter: 
 
 SPARTA, June 4, 1859. 
 
 DEAR DICK The date at which I am actually writing is 
 the loth; but I preserve the caption, which I truly dated 
 the 4th, in order that you may see the beginning of a good 
 intention, which broke down sadly early on the road. I 
 wrote "Dear Dick," supposing that I had plenty to say, 
 but in truth not a word could I summon to my aid. I was 
 lazy incontinently lazy, as the malicious world would say 
 but I, understanding the matter much better than the world, 
 only choose to say that I was dull, heavy and stupid ; and, 
 to confess the truth, I am not much better off now. . . . 
 
 Dick, your piece about me is very kind and very hand- 
 some ; but I do believe there is hardly more than one or 
 two other men in the world who would have laid it on s& 
 thick. It was just like you ; but I am perfectly, unaffect- 
 edly sincere in saying that I believe you said more for me 
 than I deserve. I think 5-011 are in a woful minorit5 r in 5'our 
 opinions of me I mean, in the extent to which \ r ou go. 
 Everybody knows who wrote it. The initials, of course, 
 give a read}' clue to the authorship ; but I do believe, Dick, 
 that it has stronger ear-marks than the initials and eveiy- 
 bod} 7 would have known it aii5'how. One thing surprised 
 me a little: and that was the exactness with which 5-011 
 stated facts in m\ r histoiy. I didn't suppose that some of 
 the things 5'ou mention had made any abiding impression 
 on the mind of anybody. Your facts will do; but when it 
 comes to 5-0111" opinions and judgments, let me sa} r , that if 
 5'ou are ever called on to make affidavit to them, I beg 5'ou 
 to qualify, very decidedly, with the legal phrase, "Accord-
 
 176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ing to the best of my knowledge and belief," and especially 
 your "belief;" for truly, I believe, in this case, your faith 
 is very superior to your knowledge. I feel as if you had 
 stuck a false label on me ; and I feel very much like a pre- 
 tender, unless I proclaim, as I go along, that yon have done 
 it, and that I am not responsible for it, and don't believe in 
 it. But, by the way, was ever Wirt a judge? I think 
 not ; but I may be mistaken. I see that Gaskill, of the 
 Atlanta Intelligencer, gives the piece his indorsement very 
 heartily, from his knowledge of yon ; and I see, also, that 
 he says the Opposition Griffin paper "has been pitching 
 into me in a very uncalled-for and unkind manner." I don't 
 mind that; for I don't know the fellow, and the best part 
 of it is, he doesn't know me. He said he understood that 
 
 Judge II , when the news of my appointment reached 
 
 Newnan, said I was a "leather-headed fop." Cosby was 
 mighty mad about it. The fact is, the old fellow turned 
 pale when he told me about it. He seemed in much better 
 spirits, and took a new and brighter view of the subject 
 when he saw me laugh and make merry over it. If the 
 Judge had contented himself with the "leather-headed," he 
 might have hurt me ; but when he stuck on the " fop," the 
 thing became preposterous. That showed malice; and I 
 know he was speaking not from knowledge, but from envy. 
 Malice, like ambition, often, and most generally, overleaps 
 itself. A moderate thrust might have gone home; but the 
 very fury of the blow carried it over my head. "When he 
 calls me a "leather-headed fop," I laugh at him; but if he 
 had simply called me "leather-headed," I suspect I should 
 feel inclined to knock him. You remember the anecdote of 
 Mr. Petigru: When a fellow called him a liar, he passed it 
 by as a thing nobody would believe; but when the fellow 
 said he was a " d d old Federalist," he knocked him down ; 
 for he said he didn't know but what some people might be 
 d d enough fools to believe it 
 
 The following reminiscences, furnished by Professor John- 
 ston, give an insight into the milder features of Mr. Stephens' 
 character: his pure and heart}' domestic affections ; his true 
 and rare social virtues ; his high and delicate appreciation 
 of the offices of friendship, and of the more sacred relations 
 and duties, whereof Home is the endeared exemplification :
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I// 
 
 PEN Lucv, WAVERLY, Mo., October 17, 1873. 
 MY DEAR COLONEL I have been thinking- of your re- 
 quest that I should send you some "reminiscences" of our 
 departed friend, Linton Stephens. I hardly know where to 
 begin, and what are the things most suitable to speak about 
 
 o o i 
 
 in the case of such a man as Linton Stephens. If I could 
 be with you, and we could have time for a long talk, I have 
 no doubt that I could interest you with many anecdotes of 
 his private life, and then you might afterwards so frame 
 them as to make them interesting to the public in your 
 forthcoming memoir. I can scarcely hope to do so in the 
 limited time at my disposal for this purpose. 
 
 But I conclude to send you a short sketch as I knew him 
 at lioinc. I do this more readily, because, with all my ad- 
 miration for the position which he held in public, it was 
 while lie was at Jiouic that I admired him most. Nor was 
 this great admiration due only, or mostly, to our long inti- 
 mate, and never-broken, and never-interrupted friendship. 
 Such a friendship, indeed, gave me opportunities superior 
 to those of most men, even among his neighbers, of seeing 
 and knowing what he was in private ; but had I been less 
 intimate with him, I could not have failed, while living so 
 long in his neighborhood, to see and know enough of the 
 life which he led there to fully justify the preference which I 
 have expressed. Though he and I were born in a few miles 
 of each other, yet, from the fact of our having been sent to 
 different schools and colleges, we clicl not become acquainted 
 until after we had grown up and come to the bar. Being a 
 year or two younger than myself, he came in a little later. 
 When he first began to attend our Hancock courts, at Sparta, 
 1 was then a partner of the late Judge James Thomas, whose 
 only daughter, Mrs. Bell, Linton married in the year 1852. 
 He then made Sparta, as you know, his home, and ever 
 afterwards resided there. Before this time, however, our 
 intimacy had begun, and with it the love and admiration 
 on my part, both of which steadily increased to the last. 
 I well remember how I was first impressed by his manners, 
 and that I little expected to be ever so related to him as I 
 afterwards became. His sternness of countenance, with his 
 usual taciturnity, and his apparent entire disregard of the 
 value of making a good impression on the minds of others 
 when he spoke at all, induced me to regard him as misan- 
 
 17
 
 178 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 thropical, and to suspect him to be incapable of forming 
 strong attachments to persons or things; but I soon dis- 
 covered I had made a mistake ; that under that grave ex- 
 terior, and accompanying, harmoniously, the thoughtful- 
 ness often descending to melancholy, which had formed it 
 so, there was an abundance of that sort of tenderness which 
 led him to love deeply, to pity cordially, and a humor 
 which, in genuineness and richness, I have seldom seen 
 equaled. 
 
 The people of Hancock cordially received him ; and, being 
 a member of the political party which had a majority in the 
 county, (Whig,) he was sent to the Legislature at the next 
 session after his removal. Though a Democrat myself, ] had 
 already formed so strong an attachment for him, and so ad- 
 mired his genius, that I could but be pleased to see him 
 thus have opportunities of making the reputation which 1 
 knew was in store for him. Kven those Democrats who 
 were most strictly party men* were led to console them- 
 selves in defeat, that the new leader of their opponents was 
 a man of real genius, and a thoroughly honest gentleman. 
 
 And now, this last word reminds me afresh what a gi'/t- 
 flcuian was Linton Stephens! Sure I am that in his whole 
 life, whatever may have been the objects of his desire, he 
 not only did never swerve from the straight line of honora- 
 ble pursuit of them; but, as I fully believe:, he was never 
 tempted to do so. 
 
 In his practice at the bar, in his conduct of a political 
 campaign, in his business dealings with his neighbors, he 
 \vas entirely incapable of the employment of a trick, and 
 would have scorned to have any object, however desirable, 
 that he could not fairly win ; for he prized his own honor 
 above all possible human possessions, even to the love of 
 those who were the objects of his best love. It was this 
 exalted sense of honor that made him sometimes so terri- 
 ble in debate; for the slightest deflection from honorable 
 conduct, and even the suspicion of it, aroused his indignation. 
 
 Such a man must exert great influence in his neighbor- 
 hood, lie: had not been long a resident of Hancock before 
 he became its leading citizen. His character, not at all less 
 than his intellect, made him such. lie was never a flatterer 
 of the people and, indeed, was not often among them. A. 
 visit from him to other than his kinsmen was extremely
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I 79 
 
 rare. He did not often go to his office, and when he did 
 go, he usually staid but a short time, and then returned to 
 his home; but when he met the people, whether one or 
 two of them, upon the streets, or in assembled crowds at 
 the court-house, or the hustings, he so spoke and acted 
 that they continually grew in their respect and their love 
 for him. 
 
 I said that he would often return home during office- 
 hours. Of all men whom I have ever known, I think he 
 was the most averse to leaving home. The love of 
 home, with him, far outweighed the desire for professional 
 or political success. But for his conviction that such a course 
 would have been an unjustifiable employment of his talents, 
 I am confident that he would have retired from the law and 
 from politics long before his death. Many a struggle has 
 he had on mornings, when he was to start upon the circuit, 
 between the reluctance to leave home and a sense of duty 
 to go. It was only two weeks before his death, when I 
 was at his house, and he had a short respite from the State 
 prosecutions in Atlanta, that he spoke of his repugnance to 
 going back to them, and of a desire, amounting to longing, 
 to retire from all public life, and be always afterwards with 
 his family. 
 
 Yet, when he went to the courts, this home-feeling did 
 not interfere with his attention to his cases, and at recesses, 
 especially in the evenings at the hotels, when he had such 
 company as he liked, he could fully enjoy social reunions, 
 and there was no lawyer who was more quick to notice the 
 funny things which used to occur in the circuit-ridings, or 
 rehearse them better, or enjoy their rehearsal more keenly 
 than he. Yet, while he would never dispatch business too 
 hurriedly for the sake of getting home, when he did get 
 there, no man could more fully have enjoyed the return. 
 
 At home! It was here that Linton Stephens was at Jiis 
 best. The singleness of heart that made him so just and 
 straightforward among men made him as honorable a hus- 
 band as ever lived in this world, I do believe. He had 
 married from pure love. He could not have married but 
 from pure love. Otherwise, he would have been most un- 
 happy in marriage. The longer his married life continued, 
 the more he loved the woman who had blessed it and the 
 children she had borne to him. He was^not only loving,
 
 ISO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 but he was attentive and tender a continual companion in 
 all seasons, and almost the best of nurses in the seasons of 
 sickness. Five years after his marriage, his wife died. I 
 never witnessed greater anguish than he suffered from this 
 affliction. It continued through many years, and until he 
 met the lady who became his second wife. You will have 
 noticed in some of the letters which I have sent to you, 
 written long after, how he dwelt upon this loss. 
 
 Time, however, healed the wounds of this grief, and, 
 having again most fortunately married, as before, he loved 
 as he loved before, and was as happy with his noble second 
 wife as he had been with the first. 
 
 It was during the ten years of his widowerhood, from 
 1857 to 1867, that our friend, as it seemed to me, exhibited 
 the rarest qualities of head and heart. 
 
 He \vas left with three little girls. There was no female 
 relative who stood in such near relationship to him as would 
 make it practicable for her to undertake their guidance dur- 
 ing these years. His wife had been the only child of Judge 
 Thomas, and her mother had died before her. Linton's 
 only sister resided in a remote part of the State, and had a 
 considerable family of her own. But in the household there 
 were some faithful and well-trained servants. With these, 
 therefore, he undertook to bring up these little girls. It 
 would have touched the heart of any man, however little 
 acquainted with him and his condition, to see how assidu- 
 ously he labored to compensate these children for the 
 loss which they had suffered how he strove to be both 
 father and mother to them, and how, when sometimes he 
 would feel that he must, and did come short of this respon- 
 sibility, he lapsed almost into despair. 
 
 But here the tenderness which was one of his most strik- 
 ing qualities came to his aid, and was sufficient for his and 
 their needs. He took upon himself the care and education 
 of these children, and those of us who knew him best 
 saw with pleasure how he adapted himself to this delicate 
 and most difficult task. To me, he seemed to have suc- 
 ceeded in making himself again a child so fully did his 
 heart learn to accord with theirs in the love and apprecia- 
 tion of things which are intended and generally seem to be- 
 fitted only for childhood. 
 
 Patiently he taught them the principles of learning, and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. l8l 
 
 his old love of childish literature came again to him, as, 
 with his little ones around him, he read the old stories, and 
 his and their tears flowed together. I have often gone to 
 his house and found him with his little charge. But he 
 usually dismissed them, after I entered, to their nurse, and 
 though most generally we went to the consideration of other 
 things, yet, he would sometimes linger upon a subject that 
 their last lessons had suggested, and fondly tell of some of 
 their sayings and doings. There was one story, in particu- 
 lar, of the old days, which he and I often referred to, and 
 pleasingly remembered how, when very young 1 children, we 
 had wept over it. The book containing it had long been 
 out of print, but I found it once at an administrator's sale 
 and bought it. I told him of it, and mentioned that I 
 had not read it again, and had hesitated to do so in the 
 fear that I might not feel the old emotion. He asked me 
 to send it to him. I did so; and not long afterwards, he 
 said to me: "Dick, you need not be afraid that you won't 
 cry from reading Little Jack. I have read it to the child- 
 ren. They cried as if their hearts would break, and I cried 
 about as much as they did." 
 
 It was this tenderness in his nature which, more than 
 anything else, enabled him to bring on these little girls in 
 the sort of education which it was best for them to have. 
 Not only his natural love, but his sympathy for them, his 
 commiseration even for their very unconsciousness of the 
 loss they had suffered, made him the more easily become 
 sometimes like them in tastes, feelings and emotions. It 
 would have put to shame most fathers, and those with 
 greatly less capacity than his for the enjoyment and pursuit 
 of greater things, to notice how thoroughly he had learned 
 these children's various characters, and how he delighted 
 in employing the means of giving them suitable develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Sometime during the war, Mr. Cosby Conncl, an unmar- 
 ried gentleman, about ten years his senior, an intelligent 
 man of ordinary education, and of great probity of charac- 
 ter, went to live with him, and so continued until his death 
 in the year 1868. 
 
 A very ardent personal friendship grew up between these 
 two men. Mr. Connel was a man of decided likings, and, 
 being of domestic habits, rendered invaluable aid in the
 
 1 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 management of household affairs. The children became 
 strongly attached to him, and he to them. He watched 
 over them with the care and affection of a father, and Lin- 
 ton was greatly relieved of his anxiety, in his absence, when 
 he knew they were under the charge of Air. Connel. 
 
 And now, what shall I say about what it was to visit at 
 that house in those times? The absence of women did 
 away with much ceremonious entrance. The door was ever 
 open, and his friends seldom paused to knock. Advancing 
 through the spacious hall, they entered into his library, 
 where he literally lived. He might be reading to his child- 
 ren, or reading for his own entertainment, or writing, or 
 playing at solitaire, or simply musing while he smoked his 
 cigar. The open box was on the mantel, and the visitor 
 would light up and read a newspaper, picking up one of a 
 do/.en from the floor, or take a hand at cards, or sit and 
 smoke, and wait for talk to begin. Cosby Connel would 
 just have been in, or would soon come in from the garden, 
 in which he took great pride, and we might begin on him 
 until Linton would turn from his table and join in. We 
 might talk of politics, or a law case, or of Cosby's peas, 
 and cabbage, and potatoes. The presence of friends would 
 unbend him from his studies, and make him seem to forget 
 his grief and solitude. I never expect to enjoy again such 
 raciness of talk as we used to have in that library when ^'e 
 would all get warmed well in contact. His humor was only 
 the more genuine and flowing from the melancholy, which, 
 natural to him, had been mellowed by affliction. There 
 was many a character, both in Hancock and the adjoining 
 counties, \vhose oddities he and I well knew, and the re- 
 hearsal of their doings and sayings would be followed by 
 shouts of laughter that it would be glorious to hear and to ut- 
 ter. But later in the day, I max* have lingered longer than 
 the rest. After dinner, Cosby might be out at his work, or 
 taking his evening nap on the sofa. As the clay xvould 
 xvanc, xv e xvould lapse into serious conversation, which 
 might lead to his oxvn condition, the prospects of his child- 
 ren and his oxvn; on these he xvould conx'erse xvith me as 
 freely, I believe, as he did xvith his oxvn heart. When, at 
 last, the day xvould end, and I must go, xx'e xvould shake 
 hands without other xvords than "good-bye;" yet, he xvould 
 know, and 1 am sure it comforted him in some degree to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 183 
 
 know, that I loved and sympathized with him more and 
 more from every additional interview. 
 
 Alluding to the merry times we sometimes had, I am re- 
 minded that I have observed that his appreciation of hu- 
 morous things was not as generally known as it was by those 
 who were his intimate friends. Added to an uncommonly 
 serious exterior, he had, beyond any one I have ever known, 
 the faculty of postponing the enjoyment of a ridiculous oc- 
 currence, if a postponement was proper or desirable. He 
 could witness, without a change in his face, the funniest 
 things, and then store them away, even the smallest bits of 
 them, and afterwards, when a fit opportunity occurred, bring 
 them forth, and they would have lost none of their fresh- 
 ness. I well remember his first visit to me after I had re- 
 moved to Athens, and when he came there as Judge of the 
 Supreme Court. One afternoon, we had taken a long 
 walk into the country, and were returning clown the hill 
 near Governor Lumpkin's. He had been telling me some 
 good things about several of our old acquaintances, and we 
 had gotten into a vein of uncontrollable laughter. He then 
 told me several anecdotes of Gabe Nash, Esq.; one, espe- 
 cially, about the municipal ordinances of the new town of 
 Hartwell, under one of which Gabe was fined a dollar for 
 loud talking in the streets. We were both so convulsed 
 by this that we became uproarious in our bursts of laughter, 
 and had to lean upon each other to keep from falling. 
 We had not noticed a carriage that was coming up the hill. 
 It contained some of ray lady acquaintances. We bowed 
 in some confusion as they passed, and they afterwards said 
 to me that they had made the driver linger a while at 
 the foot of the hill in the apprehension that a couple of es- 
 caped lunatics were in their way. 
 
 We were both extremely fond of his father-in-law, the 
 late Judge James Thomas. The Judge, a capital lawyer, 
 and otherwise an excellent man, had many eccentricities. 
 These manifested themselves most frequently in his seasons 
 of sickness, and unfortunately the latter occurred very often. 
 Whenever one of these came on, Linton would go to his 
 house and remain with him until he was well again. I have 
 already said that the latter was one of the best of nurses, 
 and the Judge, having lost his wife, and having no female 
 relative in the house, needed the nursing that Linton knew
 
 184 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 how to bestow. Another reason for this necessity was, 
 that the Judge had the greatest confidence in his own medi- 
 cal skill, and none whatever in that of any physician. It 
 was only Linton who could restrain him from employing 
 whatever remedies his whimsy might suggest remedies 
 which often were the most unsuitable possible for his condi- 
 tion. It was always an extremely difficult matter to control 
 him in such cases. Only Linton, with his coolness and firm- 
 ness, could hold him in check. The old gentleman doted on 
 his son-in-law, and always his most potent reason with him 
 in yielding his point, would be the apprehension that he 
 might not be sufficiently considerate of Linton's feelings 
 if he should persist in his course. Still, he would argue 
 evcr\ r point, and sometimes Linton would be driven to put 
 his hand upon the potion that he had resolved to take, and 
 gently withdraw it from his grasp. At such times, there 
 had to be a compromise of some sort, for nothing could get 
 him to take the prescription of the physician. The highest 
 compliment he had ever been known to pay to any physician 
 was when he said of Dr. Edward Alfriencl, his family physi- 
 cian and very clear friend, that he really did believe that 
 Alfriend killed fewer patients than any doctor he knew. 
 
 After such a sojourn with the Judge at Lancaster (his 
 country-seat), Linton would return home. When we could 
 get a fair opportunity for such a purpose, and had gotten fully 
 rested from his long watching, he would take out of his 
 pocket, as it were, scores of the funniest things imagin- 
 able that had occurred at Lancaster, tell them over to me, 
 and, for the first time, would laugh and laugh until the tears 
 would run out of his eyes. 
 
 I have spoken thus freely of his humor, because I am 
 sure the public generally were not aware how abundant and 
 heart}- it was. While his elegant culture enabled him to 
 see at a glance and to fully appreciate the most delicate 
 playfulness of the best literary humorists, yet his simplicity, 
 and broadness of understanding and heart, allowed him to 
 take in all humorous things, from the most sparkling sallies 
 of genius to the droll gambols of even the lower animals. 
 When we would be going on the circuit together, in a buggy, 
 while much of our conversation would be on serious sub- 
 jects, and very often upon our own, and especially his 
 domestic afflictions, yet he would often be diverted to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 185 
 
 making charades and conundrums, and other sportive 
 suggestions. Occasionally, these speculations would im- 
 perceptibly lapse into a vein of sentiment, and even of 
 melancholy, that would be most delicate and most touching. 
 The shadow that his great affliction had cast upon him was 
 ever there, but the humor that was a part of his nature 
 must assert itself sometimes, and I am sure it became the 
 richer from the pathos which went along with it. To one 
 Avho shed so many tears in secret, a laugh was sometimes 
 as refreshing as food to the hungry, and he enjoyed it the 
 more because it seldom came, and came irresistibly. 
 
 The intercourse that he had with his clients was interest- 
 ing. No lawyer was ever more free from the habit of either 
 encouraging litigation, or flattering clients by giving too 
 favorable opinions. Thoroughly sincere in all things, he 
 counselled exactly as he thought. Whenever an attempt 
 was made to arbitrate, he was one of the few, who could see 
 and feel the strong points in the adversary's right, equally 
 with those of his client, no matter how long he had been con- 
 nected with his case. He was almost a perfect lawyer, 
 and the thorough control he exerted over his intellect made 
 such a task easy. It was thus he could win suits without 
 appealing to the prejudices of juries, or too hastily assailing 
 his adversary, preferring and feeling safe to rely upon the 
 strength of his case and his power to establish it. Aside 
 from the eloquence that comes from an ardent and vigorous 
 understanding that had received great culture, there was a 
 perspicuity in his spoken language, and a facility of sim- 
 plifying contested questions, that I never saw surpassed at 
 the bar. 
 
 Counting the work that he did, he ought to have amassed 
 a fortune by his practice. But his charges were almost uni- 
 formly below the average of the profession, and often, very 
 often, he would lower the fee after the termination of a great 
 case, and lower it again and again, upon the representation 
 (not always sincere) of his client that he could not afford to 
 pay it. This was particularly the case in his own county. 
 The poor had their little cases attended to with as little cost 
 as the poor anywhere, certainly, and, by his prudent coun- 
 sels, he kept out of the courts a greater number of litigants 
 than he ever carried there. There is no calculating the 
 blessing that such a lawyer is to a community.
 
 1 86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 After the war, when almost every man became reduced 
 to poverty, he did an immense amount of such work not 
 excepting the destitute negroes from his charitable counsels 
 and aid. He was constantly making their little settlements, 
 and adjusting their disputes, and counselling them generally, 
 and without reward. 
 
 Such devotion had its legitimate results. Of course, 
 there was some ingratitude in his experience, as in that 
 of every generous man. But he was as much beloved 
 in that county as any public man could be anywhere, and 
 when he died, all, as well the poor as those who had been 
 able to recover from pecuniary disasters, as well the black 
 man as the white, mourned as if they had lost* their best 
 friend. The little village of colored people, built in the 
 suburbs of Sparta since the war, was draped with crape. 
 
 As his children grew older, his friends hoped he might 
 again marry, they being all girls. I do not doubt that his 
 grief for the loss of his wife was the deeper and the harder 
 to be subdued, as he contemplated daily the increasing loss 
 which her death had brought to them. But it was not 
 until 1865 that the idea of a second marriage was per- 
 mitted to enter his mind. It was in the fall of this year, 
 while on a visit to his brother, then a prisoner at Fort War- 
 ren, that he became acquainted with Miss Alary \V. Salter, 
 of Boston. This acquaintance ripened into most devoted 
 affection, and led to his second marriage, which took place 
 in 1867. This marriage was most happy in its results. In 
 this new sharer of his after fortunes, lie and his children 
 found every quality becoming the character of wife and 
 mother. Never was man, so sorely afflicted for years, more 
 eminently blessed in the end. Three other children were 
 born ; and I have never known a house in which it would 
 have been more difficult to notice in all, parents and child- 
 ren, that there was any difference in their relative positions 
 among one another. Even now, since the father has been 
 removed from them, the only alteration that death has 
 seemed to cause has been to bind that blended circle the 
 closer together in reciprocal duties and affections. 
 
 I scarcely know how even to begin to speak of Linton 
 as a friend. He was so unspeakably dear to me, that I feel 
 like saying more than would perhaps be becoming in such 
 a letter. While he was so generally beloved in his
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 87 
 
 neighborhood, he was on strictly and entirely confidential 
 terms of friendship with a limited number. Without much 
 constraint in his associations with his neighbors, his deepest 
 and most secret thoughts and feelings were imparted to 
 very few ; and to them, they were imparted without the 
 slightest reserve. The tenderness of which I have before 
 spoken gushed out, abundant and free, to the friends he 
 loved. For his friendship was pure love. He had grown 
 to be warmly attached to Mr. Cosby Connel. In the sum- 
 mer of 1868, he and Mrs. Stephens went on a visit to her 
 parents in Boston, and left this gentleman and the older 
 children behind. During their absence, Mr. Connel died. 
 I regret much that I have mislaid the letter Linton wrote 
 me from Boston when he heard by telegraph of this event. 
 But he wept and wept! I saw from the letter, what I knew 
 before I received and read it, that his very soul was pour- 
 ing itself out in sorrow for the friend of his love. 
 
 I know you will be touched when you read the letters he 
 wrote to me about the sickness and death of his servant 
 woman, Mary, the wife of Travis, his coachman ; for t lie re 
 was another friend, though a slave. That great, loving 
 heart recognized its dues to the lowly as well as the high, 
 and paid them all full}- out of its allowance. I have fre- 
 quently remarked that, though he was ever kind and con- 
 siderate to negroes generally, yet he seemed to have a feel- 
 ing akin to friendship for all belonging to his special friends. 
 My old house-servants liked him very much for his friendly 
 notice, and he and they usually shook hands on meeting 
 and parting at my house. 
 
 It was always beautiful to me to observe the relations be- 
 tween him and his brother, Alexander. I suspect that no 
 two brothers ever stood in the relation to each other of 
 greater love and sympathy. While they were never part- 
 ners in the law, yet they would never appear in court on 
 opposing sides. Their love was such that each, I believe, 
 could not endure the thought of attempting, or even wish- 
 ing for things different or adverse among themselves. It 
 was for sometime unfavorable to the growth of Linton 's 
 reputation, that the general public delayed to give him full 
 credit for independence in his political opinions. The truth 
 is, that their thorough intimacy and their mutual fondness 
 had induced a similarity of thinking upon most subjects;
 
 188 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 and though living in different counties, they often, and in- 
 deed generally, would form instantaneously the same judg- 
 ments upon questions that had newly arisen, and upon 
 which they had not had time to confer. I have noticed, 
 sometimes, the pleasure each has felt in such a case. 
 
 The brothers sympathized always and entirely. The joy 
 and the grief of one were the joy and the grief of the other. 
 This was most especially the case with the elder brother. 
 To Linton he had been both brother and father. He had 
 educated him with almost uncqualed care, and, I am sure, 
 that his greatest happiness, aside from the consciousness of 
 performing his own duties, consisted in seeing Linton 
 successful and happy. Their love for each other was per- 
 fect in its kind. The death of Linton would have broken 
 the heart of the survivor, but for his religious faith, and his 
 sense of obligation to hold out to the last in the work which 
 he had yet to do. 
 
 In conclusion, I say to you frankly, that I feel like say- 
 ing something more, if I could find what was becoming to 
 say, about Linton as my friend. Hut I fear I have already 
 alluded too often to myself in this letter. Hut I knew him 
 best, when he and I were together, alone. We had been 
 friends from the first to the last. In those twenty years, 
 through what varied scenes we passed together ! We have 
 rejoiced together, and we have mourned together. lie had 
 domestic afflictions so had I. In those twenty years, he 
 and I several times were in alternate relations of wailer and 
 consoler. Deeply and long as he could bewail his own griefs, 
 so tenderly and considerately could he be a consoler of 
 mine. I have never known a man who understood, as well 
 as he, the blessed art of searching into the breast of a sor- 
 rowing friend, and applying healing balm unto its sorest 
 wounds. In all of his moods, whether sad or gay, lie was 
 ever the same to me, trusted and loved; and, I do not hesi- 
 tate to say, trusting and loving. When 1 heard that he- 
 was no more, few things that might have happened could 
 have impressed me more deeply with thoughts of what 
 havoc death can make with the happiness which comes from 
 indulgence in human affections. 
 
 Very truly, your friend, 
 
 R. M. JOHNSTON.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 189 
 
 I insert here a few additional letters, without regard to 
 chronological order, which avouch the accuracy of Profes- 
 sor Johnston's judgment of the beauty and tenderness of 
 his domestic and social virtues. 
 
 From the White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, whither he 
 repaired for health, in 1868, he wrote this letter to his three 
 eldest daughters Rebecca, Claude and Emm : 
 
 WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, September i, 1868. 
 
 MY PRECIOUS DARLINGS The main purpose which your 
 poor, old, gruffy, morose, petulant, melancholy Papa has 
 in writing to you at this late day is to apologize for not hav- 
 ing written to you sooner. The penalty of duty neglected 
 is always, in the end, humiliation in some way or other; and 
 the offender gets off very lightly when the humiliation comes 
 in no worse form than confession especially, when the con- 
 fession has the reactionary effect of procuring pardon or ab- 
 solution, and thus setting him on his legs again with a re- 
 lieved conscience and undaunted brow. I have made the 
 confession ; it depends upon you to grant the absolution. 
 Will you do it at once, and thus set poor Papa up all right 
 again, or \vill you prolong his punishment by withholding 
 your forgiveness? If the latter, I shall not complain, for I 
 richly deserve it; but if the former, 1 shall be very happy 
 in having one more proof that you are the sweetest and 
 best children in the world. To forgive neglect of ourselves, 
 on the part of others, is one of the very highest exercises 
 of unselfish love, and therefore one of the highest and 
 brightest elements of excellence, since there is nothing 
 which exceeds neglect in its tendency to wound our self- 
 love. To subordinate self-love to our love for another is 
 as beautiful as it is difficult and heroic. If, therefore, you 
 shall exhibit the beauty of heroism, I shall have the felicity 
 of forgiveness. I shall cease to regret my sin, because it 
 will be taken away from me and converted into the exalta- 
 tion and glory of my children. Can my sweet darlings now 
 refuse to forgive poor old Papa? No. I am sure they will 
 eagerly contest the point among themselves, which of them 
 will be the first to spring into his arms and tell him he is 
 forgiven. Do you know, by the way, that the enormity of
 
 IQO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 my delinquencies obliges me sometimes to incur the humil- 
 iation of apologizing to so small a personage as Baby?* 
 Just think of it ! a grave, gray-headed man like me, asking 
 pardon of a little frowning monkey like her; and yet, my 
 petulant humors or irreverent speeches are sometimes 
 resented by her little ladyship in a way which brings the 
 repentant old father right down on his knees. But bless 
 her bright, sweet, loving little soul ! she never fails to for- 
 give her " Papy " whenever he asks her forgiveness in the 
 proper handsome manner. I am indeed blessed in my 
 children- in all my children, from the greatest even unto 
 the least You will understand, however, that in estimat- 
 ing which is greatest and which is least, I shall be guided, 
 not by the size and beaut}' of their bodies, but by the size 
 and beaut}' of their souls. Do you want to know ivliicli of 
 your four souls Papa regards as the biggest and most beau- 
 tiful? Ah! well, that is Papa's secret. He defies any and 
 all of you to find it out. You need not try to worm it out 
 of Mama, for I do not intend to let her any deeper into it 
 than the rest of you. I give all of you, including her, full 
 leave to form an alliance against me, and to use all your 
 art. I shall not be cajoled or surprised into a revelation. 
 I will, however, give you a clue to guide your guesses from 
 time to time. I say from time to time, because the size 
 and beaut} 1 of the soul are things of givict/t, and the soul 
 that excels at one time is often overtaken and surpassed by 
 the more rapid growth of an inferior one. Yes, my dar- 
 lings, the soul is even more capable of growth than the 
 body is; for, unlike the bod}', it has no limitation upon its 
 growth, neither in time nor eternity. It may forever and 
 forever expand in capacity and beaut}' finding forever a 
 new happiness in its very sense of expansion. Is not this 
 a very sweet and encouraging thought? To know our ca- 
 pacities of happiness is the opening of the gate which 
 leads to its attainment. The sight of the splendid prize, as 
 a possession which can be made our own, is a most powerful 
 incentive to struggle for its appropriation. This sight comes 
 to the soul by the eye of faith, founded on reason, just as 
 images of beauty in the material world sink sweetly and 
 lovingly into the chambers of the material eye, if it will 
 
 * Little Nora, then not much over a year old.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 19! 
 
 only open its doors and let in the light. But I said I would 
 give you a chic. Well, here it is : I shall be very apt to 
 think that soul the biggest and most beautiful which is the 
 biggest and most beautiful ; and you will, therefore, be most 
 likely .to get at my secret opinion by forming for yourselves 
 the most candid judgment of your own comparative charac- 
 ters. Aha! you think now I have betrayed my secret. 
 Not a bit I hope and believe all of you will exhibit such 
 an equal growth each resolved not to be surpassed by any 
 other that the difference shall ever remain a contested 
 point and a doubtful matter. Do you suppose, from w r hat 
 I have said, that I would have you to look upon one and 
 another as rivals? No, not rivals not even in greatness 
 and beauty of soul for rivalry implies a certain sort of 
 selfishness, even when the contest is pursued for the noblest 
 prizes; while real greatness and beauty of soul consist in 
 nothing more certainly and luminously than in the negation 
 of self and devotion to others preferring one another in 
 honor, even in the 'honor of goodness. Lest all this may 
 seem incomprehensible to your young minds, as it equally 
 seems to many, very many older ones, I will express it in a 
 different form, which I think is clearer, and, at the same 
 time, more accurate. I begin by saying that my idea must 
 not be understood as excluding all selfishness from the pale 
 of greatness and beauty; on the contrary, there is one sort 
 of selfishness which forms the necessary basis of rational 
 character, whether rational or insane everything does and 
 must act with a view to his oti'n happiness. Do you sug- 
 gest that very few people seem to act from that motive 
 that many seem to be pursuing their own misery instead 
 of happiness? Well, this is only a seeming not a reality. 
 It is too true that very few persons pursue their happiness 
 in a. wise way, or with wisdom equal to their knowledge ; 
 but it is still equally true that every person is always im- 
 pelled by some view of his own happiness as a motive- 
 power. It is often a most mistaken view so obviously mis- 
 taken that it would be readily corrected by his own stock 
 of knowledge, if his knowledge were only realized and ap- 
 plied to the case. The difficulty is, that knowledge is not 
 realized, and not applied in the case. It is not realized, be- 
 cause there is not the necessary reflection to bring home, as 
 a present reality, its logical conclusions which lie in the fu-
 
 IQ2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ture. There is nothing so difficult for human nature as to 
 preserve a just relative estimate of the present and the fu- 
 ture, the short, evanescent, but ever-presiding present, 
 and the future which has not yet come in contact \vith the 
 soul. The future, although it may be kno\vn in the sense 
 of being open to reflection, if reflection could only be made 
 to bear upon it, and accept it as an inevitable experience, loses 
 its just weight in the balance. The present always asserts 
 itself, and never allows itself to be overlooked or depreci- 
 ated. The poor, unreflecting human soul often indulges in 
 a small present gratification, from which it would shrink ap- 
 palled if it would but realize and appreciate, as a present ex- 
 perience, the miserable consequences which lie in the yet 
 unreachcd future; but still, in the very act of present in- 
 dulgence, the soul is moved by that view of its own hap- 
 piness which is then predominant. The present reigns tri- 
 umphant because the futurc ( is sJutt ant. Thus you see how 
 it is, as I have said, that a certain sort of selfishness forms 
 the necessary basis of every character, and is the spring of 
 all human action. Hut there is an immeasurable difference 
 between tu'O lands of selfishness, and in this difference lies 
 the secret of greatness and beauty of soul. One kind of 
 selfishness is solitary the other is social. One finds its 
 happiness or gratification in the indulgence of its every 
 passion and desire, without regard to the happiness or mis- 
 ery of others, and even sometimes /// the misery of others. 
 The other kind finds its pleasure in seeing, and still more 
 in creating, the happiness of others. This kind cannot have 
 a real happiness unless it is shared by loved ones. Neither 
 of these two kinds exists in its perfection in any one person ; 
 but the two kinds are mixed in every person, yet in very 
 different degrees in different persons. The solitary kind is 
 despicable ; the social kind is noble, and beautiful, and lovely. 
 Greatness and beauty of soul arc best cultivated by culti- 
 vating that noble selfishness which finds its happiness in 
 the happiness of others. All of this, which I have taken 
 so much space to explain, is embodied in the command to 
 love God with your whole heart, and your neighbor as 
 yourself. The selfishness which I call the noble kind is but 
 another exposition for the law of love. It is the fountain 
 of the purest, sweetest, and most abundant happiness. But 
 I must hurry to a close. I am, perhaps, a little better in
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 93 
 
 health than when I came here. In a few days, your uncle 
 Ellic and I expect to go to another spring about sixteen 
 miles from this one. It is called the Sweet Chalybeate 
 spring. Send your next letter to Boston. I have received 
 three letters from Claude, two from Rebecca, and one from' 
 Emm. Emm's letter I got this evening. It bears date of 
 the 25th of August. I think you have all improved very 
 much in letter-writing. I think Claude has improved 
 the most, and I expect it is because she has written the 
 most letters, and taken the most pains to write them. Your 
 uncle was quite sick day before yesterday. He seemed 
 quite well again yesterday, but to-day again he is quite 
 unwell. His affliction is of the nature of cholera-morbus. 
 He thinks it was produced by some frozen custard which 
 he ate for dinner the day before his attack, but I suspect it 
 came from the water here. Before that attack, he had 
 greatly improved in strength and health. I think now, my 
 darlings, that we shall not get back home before the middle 
 of October. I don't want you to go to school while the 
 sun is very hot. Take care of your health by all means. 
 We may get home sooner than the time I have mentioned, 
 but you needn't expect us sooner. I don't know how long 
 I may stay at the other spring as long as I may get benefit 
 from it. And now, good-bye, my darlings, and may God 
 bless you. 
 
 Your loving FATHER. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, August 19, 1869. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I got your letter of 
 
 yesterday, and the Constitutionalist containing your reply to 
 Greeley. I think this reply is one of the very best things 
 you ever wrote. Indeed, I think it the best. It is vigor- 
 ous, luminous and crushing. I have sent the paper to Ben 
 Harris, at his request. He promised to take care of it and 
 return it. I was down town a while this morning, and spoke 
 of the piece in a way which caused him to ask for the paper. 
 While I write, Claude has Baby on the sofa, showing her 
 the pictures in a large illustrated Bible. She has the pas- 
 sion for pictures stronger than I ever saw it in a child 01 
 her age. She has a "Mother Goose" which she pretty 
 18*
 
 194 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 generally carries around with her, annoying people to death 
 with begging to have the pictures explained. She decidedly 
 prefers me as expositor, because I render them to her in 
 dramatic style. You can't imagine how intense an atten- 
 tion she gives to these representatives, nor what a Babel of 
 gibberish she sometimes delivers in response to them. She 
 remembers, too, a great deal of what I tell her about the 
 pictures, and universally selects for comment those which 
 have before been most highly dramatized. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. IT. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 5, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I am now about to do what I have no 
 recollection of ever having done before re-write a letter to 
 you; or, to express the truth more nearly, I am about to 
 write you a new letter, because I have become dissatisfied 
 with the one on hand, and have discovered it. I was about 
 to say, discovered it midway, but I don't know whether it 
 was midway, or one-tenth, or one-twentieth of the way to 
 its end, for one of the main reasons I had for dropping it 
 was, that I could see no symptoms of its coming to an end 
 at all. I was like a novice trying to dispatch an oyster, and 
 feeling the thing grow bigger and bigger in his mouth in- 
 stead of becoming prepared for the passage down his gullet. 
 So I have just taken the unmanageable morsel out of my 
 mouth, and laid it gently down, in the spirit of Martin 
 Crawford's man, who took the hot pudding out of his mouth 
 at the grand dinner and laid it down with the complacent, 
 self-gratulatory remark, "A damned fool would have swal- 
 lowed it." I tell you 1 had got the thing into a terrible 
 tangle, and I am very much disposed to compliment my 
 own ingenuity in getting rid of it. There are not many 
 men who would have done it. Now I am read}' to go 
 
 on Yesterday, I got your letter of 
 
 the day before, written at home, saying that you expected 
 to go back to Augusta yesterday evening, and telling me 
 also what an escape you had from being burnt out. 
 
 There was one thing in your account of the burning that 
 made me laugh, though I have not the slightest idea that 
 you meant or expected it to have that effect. It was the 
 grand moral you drew from the affair: " I do abominate this
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 95 
 
 way of carrying pipes about." Now, that a fellow, after 
 giving an account of his being so near a burning from a 
 careless pipe, should wind it up with a grand flourish that 
 lie abominated this *vvay of carrying pipes about, struck me 
 as being superfluous in an irresistibly ludicrous degree. It 
 communicated to me just about the same amount of inform- 
 ation as Walter Shandy got from his brother Toby's re- 
 mark when Toby informed Corporal Trim, in the hearing 
 of Walter, that he believed the auxiliaries with which he 
 and Trim were acquainted, and those auxiliaries about which 
 his "brother Shandy" had been speaking, were different 
 things ; and if I had been by you when you said it, I 
 should certainly have given you "brother Shandy's" iden- 
 tical reply "You do?" That passage in "Tristram" is 
 not exceeded in humor by anything that I ever heard or 
 read, and the whole humor of it lies in Shandy's state of 
 mind, produced by the extreme superfluity of Toby's re- 
 mark. I insist, therefore, that if you had had Shandy for 
 an auditor when you said you "did abominate this way of 
 carrying pipes about," it would have been as funny a scene 
 as the one just referred to between the Shandy brothers. 
 Did you ever try to analyze the fun of that passage? It is 
 worth the trouble. Toby's palpable and patient superfluity 
 is a funny thing in itself, in the first place ; and so is yours. 
 In the next place, his mode of expression implies, that how- 
 ever the idea might have been in his mind before that time, 
 in a vague, chaotic form, it had come to development but 
 very lately before it was formally announced ; and so does 
 yours. So far, the parallel is complete not one whit against 
 you. But the cream of the joke in Toby's instance could 
 not be matched in yours, unless you had had Shandy for an 
 auditor, for it consists in the very peculiar state of mind 
 induced in him. Toby had just said a most ludicrous thing ; 
 but the moral is, that it did not strike his brother in a lu- 
 dicrous light. His reply, "You do ! " is exceedingly sug- 
 gestive of a state of mind which he had rapidly passed 
 through, as well as the one at which he had then arrived. 
 The first feeling excited in his mind evidently had been 
 contempt for Toby's slowness in coming so late to an idea 
 which Shandy certainly believed had been in his own mind 
 ever since he was born, and this first feeling had been 
 quickly tempered by pity, which instantly cast a glance
 
 196 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 into the future, and saw no hope of amendment for Toby 
 there ; then it was that despair entered into his mind and 
 he softly said, "You do?" 
 
 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 27, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This is another memorable anniversary 
 with me. To-day, eight years ago, I was married. That 
 was a brilliant day and brilliant night the most brilliant, I 
 have often thought, that I ever saw ; and it seems to me 
 that its annual returns are apt to be of like character. Such 
 is to-day. I will not write about the thoughts which crowd 
 upon me with a peculiar force at this time, for they would 
 only sadden you to read them, and their expression can do 
 me no good But it occurs to me at this mo- 
 ment that I will write you a piece of news. We have got 
 a vigilance committee here. Yesterday they tried a fellow 
 for uttering abolition sentiments. The culprit was a native 
 of this county, by the name of Pool. He is a young man, 
 26 or 28 years old, the son of old Pool, the shingle-getter. 
 He is a poor, ignorant fellow, whose lot in life has rendered 
 virtue almost an impossibility, and his vices almost a neces- 
 sity. The proof against him as I heard the witness, Long, 
 Mr. Thomas' overseer, detail it to me and two or three 
 others yesterday in an outside, informal way was this: 
 Long met Pool one day going home from Sparta, and asked 
 him the news in town. Pool replied that he heard Mr. 
 Edwards read a piece from a newspaper that day about the 
 abolitionists forming a band to go and turn old John Brown 
 out of jail, and he had heard that the "Hancock Vol- 
 unteers" were going to Milledgeville and get arms and "go 
 on" to help prevent it. He then went on to say that he 
 thought we were going to have a ivar, and that he thought 
 that Brown's side would be the strong side, because there 
 were so many more negroes than there were white folks, 
 and that when the "war" came, he was going to take care 
 of himself by joining the strong side. He added that he 
 wished "there weren't no niggers, nohow," for then he 
 could get more for his work. Long asked him how he 
 could get to Brown's men when he should undertake to 
 join them. He said he would black himself and go to them
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 97 
 
 * 
 
 where they were. "Mark you this, sir: he would black 
 himself." This was the proof. Poor Pool denied every bit 
 of it, most bitterly, and swore he was as good a friend to 
 the South as any man who owned a hundred niggers. His 
 denial was as emphatic as old Peter's was, and made, no 
 doubt, for the same reason to save himself from being 
 hung. Jack Smith, who is one of the "Vigilants, " came 
 to me, where I was sitting in the street on a goods box, 
 taking the sun, and talking to Cosby and two or three 
 others, and asked my advice about what was the best to be 
 done with Pool. \Yhereupon, I gave him my advice, with 
 such a prelude as I hoped might secure its adoption. I 
 told him, for my part, I was not in favor of Lynch-law, but 
 I couldn't help feeling glad whenever I heard of a strag- 
 gling abolitionist being sent back on his own side of the line 
 with onr mark on him ; that I was perfectly willing to see 
 the rascals fed out of their own spoon by rendering the 
 slavery question a practical test to them as they were 
 rendering it to us ; and hence, whenever I heard of a 
 strolling Yankee of this class sent back home with a 
 little token to keep us fresh in his memory, and the 
 memory of his friends, I felt that a good work was going 
 on; but that there could be no good accomplished by 
 harshness towards a poor, simple native like Pool. There 
 was nobody to be annoyed or corrected by it, except a few 
 other simple people of his own class, whose sympathies 
 would only be increased by a martyr in their own class, 
 however their tongues might be stilled by the terror of the 
 example ; that such fellows as he were to be watched and 
 taken care of when a conflict might be thrust upon us by 
 a far different class of men ; but that he never could pro- 
 duce the conflict, nor start the first ripple towards the first 
 move ; that he certainly was not a dangerous man, what- 
 ever his wishes might be ; for there wasn't a negro in the 
 county with so little sense as to be fooled into trouble by 
 such a fellow as Pool. The conclusion to which I came 
 from all this was, that it would have been best, perhaps, to 
 have said nothing about it in the first instance; but as they 
 had noticed it officially, the best thing now was to lecture 
 him, and turn him loose on good behavior. Jack went off 
 to rejoin his associates with an evident intent, as I thought, 
 to advocate the course I had advised. John B , who had
 
 198 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 been standing in ear-shot, came up as soon as Jack had left, 
 and in a tone of remonstrance against the advice I had 
 given, said: "Well, I tell you what it is, when they get so 
 far along as to talk about blacking tJieinselvc s, sir, I'll tell you, 
 sir, something ought to be done with them." I laughed 
 and Cosby laughed. The result of Pool's case was that 
 he was lectured and turned loose. I believe the lecturing 
 was done by Jack Smith. Cosby was not pleased with my 
 views about strolling Yankees. He is an extreme conser- 
 vative, and undertook to argue the question with me. He 
 said my position that I myself would not administer 
 Lynch-law r was an acknowledgment that Lynch-law was 
 wrong. I told him, in the first place, I had only said I was 
 not in favor of Lynch-law that is, that I was not its advocate ; 
 but while I was not prepared to say that I would myself 
 administer it in any case whatever, I was equally unpre- 
 pared to say that I would not administer it in any conceiv- 
 able case ; on the contrary, I was inclined to think there 
 might be cases in which it would be right, and in which I 
 would myself administer it; but that my rejoicing to hear 
 of its administration, in a temperate style upon strolling 
 Yankees sometimes, was independent of the question of 
 whether it was right or wrong in the person who adminis- 
 ters it; that my rejoicing might be right while their act 
 might be wrong. He said he couldn't understand that 
 morality; and as you may have a similar difficulty, allow 
 me to lengthen out this letter, already too long, to justify 
 my position. You may find me wandering into some curi- 
 ous abstractions, but you must be patient. I prefer that 
 you should read them and set them right if they should be 
 wrong, rather than throw them aside because they arc- 
 wrong. Did you ever read Bulwer's " Eugene Aram?" If 
 so, you of course remember the splendid sophistry by which 
 Aram satisfied himself that he might justifiably kill the old 
 miser in order to get his money and make a good use of it. 
 It is, as I have called it, truly a sophistry, but it contained 
 much truth, and is logically separated from the conclusion 
 at which it arrives, only by a single fallacy, at the very last 
 link of the chain. I speak from memory, unrefreshed within 
 twenty years or more ; but I think every link in the chain 
 is a good one, except the last. According to all human 
 apprehension, it would have been a good thing for the money
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 199 
 
 to get out of the hands of the miser, where it did no good 
 to himself nor anybody else, into the hands of the benefi- 
 cent Aram, whose large charity was withheld trom its mis- 
 sion of blessings, and his genius restrained from its career 
 of usefulness, only by penury. It would have been a good 
 thing for him to get the money, but it was not right for 
 him, as he concluded it was, to kill the old miser and take 
 it. If the old fellow had died in the course of nature, and 
 left his money to Aram, everybody would have said that a 
 good thing had happened, and everybody would have been 
 glad to hear that the old man was dead, if it had been known 
 beforehand that he had a will in Aram's favor glad to 
 hear that he was dead, but glad not because he was dead, but 
 because Aram would get the money. So, if the old fellow, 
 with such a will on hand, had been killed by some great 
 scoundrel who had missed being hung long before, from 
 want of evidence, and not want of dues, the people would 
 have still rejoiced to hear that he was dead, (however, a 
 thrill of horror might have passed over them,) not because 
 he was dead, but still because Aram would get the money, 
 and a great scoundrel, besides, would get his long-delayed 
 deserts. They would all have said the great scoundrel had 
 done a great crime, and they would have hung him for it, 
 and there would have been regrets and pity for the poor 
 murdered old man ; but the whole drama, when played out, 
 would have caused more pity than sorrow, and anybody 
 who could hai'e foreseen the end would have felt the joy as 
 soon as the curtain was raised. A good man would have 
 given his voice for hanging the murderer who opened the 
 drama, and yet would have rejoiced that it was opened be- 
 cause of the results which he could foresee would necessa- 
 rily come as a consequence of the opening. Now, you may 
 begin to perceive why I may rejoice when I hear of a 
 strolling Yankee being sent across Mason and Dixon's 
 Line in a coat of tar and feathers. I rejoice, not in the 
 poor fellow's pain, whether he be guilt}' or innocent, but 
 because I foresee that his treatment will either bring his 
 deluded friends to a sense of justice, by showing them that 
 justice to us and their own interests are one and the same 
 thing, or will madden them into the disruption of a gov- 
 ernment which has become an instrument of our annoy- 
 ance and torture, instead of our security and protection. I
 
 2OO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 might even condemn the men who play such fantastic 
 tricks, and yet be glad the tricks are played. I might not 
 be willing to do the deed myself, because I might feel that 
 it was wrong, and yet be glad that it was done, because I 
 foresee that its fruit will be good. The philosophy of the 
 idea is about this: there is in the world plenty of dirt}' 
 work which needs to be done, and which is well done, 
 provided it be done by dirty fellows. About the same 
 philosophy is taught by that Scripture which declares (in 
 substance) that "offenses must needs come, but woe unto 
 him by whom they come! " 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 LANCASTER, January 29, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Soon after finishing my letter to you 
 day before yesterday, I went for Becky according to expec- 
 tation. 1 stopped here on my way to see Mr. Thomas, and 
 found him quite ill. I went on, however, and got Becky, 
 and Mollie, and Genie. Mr. Thomas got worse in my ab- 
 sence, and sent Bill to hurry me back; when I met Bill, I 
 hurried on there as fast as I could, and on getting here 
 found Mr. Thomas in great pain with his head not sick 
 headache, but a headache, resulting, I think, from nervous 
 prostration. I sent for Alfriend, who soon came. He staid 
 until after dinner yesterday, and then went home and sent 
 his brother, who staid until early this morning. Mr. Thomas 
 is now greatly better. Of course, I did not go home, and 
 the children and I have been here ever since we came from 
 the school. My opinion of Mr. Thomas' case is, that it is 
 the result of the sudden withdrawal of the stimulant to 
 which his system had become accustomed. He has been 
 suffering more or less in the same way ever since the first 
 attack about which I wrote you soon after his return from 
 the Southwest. What sustained him during the trip was, I 
 think, the excitement of travel and looking after his lands. 
 He also passed safely through the period of our adjourned 
 court here, borne up, as he doubtless was, by the excite- 
 ment of court and the company he saw. When that ex- 
 citement was withdrawn, the collapse came; such is my 
 theory. I told him so to-day, but he expressed his dissent 
 from it. My own judgment is decided on the point; hence
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2OI 
 
 my prescription was different from the doctors. They, as 
 usual, put him on starvation. I recommended a generous 
 diet, in moderate quantities, and he has accordingly been 
 on oysters since yesterday evening. He says the oysters 
 are curing him. He is certainly greatly relieved. 1 have 
 also recommended nitric acid as a tonic, and he is going 
 to try it. The doctors have now come very fully into my 
 line of treatment, and have made an addition to it this 
 morning in the form of a nervine stimulant composed of 
 ammonia and valerian. To me, the case seems to involve 
 nothing but plain sailing; the system ought to be built up 
 by tonics and generous diet, carefully and moderately used. 
 The mind, too, needs to be doctored, even more than the 
 body. I have managed him with a skill that greatly pleased 
 me, because it has worked good results, and has worked 
 them in the precise way I anticipated. I have contrived to 
 get him mounted on the oyster sensation, with a most con- 
 fident faith in its virtue. He is now riding the oyster hobby 
 beautifully; in fact, he needs a little watching to keep him 
 from jading the animal. I go along with him to regulate 
 his paces, and he allows me to do so without any resist- 
 ance. One great point in my programme is to keep the 
 doctors u'dl abused. Last night I got my mail, and in it 
 three, yes four, letters from you. I now have got all that 
 
 you addressed to me at Macon 
 
 What was there to make you laugh in the editorial on 
 you from the Louisville Journal/ I don't understand your 
 laughing. Was it the artful use the fellow made of circum- 
 stances to guild his notions about you in the lines of prob- 
 ability? I suppose so, but I am in doubt. This editorial 
 doesn't very well support Dr. Bush's declaration, which I 
 read to-day in a letter from him to Mr. Thomas, to the effect 
 that the editor of the Journal is for you for the Presidency. 
 Bush declares himself to be for you, and says you would be 
 exceedingly acceptable to Kentucky. He says he wants 
 Georgia to press you before the Charleston Convention. 
 
 The meeting between me and Becky, the other day, was 
 quite an event for both of us; she met me 300 yards be- 
 fore I got to the house, and was almost out of breath. I 
 do not remember to have felt such a gush of real, bounding, 
 childish joy at any time within twenty years, as I did when 
 19*
 
 2O2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 she sprang into my arms. Her own joy was irresistibly 
 infectious. The very first words she uttered were these, 
 between her puffing and panting for exhaustion: "Papa, 
 I'm (puff) learning (puff) fast." "Bless the darling" 
 was my response as I enfolded her again in my arms, 
 and almost squeezed out of her what breath she had left. 
 You may think I cried, but I didn't; I was too glad to cry. 
 ! desired very much to see the meeting between her and 
 her little sisters, but I missed it. The day was so cold and 
 windy that I put her in the carriage instead of the buggy 
 with me, and after meeting Bill, I made such haste as to 
 leave the carriage far behind. So I was in Mr. Thomas' 
 room when the carriage arrived here, and the children had 
 got together before I was aware of its arrival. They were 
 very, very glad to see each other; but from what I heard, 
 the meeting between them was not so demonstrative as 1 
 had expected it to be. I think Becky's meeting with me 
 had taken off somewhat of the edge of her joy. After that, 
 there was something approaching a sort of collapse. I 
 think that the new associations of the school have already 
 had a very visible improving effect upon her. I would give 
 you. divers instances of things I have heard her say, to 
 make good the proof of my assertion, but I have got sense 
 enough to know that I am a fool, and so keep my folly to 
 
 myself. This letter has been 
 
 written without any fire ; and though the weather has greatly 
 moderated in a day or two, still it is cold enough to render 
 it desirable to hunt a fire, after so long sitting without one; 
 so I will hasten to an end. 
 
 I have just heard to-day of a place in Jefferson county, 
 which I think will suit me, and I am going on Tuesday (if 
 nothing happens unforeseen to prevent) to look at it It is 
 about eight or nine miles from Louisville, on the road from 
 the Shoals (of Ogechee) to Louisville, on Rocky Comfort 
 creek. It is known as the old Cobb place, and is now owned 
 by Bob Phini/y, of Augusta. There are four thousand 
 acres of it, and his price is four dollars per acre. I hear 
 that it is capital land; if so, this is even a better bargain 
 than Simpson's purchase of the Fitz-Simmons place. I 
 am obliged to have another place. 1 do not need so much 
 as 4,000 acres more, but I don't object to the quantity at 
 all. Land is going to be land in this country that is my
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2O3 
 
 judgment ; so now for the fire. You said you wanted to get 
 a cheerful letter from me. This is, I think, on the whole, a 
 pretty cheerful one, and a faithful copy of my thoughts while 
 I have been writing it. Good-bye. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 14, 1864. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER No letter from you yesterday. In my 
 letter of yesterday, I forgot to say that one of yours, whose 
 reception I acknowledged, was the one containing the sad 
 news of the death of poor Dick Greer. * I am truly pained 
 at this news. Poor Dick was characterized by a frankness 
 and honesty that made me like him very much from a boy 
 up ; and then he seemed to have a relish for life, which 
 renders his early death peculiarly sad. Poor Dick ! Well 
 do I remember the trip which he and his mother took with 
 me from their house to Hamilton, when he was a baby in 
 his mother's arms. Well do I remember, too, some of the 
 incidents of that trip, which owed their origin to his state 
 
 of babyhood Dick was more closely 
 
 associated with his mother, in my memory, than any other 
 of her children, and death is a renewal to me of my sense 
 of her loss. Poor Dick! Truly do I mourn his untimely 
 fall. 
 
 Poor Catharine ! Poor Catharine ! How vividly do I re- 
 member her death-stricken face as we saw it in the coffin 
 reposing calm and pale amidst the framing of premature 
 gray hair, which spoke of affliction and pain long endured 
 before death's kind release ! Oh, God ! how sharp the pang 
 that flashes through my breast from the memory of that 
 mournful sight! 
 
 I am reminded to tell you of a talk which the children 
 and I had on the way to Mr. Thomas' the last time we 
 went there. It started from a sudden remark which 
 Claude made about you. She said, "Papa, if uncle Ellic 
 was a school-teacher, his scholars wouldn't learn any- 
 thing." "Why not?" said I. " Because," said she, "he'd 
 tell 'em everything." I thought it was a decidedly good 
 
 * A nephew kiHed in the battle near Winchester, Virginia.
 
 2O4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 hit on you. That remark led us into a talk about their 
 school and their studies, and to some questions from me 
 as to how each of them was getting on in each study. 
 When I struck Becky on her arithmetic, Emm put in her 
 oar. Said she, "Papa, sister Becky has got to be nearly 
 
 as bad as . She most always misses her 'rithme- 
 
 tic lessons." Against this very pointed assertion, Becky 
 entered a vehement protest. Without stopping to settle 
 
 the dispute, I asked Emm how it was with ? In 
 
 answering this question, she went into a vein of humor al- 
 most as rich as I ever heard from Mr. Toombs, or your Bob, 
 and very much of the same kind which I have often seen 
 displayed by those two masters of the art. I can't give 
 you much idea of it, because the best part of it consisted 
 
 in her mimicry of poor 's actions while undergoing 
 
 the torture of having a very bad recitation wrung out of 
 her. I can only give you a point or two in words, leaving 
 you to imagine the exquisite mimicry by which the words 
 were accompanied. " ," said she, " why, she always 
 misses. When uncle Carlos gives her a question in 'rith- 
 metic, she just goes to saying the question over, and over, 
 and over, and counts on her fingers this way," (mimicking). 
 "Then she stops saying over the question, but keeps on 
 counting with her fingers, and goes to working her lips as 
 hard as she can, this away; then uncle Carlos tells her, 'I 
 don't hear you ; ' then she works her lips and counts her 
 fingers faster than ever, but don't say a word. At last, 
 uncle Carlos* tells her the answer; and then she jumps this 
 away, (mimicking,) and says: 'Mr. Stevens, I was jest 
 agoing to say that ! ' ' 
 
 This will give you an idea. Poor E would have 
 
 been sorely mortified if she had seen herself as portrayed 
 by Emm. There was not, however, the slightest tinge 
 of bad nature in a single one of the many pungent strokes; 
 it was all pure fun. Poor 's agonies could not pos- 
 sibly have a keener or more appreciative eye to observe 
 them than Emm showed she had had, hanging over them 
 like a bee over a flower to gather its sweets. The child 
 
 called him uncle.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2O5 
 
 gets this talent from her mother, who had it in a higher de- 
 gree, I think, than anybody certainly than any woman I 
 ever knew 
 
 "The old man Anthony," to whom reference is made in 
 the following letter, is the Rev. Samuel Anthony, of the 
 Methodist Church, so well known in Georgia, and so much 
 beloved and respected by a multitude of acquaintances 
 throughout the State. He, Rev. Mr. Jackson, and Mr. 
 Benjamin T. Harris, had spent an evening at Judge Ste- 
 phens' house: 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 7, 1 860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER When the old 
 
 man Anthony bade me good-bye, he kept my hand in his 
 for a few moments, and said to me : " Don't you forget the 
 one thing needfulyou need religion to bring up these little 
 ones right." I think I give his very words. The tears 
 started in his eyes, and I confess they started in mine, too. 
 I have always thought that he was a good man, and I have 
 a very great respect for his old-fashioned, out-spoken piety. 
 
 He used to be a prime favorite of uncle Jack's 
 
 You may be curious to know whether the old gentleman 
 recognized me or not at sight. He did, but his memory 
 had been refreshed by seeing me on two occasions since he 
 used to see me at uncle Jack's once at Liberty camp- 
 meeting, (in Greene,) in 1847, anc ^ again in Macon last 
 summer. He is a remarkable man in some particulars re- 
 markable for his simple piety, and being totally devoid of 
 what is properly called ambition ; but perhaps not least re- 
 markable for his marvelous state of physical preservation. 
 He looks just as he used to look a quarter of a century 
 ago, when he must have then been at least thirty-five 
 years old. He is sixty at least now, but scarcely seems 
 to be forty 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 8, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER You asked 
 
 me in one of your late letters whether- I had read Mrs.
 
 2O6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Bryan's "Lovable Heroines." I have read it, and most 
 heartily indorse it. Her criticism on Beulah expressed my 
 sentiments exactly, so far as it went. She is an uncom- 
 monly sensible woman a real woman only more of a 
 woman than most of her sex, and, therefore, a better speci- 
 men of it. I have thought more of her since I have heard 
 that she inclines to fat, because that gives me assurance 
 that she is a flesh and blood woman none of your pining, 
 poetical shadows that live upon moonbeams and dew- 
 drops 
 
 The gifted authoress above referred to is Mrs. Mary K. 
 Bryan now (1876) at the head of the literary department 
 of TIic Sunny SoutJi. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 11, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER To-day, I got your letter of )'cstcrday, 
 and yesterday evening, on my return from bringing Becky 
 home, I got one of the day before. And this is another 
 anniversary of the day of your birth. You were born forty- 
 eight years ago. Oh ! what crowds and floods of events 
 that you can number, and what innumerable myriads more, 
 of which you knew nothing, have transpired in that period 
 of forty-eight years! Oh! it is a long, long time! but I 
 am not in a moralizing mood to-day. The da} 7 has so far 
 (and it is now four o'clock in the afternoon) been an unusu- 
 ally pleasant one to me. That part of it which has been 
 most so was spent with my children. At this very mo- 
 ment, I hear their busy little feet pattering down the stair- 
 steps that go up from the library door. They have been 
 up stairs on some raid or other, I suppose. Becky's re- 
 turn home yesterday was quite an event to her and her 
 little sisters, and, most of all, to the negroes. In coming 
 home, she repeatedly urged me to make Charlie go faster, 
 sometimes in a direct way, and at other times by insinua- 
 tion. For instance: she asked me once, with a cunning 
 smile, which was the best to make Charlie go fast whipping 
 
 or clucking Have you seen Mr. 
 
 Toombs' speech ? It is one of great power. It is the worst
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2O/ 
 
 drubbing that I have ever seen administered to the Repub- 
 licans I was much amused at your 
 
 quarrel with the common mode of designating colds, pains, 
 etc., as my cold, my headache, etc., but I hardly think you 
 made good your point. I think, after all, there is a prop- 
 erty in the things, though they may be, as you say, our 
 decided enemies. It is an involuntary and disagreeable 
 property, but still it is a property. The mode of speech 
 which you criticise is carried so far, and properly carried so 
 far, as to say my enemy, my trouble, my grief, etc. The 
 epithet "my" is not necessarily one of endearment, but it 
 is one of property ; it expresses a pccitlium you have in 
 the pain, or in the enmity a stock which is yours, etc. I 
 have just got your letter of yesterday, your birthday. 1 
 am glad to know that your cold has got better or rather, 
 that you have got better of your cold that you are gain- 
 ing ground on your enemy. All well to-day. It is a 
 bright, beautiful day, but rather cold 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 16, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER My dinner is just over; and not feeling 
 inclined to do any work this afternoon, I turn to you for a 
 little pleasant occupation. No letter from you to-day. I 
 missed the accustomed visitor a good deal. This morning, 
 I sent you a long letter, written yesterday, with a post- 
 script added this morning. It reinclosed to you the letter 
 which you sent me from Mr. Toombs. While I think of 
 it, let me mention several letters which I have written to 
 you, but of which you have made no mention. It is pos- 
 sible that you have acknowledged some of them by their 
 dates, for I don't keep much account of dates in the ordi- 
 nary run of days ; but you have not acknowledged all of 
 them, either by dates or accounts, or other marks of iden- 
 tity. One is the letter in which I commented on your re- 
 cently developed "abomination of this way of carrying 
 pipes about," and also gave an analysis of the humor in a 
 certain scene in Sterne's two Shandy brothers, and asked 
 you if I had not given you an analysis of that same thing 
 at some former time. Did you get that letter? Another 
 is the letter enclosing Mr. Crittenden's letter to you and a
 
 2O8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 copy of your reply to it. I made some remarks on your 
 reply, mostly in a laughing vein. I remember 1 said your 
 speculations about "organ-issues" struck me very much as 
 Jenkinsons learning about the "Cosmogony of Creation" 
 struck the old vicar in jail. It seemed to me I had heard 
 something very much like that before. You have made 
 no allusion to that letter. Did you get it? When a fellow 
 writes a letter intended to produce a lavish, and never hears 
 from it, he feels about as flat as he does when he attempts 
 a joke in company, and gets no response from the company. 
 That is a very bad feeling; I don't know whether you ever 
 had it or not I have. Another letter, from which I have 
 never heard a word, was the one about the night spent with 
 me by Mr. Thomas, and the old crazy professor. Besides 
 these, there are yet others, but I do not now remember 
 them. I am inclined to think that you never received 
 them. Silence from me on such matters would not mean 
 so much as your silence does, for you are usually very care- 
 ful about acknowledging letters, while I am generally very 
 remiss. Well, to change the subject: I have just turned a 
 beggar away from my door without a cent; I don't believe 
 I ever did so before. He was a great big strapping fellow, 
 who came to me with a "paper." I took it in my hand, 
 but read only enough of it to confirm me in my supposi- 
 tion that it was a begging paper, and then handed it back 
 to him, remarking that I had nothing to j. ive him. He 
 then drew out and offered to me a memorandum book and 
 pencil, and said, in pretty good broken English, that the 
 sum he asked of me "was but small." I did not take the 
 book, but replied to him, "I do not wish to give you any- 
 thing." He bowed with an air that might have become an 
 offended prince, and retired without a word. Isn't it a cu- 
 rious thing that such transparent scamps should be offended 
 at a refusal? The offense certainly is on the other side, for 
 the presentation of one of their "papers" to a man is a 
 plain impeachment of his understanding. The action put 
 into words means exactly this: "I take you to befool 
 enough to give me something. " As I turned from the door, 
 after dismissing the beggar Claude and Emm came run- 
 ning out of the nursery to meet me, their little faces all 
 radiant with glee, and read}' for a frolic. Transparent and 
 certain as was the unworthiness of the application which I
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 had just refused, yet the sight of my children immediately 
 suggested to me that the poor fellow, too, might have little 
 ones, and that if so, they were probably in want and 
 wretchedness, while mine were so bright and happy. What 
 made the difference, except the accidents of life? All these 
 thoughts passed through my mind like a flash, and for one 
 instant I felt something like a pang of repentance. But re- 
 flection immediately corrected it, and I allowed the begging 
 impostor to go on his empty way 
 
 Hon. Iverson L. Harris, formerly one of the Justices of 
 the Supreme Court of the State, in a letter from Milledge- 
 ville, dated iith of November, 1873, in forwarding, under 
 the published notice of the author of this memoir, some 
 letters he had received from Judge Stephens, uses the fol- 
 lowing language: 
 
 "One of his letters, commenting on Bailey's Essay on 
 Truth, and on the formation and publication of opinions, 
 evinces such power of intellect in treating that difficult sub- 
 ject belief in miracles that I ever thought it ought to go 
 before the public. So highly have I ever appreciated it, 
 that I ventured to read it to distinguished churchmen, that 
 they might learn to correct their answers to Hurne. It im- 
 pressed them favorably. In my poor judgment, it gives 
 the only true answer to Hume which a great logical mind 
 can give. I esteem it as an original answer, displaying a 
 vigor and profundity of thought which placed, at a bound, 
 Judge Stephens with the highest class of thinkers. . . . 
 "I not only admired his high intellect and manly charac- 
 ter, but really loved him. I would have gone to Sparta to 
 have evinced my regard when he was committed to mother 
 earth, but disease forbade the attempt. I desired very 
 much to have been at Atlanta when General Toombs of- 
 fered his report and resolutions, designed as some slight 
 memorial. I could not have sat silently by." 
 
 Here follows the letter alluded to: 
 20*
 
 2IO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [ L. S. to Hon. Iverson I,. Harris. ] 
 
 SPARTA, April 21, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR On returning home last Saturday night, 
 from court at Atlanta, I found your highly appreciated letter 
 of the 3 ist ultimo. I was called home by the illness of 
 one of my children, and have since been so weary and 
 spiritless that I have not, until now, undertaken to bring 
 up my correspondence, which had fallen in arrears during 
 my absence. Instead of one sick child, I found all tJirec of 
 my children quite unwell, and two of them decidedly sick. 
 I am glad to be able to say now that they are all on foot 
 again, with a fair promise of complete restoration to their 
 usual excellent health. 
 
 I will carry you the books, as you request, when I go over 
 to court. My brother and I have both finished reading 
 them, as you supposed ; and for myself, I will say that the 
 reading of them has been of decided advantage to me. 
 The fairness, and candor, and courage which mark them 
 cannot fail to exert a happy influence upon any mind whose 
 vocation is the investigation of truth. The spirit of the 
 work (for the two books are but parts of one work) is just 
 such as ought to characterize every judge. And now, hav- 
 ing said thus much of the work, I must say more to avoid 
 a misunderstanding of my opinion concerning it. The spirit 
 of it is fine, and its scaffolding of rules and preliminary reason- 
 ing, admirable; but the conclusion to which it mounts from 
 these premises, I regard as almost inexcusably illogical. 
 That conclusion, as you know, is that a miracle cannot be 
 established by human testimony. The author takes Mr. 
 Hume's definition of a miracle, to wit, a violation of the 
 laws of nature, and then concludes that human testimony 
 is inadequate to establish a violation, because the violation 
 involves a departure from the uniformity of causation. The 
 uniformity of causation he rightly assumes as a necessary 
 truth which the mind cannot be made to doubt by any pos- 
 sible accumulation of human testimony. Now, I remark, 
 in the first place, that if his argument is good, it proves 
 much more than he claims it proves not only that a mir- 
 acle cannot be established by human testimony, but that a 
 miracle is absolutely incredible, impossible, beyond the power 
 of God, I do not say this consequence proves the argu-
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 211 
 
 ment unsound, but I state the consequence merely to aid 
 a full conception of the argument itself. There is no covert 
 in which a fallacy is more apt to lurk than in a definition. 
 So in this case, I think, the whole error lies in defining a 
 miracle to be a violation of the laws of nature. Nor do I 
 perceive that the churchmen have helped the matter the 
 least in the world by defining it to be, not a violation, but 
 only a suspension of the laws of nature. This is no nearer 
 the truth than the other is, nor does it at all escape from the 
 force of the argument ; for a suspension of the laws of 
 nature is a departure from the uniformity of causation 
 just as certainly as a violation is such a departure. The 
 truth expressed by the term, "uniformity of causation," is 
 that the same cause, or combination of causes, will invari- 
 ably, infallibly and necessarily produce the same effects. 
 Now, to say that the laws of nature are suspended is simply 
 to say that the very same combination of causes, which 
 heretofore invariably produced a given effect, is still present, 
 but is no longer followed by its appropriate effect that 
 is to say, that causation has ceased to be uniform, and the 
 uniformity of causation ceases to be a truth. I think, there- 
 fore, that a "suspension" affords no escape from the con- 
 clusion to which, we are inevitably led, starting from Mr. 
 Hume's definition. I think the truth is that his defini- 
 tion, as well as that of the churchmen, is both erroneous 
 and highly unpJdlosophical. The miracles to which these 
 definitions relate are those recorded in the Scriptures. 
 Now, these neither involve, nor profess to involve, either 
 any violation or suspension of the uniformity of causation. 
 They are only exhibitions of extraordinary and superhuman 
 power, differing from the ten thousand other daily exhibi- 
 tions of such superhuman power in nothing but this: 
 they were given to man as a witness for the truths and 
 teachings that accompanied them. The miracles of the 
 gospel imply no more poivcr than we see exhibited by 
 nature every day of our lives. The causes, or combination of 
 causes, which produce these results are in both classes of 
 cases equally hid from us, the result being designed for a 
 special object in the one case, and, in the other case, the 
 object being often as obscure to us as the cause is. To say 
 of any event or phenomenon, that it violates the uniformity 
 of causation, assumes that we knew with certainty the exact
 
 212 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 combination of causes operating in the case an assumption 
 which, so far from being true, would be absolutely false in 
 almost, if not indeed in every case of a natural phenome- 
 non. Our author puts a case: He says that it would be an 
 incredible thing if all the witnesses in the world should 
 state that they had seen ice fail to melt when exposed to a 
 white heat. His argument is that any man, having once 
 seen ice melt in a white heat, cannot afterwards be made to 
 doubt that it will always melt under the same circumstances, 
 because it is a necessary truth that the same cause will al- 
 ways produce the same effect. He quietly assumes that the 
 cause is the same no more, no less but the identical same 
 cause which he has seen produce the effect of melting ice. 
 Such an assumption seems to me to be highly unphilosoph- 
 ical. It amounts to an assumption that there can be no 
 causes at work in a given case, except such as are patent to 
 the hitman senses. For poor little mole-sighted man to de- 
 clare that, in any given case, there is no single cause in op- 
 eration, except such as he wots of, is just about as ridicu- 
 lous and arrogant as if the ant from the top of his hill 
 should deny that he was moving at an immensely rapid 
 rate, upon the ground that no such motion was sensible to 
 the very acute wisdom of his antship. I remember read- 
 ing a story once of an East Indian Chief, who was utterly 
 incredulous when an English officer told him that he had 
 often seen water in a solid state. He thought the fact as- 
 serted involved a. departure from the uniformity of causa- 
 tion, and he rejected it as spurious. His error was in as- 
 suming that his own experience was sufficient to enable him 
 to know all the causes in operation, and that it was impos- 
 sible there could have been any cause unknown to him. I 
 have no idea that Jesus raised La/.arus from death, or fed 
 the multitude, or himself arose from the dead, by either 
 violating or suspending the law of causation, but he did all 
 these things by using causes and agencies which were en- 
 tirely beyond their comprehension. The Godhead stood re- 
 vealed, not by results without adequate cause, but by the use 
 of agencies which defied human power to command them. 
 The truly philosophic spirit is cautious about pronouning 
 an impossibility. There is quite as much lack of philosophy 
 in believing too reluctantly, or in refusing to believe at all, 
 as there is in believing too easily. True wisdom neither
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 213 
 
 rejects as impossible nor adopts as true, except according 
 to evidence. The range of real impossibility is exceedingly 
 limited. I should not be at all surprised if you and I should 
 live until the progress of science shall render the skepticism 
 of our author concerning the melting of ice quite as ludi- 
 crous as we already know that the skepticism of the Indian 
 Chief was concerning its existence. The chemist may yet 
 be able to hold ice in a white heat without melting, by the 
 use of some agency at present unknown to science, and 
 also imperceptible to the human senses. 
 
 But I must stop and beg your pardon for having gone 
 into the reasons why I dissent from the conclusion of the 
 author of the work under consideration. After all, I have 
 only given you an outline of my views ; but all I set out to 
 do was simply to express my dissent without any reasons 
 at all. I must repeat, in conclusion of these remarks upon 
 the work, that the spirit of it is very fine, and highly essen- 
 tial in every man engaged in the pursuit of truth. 
 
 I feel very much gratified that you concur with me in my 
 views of drunkenness in accusations of crime. I never felt 
 more confidence in the soundness of a conclusion, and in 
 the soundness of a process of reasoning, by which I arrived 
 at a conclusion. That men, who arc opposed to drunken- 
 ness and in favor of good morals, and a wholesome admin- 
 istration of the laws, should abuse the decision, as many 
 such men have done, can be explained only by their igno- 
 rance of what the decision really accomplishes. They are 
 indignant because the decision declares that drunkenness 
 may be considered in investigating whether an act has been 
 done, or if done, with what intent it was done ; but they 
 utterly forget that the light which drunkenness casts is 
 sometimes against the accused, and that the decision, there- 
 fore, declares a principle which not only protects the guilt- 
 less, but also uncovers the guilty. But most of all, they 
 forget, or rather they do not perceive, that this decision 
 puts the punishment of drunken men upon a ground per- 
 fectly consistent with reason and humanity, and, therefore, 
 greatly breaks down the reluctance with which juries inflict 
 the punishment. The decision explodes the idea prevalent, 
 even among judges and law-writers, that a very drunk man 
 has not mind enough to furnish the mental element in 
 crime, and is punished by virtue of a constructive capacity
 
 214 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 infused into him by law. TJie best account which even Mr. 
 Bishop, the latest and most scientific writer on the subject, 
 has been able to give of the reasonableness of punishing a 
 drunken man is, that he has not sufficient mind to commit 
 the crime at the time when he does the act, yet his intent 
 to get drunk is an unlawful intent, and coalesces with the 
 act when done, and so gives it a criminal quality. Would 
 not you shudder at hanging a man for a drunken action, if 
 you could not give any better justification than that for 
 your conduct? If I had to say what was the greatest merit 
 of the decision, my answer would be, that it has rescued 
 the doctrine of punishing drunken men from the miserable 
 sophism by which it has been heretofore defended, and has 
 placed it on a nci^j and rational ground, and so has greatly 
 contributed to the advancement of public justice. But my 
 sheet is out. 
 
 Yours, most truly and respectfully, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS* 
 
 P. S. After the approbation of his own conscience, the 
 next dearest reward to a faithful public servant is the ap- 
 probation of those to whom his service is rendered ; and I 
 therefore do not consider it out of taste to tell you what I 
 have heard of you. My brother told me that your charge 
 to the jury in the negro murder case in Greene was the 
 ablest he ever heard given to a jury on the law of homi- 
 cide. He said he sometimes differed with your rulings, 
 but he was delighted with your administration, and that 
 you had made great progress in the good opinions of your 
 bar. DeGraffenrcid (Wm. K.) told me, at Atlanta the 
 other day, that your bar and he thought the people, too 
 were greatly pleased with your administration. One point 
 which they both selected for special praise was your inde- 
 pendence and fairness. There are few men to whom I would 
 write as I have written to you ; but it is only your due, and 
 if a friend may not tell you of pleasant things, who may? 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 19, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This is Sunday evening about 5 o'clock. 
 Mr. Thomas has just gone home. He and I went to the
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 215 
 
 Methodist Church to-day to hear Bishop Pierce preach. It 
 was a good sermon, and about as rich in language and illus- 
 tration as any I ever heard from him. His text was the 
 exhortation of Barnabas to the Church at Antioch to cleave 
 unto God with purpose of heart. The purpose of heart 
 was a full purpose, reserving nothing, but determined in 
 all things to do the will of God. One of his figures was, 
 that, as to himself, he had felt this purpose as a wall of 
 adamant on the one side, and the other, the world, the flesh 
 and the Devil, shutting them out, and shutting him in, in 
 
 moral safety, etc 
 
 When we, or rather when I returned home from church, 
 I found your long letter of yesterday. This is the longest 
 letter I ever got from you, or anybody else. I had read 
 it almost half through when dinner was announced, but I 
 finished it before I went to dinner. It touched many points, 
 and they were all interesting to me. It was a deeply in- 
 teresting letter to me. The theme in it, the most interest- 
 ing, was my children. What you think of them was partly 
 suspected before, if not fully comprehended, but I confess 
 that its expression was to me a savor of exceeding sweet- 
 ness. I think it will do me good all the days of my life, 
 unless, indeed, my children should hereafter force me to 
 abandon my own estimate of how well they merit the opin- 
 ions you have expressed concerning them. It is one of the 
 greatest pleasures I have to see them love and reverence 
 you, and feel that they are worthy of your high estimate 
 of them. There is one subject in your letter on which I 
 will make a remark while it is in my mind. I allude to 
 what you say about your silence as to some of my late 
 pleasantries which you say were made at your expense, and 
 therefore did not make you laugh. Now, I never expected 
 you to acknowledge them by saying that you had laughed 
 over them. I never expected you to do more than ac- 
 knowledge "a touch," as the fencers do when touched by 
 the foil the foil that covers the sharp point that would 
 make a wound but for the friendly covering. Now, the 
 humor of my hits at you, if humor there was, was the 
 point, and my playful motive the covering which disarmed 
 it of its power to pierce
 
 2l6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 23, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER In my last 
 
 letter, I intended to say a great many things which occurred 
 to me at the time, but which I was not in the mood to say 
 then. I was in one of my states when nothing seems to be 
 worth the doing of it, and when I hastened, therefore, to 
 the end of my letter. One of the omitted things was that 
 I had read the article in the Westminster, on "Social Or- 
 ganism," before I got your letter about it, and had formed 
 the distinct intention of calling your attention to it, as show- 
 ing an almost marvelous coincidence with your views on 
 that subject. I was very much struck with the coincidence, 
 but not half so much with the speculation itself, as I have 
 with some of your speculations in conversation and letters 
 on the same theme. It was truly tedious, as you charac- 
 terized it, and I did not read the whole of it. I read 
 enough to perfectly get the run of it. There are a great 
 many things which, in this clay of wonts, WORDS, WORDS, 
 I read in the same way. They are such things as 1 am not 
 willing to leave totally unread, and yet, which I cannot 
 afford to peruse through all of the platitudes, and common- 
 places, and repetitions which are employed to invest them. 
 I therefore pick out such of the real grains as are obvious 
 to inspection, and leave all the rest as chaff. No doubt my 
 leavings of chaff often contain some grains of wheat. . . 
 Have you seen "A. B. 's " echo of the " Cato-like lamen- 
 tations " of "that virtuous magistrate," Judge Holt, over 
 the abomination of desolation that will result from the de- 
 cision of the Supreme Court in poor Jones' case? I saw 
 it in a very conspicuous place in tlie Constitutionalist yesterday. 
 "That virtuous magistrate!" To say the least of it, that 
 is a very easy virtue which manifests itself in punishing the 
 crimes of other people, and that virtue is still more easy 
 which inflicts the punishment without troubling itself to in- 
 vestigate whether the crime has been committed or not. 
 To the practice of this virtue, nothing is requisite, but free 
 rein to a savage heart. The natural gravitation of malice 
 and blood-thirstiness will accomplish the result. " I'~acilis 
 descensus Arcnii." To the honor of mankind, this ' ' species " 
 of "virtue" is rare, and when found is generally worked
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2 \"J 
 
 up as the material for executioners. I am afraid I shall lose 
 my patience under demagogical censures of my public acts. 
 It is hard to remain peaceful under misrepresentation and 
 obloquy, when you are conscious of holding a rod which 
 could smite your assailant. It is hard to even bide your 
 time. I can do it, but I say it is hard / 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 29, 1860. 
 
 DCAR BROTHER I have 
 
 finished the opinion in Jones' case. I just concluded to 
 throw overboard my beautiful theory, indicating the con- 
 sistency of the law in punishing drunk men for murder. 
 It costs me a pang to do it; for I have got quite in love 
 with it. I think it would give me more reputation with in- 
 tellectual people than anything else I have written ; but it 
 makes the opinion too long. I think the sacrifice is needed, 
 and I shall make it. You can't know how much virtue I 
 am showing, unless you knew u'hat a good thing- it is. . . 
 
 There is a great clamor about this decision among the 
 people, I hear. Several men in this county say they are 
 against the court on account of it. I suppose it is so else- 
 where. Let it be so. I am rather glad of it ; I know they 
 can't stand the argument. I think my day will come, but 
 I would rather have my day, as it is, than theirs. I am right 
 and know it, and have demonstrated it. All the clamors 
 of Bedlam and the clamors of this world are Bedlam 
 clamors can't make me regret it, or doubt it. I will not 
 say I have contempt for the opinions of mankind, for that 
 is not the feeling. I prefer to have their favorable opinions, 
 and do many things to obtain them. It is more pleasant 
 on many accounts to have their opinions on your side; but 
 I do have an utter disregard for them as an index of truth. 
 There are several men whose opinions against my own 
 would lead me to examine mine with great care that is 
 all. I have often done so before, and changed my opinion 
 on re-examination ; but even that has been in cases where 
 I had not before made much, if any, special examination. 
 The clamors of a mob, however large and respectable in the 
 general acceptance of the term, would scarcely have that 
 effect. They would not make me re-examine when I had 
 21 *
 
 2l8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 examined the case well before, but would, where the first 
 examination had been slight, and the opinion formed on 
 it not strong 
 
 The decision referred to in the two foregoing letters was 
 the celebrated one pronounced by him in the case of Jones 
 i's. The State, noted so conspicuously in Judge Blcckley's 
 paper, given on a preceding page. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 5, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I this evening 
 
 finished the opinion in Jones' case, and turned it over to 
 Charley to cop}- for me. I will send you a copy by Wed- 
 nesday's mail, I hope. It is fourteen pages long, but I 
 think the public will read it. I have put it in readable 
 shape for the general reader. I had a much greater affec- 
 tion for the bantling several days ago than I have now. I 
 still think I have cut the Gordian knot about punishing 
 drunken men for their actions, consistently with general 
 legal principles, and of yet allowing drunkenness to be used, 
 as an instrument of evidence, to throw light wherever it can 
 throw it, either on the physical or mental clement of crime. 
 In other words, it is a satisfactory solution to me of a prob- 
 lem not before solved to my satisfaction. I had intended 
 to write a piece for the newspapers about the clamors against 
 the court, but I have, for the present at least, lost my in- 
 terest in the subject 
 
 \Vho is "Fair Play" that writes in the Macon Tclcgrapli, 
 protesting against your name being mixed up with the 
 Presidency? I am sure he expresses your sentiments, and 
 I should like to know who he it*. Did I tell you that Jack 
 Lane is going to the Milledgeville convention, but not as a 
 delegate? Me said that, as he was one of the executive com- 
 mittee who called the convention, lie preferred not to be a 
 delegate. You might write him a letter giving him your 
 wishes in regard to your name being kept entirely out of 
 the convention.
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 17, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Now, you needed 
 
 not to tell me that you would not speak to anybody else, 
 as you would to me, concerning- your speeches ; nor did you 
 need to make the least apology for speaking so to me. I 
 think it a legitimate pleasure that every man feels in a sense 
 of having done anything well, and in having others to en- 
 tertain the same opinion of it. I don't think there is any 
 indelicacy in expressing one's true opinion of his own per- 
 formance to another, who is interested in it, and who can 
 receive the opinion in the same spirit in which it was com- 
 municated knowing full well that men often entertain good 
 opinions of their performances, whether they express them 
 or not. You need not hesitate to express to me the best 
 opinion you may have of anything you may have done, for 
 it gives me as much pleasure as it does you ; and I know, 
 from experience, it is a pleasure which can never be fully 
 enjoyed, either on the part of the one or the other, unless 
 there is some one to share it and sympathize with it. 
 There is nothing truer, in all my experience, than that all 
 pleasures are doubled, and all sorrows divided, by being 
 truly shared with one true and sympathizing heart. I am 
 glad you like Harris as a judge, and that he is gaining in 
 the good opinion of his bar. He is a man I like. He has 
 his own peculiarities, as all real men have; and he has, be- 
 sides, a bottom of sincerity and honor which very fcic 
 men do have. He is a favorite with me. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S.] 
 
 SPARTA, May i, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I begin to 
 
 believe the Charleston Convention will end in a row, and 
 that Black Republicanism will be triumphant. The Demo- 
 cratic part}', instead of being concentrated against the pub- 
 lic enemy, presents the spectacle of quarreling about the 
 ownership of the House, while the burglars are rifling it.
 
 22O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From L. S. to A. 11. S. ] 
 
 MILLEDGEVILLE, May 1 8, 1860. 
 
 DKAR BROTIIKR I have been very busy, or I would have 
 written you sooner. Tluveatt will to-day send you a tele- 
 graphic dispatch which came here for you yesterday, and I 
 inclose you another of the same import, and from the same 
 person, and by one day, of earlier date. I opened them 
 both, in order to see whether the} 7 ought to be sent by 
 special messenger. You have, of course, seen Mr. Toombs' 
 letter. You are right about him. His intimation that the 
 Northern Democrats had attempted to interpolate into 
 the party creed the doctrine that a Territorial Legislature 
 has the power to abolish slavery is very extraordinary. 
 How did they attempt it? All the}' wanted was the Cin- 
 cinnati platform, and this is just the Kansas Bill of 1854011 
 that point nothing more, nothing less. The platform 
 adopts the bill. When that bill Avas on its passage, they 
 said then just what they say now that the Territorial Leg- 
 islature would have the power to regulate slavery as they 
 might please. We said not. Each side was willing to trust 
 its own version of the Constitution, out of which the differ- 
 ence of opinion grew; hence, provision was made in the bill 
 for referring the question to the Supreme Court. Mr. 
 Toombs liked that arrangement, and advocated it, when he 
 had no decision of the court on the subject, and no expres- 
 sion of opinion. NOIU, he has got a decision in his favor so 
 far as the power of the Territorial Legislature can be de- 
 rived from a transfer by Congress, and the opinion of the 
 court obiter; also, upon the power as derived from the prin- 
 ciple of self-government. He was content to refer the ques- 
 tion to the court in utter ignorance of their opinion, and he 
 is not satisfied now for the reference to stand as it was made, 
 when the court has declared their opinion in his favor. 
 For my part, I like the arrangement none the less since 
 finding that the judge is in my favor. True, Douglas de- 
 nies that the court has decided his question, and he is right 
 in the denial. But if not decided, it yet remains to be de- 
 cided according to the original bargain and provisions 01 
 the Kansas Bill, and I have quite as much confidence now 
 as I had at first in a decision in our favor. The opinion in 
 our fai'or has not impaired my confidence; I am (mite as 
 ready now, as I was at first, to tolerate the contrary confi-
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 221 
 
 dencc of our allies. All we can require of them under the 
 agreement is to stand by the decision already made in the one 
 branch of the power, and by that which shall be made on 
 the other branch of it. This they expressly reaffirmed 
 their resolution to do. What more can we require of them 
 without a violation of the understanding ? I had a letter from 
 Reese, (of Washington, Win. M.) and he says your letter 
 expresses his views exactly. I hear that Glenn (Cobb's 
 brother-in-law) is against him. I think the letters of Mr. 
 Cobb and Mr. Toombs will do good in a way not intended 
 by them. They will break clown the Richmond movement 
 by opening the door to be represented at Baltimore. A 
 nciv delegation from Georgia will not secede, and such a new 
 delegation will now go as the representative of both branches 
 of the party. Good-bye. 
 
 LIXTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SAVANNA 1 1, J unc 15, 1 860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER As to your 
 
 request that I may so arrange my will as to provide against 
 a separation of families among your negroes willed to me, 
 I will certainly attend to it if I should outlive you. There- 
 is a provision in my present will, applicable to all the negroes 
 I may own at my death, securing them from the separation 
 of families. I intend to change my will in some particulars 
 if I live in health long enough to do so after getting home 
 once more, and I will look carefully to that point. I w r ould 
 like to talk to you about it, not only so far as your negroes 
 are concerned, but as to the proper provision covering all 
 
 my negroes We broke through our 
 
 new schedule this evening, and, after sitting until 3 o'clock, 
 went back at five and heard arguments until seven. This 
 we did to accommodate the Augusta bar, who had a case in 
 which eight or ten of them were to make speeches, and 
 which they were anxious to finish this evening, and assured 
 us they would finish, if we would go back and hear them 
 after dinner. When we were going back after dinner, Tom 
 Miller said he did not like being brought back after dinner, 
 for he wanted to go to Thunderbolt to get somf crabs. I 
 told him if he was so unreasonable as to complain of that
 
 222 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 which he had himself requested, he would be very apt to 
 find crabs in the court-house, without going to Thunderbolt 
 for them. This was said in a considerable crowd at the 
 court-house door, just before going in, and the miserable 
 pun raised a great laugh. The laugh subsided, and Judge 
 Lumpkin added, "Yes, sir; and we promise you they shall 
 not be soft crabs at that." Again the crowd exploded in 
 a laugh. They really seemed to think all this was excel- 
 lent wit. Well, the result of our effort to work off the 
 case (which had already been largely argued) was, that we 
 only worked off one speech from Judge Starnes. He spoke 
 two solid hours, and five minutes over, after assuring us 
 that he would not speak an hour, and that they would all 
 get through in two hours. Any man makes a great mis- 
 take to speak longer than his promise when he is speaking 
 before a court. After he passes his self-appointed limit, he 
 makes the judges mad and impatient. They feel as if they 
 
 had a grievance 
 
 And now, for the want of 
 
 anything better to write, I will tell you of another saying 
 of mine the other night at Judge Henry's. One of the 
 
 Misses - rather sets up for a wit and a woman of 
 
 learning. She had on hand a piece of knitting, which she- 
 said was Penelope's web. I asked her if she was pursuing 
 Penelope's plan of unraveling it as she went. She said, 
 "Oh, no!" "Well, then, "said I, " so fat, you have shown 
 only a difference between your web and Penelope's hers 
 having been constantly unraveled as it was made yours 
 going on to a rapid completion ; I suppose its likeness must 
 consist in having a promised marriage at the end of it." 
 Her reply was, " I acknowledge you have r-a-t-h-e-r got 
 me." 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, June 28, 1860. 
 
 DICAK BROTH KK The first 
 
 case we had here was a bank case. We have decided it 
 against the bank directors, and all agree in opinion. It is 
 Lyon'scase, but I shall also give my views on it. This was 
 a case aj^ainst directors for an excessive indebtedness in- 
 curred under their administration. Mr. Toombs' cases were
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 223 
 
 against stockholders, and were based upon a different clause 
 in the charter. This case does not, therefore, decide his 
 point; but I am against him on his point. Jim Johnson 
 argued this case against the directors, and argued it far 
 better than Dougherty did the case against stockholders. 
 Jim Johnson argues a case upon the principles and philos- 
 ophy of the law in a style not surpassed by any man in 
 Georgia. But I must now go to consultation. This has 
 been written in my smoking time just after dinner. . . . 
 
 P. S. Just as I am closing, a storm is brewing. Charley 
 has just come in, too, and told me that he has just learned, 
 through a letter from his wife, that poor old General Sayre 
 is dead. He died day before yesterday. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, June 29, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It is nearly 1 1 o'clock at night, and I 
 have just returned from hearing Governor Johnson* speak 
 
 in Concert Hall The Governor spoke 
 
 very well to-night, but he did not speak as effectively as 
 usual. He had a house full, and I thought that about hah 
 the crowd, who demonstrated at all, seemed to be with him. 
 But I thought he had as many with him at the beginning 
 as he had at the end. I will give you the particulars 
 when we meet, if we should think of it then, or perhaps in 
 some letter, when I have more time. For the present, 1 
 will only add that he does not appreciate, as I do, the point 
 of greatest strength in his position that is, the danger 
 of rendering slavery odious to our allies, and to the world, 
 by making it aggressive by forcing it upon any unwilling 
 people upon the face of the earth. The ark of safety and 
 progress is the doctrine of perfect and universal non-inter- 
 vention, leaving all people to please themselves upon the 
 subject, forcing it upon none, and securing it to all who 
 desire it. If this principle becomes established as an inter- 
 State doctrine, and would become established as an inter- 
 national doctrine, it will, of logical necessity, become after- 
 wards the doctrine amon<j individuals of the same State or 
 
 Hcrschel V. Johnson was then a candidate for the Vice-Presidency.
 
 224 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 nation, and every man, the world over, will have slaves if 
 he wants them, and is able to buy them. The whole battle 
 of slavery turns upon the single issue of its moral right or 
 moral wrong. If it is wrong, everybody ought to do all 
 that can be done, consistently with a prudent regard to cir- 
 cumstances, to abolish it ; but if it is right, everybody ought 
 to have it who wants it and can get it States or individuals. 
 All legal prohibitions of it would disappear from the face of 
 the earth if you once establish the doctrine that it is no 
 question of right or wrong, but is only a question of polit- 
 ical economy. If it is a question of political economy, it 
 must be a matter of fire trade, neither forced nor prohibited 
 anywhere, but left to the laws of free trade everywhere, 
 not going in point of fact to all places, but prohibited by 
 /<77t' in no place free as the cotton-plant and sugar-cane 
 are to go anywhere, but, like them, taking root only where 
 it may be found profitable. Douglas is the great champion 
 of this great principle on which rest our hopes of the pro- 
 gress and salvation of slavery ; and it is black ingratitude, as 
 well as suicidal folly, for the South to assail him or aban- 
 don him. But good-night. 
 
 Affectionately, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACON, SUNDAY MORNING, July 8, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The commencement 
 
 sermon is to be preached to-day by Dr. Joseph C. Stiles. 
 Have you ever heard him? I heard him once, about seven 
 years ago, and thought he was the greatest orator I hail 
 ever seen in the pulpit. I must go and hear him again to- 
 day, and see how that impression may be sustained or 
 changed. I wish you could hear him with me; and I have 
 a distinct recollection of having wished, when I heard him, 
 that you and Kmm could have heard him, too so greatly 
 does any pleasure depend upon its being shared with others 
 who are near and dear to us! 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, July 8, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I wrote you a letter this morning, and 
 mailed it on my way to church. Since then, I have re-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 225 
 
 ceivcd yours of the 6th instant, saying- that you were feel- 
 ing- much better, and that you had had a little rain and a 
 great deal of cooling in the air. I am truly glad to hear it. 
 So my notions about the rains, as expressed to you this 
 morning, turn out to be correct. I think you have got still 
 
 more rain by this time 
 
 And now, a word as to Dr. Stiles' sermon to-day: His 
 subject was the ''Gospel as an instrument of education 
 the sole instrument of educating men out of their great ab- 
 errations, and leading them back to their first great estate 
 of their likeness to God." It was a grand discourse. His 
 soul seemed to be all on fire with his great theme, and to 
 be throwing off, not scintillations nor corruscations, but 
 masses of sheet-flame. After such a general account, it is 
 perilous to give specimens; but I will try a few, begging 
 you to imagine what infinite force was added to them by 
 powerful language, which I do not remember, and still 
 more by the noble and inspired aspect of the orator. He 
 pointed out some of those great aberrations. One of them 
 was a constant proneness in man to exalt the things of Time 
 above the things of Eternity to ignore Eternity and make 
 Time all in all. The cry of his fallen nature is, What shall 
 I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be 
 clothed? He asked what a great aberration this was ! The 
 smallest imaginable fraction of the first breath of Methuse- 
 lah bore a larger proportion to the rest of Methuselah's 
 life than Time bears to Eternity. Time is but the egg-shell 
 prison of the bird : he is formed and hatched there, but be- 
 fore you can have the bird in the glory of his creation, he 
 must/vY/v' out, and soar, and sing, and flock in the forests, 
 and through the grand empyrean. Man has his origin in 
 Time, but before he achieves his true glory, or even enters 
 upon his real existence, he must burst through these cere- 
 ments of Time, which restrain the heaving of his immortal 
 nature, and fly to his great possession at the throne of God, 
 where he shall be a joint-heir with the Son of God. An- 
 other of these great aberrations was man's proneness to set 
 himself up as independent of God. What stupendous 
 folly! What alarming insanity ! Man, without God, is a 
 swift chariot without a reinsman a storm-tossed ship with- 
 out a rudder an affrighted stag, plunging through the 
 forest, without an eye ! 
 
 22*
 
 226 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 These arc a few, out of a large number, of his striking 
 and glowing illustrations. To feel the force and beauty 01 
 these as I did, you would not only have to imagine the lan- 
 guage and action with which they were delivered, but also 
 the preceding parts which had prepared the audience for 
 the full effect of them. In my judgment, he is the prince 
 of preachers. I greatly wonder that his fame is not much 
 greater than it is 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACON, July 10, 1860. 
 
 DKAR BROTHER I have just returned 
 
 from a ride out into the country to a beautiful pond, where 
 I took a swim. I went to the same place and took a bath 
 on the night of the 5th instant. Our landlord sends such 
 of us as wish to go in his carriage. The pond is at a place 
 of his about a mile out of town. It is fed by springs, and 
 is very clear. There never was a more beautiful place for 
 swimming. Judge Lumpkin went out the first night, and 
 went into the water, but didn't swim, for he don't know 
 how. The company had some sport out of my efforts to 
 teach him. He went into the frolic with the spirit of a 
 boy 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, July 12, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I take a few moments, before going to 
 the court-house, to drop you a line. Yesterday, we had no 
 court, but attended the commencement. I have no remarks 
 to make, except that it was a poor affair, with the excep- 
 tion of the commencement oration by Dr. Lipscomb,* of 
 Alabama. That was a very entertaining address; it was 
 highly poetical, in thought, in parts of it. It was not writ- 
 ten. I will give you a specimen, which, I think", has the 
 true ring of beauty and poetry: he called the Gulf-stream 
 "The Wandering Summer of the Sea." I never heard the 
 idea before; nor has Judge Nisbet, or Lumpkin, or any- 
 body else whom I have heard speak- of it 
 
 ''' Dr. hipscomb was afterwards Chancellor of the Univ<
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 227 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II . S. ] 
 
 MACON, July 13, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I learn to-day, through 
 
 Charley and Judge Lumpkin, that Ben Hill says that he has 
 been consulted by the Bell and Everett men of the North 
 to get his opinion whether a combination between them and 
 the Douglas men at the North would hurt them at the 
 South, and that he has answered them to make the com- 
 bination. Ben talks against the seceders. The three par- 
 ties Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell men are now sta- 
 tioned for a triangular fight, without any certainty, on the 
 part of either, as to which of the other two will prove his 
 real antagonist in the end, and with a rational disposition, 
 therefore, on the part of each, to weaken that one which, 
 for the time, gives most promise of final strength. It is a 
 category very promising of combinations and bargains, and 
 nobody can tell what may yet be effected by trading. The 
 temptation and facility for trading is likely to produce it. 
 
 Charley* says he heard Judge Lumpkin break loose, the 
 other night, upon the subject of my resignation. He said 
 he had not a word to say in opposition to it, and had not 
 tried to dissuade me from it, because my reasons for it were 
 good ; but he would say that there was no man in Georgia 
 who could fill my place. He said he meant just what he 
 said that my equal in the position could not be found in 
 Georgia ; that he would rather have me as an associate on 
 the bench than any man he had ever had ; that I had an 
 absolute and undeviating purpose to administer the law in- 
 dependently of all personal considerations ; and that, from 
 his experience, it was no easy matter to find such a man. 
 He went on to say how great my ability was, etc. I write 
 you this because I feel some gratification at it, and think 
 you may feel some also. It did not surprise me to hear 
 that he expressed such sentiments; for I had thought be- 
 fore that he entertained them, but was surprised to hear 
 that he had said, in so public a manner, things which would 
 be distasteful and disagreeable to a good many people of 
 ambition and influence. He and I held court to-day with- 
 out Judge Lyon, who has gone home while cases in which 
 he has been of counsel arc up. In our consultation, this evcn- 
 
 * lion. Charles W . DuBose, then Clerk of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
 
 228 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ing, we had no trouble at all, and I do not think either one 
 of us yielded a conviction he had. I am sure I did not, 
 and I don't think he did. Me told me the other day that 
 he agreed with an opinion I had expressed, to the effect 
 that judges who interchange views on a question, and are 
 all animated with a single desire to arrive at the truth, can 
 seldom differ in the end 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACON, July 15, 1860. 
 
 PKAR BKOTHKK This is Sunday evening. I have had no 
 letter from you to-day. Your letter of the I2th, which I 
 got yesterday, telling me of the sickness of "the Parson," 
 made me anxious to get another to-day that I might hear 
 how he had got. Poor old Parson! I do hope he is well 
 again. By the way, however, if he should be well, don't 
 let him know that I said "poor old Parson." He would 
 possibly like that quite as little as he did Jesse Woodall's 
 recollection of having gone to school to him. 
 
 I had a good laugh at Judge Lumpkin last night at the 
 supper-table. His wife and son, Miller, arrived here yes- 
 terday morning before breakfast, very unexpectedly to him ; 
 so when he was about to deliver an opinion in a long case, 
 yesterday morning, he prefaced it with an apology for the 
 desultory manner in which he expected to do it saying 
 that while he was engaged in preparing the opinion that 
 morning, circumstances beyond his control had broke in upon 
 him. This manner of alluding to his wife's arrival created 
 quite a merriment among those who knew of her arrival, 
 for the old fellow said it with great humor. So, last night 
 I told Mrs. Lumpkin, who sat right opposite to me at the 
 supper-table, that she ought to haul the Judge "over the 
 coals." She, of course, wanted to know why, and I told 
 her because the Judge had called her " a circumstance." The 
 Judge's reply to me was, " Ain't you ashamed to report me 
 so? I said nothing about a circumstance; I said circmn-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 22Q 
 
 stances." "So you did," said I; "but you said circum- 
 stances had broken in upon you, and as I knew nothing had 
 broken in upon you, except your wife and son, I took Mrs. 
 Lumpkin to be one circumstance and Miller another." 
 With a fine affectation of annoyance, he said: "Ain't 
 you ashamed to do me so?" and the whole of our end of 
 the table took a hearty laugh at this transpiration, in his 
 wife's presence, of the manner in which her name had been 
 handled behind her back. Mrs. Lumpkin said she thought 
 my inference was a sound one, and indeed she didn't see 
 how there could be any escape from it. Before this, the 
 Judge, affecting the air of a man who was caught and had 
 resigned himself to martyrdom, said to me, "I'll tell you 
 now, she'll believe anything you tell her, for she has taken 
 up a notion that you have got one of the honestest faces she 
 ever saw. " His quisical and complaining manner of saying 
 she would believe anything I might tell her raised another 
 roar. I then went on to tell Mrs. Lumpkin that I had not 
 told her the ivorst, for he said "circumstances beyond his 
 control" in a manner that indicated that he was well-nigh a 
 ruined man, and that he would have controlled them if he 
 could. "But," said I, "he didn't fool anybody at all, for 
 through all his assumed air of martyrdom and ruin, his 
 secret delight was plainly apparent to all, and the way every- 
 body read the story was, that he was so tickled at the pleas- 
 ant surprise he had had, he couldn't help telling right out 
 in the court-house that his wife had come to see him 
 his joy had made him incontinent." This pleased her 
 very evidently, and pleased him also, and was regarded by 
 the company as a most just analysis and pleasant hit. 
 I have not told you all that was said, but I have given 
 you the thread on which you can string other such things 
 as you may imagine to have been appropriate to the occa- 
 sion. On the whole, it was a very pleasant supper-table 
 passage, and a little play in which I suspect that the lady 
 figured very much to her liking and to her husband's gratifi- 
 cation. By the way, the reason of her coming here was 
 the news she had got that the Judge was sick. He was quite 
 unwell, a few days ago, but his wife found him quite well 
 on her arrival. And now I will say that I have been 
 "broken in " upon by two terrible bores since I commenced 
 writing this letter. Before I had finished the first page,
 
 23O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 , of , came in and sat and talked for three 
 
 solid hours. He sat until the supper-gong was sounded. 
 Then, immediately after supper, in popped - , and he 
 sat until eleven o'clock. I gaped, and yawned, and told 
 him I had some letters to write, but all to no effect. When 
 he continued to sit after such hints, I concluded that he 
 certainly meditated a foray upon me in some form or other, 
 and I was at last quite as much surprised as relieved when 
 he took his hat and bade me good night without asking me 
 for anything. My solution of it now is, that his heart 
 failed him for the time. I shall look out for him in ike 
 morning. The reporter's place will be vacant at the end of 
 this term by the resignation of Martin, and I have a suspi- 
 cion that - wants to put in. That was - 's busi- 
 ness. is also an applicant, and , of and 
 of and , of . As I am to retire my- 
 self at so early a day, I shall not take much interest in the 
 appointment of Martin's successor. The appointment is 
 made, as you know, by the judges. The temperature here 
 is pleasant, but no prospect of rain. What is to become 
 of the country? Good-night. I intended to write you a 
 long letter this evening. 
 
 Most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, July 21, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER \Vhat docs Mr. 
 
 Toombs say about politics, or does he refrain from the. topic 
 in your presence? What is the reason for your opinion 
 that no combination can be effected between the Douglas 
 and Bell men? You expressed such an opinion in one of 
 your letters to me the other day. What do you think are 
 the probable combinations, or antagonisms and results? 
 It will be some weeks before I can sec you, and I should 
 like to know your general opinion of the field, and of the 
 result of the battle. Mr. Thomas writes me that he is afraid 
 he and I may differ, and then tells me that he favors a com- 
 bination with the Bell men. He says Cosby is really for 
 Douglas, but says he is going to vote for Breckinriclgc. I 
 only mention that as a curious thing. Yesterday, I saw a
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 23! 
 
 letter from Stewart, of our county, to Charley, saying that 
 the Hancock people were in a stir and in a curious condi- 
 tion of politics. He does not go into particulars, nor does 
 he state anything about it, but only drops remarks, from 
 which I can discover the tendency of things. One thing 
 is, he wonders if he shall at last vote for Douglas after swear- 
 ing he never would. He then adds that Bill Hunt tells him 
 it is as easy to swear in as it is to swear out. Then again 
 he adds that Bill Hunt, however, is the only old-fashioned 
 Democrat who talks right about it; and then adds that 
 there is great swearing among them some of the Douglas 
 men swearing that they will never vote for Bell, and some 
 of the Bell men swearing they will never vote for Douglas. 
 From all this, I infer that the proposition for a combination 
 is urged by some of each the Douglas and the Bell men 
 but strenuously resisted by others of each party. Was it 
 this sort of feeling which you foresaw as an obstacle in the 
 way of a combination? Is this obstacle greater than the 
 same sort of obstacle which stood in the way of the union 
 of Whigs and Democrats in the formation of the Constitu- 
 tional Union party, and in the formation of the Anti-Know- 
 Nothing party? I don't see that the obstacle is greater 
 now than the same obstacle was in each of those cases ; nor 
 indeed is it so great, for the disintegrations which have oc- 
 curred in party organizations within a few years have tended 
 to render the process of disintegration familiar to our peo- 
 ple, and, therefore, less difficult. But while disintegration 
 may be more easy, it may yet be true that the reformation 
 of disjointed parts may not be so. In other words, that 
 our general progress has been towards anarchy, and away 
 from integrity and union. But enough of all this, too. 
 What now shall I write? I am unwilling to quit; and yet, 
 I have nothing more to say 
 
 [ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MACOX, July 23, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have done the deed! I mean I have 
 sent my resignation to the Governor, to take effect, not at 
 the end, but at the beginning of the Atlanta term. When 
 I say sent, 1 mean I have it ready to send, and shall have 
 it mailed to-morrow morning along with this. The Gov-
 
 232 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ernor, if he should be at home, will have it in his hands 
 before you get this notice of it. I feel better. The place 
 has worn me out. I should like it if I could be sole judge, 
 but I do not like a divided sceptre. I do not think I have 
 the slightest relish for power for its own sake, but I like 
 what power I may have to be undivided, in order that its 
 exercise may be guided by system and symmetry, and not 
 be a "mighty maze without a plan." 1 feel a great relief 
 in knowing that the word which is to cut me loose from 
 "this body of death" has already been spoken. Charley 
 says tell you that he is "in particular hot water." He 
 
 says he will be terribly lonesome 
 
 Affectionately, LIXTON STKPHKXS. 
 
 At the meeting of the General Assembly, in November, 
 
 1859, the Executive appointment of Judge Stephens to the 
 Supreme Bench was gracefully indorsed. lie was elected, 
 without opposition, for the unexpirecl term. The compli- 
 ment therein implied loses nothing of its significance, or 
 gracefulness, when it is remembered how hotly some of the 
 preceding and succeeding canvasses, for the like office, 
 have been conducted. Failing health induced him, how- 
 ever, to resign his commission, as has been seen, in July, 
 
 1860. The regret felt and expressed at the event was 
 very general and very sincere, as was the necessity of it 
 deplored ; nor was there any one more earnest and em- 
 phatic in giving utterance to that feeling of regret than 
 the late Chief Justice, Joseph Henry Lumpkin. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, September 8, 1860. 
 
 DKAK BROTHER But let me 
 
 turn to a lighter theme; the other one is a painful one to 
 me. I want to poke a little fun at you about a small point 
 in your speech. There would be no fun in it if it were 
 not for your great character for exact accuracy in your 
 statements and allusions. Now, you' may open your eyes, 
 for I am going to peck a flaw in a scriptural allusion which
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 233 
 
 you made. You spoke of those who held Stephen s clothes 
 while he was stoned to death. Now, I make a point on 
 every one of three words which I have underscored those, 
 held and Stephen's. I shall take them up in their reverse 
 order. In the first place, then, so far as the record shows, 
 (Acts /th chapter and 58th verse) there was nothing done 
 to Stephen's clothes; the account is that the witnesses did 
 something with their clothes not Stephen's. In the next 
 place, what they did was not to hold them, but to lay them 
 at the feet of somebody. In the third and last place, the 
 clothes were guarded (not held) by one person only, and 
 not by several, as is implied in your word "those." The 
 clothes-minder was no less a personage than Paul. Now, I 
 want you to review the history, and either own up, or tell 
 me why you won't. I should like for you to read this scrip- 
 tural criticism of mine to "the Parson," and write me what 
 he says about it 
 
 After quitting the bench, Judge Stephens entered with 
 unwonted zeal into the Presidential canvass of 1860. His 
 speeches in advocacy of the election of the Douglas-John- 
 son ticket were the ablest he ever delivered on the hust- 
 ings. No speeches of the campaign were better reasoned 
 from his stand-point, and they were uttered with all the 
 nervous eloquence despair only can inspire. 
 
 On the 1 5th of October, he wrote his friend Johnston: 
 
 MY DEAR DICK And now, 
 
 one word in relation to politics, in which I feel more in- 
 terest than in anything else at this time not the interest 
 of an office-seeker, for I desire no office in the world, but 
 the interest of a citisoi who feels that he lives under the 
 freest and best government on earth, and is utterly opposed 
 to its destruction without eai/sc. I am not fighting now to 
 defeat Lincoln's election. To live under his administration 
 will be a great calamity, and to avert that calamity is a suf- 
 ficent aim to inspire the efforts of any man who loves his 
 country. But I am afraid that we shall be reduced to the 
 alternative of living under his administration, or resisting 
 it by force of arms. The leaders are undoubtedly respon- 
 23*
 
 234 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 siblc for the result. Posterity will hold them so. I repeat, 
 I am not fighting to defeat Lincoln; I am afraid that is im- 
 possible; but I fight now to prevent the "precipitation " of 
 the revolution which is intended to follow his election. 
 
 Nothing can defeat it 
 
 but the defeat of Lincoln, (which is almost hopeless) or a 
 clear break down of the Brcckinridge cause in the South. 
 It is of the last importance that the popular vote of the 
 South, and especially the majority vote of Georgia, should 
 be given against Brcckinridge. If so, they may be dis- 
 couraged from making the attempt. I am now working 
 to that end. This is all so, but a great number of people 
 cannot be made to believe it. They are as incredulous as 
 those were who laughed at Noah when he preached the 
 flood. I trust that a kind Providence may avert from their 
 incredulity the like terrible retribution, which seems to 
 me to be almost its necessary result. What a causeless 
 catastrophe it will be! and how terrible its results! May 
 the God of our great fathers preserve their degenerate sens 
 in spite of themselves. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 LIXTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 16, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yesterday, I got your letter of the day 
 before, and the day before, I got the one written just on 
 your return home. Both bore date of the I4th, but the 
 first was, of course, written on the I3th. I will meet Mr. 
 Douglas at Chattanooga if nothing unforeseen shall prevent. 
 1 trust that your apprehensions as to the; treatment he may 
 receive in Georgia may prove groundless. Mr. Toombs' 
 remark about what will be done in Columbus, in case he re- 
 peats his Norfolk sentiments, looks ominous. I am sorry 
 that the time for him to be in Columbus is not longer be- 
 fore the election ; for any ill-usage he may receive will only 
 do him good in the election if the news could have time for 
 circulation among the people. We are on the verge of a 
 precipice. May God preserve us!
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 235 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 JACKSON, TENN., SUNDAY, October 21, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER You may be surprised to learn that I 
 am in Tennessee, but you have possibly heard already that 
 I had gone to Illinois. I got Judge Wright and Bob Sims 
 both to fill my place in Murray, and started from Atlanta 
 to Ccntralia last Friday morning. It had rained nearly all 
 the night before, and continued to rain until we got to 
 Chattanooga. Within a half mile of the depot, at Chatta- 
 nooga, our engine ran off the track. We would have lost 
 the connection but for the Memphis train waiting for us. 
 They had, however, already waited so long that they could 
 not wait for us to get supper; and as I was quite hungry, 
 and didn't relish the prospect of riding all night without 
 eating, and as I furthermore didn't like to pass through the 
 region of land-slides and impending rocks in such a wet and 
 dark time, I staid all night in Chattanooga. Yesterday 
 morning, I started again and got to the "Grand Junction" 
 last night about 10 o'clock. There I had to stay all night 
 for a train. This morning, the train came and I took it at 
 8 o'clock, and arrived here about 11. This place is forty- 
 eight miles from the Grand Junction. It is now about 3^ 
 o'clock in the afternoon. I am to leave here at 9:45 to- 
 night, and, with good luck, shall reach Centralia at g]/2 in 
 the morning, in time for the grand gathering there to-mor- 
 row. You will readily conjecture that my present deten- 
 tion at this place is owing to its being Sunday. You will 
 readily imagine that it has been a wear}-, heavy day to me. 
 I am an utter stranger here, in face and in name. The 
 landlord at the Junction evidently knew me from reputa- 
 tion, but this one does not. I am all alone here; but I am 
 wearing through the day better than you would imagine. 
 
 I think Douglas is strong in this part of Tennessee, but 
 I have no doubt but that Bell will carry the State. Doug- 
 las is to speak at this place on Tuesday. 
 
 And now for the reason of this unexpected trip on my 
 part: When I got to Atlanta, Dr. Hambleton showed me 
 a dispatch, which he had just got from Mr. Douglas, in- 
 quiring illicit yon would meet him in Illinois, and Hamblcton 
 told me that it was published in the papers that you were 
 going to Illinois. Hambleton was afraid that the "when''
 
 236 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 in Douglas' dispatch implied that he expected you with cer- 
 tainty at sometime, and he might wait for you, and so give up 
 his Georgia appointments. The truth is, he seemed very 
 uneasy, lest Douglas might not go to Georgia at all, unless 
 you or I should meet him, as Hambleton had promised him 
 one of us would do. He did not acknowledge to me in 
 terms that he had made such a promise, but I became per- 
 fectly satisfied that he made some such promise. The only 
 doubt I have is as to what the exact promise was. / tJdnk 
 it was thatjw/ would meet Mr. Douglas; but it is possible 
 that it was in the alternative you or I. At all events, he 
 begged me to come and I came. When I got to Atlanta, 
 I found that Ben Hill had spoken to a very large crowd 
 there the night before, and had got resolutions passed fora 
 fusion of all parties in Georgia, so as to run a ticket which 
 should be pledged to neither of the candidates, but pledged 
 only to vote for that one who would have the best chance 
 to beat Lincoln when the vote should be cast. The Doug- 
 las men and Bell men were all for it, and a number of the 
 Breckinridgc men also. I am inclined to think that if it is 
 well managed, it may be a strong, wise and successful move 
 merit. I am afraid that it may be distasteful to Douglas 
 men in some parts of the State, because it is inaugurated 
 by Bell men ; but I hope not. I find that there is great 
 apprehension in the public mind from the prospect of Lin- 
 coln's election. The almost universal expectation seems to 
 be that Carolina will secede; that the General Government 
 will try to force her back, and that the whole South will 
 make common cause with her. I say this seems to be the 
 expectation, and it also seems to be the sentiment, of Un- 
 people Douglas men, Bell men and all. I really look upon 
 that as the probable result. I do not know whether I shall 
 speak to-morrow or not. I certain!}' shall not do so unless 
 I am satisfied that Mr. Douglas really desires it. I feel, 
 however, that, if circumstances should be favorable, I could 
 give the Illinois men a talk which may do them good. My 
 sheet is out. I have no envelope. Good-bye. You will 
 not hear from me again until you see me in Atlanta. May 
 God preserve us all !
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 237 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, November 28, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have often thought 
 
 it was a pity you did not or rather, that you and I did 
 not at once close in with Mr. Toombs' proposition to join 
 us in an address, recommending that neither any immediate 
 secession man nor any non-resistance man be sent to the 
 convention. That would have been a strong card for effect 
 upon the hot-headed States. Is it too late yet? .... 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, SUNDAY, December 2, 1 860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER One reason why my letters to you, since 
 you left here, have been so few and tardy is this : I sleep so 
 late in the morning that the mail-hour passes by before I 
 get my breakfast and finish my smoking thereafter. ' ' Well, " 
 you may say, "admit all this to be so, and yet, why don't 
 you get up sooner, (which would be the best,) or write on 
 the preceding day for the mail of the next day?" My an- 
 swer shall be an honest one, whether it is satisfactory or 
 not. It shall at least have that virtue which Mr. Thomas 
 proudly claimed for his report of his premium wheat, when 
 he reported that he made exactly two and a half bushels to 
 the acre, and concluded with the declaration that it was as 
 honest a report as ever was made. First, then, as to the 
 alternative of writing on the preceding day for the next 
 day's mail, (as I am now doing) : I have not adopted that 
 plan, because it is not the best, and have each day concluded 
 that, on the next day, I would adopt the best by getting up 
 soon enough to write before the closing of the mail ; and 
 the reason why I have each morning failed to carry out the 
 good resolution of the preceding day has been that, from 
 playing whist sometimes, and at others from a mere dread 
 of going to bed, I have sat up too late to be in a condition 
 to rise early. This is just the truth of the matter; but this 
 is not the whole truth, nor even the main part of it ; for, 
 after all, the great reason of my failure to write has been a 
 general indisposition to write, or to do anything else. I 
 have been sunk into an inglorious gloom and idleness, which 
 found no other relief so congenial as a game of cardswhist
 
 238 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 with the children, or even the poor game of solitaire. I 
 have not written one line of my judicial opinions. I shall 
 not begin until next week, and then I ze'zY/ begin, if nothing 
 unforeseen shall prevent, and continue without remission until 
 the work is ended. I mean to do it rapidly, yet hope to do 
 it well ; and the ground for expecting to do it well, and yet 
 rapidly, is that I intend to make it brief. It is easier for 
 me to condense than it was when I first wrote opinions. 
 Some of my first opinions would be better if they were 
 shorter; and yet, I do not think that prolixity is a leading 
 fault in them. Comparatively, at least, brevity is their pre- 
 vailing excellence; but that brevity cost me a great deal of 
 trouble and time. Some of my shortest opinions could have 
 been quicker written if they had been longer ; :!: but now, I 
 can make short opinions with more ease, and, indeed, with 
 
 greater ease I have just received 
 
 your letter of yesterday. I still do not agree with you as 
 to the result in this State. But ought not the State to be 
 canvassed? I feel so, and think so. I think it would have 
 been a good lick if you had promptly accepted and acted 
 on Mr. Toombs' suggestion to join him in an address to 
 the people. It does seem to me it would have been a great 
 blow for the right direction of sentiment in Georgia and the 
 whole South. Is it too late now ? Think of it. Let me 
 say to you that I think you arc too much disposed to des- 
 pair. The feeling is the surest means of fulfilling its omen. 
 Your despair will be a cause of defeat not an indication of 
 the coming inevitable defeat. I don't believe the dema- 
 gogues yet have full possession of the people. On the 
 contrary, never was the confidence of the people in you so 
 strong and so pronounced as it is now. Don't disappoint 
 them. You can save the country. I do firmly believe ii. 
 I see that Fit/.patrick is opposed to separate State action by 
 
 Alabama I see that Air. Yanccy 
 
 is reported to have expressed himself at Columbus in favor 
 of a conference among the Southern States. Write to 
 Kxving and all that class, (substantially, though, of course, 
 not literal!}') that he is a fool, (as he is) and that the only
 
 JUDOjE LINTON STEPHENS. 239 
 
 possible mode of accomplishing his darling object the pres- 
 ervation of the Union is by giving the more fiery Southern 
 States such a programme as they will accept, and that it 
 is the height of folly for Virginia, Tennessee and' Kentucky 
 to drive the others to their own chosen course from very 
 despair of getting any co-operation which they can accept. 
 If the more conservative States will step one pace forward, 
 I do not doubt but the more extreme States will fall one 
 step backward. These extreme States want co-operation 
 there is no mistake about it. They feel the need of it, and 
 they are willing to do something to get it. I have no doubt 
 that secession is the only remedy they will accept, but I 
 also believe that they can be induced to accept it as an ulti- 
 matum, instead of a remedy to be applied at once, as they 
 desire to apply it. I have more distrust of bringing Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee up to the proper mark than of draw- 
 ing the others back to the proper mark. It occurs to me, 
 with great force, that there is the point to strike the blow. 
 You arc the man, and the only man, who can do it success- 
 fully. The very fact that you have averted one immediate 
 pressing danger causes the Union-loving States to regard 
 you as their champion, and will make them believe what you 
 may tell them. You may think that personal jealousies 
 will interfere and prevent. These would arise at a later 
 period beyond all doubt; but now their cry is, " Help me, 
 Cassius, or I sink! " They will not reject your help. . . 
 I think that Providence has a great work for you to do ; 
 don't be discouraged by the demagogues. " HE makes the 
 wrath of man to praise him." There have been dema- 
 gogues, and bad men, and selfish men, conspicuous in every 
 great struggle for liberty and the right, and many such have 
 been canonized in English history as heroes and patriots. 
 They never would have brought good to their country, as 
 they did do, if God had not made the "wrath of man to 
 praise Him." Some of the most brilliant achievements on 
 record have been wrought by the wicked in the hands of 
 an overruling Providence. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 29, 1864. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Yesterday I saw 
 
 the Herald' s account of the proceedings which were the
 
 24O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 foundation for Toombs' telegram. I have no remark to add 
 to what I said on the subject yesterday, before seeing the 
 Heralds account I am 
 
 more impressed than ever with the truth of what I said in 
 my letter to you yesterday, that the clamor for new consti- 
 tutional guarantees is an artifice of men who are resolved 
 to defeat all settlement, and is used only by them, and those 
 who are influenced by an over-anxiety to conciliate them. 
 Have you seen Mr. Yancey's letter, in which he says we 
 don't need new constitutional guarantees that the Constitu- 
 tion, as it is, is good enough, and that all we need is an obe- 
 dience to it on the part of the North? I saw such a letter 
 from him yesterday in the Columbus Times. That is the 
 truth of the case, well stated. He makes one use of it, 
 and we another. Hut his statement of the case can be and 
 ought to be effectually used to silence the artful and de- 
 ceptive clamor which his co-laborers arc making for new 
 constitutional guarantees 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 31, 1860. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The secessionists 
 
 here have now got out Kdge Bird in place of Mr. Ilarley, 
 who resigned. To-morrow, Lewis is to speak here by way 
 of getting up a sensation in favor of his ticket. I shall re- 
 ply to him. South Carolina is his capital. He can't make 
 anything out of the position I shall take on the subject. 
 His object is to question Harris, Turner, and myself, before 
 the people on that subject particularly. He wants to know 
 what course we think Georgia ought to take in the event 
 the Federal Government should attempt to coerce South 
 Carolina back into the Union. I shall tell him that South 
 Carolina having taken her own course for herself, without 
 any consultation with us, we are under no obligation to Jici 
 to defend her against the consequences of it; that the sole 
 consideration of Georgia should be her own safety and 
 honor; that when such an attempt may be made, the gov- 
 ernment will be at an end; for it is impossible that our 
 system can be worked by force against so large a portion 
 of the people as is represented by a whole State of the 
 Confederacy. The application of force to suck a case would
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 24! 
 
 end the whole system, and Georgia should then look for 
 new safe-guards, and ought to look where she may be most 
 likely to find them, under the circumstances as they may 
 exist; while she would be under no obligations to South 
 Carolina, she yet should treat her as she would treat all tin- 
 rest of the sound States, North and South, and her course 
 towards them all should be to propose to them to exclude 
 the unsound ones, and then go right on under the old Con- 
 stitution and the old flag, and with the Union purged and 
 purified. If South Carolina would accede to that proposi- 
 tion, then we ought to make her cause our own ; but if she 
 should refuse, then we ought to leave her to work out her 
 own destiny, while we should go on with such of the other 
 States as would accede to our plan. In other words, we 
 ought to make Carolina's cause our own, if she would join 
 us in what we might consider the right course; otherwise, 
 leave her alone. Let me know what you think of this. In 
 great haste. 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Judge Stephens was chosen as a delegate to the State 
 Convention of 1861, which passed the Ordinance of Seces- 
 sion. It was done on the igth of January of that year. 
 He earnestly opposed the movement in favor of immediate 
 secession for then existing causes; but, after the ordinance 
 was passed, he drew up the following preamble and resolu- 
 tion, which were presented by Judge Nisbet, and passed 
 the convention by an overwhelming majority: 
 
 " WHEREAS, The lack of unanimity in the action of this 
 convention, in the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, 
 indicates a difference of opinion amongst the members of 
 the convention not so much as to the rights which Geor- 
 gia claims, or the wrongs of which she complains, as to the 
 remedy and its application before a resort to other means 
 of redress ; 
 
 " AND WHEREAS, It is desirable to give expression to 
 that intention, which really exists among all the members 
 of this convention, to sustain the State in the course of ac- 
 24*
 
 242 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tion which she has pronounced to be proper for the occa- 
 sion : therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That all members of tin's convention, includ- 
 ing- those who voted against the said ordinance, as well as 
 those who voted for it, will sign the same as a pledge of the 
 unanimous determination of this convention to sustain and 
 defend the State, in this her chosen remedy, with all its re- 
 sponsibilities and consequences, without regard to individual 
 approval or disapproval of its adoption." 
 
 The war came. 
 
 Judge Stephens enlisted in the military service of the 
 Confederate States in June, 1861. 
 
 On the organization of the Fifteenth Regiment of Georgia 
 Volunteers, he was elected lieutenant-colonel. His friend, 
 the late Thomas \V. Thomas, then judge of the Superior 
 Courts of the Northern Circuit recogni/ing, as he said, the 
 force of the maxim, " Inter anna, leges silent" doffed the 
 ermine to take command of the regiment; it was composed 
 of companies raised exclusively in that judicial circuit, and 
 the muster-roll was illustrated with the flower "the rose 
 and expectancy" of that section. Alas! how many of 
 them heard their last reveille on the consecrated soil of 
 Virginia! 
 
 Ill-health enforced the resignations of both Thomas and 
 Stephens in the course of a few months: the former came 
 home, as it proved, to die. 
 
 [From A. II. S. to I,. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORIWILLK, June 29, 1861. 
 
 DKAK BROTIIFR I was truly 
 
 sorry to perceive from your two last letters, and particularly 
 the one 1 got to-night, that you were suffering such a de- 
 pression of spirits. I know what low spirits are what in- 
 tense and profound melancholy is and have sympathized 
 with those who feel them. Last week, I had a sad time my- 
 self in looking over and reading old letters that I was lay-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2^3 
 
 ing away and arranging; some of them brought tears to my 
 eyes, and yet I can imagine that that almost sacred pile 
 you opened must have induced much more intense feeling 
 in your heart. These emotions, though painful, may do 
 good; their tendency by nature is to chasten and improve 
 the heart when their legitimate results follow. I always 
 endeavor to make them produce such a result with me. 
 The mysteries of life and existence with its multitudes of 
 ills and sorrows often perplex and overwhelm me! What 
 you say of your belief in causation is not far different from 
 my own convictions : the creed with me, when run out, leads 
 to this settled rule of action patiently to bear all that befalls 
 me after doing my own duty in all things as far as I can, 
 believing and feeling assured that it is all right and all for 
 the best, myself included as an atom of the great universal ex- 
 istence. This is my feeling when, upon reflection, I 
 feel satisfied that I have done my duty as far as I 
 knew; and if I discover, as is often the case, that by 
 omission or commission some error has been perpetrated, 
 then I feel like crying out, "God be merciful to me a sin- 
 ner!" This is my only stay, prop and hope! The great 
 mysteries that involve all things around us, and particularly 
 the frailties as well as sufferings of this life, of good and 
 evil, I cannot understand and shrink from inquiring into. 
 Then life's active scenes and duties call my attention ; and 
 in these, I have long since found, consist all the happiness 
 it is possible for me to attain. I have felt intensely for you 
 in your position, in relation to entering the military service. 
 I felt too much to talk to you freely about it, for fear that 
 I might influence you improperly. Your situation was so 
 peculiar every way, I could not myself judge for you and 
 now only rely upon the principle of my creed, that all is 
 and will be right, let results be as they may, without mur- 
 muring or upbraiding that all-controlling Divinity that guides 
 our fortunes. I trust I shall, with patience, fortitude and 
 resignation, bear whatever may come, howsoever painful 
 hoping all the time that the result may be fortunate, propi- 
 tious and agreeable. Of one thing I feel confident : where 
 duty leads, we may never fear to tread. 
 
 I used to be melancholy. I am not so now. Perhaps it 
 is because I am in better health: the health of the body 
 has a great deal to do with the state of the mind. You are
 
 244 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 now suffering from dyspepsia; the coldness in the side is 
 caused by that. I doubt not you will recover from it. 
 
 I have thought of nights on my bed 
 
 how could I sleep if I knew you were on the cold ground in 
 camp, with nothing but a blanket under you and a tent 
 cloth to shut out the rain ! This is exceeding!}' painful to 
 me, and yet, I do trust in the providence of God, that if 
 you go, and I now expect you will, it may all prove to IT: 
 beneficial, instead of injurious, to you. It has been so with 
 others. Mr. Crittendcn once told me that, in the war of 
 iHi2, he slept often without any tent -on the ground in 
 the rain and slept soundly and healthily with tin- rain-wa 
 ter running under him ; but it seems to me I should die- if 
 I knew that you were in such condition ! May God protect 
 
 you wherever you go, or whatever you do : 
 
 Affectionately, ALKXAXDKR II. STKPHKXS. 
 
 To his friend, Colonel A. J. Lane, he writes: 
 
 CAMP, XKAK FAIRFAX C. II., September, 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR JACK Our regiment has suf- 
 fered greatly from sickness, and our Hancock companies, 
 while faring better than any others, have not escaped. 
 
 Three of them have died As to the 
 
 future movements of our army, nobody knows anything, 
 except the generals in command. The brigadiers seem to 
 be as much in the dark as any of the rest of us. I have a 
 conjecture as to the object of moving our forces up to their 
 present position at Fairfax; and for the want of anything 
 better, I will give it to you for what it is worth. 
 
 The idea was probably to make gradual incroachments 
 (as we have been doing) upon the lines of the enemy on 
 this side of the river, and by at least getting possession of 
 a number of points from which we could annoy them within 
 their entrenchments, compel them to come out of their 
 works and give us battle in order to rid themselves of the 
 annoyance. This was probably the leading idea, with the 
 superadded general intention to take advantage of any op- 
 portunity which might offer of pursuing a different pro- 
 gramme What 
 
 I fear most is this naval expedition which has lately started
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 245 
 
 out for some place unknown the denouement of which may 
 be known when you are reading these lines. I do not mean 
 to say that I apprehend from it anything more than a har- 
 rassment of and plundering our coast; but I don'-t know 
 what they will attempt, and it is useless to indulge in con- 
 jectures on the subject, except so far as to be prepared to 
 meet them according to our ability 
 
 At the reorganization of the regiment, in 1862, Judge 
 Stephens was importuned to accept the colonelcy; but con- 
 tinued ill-health, as well as regard for Major Mdntosh,* who 
 desired the office, constrained him to decline. 
 
 Judge Stephens opposed with his might the doctrine of 
 conscription. .He believed it to be hostile to the genius of 
 our American institutions false in theory and pernicious 
 in practice; and, indeed, it would seem that the idea of 
 forcing men to fight for their own liberty and that, too, by 
 means of a measure unauthorized in the fundamental com- 
 pact of government involves not merely a paradox, but an 
 absurdity. The following letter sets forth some of the rea- 
 sons of his opposition to it: 
 
 [ From L. S. to J. A. Stewart, Esq.] 
 
 SPARTA, December 28, 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR I have always intended to send you my 
 acknowledgments and thanks for your valued letter of the 
 2Qth of November, but have been prevented from doing so 
 by the pressure of other matters, and by necessary absence 
 from home. 
 
 I have never passed through any political struggle with- 
 out bringing out of it a personal regard for those of my as- 
 sociates in it whom I had found to be actuated by love 01 
 country and genuine devotion to the principles of liberty 
 and good government. The Douglas campaign left me just 
 such an impression as to yourself; and hence, it is a source
 
 246 BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH OK 
 
 of personal gratification to me to find my subsequent polit- 
 ical course receiving your approval. Our people clo not appre- 
 ciate the mischiefs of conscription. That it is a violation of 
 the Constitution is demonstrable in a few words. Nobody 
 has answered, nor attempted to answer, the real argument, 
 and nobody ever will. The conscriptionist, from the Pres- 
 ident down, including our Supreme Court and Hen Hill, all 
 dodge the argument, because they can't answer it. No man 
 can assign to the framcrs of the Constitution a rational pur- 
 pose in the very remark-able guards which are thrown 
 'around the power "to provide for calling forth the militia," 
 unless that "militia" means the anus-bearing people of the 
 States, and not a mere organization which may itself be de- 
 stroyed by the removal of the men who compose it. Xo 
 man can save these framers from being regarded as mere 
 babbling geese, except by construing these guards as cov- 
 ering the men, and not a mere worthless organization the 
 kernel, and not the mere hull the substance, and not the 
 mere shadow. Xo man has ever suggested a possible rea- 
 son for throwing these guards around the organization, and 
 yet, leaving the men "who may compose it without any 
 guards at all against the power of Congress. Unless, then, 
 the framers of our Constitution were a set of geese, they 
 meant to confine the power of Congress ' ' to provide for 
 calling forth the arms-bearing or fighting men of the States " 
 to some one of the three purposes, of executing the laws, 
 suppressing insurrection, or repelling invasion, and to re- 
 serve to the States the sole and exelusire appointment of 
 officers for their men so " called forth. " Now, my com- 
 plaint against the Conscript .Act is, not that it has "called 
 forth" our fighting men for an unconstitutional purpose 
 for the purpose is the constitutional one of repelling inva- 
 sionbut that it has called them forth in a manner which 
 has robbed the States of the appointment of the officers, 
 and has robbed the soldiers of their right, under State laws, 
 to elect their own officers. There can be no escape from 
 this reasoning. 'Hut the unconstitutionally of conscription, 
 palpable as it is, sinks into minor importance when com- 
 pared with its monstrous impolicy. The effect and design 
 of it are to deciti/eni/.e the whole arm}- to reduce them 
 from the dignity of citizenship, and degrade them into mere 
 machines of unquestioning obedience instruments for the
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 247 
 
 unquestioning execution of the designs and commands of 
 their masters. These brave fellows may achieve independ- 
 ence indeed, but if the war lasts long under the degrading 
 influences of conscription, they will come out of it utterly 
 unfit for liberty. I do not intend to enlarge on this view ; 
 but it is a very alarming one when we consider the vast ex- 
 tent of our armies, and the consequent magnitude of the 
 degrading influence. The whole tendency of conscription 
 is to make armies which are fit for despots, and to unmake 
 citizens who are fit to exercise and preserve liberty. I know 
 there is a difference of opinion in the army itself as to the 
 best mode of appointing officers ; but those who object to 
 elections take not only a wrong view, in my judgment, of 
 the best mode to procure good officers, but they take a wo- 
 fully narroic view. The great question is, not the best 
 mode of procuring good officers for a war, but the best 
 mode of preserving men who shall be fit for peace. For 
 myself, I have no sort of doubt that election is at once the 
 best mode of securing the best officers and keeping them 
 good the best mode of preserving the gallantry and effect- 
 iveness of the men, and the only mode of preserving in them 
 the spirit of freemen and a fitness for their subsequent duties 
 as citizens. This is a subject of the very highest import- 
 ance ; and I repeat that our people have not risen to its due 
 appreciation. Large and long wars are always destructive 
 in their tendency to the spirit of liberty; and we shall need 
 all possible care and precautions to come out of this one 
 with enough of that spirit left to save us from being drifted 
 into irrevocable despotism. Our people would not believe 
 this if it were told to them, but it is true, nevertheless. It 
 is founded on the teachings of history, and, what is more, 
 on the nature of man. It seems to be a fatality of men and 
 nations that they cannot see their own future, nor believe it 
 when it is truly foretold to them. Mankind, in all ages and 
 in all countries, have ever been just as those were who 
 laughed at Noah preaching the flood, and as Ha/.ael was 
 when he said, " Is thy servant a dog that he should do this 
 great thing?" and yet, he turned around and did the very 
 thing. Our people did not believe there would be any war, 
 but war came. They did not believe, if any war occurred, 
 it could be a big or a long war; but it has already lasted 
 nearly two years on a scale of appalling magnitude. They
 
 248 BIOGRAPHICAL SKI-ITCH OF 
 
 would not believe me if I were to tell them no\v that they 
 have not yet reaped its bitterest fruits in the devastation, 
 and blood, and tears which it has brought to us ; and yet, 
 I do not hesitate to declare, that by far the most of all its 
 horrors is the dragoii 's teeth which it is sowing as seed for a 
 future but earl}' crop. 
 
 But I must close. I have written you a very different 
 letter from what I intended. I began with an intention to 
 say that my judgment is decidedly against what is called 
 "Reconstruction," and to give you my, reasons for that 
 opinion-. I may yet do so on some leisure day. With good 
 wishes for you personally, and for our unhappy country, 1 
 remain Yours, truly, 
 
 LIXTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 f From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 14, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Dr. Burkman 
 
 came home with me day before yesterday evening from 
 Dawson's, where I found him, and staid until bed-time. 
 lie and I played piquet a little I beat him. lie told me 
 that you beat him also. lie said he was professor of the 
 game and was getting beaten by all of his pupils. Me com 
 plained that he couldn't get good cards. He had a good 
 deal of talk about you, and, among other things, said it was 
 difficult to teach you a game, because you insisted on being 
 taught your own way or rather, you undertook to learn 
 without teaching. Cosby and Kvans soon came up after 
 the doctor got here, by invitation, which I gave them as 
 the doctor and I were passing through town, and piquet 
 was then dropped for whist, he remarking that he supposed 
 he was about to play with professors of the game. Kvans 
 and Cosby both very modestly, and, in my opinion, very 
 insincerely, disclaimed such pretensions .As for myself, 1 
 said nothing, but simply smiled at the modest lies which 
 Cosby and Kvans were telling. l>y the way, I have found 
 out that there arc a great many circumstances in which 
 a fellow may avoid telling lies by simply remaining silent; 
 this is quite a discover}', as much as you may be disposed 
 to laugh at it; or, at all events, it is an act but little under- 
 stood. There is a class of matter-of-fact things which,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 249 
 
 when said, are generally expected to elicit a corresponding 
 matter-of-course answer, which answer, if given as expected, 
 is, in ninety-nine cases out 'of a hundred, a lie. This con- 
 ventionalism gives rise to a pretty extensive class of lies 
 which the world has agreed to consider necessary and inno- 
 cent. Now, I am satisfied that the world is mistaken as to 
 the necessity, whether it is as to the innocence or not; for 
 while a certain set-answer is expected on such occasions, 
 yet, it is almost always considered as given, whether it is 
 given in point of fact or not. There are very few persons 
 who ever notice the answers which are actually given on 
 such occasions. For instance : I have no idea that Dr. Burk- 
 man discriminated between the response of Cosby and Evans 
 on the one part, and my silence on the other; and I doubt 
 not that, if he had occasion to report us, he would repre- 
 sent us all as having entered the usual disclaimer to his 
 compliments. None but a keen observer will ever notice 
 that the expected answer is not given ; and n'ith a keen ob- 
 server you never get any credit for the lie when it is told. 
 So my conclusion is that such lies, so far from being neces- 
 sary, are never so, with proper management. I think you 
 will scarcely read this without some disturbance of the 
 muscles of your face ; but you may be assured, neverthe- 
 less, that my object is to enforce a truth no less than to 
 excite a smile. You don't know hoi<.' I secretly plumed my- 
 self on my superiority over Evans and Cosby in avoiding 
 that monstrous lie which they were entrapped into telling. 
 The old doctor does not play a good game of whist. Piquet 
 he plays well, so far as I had an opportunity to judge. He- 
 knows how to play to make the most tricks with a given 
 hand ; but how far his skill goes in forming his hand by- 
 judicious discards, I could not tell by the little pla} r I had 
 \vith him. By the way, how do you spell piquet / I notice 
 that Sir Walter Scott spelt it, as I have just done, without 
 a c before the q; but, until I saw his orthography, I never 
 hesitated to put in the c. I have just read "St. Ronan's 
 Well," in which frequent mention is made Q{ piquet. That 
 was the game by which the false Earl of Etherington ruined 
 poor Mowbray. The character which struck me most in 
 St. Ronan's is Peregrine Touchmond, alias Scrogie-Scrogie, 
 who was disinherited by his father because he refused to 
 follow his father's whim of merging Scrogie in the more 
 25*
 
 25O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 euphonious and aristocratic name of Mowbray-Scrogie, who 
 wandered and grew rich ; who lectured against innovations, 
 and yet, turned every place he went to up-side clown with 
 improvements, and who was generally full of whims and 
 full of sense. As I am fresh from the book, I will give you 
 some of the points which you were trying to recall when 
 you talked to me about the book not long ago. The name 
 of the singular old hostess was Margaret Dods, and the 
 name of the vehicle in which she made her remarkable visit 
 to the town of Marchthorn was a whisky. I have a criticism 
 to make on this book, and I wish to know what you think 
 of it I mean of the criticism. I think the tragical term- 
 ination of it is a great blemish. The result, or denouement, 
 is against the logic of the antecedents. The hero, Francis 
 Tyrrel, is portrayed as a gentleman, and a man of sense, 
 and yet, he is made to play the fool in the most important 
 matters; but I insist that it is out of character for a sensi- 
 ble gentleman a man of sense and of good instincts and 
 breeding to play the fool on a point of sentiment. He 
 made himself wretched, and brought the woman whom he 
 loved, and who loved him, to the most tragical end by re- 
 fusing to marry her, because she, by mistake of the man, 
 had passed through a marriage ceremony with his treach- 
 erous brother. She discovered the mistake immediately, 
 and repudiated the marriage indignantly. All this was 
 known to Tyrrel ; and, beside*;, he had a clear idea that the 
 marriage had no legal validity. It does seem to me that a 
 true gentleman would have felt and perceived that it had just 
 as little validity in a court of morals, or a court of propri- 
 ety, or taste, if you please, as it had in a court of law. To 
 allow his own happiness, and that of the woman he loved, 
 to be wrecked on so miserable a punctilio was conduct to be 
 expected from the crazy brain of Don Quixote, but not from 
 the thoughtful, high-bred, sound-minded and well-regulated 
 Mr. Tyrrel. The truth is, that Scott himself was not a gen- 
 tleman, and he didn't know how to paint the character. 
 His only good touches in that line were what I leal}- told us 
 all his painting was pure copies from actual existences. 
 Healy told us he couldn't paint without a model before his 
 eyes. So it is with Scott, I think, in drawing all his char- 
 acters, but especially in all his portraitures which have any 
 success in exhibiting the gentleman. If I were not so near
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2$ I 
 
 the end of my sheet, I would give you more about Scott ; 
 and I may do so hereafter in relation to some points in his 
 life, and the order in which his different works were written. 
 
 I will only add now that your puppy is here, and that I 
 have named him Bingo, from Sir Bingo Binks, in "St. Ro- 
 nan's Well." Bingo is a good-sounding name, in itself, for 
 a clog, and then, Sir Bingo was a most suitable fellow for 
 having dogs named for him. My observation of dogs teaches 
 me that they make the best dogs when named for the mean- 
 est people. All the "Troups" whom I have known in the 
 canine race would suck eggs and kill sheep, while the 
 "Clarkes" have generally been good dogs. My observa- 
 tion of dogs inclines me to think there is something in old 
 Sir Walter Shandy's philosophy of nomenclature. 
 
 By the way, I have a negro whose name of Bing has 
 troubled my speculations a good deal. I am now satisfied 
 that lying is only an abbreviation of Bingo, and that my 
 negro owes his name to the worthy who figures in St. Ro- 
 nan's. I have not published the puppy's name, and, of 
 course, it remains subject to your ratification. He is a fine, 
 smart fellow. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S.] 
 
 SPARTA, January 14, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have just finished a pretty long letter 
 to you, which will be received by you at the same time with 
 this; and if you should chance to take up this first, why, 
 lay it aside and take up the other. This is a sequel to that, 
 and should come after it in the reading. About the close 
 of the other, I made three or four remarks which I will now 
 pursue. One was that Scott was not a gentleman, and, 
 therefore, didn't know how to paint the character of a gen- 
 tleman. By this, I don't mean to concur in Thomas' idea 
 that he was a scoundrel. I think he was a canny Scotchman, 
 with keen observation, a teeming memory, a fertile fancy, 
 a stock of good, healthy common-sense, and had an easy 
 flow of words possessions which, according to the testi- 
 mony of his contemporaries, made him a most entertaining 
 companion, and which make him also a very entertaining 
 author. These are his excellences: his faults are, a dash of 
 pedantry, which is considerably subdued by his general
 
 2$2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 good sense; a carelessness and hurry which indicate that 
 he wrote for wages, and a loiv breeding, which frequently be- 
 trays itself in spite of that same general good sense. He 
 was himself conscious of his low breeding, if 1 am not mis- 
 taken, and endeavored to hide it under a show of ease in 
 portraying the characters of the great and the genteel. The 
 cloven foot often peeps out, however, through all his affect- 
 ation of ease or rather, the ease is always affected, and, 
 therefore, discloses the cloven-foot. The universal fault or 
 pretenders is excess in the part they are performing ; and 
 excess is the precise fault of Scott in delineating a gentle- 
 man. He makes Tyrrel ruin himself and his beloved by a 
 foolish, fastidious punctilio. A true gentleman would have 
 been above such littleness. There are passages in Scott's 
 life which directly prove what is so clearly inculcated by his 
 works. . He was a sycophant, as is shown by his letters 
 particularly by one letter to some duke the Duke of Buc- 
 cleurch, I believe it was. He evident!}' was quite proud of 
 his servile intimacy in the duke's family. I can't now give 
 you the particulars of that letter, but I know that it im- 
 pressed me as containing language which, after making all 
 allowances for the state of society in which he lived, could 
 not be used by any independent, high-spirited man. An- 
 other remark was about the order in which Scott's different 
 works were written. I do not propose to give you that 
 order, but I propose only to tell you how you can get it. 
 Lockhart, his son-in-law, gives it in his biography, and, in 
 editing his works, arranged them in a scries, according to 
 the times when they were written. I have Lockhart's life 
 and edition of the works. When you come over next time, 
 you can satisfy your curiosity on this point. Why don't 
 you come? Another remark was to the effect that old Sir 
 Walter Shandy's philosophy of nomenclature had something 
 in it at least, when applied to dogs. The truth is, there 
 is a good deal in it, whether it be applied to dogs or men. 
 I have no doubt that there are cases where names have a de- 
 cided influence upon the character of the men or dogs who 
 happen to bear them. In a case which once came before 
 me, from Coweta county, while I was judge, one of the 
 parties bore the name of Napoleon Bonaparte Potts. Now, 
 sir, I am ready to maintain, against all comers and goers, 
 that a man with that name can never rise in the world. A
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 253 
 
 union of the grandiloquent and the mean is a never-failing 
 source of ridicule ; and a fellow, whose appellation is Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte, topped off with Potts, is destined to be 
 somewhat of a butt in his passage through this world. He 
 feels the ridicule of his name, and cowers and sinks under 
 it, or he takes the only other alternative, and glories in it. 
 Either turn is fatal to true elevation and dignity of charac- 
 ter. I admit that Napoleon Bonaparte Potts' is a very ex- 
 traordinary case, but it illustrates a principle, nevertheless. 
 In the case of human beings, this influence which a name 
 may have upon the bearer of it is of two kinds : one direct 
 from the name itself, and the other reactionary from the 
 world one flowing from the inherent tendency of the name 
 as perceived and appreciated by the bearer of it himself, 
 and the other reflected from the world's appreciation of it. 
 There is a curious tendency in men (and dogs, too) to con- 
 form to the estimate which the world has of them; in other 
 words, a tendency to become what they are considered to 
 be. To give a clog a bad name (in this sense, name means 
 character) is not only to hang him, but also to render him, 
 to some extent, at least, deserving to be hanged. The tend- 
 ency is to conform to the imputed character. Now, in the 
 case of dogs, the only influence from the name is of the re- 
 actionary kind ; for I do not suppose that a poor dog can 
 have any appreciation of any quality or tendency in a name. 
 The world, however, does have such an appreciation, and 
 the dog feels the effects of it by reflection from them he 
 feels it in caresses or in kicks. He knows not what pro- 
 cures him the one or the other; but who doubts that every 
 caress and every kick has an influence upon character, and 
 who doubts that a caress or a kick has often been adminis- 
 tered on no better foundation than a name? Names, then, 
 have an influence upon the destinies of men and dogs; but 
 it would be illogical to conclude from this that great names 
 have a good influence and mean names a mean influence. 
 I said there was something in old Sir Walter's philosophy; 
 but I did not say there was correctness in it. It always takes 
 at least two generations of philosophers to develop one 
 truth in its fullness; and what Shandy began remains to be 
 completed by me ! He found out that names had an influ- 
 ence ; but his error consisted in supposing that the influence 
 was happy or otherwise, as the name was good or bad in
 
 254 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 itself. On the contrary, the true rule is the inverse ratio, 
 instead of the direct, and Tristram was lucky, instead of un- 
 fortunate, as his father supposed, in losing the great name 
 of Trismegistus. The philosophy of the true rule is very 
 obvious. Let it be borne in mind that the influence of a 
 name lies in the tendency of men and dogs to become what 
 they are thought to be; and then, let it further be borne in 
 mind that the world does not form its opinions of men or 
 dogs according to the direct import of the names tlvey bear. 
 A great name, when coupled with a man or dog who is not 
 great, dwarfs him into absolute meanness in the eyes of the 
 world, and, by contrast between the expectation and the 
 performance, becomes a source of ridicule and disgust. 
 Great names excite great expectations, which are soon con- 
 verted into woful disappointments ; and then comes the dam- 
 aging contrast between the expectation and the perform- 
 ance; then come ridicule and contempt in the case of men, 
 and kicks in the case of dogs. Within the sphere of my 
 experience, the name of Troup was an honored one, while 
 Clarke was supposed to embody all that was opposed to 
 Troup. The consequence was that the Troup dogs all fell 
 far below what was expected of them got into disgrace 
 and soon became as mean as they were thought to be 
 were kicked into sucking eggs within the first six months, 
 and into killing sheep the first year ; while the Clarkes re- 
 versed all this by rising above the expectations formed ot 
 them. I do not doubt that all this is reversed in families 
 where Clarke was the favorite name. So that the true phi- 
 losophy of naming men and dogs is to give them names 
 which arejr/to be made illustrious. It is all the better, 
 of course, if the name is odious, and, therefore, I named 
 your puppy IJlngo 
 
 [From L. S. to his niece, Mary drier.] 
 
 MILLKDGKVILLE, March 28, 1863. 
 
 DF.AR MOLLIK Yesterday being 
 
 fast-day, we had no meeting of either House of the Legis- 
 lature; but we had instead two sermons one in the fore- 
 noon from Hishop Pierce, and another in the afternoon from 
 Dr. Palmer, a Presbyterian minister of great reputation, 
 who is now a refugee from New Orleans. Both sermons
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 255 
 
 were delivered to large audiences, and both were well re- 
 ceived. Both orators came up to public expectation, and 
 expectation ran high in both cases. Copies of both ser- 
 mons will be asked for publication. If they are published, 
 I will send you a copy of each, and leave you to settle for 
 yourself the question, which has been often asked here and 
 variously answered which is the best? I shall want to 
 know of you, not only which you think is the best, but also 
 what parts of each you may think unsound or illogical if, 
 indeed, you shall find any errors in either. ' 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, April 4, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER On my arrival 
 
 here, I found your long letter of Sunday. It has interested 
 me more than you expected, if I may measure your ex- 
 pectation by the apparent hesitation with which it was 
 written and the apology. I assure you no apology was 
 needed. I have often sought to draw you out on religious 
 subjects, but have never fully succeeded. I have always felt 
 and known that you held something in reserve, and I have 
 often suspected that the thing reserved was skepticism, in- 
 stead of that never-failing and all-sustaining faith which you 
 have now so simply and so nobly expressed.* I have been 
 wondering who was the man that suspected you of infidel- 
 ity or atheism, and I have rather concluded that he was 
 Preston, of Virginia. Am I wrong? This letter of yours 
 has a remarkable coincidence with some other things. It 
 was written the same day on which I heard that noble ser- 
 mon f of which I have written you, and which, in its tone, 
 was so like your letter not more difference than strictly 
 different breezes would make in blowing over the same 
 golden harp, or than the same breeze would make in blow- 
 ing over different harps. On that same day, Dick Johnston 
 wrote me a long religious letter such a one as he never 
 wrote me before, and such as was called forth by nothing 
 but a casual statement which I had made to him in a part- 
 
 * It is a source of regret that I have not been able to find the letter 
 alluded to. ED. 
 
 t Dr. Palmer's sermon at Milledgeville.
 
 256 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ing note, as I was leaving home, about feeling sad and mel- 
 ancholy. Like your letter, his dealt in his personal expe- 
 rience, and was very cheering. It really looks as if the 
 Holy and loving Spirit, of whom Dr. Palmer discoursed so 
 beautifully, was, at that very moment, breathing upon many 
 and distant harps, and bringing forth from them all harmo- 
 nious melodies which lifted the soul from earth to heaven. 
 This does not strike my mind as an unreasonable supposi- 
 tion, and it is a very pleasant and consoling one. No sub- 
 ject occupies more of my thoughts, or troubles me more, or 
 interests me more, than what the world calls religion calls 
 it properly, too, and beautifully, too, if you will only strip 
 it of the cant which has become polarized about it, and 
 will view it simply as the chord which binds fallen man back- 
 again to the holy Author of his being. I shall take special 
 care of your letter, and treasure it as a precious memorial 
 of you, if it shall be my fortune to tarry behind you on this 
 earthly stage. 
 
 I will meet you here at Hancock court. Don't fail to 
 come, for I want to see you before you return to Richmond. 
 I will now bid you good-bye. 
 
 Most affectionately, LINTOX STKHIKN.S. 
 
 The largest liberty of the citizen, compatible with protec- 
 tion to property and preservation of order, was the control- 
 ling principle of Judge Stephens' political creed ; it was the 
 gravitating law, so to speak, of his political philosophy. 
 Government, he believed, had accomplished its purpose, its 
 full, legitimate object, when the laws, justly enforced and 
 administered, protected property and preserved good order; 
 and that when government had compassed those things, its 
 whole mission was done. Hence, he set his face like a flint 
 against the proposition, made in the Confederate States Con- 
 gress, to suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. 
 He looked upon the slightest movement in that direction 
 with alarm and horror. The first lesson he had learned in 
 the science of American popular government was that the 
 writ of habeas corpus is the chief corner-stone of personal 
 liberty hewn out of the mountain by our sturdy Eng- 
 lish ancestry at Runnymede.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, April 6, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER As William Hidell returns to Crawford- 
 ville to-morrow, I write another letter, in addition to the 
 one of yesterday evening, with the view of getting him to 
 carry them both. Some things which he tells me are news 
 to me, and are of ominous significance. I refer particularly 
 to the "political prisoners " at Salisbury, and the President's 
 application to Congress for authority to suspend the writ of 
 habeas corpus whenever and wherever he may please. I be- 
 lieve that if this authority is granted to him, free govern- 
 ment will be irretrievably gone. What can he want with 
 it? It is a delusion to let our preconception of his charac- 
 ter weigh down the tremendous significance of his present 
 action's. He has inaugurated, and persistently and consist- 
 ently pursued, a system of policy which seems to me to look 
 to absolutism. He and the Lincoln government seem to 
 me to be running a rapid race against each other in usurp- 
 ation and madness. Each faithfully follows every pattern 
 that is set by the other, upon the apparent conviction that 
 what is borne in the one will be borne in the other, and 
 each has shown a remarkable alacrity in furnishing its due 
 proportion of examples to the common stock. We gave 
 them "conscription," and now we have taken from them 
 in exchange "political prisoners" and discretionary suspen- 
 sion of Jiabcas corpus riot such a suspension as comports 
 with the constitutional restrictions upon it, but such as are 
 intended to get rid of these very restrictions. It is not the 
 least exaggeration to say that all the usurpations and tyr- 
 annies of each are promptly and faithfully copied by the 
 other; and what must be the possible result but the crush- 
 ing out of constitutional liberty, and the establishment of 
 absolutism in both countries? Their emissaries and bribed 
 journals are engaged in the partially secret but certain and 
 persistent work of decrying free government as a failure, 
 and thus preparing the sickened and weary hearts of the 
 people for the coup a" etat. If Congress yields to this last 
 demand, I believe we shall be lost forever. I would intro- 
 duce warning and rallying resolutions into the Legislature 
 if I did not feel well assured that they would be overwhelm- 
 ingly lost, and that their loss would encourage the enemies 
 26*
 
 258 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 of liberty, and rivet the chains which they are preparing for 
 our submissive and pusillanimous limbs. Our submission 
 to conscription was a woful mistake. It ought to have been 
 resisted promptly, and utterly resisted. Will mankind never 
 be able to appropriate the teachings of history without a 
 personal experience? Must they wait to be enslaved before 
 they will learn that every usurpation which is accomplished 
 becomes a new fortress from which tyranny assails the ram- 
 parts of liberty; and that usurpation is never appeased, but 
 always whetted and strengthened by submission? Are our 
 people only insensible to this truth, or have they, indeed, 
 become sick of their liberty, and resolved to take refuge 
 under the wings of an absolute ruler? In either case, de- 
 cency demands that we should cease to denounce the usurp- 
 ations and tyrannies of Lincoln. These rapidly accumulat- 
 ing and gigantic usurpations, with a connecting tlircad run- 
 ning through the whole of them and binding them together 
 as links in a chain, fill me with alarm, and 'the mean and 
 pusillanimous submission of our people fills me with de- 
 spair. One significant link in that chain is the scheme of 
 State indorsement of Confederate debts ; and we have had 
 a foretaste of the operation of it in the insolent assumption 
 of sending a special agent to lecture the State Legislature 
 upon its duty to the central head. I wish I could see you 
 before I go back to Milledgeville, but I cannot. My im- 
 pression is that the indorsement scheme will be isorked 
 through, and that the conscription resolutions will either be 
 cut off by an early adjournment, or will be indefinitely post- 
 poned by a large vote. A Legislature which can be be- 
 guiled and scared into an acquiescence in conscription, by 
 the plea of necessity and the bug-bear of reorganizing the 
 army in the face of the enemy, when the only reorganiza- 
 tion dreamed of by anybody is just such a one as was effected 
 by conscription itself in the face of the enemy a change in 
 the mode of appointing future officers will submit to any- 
 thing! I have no hope from them. My judgment of them 
 is that they are against a fuss under all circumstances, and 
 that they will, therefore, submit implicitly to whoever may 
 be in possession of that power which surrounds them at the 
 moment to Mr. Davis now, and to Mr. Lincoln if he 
 should ever overrun the country. They would not hesitate 
 to repeat the ignominy of the Kentucky Legislature with
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 the same surroundings. The personal pusillanimity of some 
 of them is such that they would to-day sign and seal a bar- 
 gain for the security of their victuals and clothes. God 
 grant that I may be mistaken, but I believe we are lost! 
 Congress could save us the Georgia Legislature could save 
 us but neither of them has the courage or sense to do it ; 
 
 and I repeat that I believe we are lost ! 
 
 Most affectionately, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 In the summer of 1863, Judge Stephens raised a troop of 
 horse for State defense, and repaired to Atlanta. Rosecrans 
 was threatening our northern border. The company was 
 merged into a battalion, organized at Atlanta Judge Ste- 
 phens being elected to the command. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SAXDTOWN, GA., 5^ O'CLOCK p. M., Sept. 16, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER General Cobb is 
 
 as agreeable as I had expected. He thinks the State troops 
 are likely to be out a good while; he didn't say the whole 
 term of six months, but I think we are regularly in. I feel 
 very much as if we had been tricked indeed, I shared the 
 general suspicion, from the beginning, that we were walk- 
 ing into a trap. I walked in with my mind made up to be 
 trapped ; but it is a deplorable state of things when the 
 pledges of the government fail to inspire credence even in 
 its blindest supporters. Nobody relishes the consciousness 
 of being fooled ; but I remain resolved to bear whatever 
 may come. I have not lost my temper, on any occasion, 
 from the beginning to this time. I am very much annoyed 
 by many things, but I have kept cool. The men espe- 
 cially the boys run to me with their slightest accidents, 
 even to the broken straps and strings about their saddles. 
 I have, in every case, given them the best advice which oc- 
 curred to me, and treated their little mishaps with sympa- 
 thy and kindness. 
 
 We are all getting on harmoniously in the main more 
 so than I ever saw any company before. The sick man has 
 become very sick. I have got him into a private house, 
 and detailed Dr. Tom Andrews, his neighbor at home, to
 
 2<5O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 attend him. I am afraid he will have to go to the hospital ; 
 for the lady, whose house he is now in, said she could keep 
 him only last night. Besides this case, there are two others 
 of sickness one of chills and the other rheumatism. They 
 remain in camp as yet. We had a very sudden change of 
 weather night before last, and this morning we had quite a 
 frost. Everybody complains of the cold, and of having 
 slept very cold last night. I got very cold, and thought 
 once I should have a chill, but I escaped. The rations 
 which I drew yesterday, as far as meat is concerned, con- 
 sisted of \oy> pounds of bacon and 297 pounds of miserable 
 beef for 47 men one ivcck. The beef I take by installments. 
 General Cobb says he thinks there will be considerable 
 "billing and cooing" before the big fight begins, and that 
 a big fight will then come off. He told me that Bragg was 
 drawing rations for seventy thousand men. I am going in 
 town to take dinner with Anderson, and must wash up and 
 change my clothes. I am exceedingly dirty, as are all the 
 rest. My company is the only one of the battalion that has 
 arrived. General Cobb tells me, as I expected, that we 
 will all have to form regiments, or be thrown into regiments 
 by him. He still allows us the chance to form them our- 
 selves and elect our own officers. He told me that General 
 Toombs and his regiment would remain at Athens, where 
 they now are. I am sorry that Mr. Conrad's visit is likely 
 to prevent you from coming here. I would like very much 
 to see you. You can get quarters at Mrs. Whitehead's, as 
 I told you, and as you will see from the inclosed note from 
 her. She handed it to me after you left Sparta. I intended 
 to send it to you by Evans, but forgot it, in the hurry and 
 stress of attention to other matters, in getting off. 1 must 
 write Cosby a letter; and so good-bye. I am writing on 
 my knee, with my back against a hickory sapling. Write 
 to me often; it does me good to get letters from you, even 
 when they are short. 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LJNTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, September 23, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Speaking of ap- 
 pointments, my old class-mate, Robert J. Henderson, of
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHEN?. 26 1 
 
 Covington, desires promotion to a brigadiership. He has 
 eighteen months' experience as a colonel, and he is a man 
 of character and education. I have no doubt he would 
 make a better brigadier than many we have. He and his 
 regiment were among the Vicksburg captives. I told him 
 what rule you had adopted in relation to military recom- 
 mendations, but that I would lay his case before you, with 
 a request that you would do for him what you could con- 
 sistently with your views of right and propriety 
 
 General Cobb is very agreeable to me ; but he has always 
 
 been so towards me in a pretty marked degree 
 
 Our side seems to have had the decided advantage in the 
 kite fight, but I do not regard the result as yet decided. I 
 can't help feeling great apprehension.* 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II . S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, October 3, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER It has been several days since I have 
 written to you, and several since I have received any letter 
 from you. I suppose this will probably find you at home. 
 I am still ignorant of the future probable movements of my 
 battalion, farther than a slight inference that we will not be' 
 moved within the next four or five days. Last night, I 
 recommended a furlough to a man on condition that the 
 General should think the furlough would probably 'expire 
 before the battalion would be moved. The furlough was 
 granted ; and, as it was for five days, I concluded the Gen- 
 eral thought that we would not be moved within that time. 
 This is all I know beyond the General's intimation, of which 
 I have before informed you, to the effect that w r e might be 
 kept here to catch deserters. You see I have made a rise 
 in the way of writing implements, and I hope the change 
 from pencil to ink will be as pleasant to you as it is to me. 
 I have a box for a writing-desk, and am altogether better 
 prepared for writing than I have been before. I now have 
 five companies in camp, and I understand that the captain 
 and first lieutenant of the Baldwin company are in the city; 
 the company is probably near at hand. On Monday, I 
 
 *The battle of Chickamauga had been fought on the igth and aoth of 
 September.
 
 262 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 want to hold an election for an additional field-officer, and 
 complete the organization of the battalion. Whether it will 
 be run up to a regiment, I don't know, but General Cobb 
 says he intends so. The cavalry material here present is 
 exhausted, with the exception of a squadron of four com- 
 panies, which the General has agreed may retain its sepa- 
 rate organization for the present:, and two other companies, 
 one of which has boundaries not extending across the Chat- 
 tahoochee River. I don't know how he will manage it, but 
 he says he intends to run my battalion up to a full regiment. 
 Night before last (the first), we had a terrible storm of wind 
 and rain. Our tents blew down and leaked so that we all 
 got very wet; some have taken cold from the exposure, but 
 1 have not. I put on my overcoat and saved my body from 
 the wetting, though my legs got well soaked. After the 
 storm abated, I took a nap of an hour's length in my wet 
 
 clothes I am standing 
 
 up as well as anybody so far The Baldwin 
 
 company has come into camp since I have been writing. 
 Two lads came here this morning, from Sparta, and told me 
 that, on last Wednesday night, my smoke-house on the lot 
 was broken open and all the meat taken out of it, and that 
 quite a number of negroes had been taken up and were in 
 jail on account of it I feel very un- 
 easy about the state of tilings at home, and in the country 
 similarly situated. This war cannot be carried on success- 
 fully upon the present basis. ]f we are prepared to admit 
 that we cannot continue the struggle without stripping the 
 country of all its men, we might as well abandon the con- 
 test and accept our fate. There is a plan by which the con- 
 test can be successfully conducted without the present rapid 
 and destructive consumption of all our resources, but will 
 
 it ever be accepted? But enough of this 
 
 I sa\v Genera] Forrest yesterday evening. 1 le was just from 
 the "front" (to use a phrase which has become a cant), and 
 he said he didn't think there would be any more fighting in 
 several days. He said he was going to LaGrange to rest 
 himself a week. On the other hand, ammunition drays 
 were running nearly all last night from the arsenal to the 
 railroad, indicating preparation for another fight. It seems 
 to me that the two armies have now settled down for a spell, 
 and I have no doubt the State troops will be retained to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 263 
 
 guard Bragg's rear, or for some other purpose. Our negro 
 population is going to give us great trouble. They are be- 
 coming extensively corrupted. The necessary pains to keep 
 them on our side, and in order, have been unwisely and 
 sadly neglected. The terms on which I told you 1 would 
 be willing to settle, there is a great deal in. My mind lias 
 only been confirmed in the views then expressed. I believe 
 that the institution of slavery is already so undermined and 
 demoralized as never to be of much use to us, even if we 
 had peace and independence to-day. The institution has 
 received a terrible shock, which is tending to its disintegra- 
 tion and ruin ! 
 
 Most affectionate!}', LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, October 17, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER To-day, I got a letter from Cosby, say- 
 ing that you had promised, and expected to return to Sparta 
 next Monday to be present at the trials of the negroes ; and 
 I therefore have little hopes of these lines reaching you be- 
 fore you get off, and still less of seeing you up here. I have 
 been very desirous to sec you ; and, as I cannot go to see 
 you, I thought you would come to see me; but I have now 
 given up that idea, and have made up my mind to get rflong 
 on ni) T own hook. This is Saturday night, not quite dark 
 yet, and I am writing by a candle in my tent, and I am 
 immersed in a hum of voices discussing such matters as men 
 in camp can find to interest them. The weather is now 
 charming. The clouds cleared off yesterday evening, and 
 I walked out to the edge of the camp for the express pur- 
 pose of getting a clear view of the new moon. My first 
 sight of it was very clear. I dispensed with the usual drill 
 this evening, and had all hands to clean up the camp, each 
 company cleaning off its own ground, and all ventilating 
 and cleaning out their tents. Ail the offices of the battal- 
 ion are now filled, except ordnance-sergeant and chaplain. 
 
 The ordnance-sergeant, though not 
 
 ranking high, is a very important officer; for he has charge 
 of all the ammunition. Mr. Akcrman* fills this place for 
 
 *Mr. Akerman was, after the war, Attorney-General of the United. 
 States.
 
 264 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 General Toombs. I wish I had such a man to fill it for me. 
 
 General Cobb is now gone to the 
 
 "front," and, in his absence to-day, I got a note from his 
 adjutant, saying that General Bragg had telegraphed to 
 General Cobb to send forty or fifty men to Meridian, Mis- 
 sissippi, to drive beeves from there to his army, and asking 
 me if I could furnish the men for the service. I answered 
 him very promptly that I would not, and then rode up to 
 see him, and gave him my reasons for refusing much more 
 in full than I had done in the written answer to his note. 
 My reasons are these: In the first place, I think it very 
 doubtful whether there are any beeves at Meridian ; in the 
 next place, if there are any there, and it were proper to 
 bring them away, we are not the people to do it. Where 
 are the Mississippi State troops, I wonder? Cobb's adju- 
 tant informed me, in response to my question, that some of 
 them are at Meridian now. Did you ever hear of more 
 patent folly? It would be three weeks, with the best of 
 work, before my men could get there to start the cattle, to 
 say nothing of the hardship of asking us to go and do the 
 work which lies at the door of the Mississippians. In the 
 next place, if I approved of the job, and as the selection of 
 us as the men, I still would not do it, because we are not 
 provided with the means. The proposition was to start 
 forty or fifty men for Meridian on horseback, provided with 
 two days' rations and nothing else. It is about a forty days' 
 job, and the men would have to support themselves and 
 horses. I have not yet, nor has any captain, got .back one 
 cent of the money we paid out in getting here, and in the 
 detached service in which my Greene count}' company was 
 
 sent after they got here 
 
 Our battalion-quartermaster is a first-rate business man. 
 A few such men in the high places of the quartermaster's 
 department would soon produce magical changes in its affairs. 
 He is a Wilkes county boy, who went to New York as a 
 clerk, and soon worked himself up to a partnership in a 
 large mercantile house. He never saw West Point in his 
 life, and only knows business. Seven-eighths of the work 
 of an army is business, and requires business talent. The 
 other eighth is statesmanship, and requires a talent pos- 
 sessed by very few men in the country. . . . Good-bye. 
 Affectionately, LIXTON STF.PHKNS.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 265 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, October 29, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER In great haste, I drop you a line to say 
 that we have received orders to go to Savannah to meet an 
 attack which General Beauregard apprehends at that point, 
 and to suggest that you do not come up here as you ex- 
 pected. I give you the earliest notice of this movement, 
 hoping it may be in time to stop you. We go by home in 
 separate companies, with orders to the several captains to 
 take up the line of march, from their respective court- 
 houses, for Savannah, fifteen days from to-morrow morning. 
 I like the movement very much. I shall send my horses 
 home by Gary, and go myself by railroad. I expect to get 
 to your house Thursday or Friday, day or night, I don't 
 know which. When I see you, I will explain all to you; 
 at present, I have not time. 
 
 Most affectionately yours, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 MILLEDGEVILLE, November 1 8, 18.63. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I arrived here this morning, and went 
 into the session of the House without shaving or changing 
 the clothes which I wore away from here last Thursday. 
 With the dirt, and loss of sleep, and cold last night, I am 
 feeling to-day very much like a "stewed witch." On my 
 arrival here, I found three letters from you, of the I3th, I4th 
 and 1 5th. Of course, I am unable to tell you, as you de- 
 sired to know, which of these came quickest. This is the 
 first I have heard from you since I left here. I also found 
 a long letter from General Cobb. The inference which I 
 draw from it is that he wishes to be senator. He says his 
 personal wishes are balanced by conflicting considerations; 
 but he also says he will accept if elected. Mr. Toombs is 
 absent, to my great regret. Shockly thinks there is a ma- 
 jority for him now, with an improving tendency in his favor. 
 I hope so. I think Mr. Toombs is mistaken as to Cobb's 
 true position, and, therefore, I am very doubtful of the esti- 
 mates of himself and friends. I feel very badly to-day, but 
 27
 
 266 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 not low-spirited I left everything- quiet in 
 
 Savannah I am to meet a committee now, 
 
 and must close. Good-bye. 
 
 Most affectionately, LINTOX STEPHEN'S. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MILLEDGEVILLE, November 20, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The adjournment of the House to-day, 
 in respect to the memory of a deceased member, gives me, 
 not leisure for I have business enough but a respite from 
 pressing duty; and I avail myself of it to tell you that I 
 have not heard from you since I wrote last, and to tell you 
 how gloomy and lonely I feel. The deceased member was 
 Mr. Herrington, of Terrell county. I did not know him 
 even by sight. He had just gone through a successful con- 
 test for his seat, and then laid down and died. Old man 
 Oslin, the well-known messenger of the House, is now about 
 to die is considered hopeless. Poor old man ! I have 
 known him long, and have valued him for some sterling 
 qualities. His industry, particularly, was a model. His 
 kindness of heart and general accommodating spirit are also 
 very conspicuous traits in his character 
 
 We had a fight in the House to-day over a bill to stop 
 interest on all contracts where payment in Confederate 
 money might be refused. I opposed it on the constitutional 
 ground that it impaired the obligation of contracts. There 
 was a considerable little debate between Wallace and Klam 
 and myself. Mathews, of Oglethorpe, made a very sensi- 
 ble speech on my side. I walloped \\\cm so badly that they 
 couldn't get enough to call the yeas and nays. On the 
 policy of the bill, I expressed no opinion of my own, but 
 told them what Washington's contract was in refusing Con- 
 tinental money at par when it was only five to one. 
 said he had never heard of that before, but did not doubt 
 its truth after my statement of it. He then went on to say 
 that it was a disastrous clay when Washington took that 
 position ; the cry went out all over the country that the 
 " Father of his Country " had refused to take war-currency, 
 and then the fate of that currency was sealed forever. I 
 asked him if he did not know that Washington had taken 
 that position, how could he know what sort of a "cry" was
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 267 
 
 raised about it? This raised quite a laugh on , and 
 
 was a sort of settling stroke. I doubt which made the most 
 votes my argument, which, I think, was unanswerable, 
 and which certainly was unanswered, or that little hit, which 
 
 had nothing to do with the merits. I also caught in 
 
 as bad a trap worse, really, for he did not escape under 
 
 the cover of a laugh as did. He referred to the law 
 
 of 1845, changing interest from 8 to 7 per cent., as an au- 
 thority to show that interest on existing, as well as future, 
 contracts was under legislative control. He represented 
 that law as operating on contracts which then existed, as 
 well as on future ones. At first, he put it with some hesi- 
 tation ; but, finding that I did not correct him, he grew 
 very confident, and spoke of having made settlements on 
 that basis. He then said he knew he was right in his rec- 
 ollection of that law ; and yet, he had never heard its con- 
 stitutionality called into question. He had then got his foot 
 properly into it, and I rose and read to him the first lines 
 of the law "On all bonds, notes, contracts, etc., made 
 after the passage of this act. " I laid down the book and 
 took my seat without a word of comment. He looked 
 badly, and soon subsided. It made a hole in him and let 
 out all his steam. He collapsed and sunk like a bellows 
 with a similar disaster. Then these gentlemen pitched into 
 me, and not I into them. 
 
 But I must bring this letter to a close ; for I have some 
 others to write, and then a long and somewhat difficult bill 
 to draw, to provide for the education of the children of indi- 
 gent soldiers 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MILLEUGEVILLK, December 4, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I ought to have written to you yester- 
 day, but I did not, because I was sick quite sick and 
 confined to my room (but not to my bed) until the after- 
 noon. I should have staid in doors during the afternoon 
 also, but Mr. Bacon came to see me, and said the cotton- 
 bill was coming to a vote, and begged me to go up and vote
 
 268 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 on it. I went and made a speech as good a one, me ju- 
 dicc, as ever I made but it didn't succeed. It had too 
 much truth to be digested at a single meal. The restric- 
 tion-bill was carried by one majority. There will be an 
 effort to reconsider this morning, probably successful. The 
 House, yesterday, concurred in a Senate resolution to ad- 
 journ on the 1 2th. I must hurry up to the House, and have 
 no time to write as I wish. I never was so oppressed with 
 a parting, as I was last Tuesday, in taking leave of you and 
 the children and Cosby. I had a feeling of unutterable woe, 
 and I have it now. It seeks no utterance, because it is 
 conscious of being able to find none. I am much better 
 this morning. I have just got your letter, written as you 
 were about to depart from my house, and it has helped me 
 somewhat. I wish I could bring myself to the point of 
 being resigned to whatever may happen! Sometimes, I 
 have thought I had reached it, but poor human nature has 
 broken down on the way. God help us all! And, () God, 
 have mere}' on poor, miserable sinners, of whom I am one ! 
 Yours, most affectionate!}', 
 
 LIXTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 MILLEDGEVILLE, December ii, 1863. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have just read your two letters of the 
 9th and loth; and, though I am not able to write, I have 
 determined to drop you a few lines, because these letters, 
 and the one of the 8th, which I got last night, have filled 
 me and oppressed me with a sense of my injustice and neg- 
 ligence of our correspondence. I got the Governor to write 
 to you for me last Tuesday. I see, and was surprised to 
 see, that you had not got his letter when you wrote yester- 
 day. I have been very unwell ever since I left home or 
 rather, ever since I got here the last time 
 
 Your account of "the Parson" is a most wonderful one to 
 me, but beautiful in the extreme. It looks as if all the 
 landmarks, in this world, of my whilom acquaintance, are 
 all passing rapidly away. It is very painful and depressing 
 to me; but the manner in which you speak of them shows 
 that you feel them as deeply, if not as violently, as I do,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 269 
 
 and the calmness and quiet resignation which you display 
 in speaking of them are beautiful to me, while it rebukes 
 
 my own despair 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 The reader will see, from the last three preceding letters, 
 that Judge Stephens was chosen a member of the House of 
 Representatives in the autumn of 1863. The most import- 
 ant measures with which he was intimately and prominently 
 identified were : An act of the Legislature, granting sup- 
 plies of food, raiment, etc., to persons left destitute by the 
 ravages of war, in sections of the State overrun by the Fed- 
 eral army ; that measure he ardently supported. Another, 
 which he opposed, was the measure to indorse, by the State, 
 the Confederate debt. He introduced a series of resolutions 
 declaring the suspension of the writ of Jiabcas corpus to be 
 unconstitutional. His speech in advocacy of the resolutions 
 was regarded by those who heard it, and who had heard 
 him on other occasions in deliberative bodies, as the ablest 
 he ever made in a parliamentary assembly; it was worthy 
 of the subject, the occasion, the time, and the man. It con- 
 vinced the reason of the Legislature ; for the resolutions 
 were adopted. Here follow the resolutions entire the text 
 of the masterly plea he uttered in behalf of constitutional 
 government and the liberty of the citizen : 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 INTRODUCED BY HON. LINTON STEPHENS ON THE SUSPENSION 
 OF THE WRIT or HABEAS CORPUS. 
 
 Tlie General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve, i. 
 That, under the Constitution of the Confederate States, 
 there is no power to suspend the privilege of the w r rit of 
 habeas corpus, but in a manner and to an extent regulated 
 and limited by the express, emphatic and unqualified consti- 
 tutional prohibitions, that "no person shall be deprived of
 
 2JC BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 life, liberty or property without due process of law," and 
 that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches 
 and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall 
 issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirm- 
 ation, and particularly describing the places to be searched 
 and the persons or things to be seized." And this conclu- 
 sion results from the two following reasons: First. Because 
 the power to suspend the writ is derived not from express 
 delegation, but only from implication, which must always 
 yield to express, conflicting and restricting words. Second. 
 Because this power, being found nowhere in the Constitu- 
 tion, but in words, which are copied from the original Con- 
 stitution of the United States, as adopted in 1787, must 
 yield, in all points of conflict, to the subsequent amendments 
 of 1789, which are also copied into our present Constitu- 
 tion, and which contain the prohibitions above quoted, and 
 were adopted with the declared purpose of adding further 
 declarator}' and restrictive clauses. 
 
 2. That "due process of law" for seizing the persons of 
 the people, as defined by the Constitution itself, is a war- 
 rant issued upon probable cause, supported by oath or af- 
 firmation, and particularly describing the persons to be 
 seized ; and the issuing of such warrants, being the exertion 
 of a judicial power, is, if done by any branch of the govern- 
 ment except the judiciary, a plain violation of that provi- 
 sion of the Constitution which vests the judicial power in 
 the courts alone ; and, therefore, all seizures of the persons 
 of the people, by any officer of the Confederate Government, 
 without warrant, and all warrants for that purpose, from 
 any but a judicial source, are, in the judgment of this Gen- 
 eral Assembly, unreasonable and unconstitutional. 
 
 3. That the recent act of Congress, to suspend the priv- 
 ilege of the writ of habeas corpus in cases of arrests, ordered 
 by the President, Secretary of War, or general officer com- 
 manding the trans-Mississippi military department, is an at- 
 tempt to sustain the military authority in the exercise of 
 the constitutional, judicial function of issuing warrants, and 
 to give validity to unconstitutional seizures of the persons 
 of the people; and as the said act, by its express terms, 
 confines its operations to the upholding of this class of un- 
 constitutional seizures, the whole suspension attempted to
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2/1 
 
 be authorized by it, and the whole act itself, in the judg- 
 ment of this General Assembly, are unconstitutional. 
 
 4. That, in the judgment of this General Assembly, the 
 said act is a dangerous assault upon the constitutional power 
 of the courts, and upon the liberty of the people, and be- 
 yond the power of any possible necessity to justify it; and 
 while our Senators and Representatives in Congress are 
 earnestly urged to take the first possible opportunity to 
 have it repealed, we refer the question of its validity to the 
 courts, with the hope that the people and the military au- 
 thorities will abide by the decision. 
 
 5. That, as constitutional liberty is the sole object which 
 our people and our noble army have, in our present terrible 
 struggle with the government of Mr. Lincoln, so also is a 
 faithful adherence to it, on the part of our own govern- 
 ment, through good fortune in arms, and through bad, one 
 of the great elements of our strength and final success, be- 
 cause the constant contrast of constitutional government, on 
 our part, with the usurpations and tyrannies which charac- 
 terize the government of our enemy under the ever-recur- 
 ring and ever-false plea of the necessities of war, will have 
 the double effect of animating our people with an uncon- 
 querable zeal, and of inspiring the people of the North more 
 and more with a desire and determination to put an end to 
 a contest which is waged by their government openly 
 against our liberty, and as truly, but more covertly, against 
 their own. 
 
 THOMAS HARDEMAX, 
 Speaker House Representatives. 
 L. CARRIXGTOX, Clerk. 
 
 PETER COXE, 
 
 President pro tcin. of Senate. 
 L. H. KENAN, Secretary of Senate. 
 
 Approved March 19, 1864: 
 
 JOSEPH E. BROWN, Governor. 
 
 He also introduced the following resolutions, "Declaring 
 the ground on which the Confederate States stand in the 
 war, and the terms on which peace ought to be offered to 
 the enemy: "
 
 2/2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve, i. 
 That, "to secure the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of 
 happiness, governments were instituted among men, deriv- 
 ing their just powers from the consent of the governed; 
 that whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
 abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
 foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in 
 such a form, as shall seem to them most likely to effect 
 their safety and happiness." 
 
 2. That the best possible commentary upon this grand 
 text of our fathers of 1776 is their accompanying action, 
 which it was put forth to justify, and that action was the 
 immortal declaration that the former political connection 
 between the Colonies and the State of Great Britain was 
 dissolved, and the Thirteen Colonies were, and of right 
 ought to be, not one independent State, but thirteen inde- 
 pendent States, each of them being such a " people " as had 
 the right, whenever they chose to exercise it, to separate 
 themselves from a political association and government of 
 their former choice, and institute a new government to suit 
 themselves. 
 
 3. That if Rhode Island, \vith her meager elements of 
 nationality, was such a "people" in 1776, when her sepa- 
 ration from the government and people of Great Britain 
 took place, much more was Georgia, and each of the seced- 
 ing States, with their large territories, populations and re- 
 sources, such a "people," and entitled to exercise the same 
 right in 1861, when they decreed their separation from the 
 government and the people of the United States ; and if the 
 separation was rightful in the first case, it was more clearly 
 so in the last the right depending, as it does in the case 
 of every "people" for whom it is claimed, simply upon 
 their fitness and their will to constitute an independent 
 State. 
 
 4. That this right was perfect in each of the States, to be 
 exercised by her, or at her own pleasure, without challenge 
 or resistance from any other power whatever; and while 
 these Southern States had long had reason enough to justify 
 its assertion against some of their faithless associates, yet, 
 remembering the dictate of "prudence," that "govern- 
 ments long established should not be changed for light and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 27$ 
 
 transient causes," they forbore a resort to its exercise until 
 numbers of the Northern States, State after State, through 
 a series of years, and by studied legislation, had arrayed 
 themselves in open hostility against an acknowledged pro- 
 vision of the Constitution, and had at last succeeded in the 
 election of a President who was the avowed exponent and 
 executioner of their faithless designs against the constitu- 
 tional rights of their Southern sisters rights which had 
 been often adjudicated by the courts, and which were never 
 denied by the abolitionists themselves, but upon the ground 
 that the Constitution itself was void whenever it came in con- 
 flict with a "higher law," which they could not find among 
 the laws of God, and which depended, for its exposition, 
 solely upon the elastic consciences of rancorous partisans. 
 The Constitution thus broken, and deliberately and persist- 
 ently repudiated by several of the States who were parties 
 to it, ceased, according to universal law, to be binding on 
 any of the rest, and those States which had been wronged 
 by the breach were justified in using their rights to provide 
 "new guards for their future security." 
 
 5. That the reasons which justified the separation, when 
 it took place, have been vindicated and enhanced in force 
 by the subsequent course of the government of Mr. Lin- 
 coln by his contemptuous rejection of the Confederate 
 commissioners, who were sent to Washington before the 
 war to settle all matters of difference without a resort to 
 arms, thus evincing his determination to have war by his 
 armed occupation of the territory of the Confederate States, 
 and especially by his treacherous attempt to reinforce his 
 garrisons in their midst, after they had, in pursuance of 
 their right, withdrawn their people and territory from the 
 jurisdiction of his government, thus rendering war a neces- 
 sity, and actually inaugurating the present lamentable war 
 by his official denunciation of the Confederate States as 
 ' ' rebel " and ' ' disloyal " States for their rightful withdrawal 
 from their faithless associate States, while no word of cen- 
 sure has ever fallen from him against those faithless States 
 who were truly "disloyal" to the Union and the Constitu- 
 tion, which was the only cement of the Union, and who 
 were the true authors of all the wrong and all the mischief 
 of the separation, thus insulting the innocent by charging 
 upon them the crimes of his own guilty allies and, finally,
 
 274 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 by his monstrous usurpations of power and undisguised re- 
 pudiation of the Constitution, and his mocking scheme of 
 securing a republican form of government to sovereign 
 States by putting nine-tenths of the people under the do- 
 minion of one-tenth, who may be abject enough to swear 
 allegiance to his usurpation, thus betraying his design to 
 subvert true constitutional republicanism in the North as 
 well as in the South. 
 
 6. That, while we regard the present war between these 
 Confederate States and the United States as a huge crime, 
 whose beginning and continuance are justly chargeable to 
 the government of our enemy, yet, we do not hesitate to 
 affirm that, if our own government, and the people of both 
 governments, would avoid all participation in the guilt of its 
 continuance, it becomes all of them, on all proper occasions 
 and in all proper ways the people acting through their 
 State organizations and popular assemblies, and our govern- 
 ment through its appropriate departments to use their 
 earnest efforts to put an end to this unnatural, unchristian 
 and savage work of carnage and havoc; and to this end, we 
 earnestly recommend that our government, immediately 
 after signal successes of our arms, and on other occasions, 
 when none can impute its action to alarm, instead of a sin- 
 cere desire for peace, shall make to the government of our 
 enemy an official offer of peace, on the basis of the great 
 principle declared by our common fathers in 1776, accom- 
 panied by the distinct expression of a willingness, on our 
 part, to follow that principle, to its true logical consequences, 
 by agreeing that any border State, whose preference for our 
 association may be doubted, (doubts having been expressed 
 as to the wishes of the border States,) shall settle the ques- 
 tion for herself by a convention, to be elected for that pur- 
 pose, after the withdrawal of all military forces, of both 
 sides, from her limits. 
 
 7. That we believe this course, on the part of our gov- 
 ernment, would constantly weaken, and sooner or later 
 break down, the war-power of our enemy by showing to 
 his people the justice of our cause, our willingness to make 
 peace on the principles of 1776, and the shoulders on which 
 rests the responsibility for the continuance of the unnatural 
 strife; that it would be hailed by our people and citizen- 
 soldiery, who are bearing the brunt of the war, as an assur-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 275 
 
 ance that peace will not be unnecessarily delayed, nor their 
 sufferings unnecessarily prolonged; and that it would be 
 regretted by nobody on either side, except men, whose im- 
 portance, or whose gains, would be diminished by peace, 
 and men whose ambitious designs would need cover under 
 the ever-recurring plea of the necessities of war. 
 
 8. That while the foregoing is an expression of the senti- 
 ments cf this General Assembly, respecting the manner in 
 which peace should be sought, we renew our pledges of the 
 resources and power of this State to the prosecution of the 
 war, defensive on our part, until peace is obtained upon 
 just and honorable terms, and until the independence and 
 nationality of the Confederate States are established upon 
 a permanent and enduring basis. 
 
 THOMAS HARDEMAN, 
 Spcakc"' House Representatives. 
 L. CARRINGTON, Clerk. 
 
 PETER CONE, 
 
 President pro tern, of Senate. 
 L. H. KENAN, Secretary of Senate. 
 Approved March 19, 1864: 
 
 JOSEPH E. BROWN, Governor. 
 
 Judge Stephens always felt the liveliest interest in the 
 fortunes of aspiring and ingenuous youth ; and while he was 
 the most undemonstrative of men, perhaps no man in the 
 country could count a larger number of young men so 
 warmly attached to him. He was ever ready to aid the de- 
 serving by his counsels or by his purse ; nor was he the least 
 obtrusive with the one, or the least stint with the other. 
 
 The following letter was written to the son of his old 
 friend, Dr. Edward \V. Alfriend. The boy, at the age of 
 sixteen, had entered the military service of the Confederate 
 States. He is now a member of the Georgia bar, of brill- 
 iant promise : 
 
 [ From L. S. to Master Alfred Alfriend. ] 
 
 SPARTA, May 30, 1864. 
 
 DEAR ALFRED At all events, I 
 
 took a thorough search for you, but did not find you. I
 
 276 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 have never yet ascertained where you spent that night in 
 Augusta. Cousin Sally expressed her regret that you did 
 not go to her house with brother and myself, after she had 
 learned from us that you had gone along on the same train 
 with us, and had to spend the night somewhere in Augusta. 
 My regret on the occasion was not founded on my anxiety 
 for your comfort during the night, for I did not doubt that 
 you would find comfortable quarters somewhere ; but on 
 the desire I had to have you spend the night with me, and, 
 at all events, to give you a parting grasp of the hand and a 
 hearty God-speed in the new and important career on which 
 you were entering. This letter is intended mainly to speak 
 that God-speed now for then, and to assure you of, at least, 
 one friend, outside your own immediate family, who will 
 always look with an anxious eye for your preservation amid 
 the dangers of many kinds which will surround you, and 
 for your restoration to friends, unscathed in body and soul, 
 with worthy laurels, wrung from rugged war, to be long 
 enjoyed and increased amid the charms of blessed peace. 
 I don't wish to render my letter disagreeable to you by ob- 
 truding upon you unwelcome advice; nor do I think that 
 you will take that view of a few words drawn from the ex- 
 perience of one who has been a pretty close, if not a very 
 long, observer of the world, and whose motive for speaking 
 them is a desire to serve a young friend treading an untried 
 path. I know the enemy well, and whether you have yet 
 found out the fact or not, I know that you will be exposed 
 there to peculiar and strong temptations. I do not mean 
 to flatter you when I say that I know no one of your age 
 on whom I should expect such temptations to produce less 
 impression ; and yet, I must beg you not to be too self-con- 
 fident. I do not mean to guard you against vanity, but 
 against an over-confidence in your stability and firmness. 
 Some distrust, on that point, is far better than an undoubting 
 confidence. " Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed 
 lest he fall." This is an admonition from God himself, and 
 no sensible man has ever reached my time of life without 
 having had occasion to apply it to himself. There are two 
 things which, united, can bring you safe through your pres- 
 ent moral ordeal, and nothing else can: the cultivation of a 
 habit of careful self -watching, and a meek, but unflinching 
 resolution never to disregard the dictates of your judgment.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 277 
 
 Never let any circumstance seduce you into the taking of 
 even a single drink of liquor, unless it shall be in good faith 
 prescribed for you by a physician ; and never allow your 
 lips to take the name of God in vain. The scenes of death 
 and havoc, amid which you will have to move, will inevita- 
 bly tend to render you callous, and to harden and blunt 
 those gentle and noble sympathies which are so appropriate 
 to youth, and which are an honor and ornament to all ages 
 and conditions. I say this will be the tendency, and there 
 is no man who can entirely escape its natural effects. 
 Hence it is that long wars always tend to produce a relapse 
 from civilization back into barbarism. Under these circum- 
 stances, there is, for the preservation of the moral nature, 
 no expedient equal to the careful cultivation and habitual 
 exercise of the intellectual faculties. I know there is no 
 very favorable opportunity for this sort of cultivation in the 
 midst of camps, but there is some. I was glad to know 
 that you had sent home for a book. You will not have 
 much opportunity to read, for you cannot procure the nec- 
 essary books, but you will have ample opportunity to exer- 
 cise your reason upon events passing around you. I don't 
 mean to invite you to throw yourself into the invidious at- 
 titude of a young critic, but to cultivate a habit of exercis- 
 ing your reason and drawing conclusions from the great 
 events and scenes in which you will be moving; and, by all 
 means, cultivate the habit of reducing your thoughts (what- 
 ever course they may take) to writing and sending them 
 home to your friends. After all, there is no process, for 
 training and developing the intellect, equal to writing. 
 Lord Bacon said, " Reading makes a full man, conversation 
 a ready man, and writing an accurate man." I shall always 
 be glad to get letters from you myself; but I need not as- 
 sure you that my motive in advising you to write is not a 
 selfish one. Form the habit of trying to understand all you 
 hear, all you read, and all you see, not excepting the plans 
 and military movements of your great leader in arms. 
 There is nothing presumptuous in your endeavoring to un- 
 derstand them all, and the cultivation of the habit, and the 
 comparison of your antecedent conclusions with subsequent 
 events, will soon render the study both pleasant and profit- 
 able to you. Better occupy your thoughts in this way than 
 let them dwindle and dry up. A well-occupied intellect is
 
 2/8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the best security for a sound and happy heart. I shall not 
 undertake to give you a word of news, for Ben can tell you 
 more in an hour than I would with you in a day. I think 
 of you very often, and never without a fervent aspiration to 
 God to preserve you through all your dangers, and to 
 lighten all your privations and toils with a good conscience 
 and cheerful spirit. I commend you to some verses which 
 I take from Burns' epistle to a young friend. The senti- 
 ments are noble, and expressed with much force and beauty. 
 
 Good-bye, and may God bless you. 
 
 Your friend, LINTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 "The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip, 
 
 To hand the wretch in order, 
 But where you feel your honour grip, 
 
 Let that aye be your border 
 Its slightest touches, instant pause, 
 
 Debar a' side pretenses, 
 And resolutely keep its laws, 
 
 Uncaring consequences. 
 
 "The great Creator to revere 
 
 Must sure become the creature ; 
 But still the preaching cant forbear, 
 
 And ev'n the rigid feature; 
 Vet, ne'er with wits profane to range, 
 
 Be complaisance extended, 
 An Atheist's laugh's a poor exchange 
 
 For Deity offended. 
 
 "When ranting round in pleasure's ring, 
 
 Religion may be blinded, 
 Or if she gie a random stitig, 
 
 It may be little minded ; 
 But when on life we're lempest-driv'n, 
 
 A conscience but a canker, 
 A correspondence fix'd wi' heav'n 
 
 Is sure a noble anchor." 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, June 4, 1864. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Joe Myers told me, yesterday morning, 
 that he left you better the night before, and I hope you are 
 as well as usual by this time. I am writing now in the 
 Governor's office. It is a rainy, muddy morning. I am 
 told that it rained nearly all night last night. I slept in a
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 279 
 
 room so remote from the outer world that I had no idea 
 what the elements were doing until daylight gave me a view 
 through the window. I then found things very much in 
 the same state as they now are at 8J/4 o'clock A. M. Char- 
 ley DuBose and I slept in the same bed in the printing- 
 room of his brother-in-law, Richards. We have a mattress 
 on a bedstead, and do very well. The night before last, 
 the Governor and I slept in the same bed, out at General 
 Foster's, two miles in the country. The Governor's head- 
 quarters, or his lodgings, are at Colonel Erskine's. He in- 
 vited me to go and share his bed with him there last night, 
 but I declined. After this, Dick Johnston and I will occu- 
 py the bed in the printing-office, and Charley will sleep 
 with Richards in the back room of Richards' book-store. 
 You may infer, from all this piling up in sleeping, going, 
 as it does, to the extent of causing even the Governor to 
 sleep double, that this city is very much crowded. Not so, 
 however. Its quietness, on the contrary, is a striking feat- 
 ure in comparison with its condition last fall during the ex- 
 citement of the Chickamauga fight. I judge, from appear- 
 ances in the city, that General Johnston has very few idlers 
 and dodgers in the rear. The newspaper accounts of the 
 multitudes of refugees crowded here are monstrous exag- 
 gerations. I want no better evidence than a walk through 
 the streets here. I can't help suspecting that the repre- 
 sentations which have been made on this point were a trick 
 to get people to send provisions into this place. This has 
 been the effect. Our Hancock people sent up a lot of pro- 
 visions for refugees. John T. Martin and John Little ar- 
 rived here with the Hancock cargo yesterday morning. In 
 the lot brought by them were fifty pounds of flour contrib- 
 uted by me. After seeing the state of things here, I felt 
 as if I had been sold. I am messing with the Governor's 
 staff. Dick Johnston, Charley DuBose, Hidell, Colonel 
 Fulton, Colonel Mobley (of Harris) and myself comprise 
 our mess. We draw rations from the State and turn them 
 over to an old gentleman in town by the name of Mitchell. 
 He takes our rations and charges us four dollars a day 
 apiece for board at his table. He gives us very good plain 
 fare, and we all like the arrangement very well. I do not 
 expect to take up quarters at the camp here ; but when the 
 troops move forward to the front, I shall go with them as a
 
 280 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 private in the ranks. I had every reason to believe that, if 
 I would only permit the use of my name, I would be elected 
 brigadier-general without opposition. Colonel Carswell, of 
 Jefferson, who has been elected in the first brigade, sent 
 me special word that if I would say I would serve, he would 
 not be a candidate. Soon after my arrival here, I became 
 convinced, and I have not doubted since, that I could have 
 been elected with great ease ; but I have not doubted that 
 I have done right in declining. I have kept pretty well 
 since I have been here. Did you find a letter which I left 
 on your table for you ? It is a letter which I had mailed 
 to you at Richmond, and got back out of the post-office 
 after getting your announcement that you had got back 
 home. I pulled it out of my pocket and laid it on the 
 table while we were talking. I intended, at the time, to 
 tell you of it, but forgot it. I see there has been further 
 and heavier fighting between Lee and Grant. I am very 
 sorry to hear of Doles' death. I reckon poor Dick Greene 
 had to run the gauntlet once more; or, was he not in the 
 hospital when he wrote to you ? I believe he was ; but, 
 whether or not, I trust that he is still safe. I have just 
 this moment received and read your letter of yesterday. 
 I am very much relieved at hearing that you were better, 
 and that your pains were rheumatic. Rheumatism in the 
 bowels, proper, is itself a dangerous affection, but I think, 
 by some remarks dropped by you, that yours is in the ab- 
 dominal muscles, and not in the bowels. Your little 
 sJion'cr that you received with apparent gratification sinks 
 into insignificance when compared with our rains here. 
 Rain, rain, rain it still rains! Dick has somewhere picked 
 up the last volume of " Les Miserables," and I have been 
 reading it. It is now at my bed-room, but I shall go and 
 get it, rain or no rain, as soon as I finish my letter; for I 
 am very much in want of something to do. I should like 
 very much to be at home; but I am not discontented. . . 
 I am not in a complaining mood this morning, nor in a par- 
 ticularly unhappy state, but I see about as little light under 
 the political clouds as I do under the murk}', physical 
 ones that envelop us. I know the latter will in time give 
 way to renewed sunshine; will the former ever have a like 
 blessed sequel? Not in my day, at least. General Smith 
 is expected here to-day to take charge of the State troops,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 28 1 
 
 and the Governor has telegraphed General Johnston that 
 they will be ready for him in a few days. I believe he 
 said "two or three days." Now, my own opinion is that 
 they will not be ready to move as soon as the Governor 
 thinks, for I have seen enough of organising to know that 
 there is always more delay than anybody expects ; but I 
 have no doubt but that they will be sent to the front pretty 
 soon. I doubt, from all I hear, whether there will be any 
 early engagement between Johnston and Sherman ; but they 
 are having fighting there every day sometimes pretty 
 heavy 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, Septerr.ber 15, 1864. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Strange, 
 
 strange, passing strange that the rulers and wise men of the 
 world should be so inattentive, if not so profoundly igno- 
 rant, concerning a history which, in my judgment, teaches 
 the profoundest wisdom in a light which, from its very 
 clearness, is at once splendid and fascinating. What a 
 splendid illustration Mr. Calhoun could have drawn from 
 this history for his theory of concurrent majorities and nul- 
 lification as a peaceful remedy ! By the way, I think Mr. 
 Calhoun, while he was the soundest and most philosophical 
 expounder of our system, was exceedingly unfortunate in 
 his nomenclature. The phrase "concurrent majorities" fails 
 to convey a clear idea of what he meant by it; but, worst 
 of all, it loses a great element of popularity which would 
 have been found in the true and accurate statement. A 
 government of the people that is to say, of the whole 
 people, or a liberal approximation of the whole, in oppo- 
 sition to a government of a fragment of the people, even 
 though that fragment might reach a majority of the whole 
 a government wherein every State, each State constitut- 
 ing, in the main, a homogeneous people, with identical 
 interests, should have security for life, liberty and property, 
 dependent not upon the will of any one man, or number of 
 men, on the face of the earth, but solely upon its fidelity 
 to itself a government without power to oppress any in- 
 terest, because every interest would have the power of self- 
 protection a government, therefore, disarmed of all inter- 
 28
 
 282 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 nal aggressive power, and fulfilling the requisites of a model 
 government by being confined to the sole legitimate office 
 of government that is, affording security to its members 
 by restraining aggressions upon their rights. But church 
 
 time has come, and *I must suspend 
 
 I think the term "nullification" equally unfortunate, or 
 more so, for it conveys a. false idea of its real meaning or 
 rather, of the sense in which Mr. Calhoun used it and that 
 false idea was the greatest obstruction to its acceptance 
 among the people. There is a real difference, and a still 
 greater popular difference between annulling a law which 
 has passed through all the forms of the law-making power, 
 and interfering to prevent the final passage of a law. One 
 house of the Legislature rejects a bill which has passed the 
 other, or the President rejects it after it has passed both, 
 and it never becomes a law. So after it has passed all 
 three of these, it may be rejected by the interposition of 
 any one of the sovereign States; and such a rejection as 
 this is not so much a departure from popular government 
 as the rejection, which we have confessedly in our .system 
 is the rejection by one man. It ought to have been called 
 the veto power of the States, and never the right of nullifica- 
 tion a veto not provided for expressly in the Constitution, 
 it is true, but resulting necessarily from the fact that sov- 
 ereign States are the parties to it, and forming, therefore, 
 a part of our system of government, and being no more 
 revolutionary in its exercise than in the exercise of the 
 veto power on the part of the President, and intended, 
 like that, to be an additional check upon legislation ; that 
 is to say, an additional security in the hands of every State 
 against aggression from the rest. When you go further 
 and draw the very clear distinction which there is (but 
 which Mr. Calhoun failed to make sufficiently plain) be- 
 tween one State governing all the rest, and preventing 
 them simply from governing her, you would, I think, go 
 a great way in relieving this much-abused theory from the 
 demagogical misrepresentations which make it odious by 
 making it misunderstood. All fair-minded men will desire 
 a government which, while it withholds their own hands 
 from aggressions upon others, secures them also from ag- 
 gressions by others. Wise men will sec still further that 
 there can be no reliable protection to any without protec-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 283 
 
 tion to all ; or, in other words, that any system whose pro- 
 tection does not extend to all interests cannot be reliable 
 and steadfast for any. I could write page after page on 
 this subject, but the brief outline which I have given will 
 be sufficient to give you a full understanding of my 
 ideas, and that is all I wish. Before I pass entirely away, 
 however, I will say that I consider all the talk which speak- 
 ers and writers (including Mr. Calhoun) have held on the 
 subject of the "social compact" is sheer fiction. There is 
 no such thing as "social compact" never was, and never 
 can be. It is as pure a fiction as the common law doctrine 
 of a superse-assumpsit is, and a much more useless one. 
 Indeed, I think it has been the source of ^serious mischiefs. 
 The common law supposes every man to promise to do cer- 
 tain duties, and there is no harm in this, since the fiction 
 is used merely to furnish the form of a remedy for the 
 breach of those duties ; but what possible use can there be 
 in supposing that mankind, or any part of them, ever agreed 
 to form society ? 
 
 Mr. Calhoun himself says, very justly, that society is the 
 natural state of man that all men are born into it. How, 
 then, can he talk, as he does talk in his debate with Mr. 
 Webster, about the social compact being the foundation of 
 socie'ty? My idea of it is that all things, including man, 
 are under an obligation, imposed upon them by the Creator 
 for their own good, to live according to their own nature ; 
 that is to say, to live so as to attain the greatest possible 
 development of their natural gifts. Society is the natural 
 state of man ; he can do nothing in any other situation, 
 and this is the ground of his obligation to maintain society 
 not any promise or agreement to do so, for none such was 
 ever made. Society cannot be maintained without govern- 
 ment, and, therefore, the maintenance of government, of 
 some sort, rests on the same foundation of natural obliga- 
 tion, and not on any fictitious compact. There is no compact, 
 no agreement among men in relation either to society or 
 to government, until you come to what is properly called 
 the constitution of government. This is indeed a compact 
 which creates obligations correspondent to its provisions ; but 
 it is not a compact to support either society or government 
 in general ; it is a compact to support the particular gov- 
 ernment established by it, Society and government are
 
 284 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ordained by God, as is shown by their manifest necessity 
 to the nature with which He has formed mankind; but the 
 particular forms of either are a very different affair. There 
 is no room for difference of opinion on the first proposition, 
 and accordingly, we find that all mankind, in all ages, and 
 under all circumstances, have had society and government, 
 but not so as to the form of either, best suited to different por- 
 tions of the human family. I think, however, it is easy to 
 prove that, for a people who are sufficiently enlightened to 
 understand it, the best possible form of government is that 
 which arms every interest in the society with the power of 
 self-protection. The very reason which renders govern- 
 ment a necessity is the selfishness of men, leading them to 
 aggrandize themselves at the expense of others, and this 
 reason requires the remedy to go to the extent of having 
 every part of the society protected against all the rest. 
 How can this possibly be so well effected as by giving every 
 interest the power of self-protection ? With an enlightened 
 people, this would be the perfection of the science of gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 13, 1864. 
 
 1 have seen Burke's review of your letter. The answer 
 which you make to him, in a letter which I got from you 
 the other day, is not the right one, as it seems to me. The 
 consent of the two governments does not relieve your pro- 
 posed convention of States from the objection of unconsti- 
 tutionality. I don't mean to say that I think your plan is 
 really obnoxious to that objection, but I don't think the 
 consent of the two governments has any bearing on that 
 point. The prohibition against compacts or agreements 
 between States is not at all applicable to your plan. You 
 don't propose to form any compact or agreements between 
 States ; you simply propose to interchange views, and, if 
 possible, to unite, not in a compact, but in a plan to be 
 submitted to the States for ratification, or rather for adop- 
 tion. You expressly negative any binding authority in 
 the convention, confining its action to simple conference 
 and recommendation. So much for the convention. When
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 285 
 
 you get one step further, and propose to the States a 
 scheme of peace which may involve the termination of the 
 existing government, as the convention might do, the case 
 assumes a new aspect ; but the proposed action would not 
 be unconstitutional unless secession was so. I don't be- 
 lieve that secession was unconstitutional, nor do I believe 
 it would be unconstitutional to take the proposed action. 
 If the scheme of peace proposed should contemplate a 
 subversion of the existing government, its adoption by any 
 State would, it is true, terminate the operation of the Con- 
 stitution in that State ; but the right of each State to do 
 this whenever she pleases is the foundation-stone of our 
 government. It would not be a question of carrying on the 
 government, consistently with the Constitution, but it 
 would be a putting of the new government upon trial, 
 as we have already put the old one on trial and de- 
 cided against its continuance. To carry on the govern- 
 ment according to the Constitution is one thing to de- 
 cide whether the government shall be continued or not is 
 a very different thing. The consent of the government 
 doesn't seerh to me to touch this question of constitutionality. 
 The consent of the two governments is very desirable, 
 but not at all necessary to cure any unconstitutionality. 
 There is no unconstitutionality ; and if there was any, their 
 consent couldn't cure it. This reminds me to remark upon 
 a new idea which is passing current without a challenge 
 from any quarter, so far as I have seen, but which is full 
 of error and mischief: I mean the idea that all the States 
 of our Confederacy are forbidden, by good faitJi, to secede 
 from it during the war. Whence comes this obligation of 
 faith? Where is the pledge that would be broken by se- 
 cession? How can the question be affected by the state of 
 war? Shall it be said there is an implied understanding on 
 the part of all to abide the common fortune ? To abide it 
 how long? Forever? Then secession has ceased forever 
 as a rightful resort. During the war? Then our rulers 
 may defeat the right as long as they choose by prolonging 
 the war. There can be but one sound view on this subject. 
 It is gratuitous to be implying obligations when the Con- 
 stitution was intended as the expression of all that were 
 assumed. Those people who prate about the bad faith of 
 breaking pledges, which can nowhere be found, arc the
 
 2S6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 same who defend the government in breaking its most spe- 
 cific and formal promises. It is a cant invented to serve 
 the purpose of usurpation and consolidation. It is an arti- 
 fice of power to perpetuate itself, and to deny all principles 
 which can imperil its existence. It is a lie, a cheat, and a 
 delusion. It is the right of all States to quit associations, 
 and form new ones whenever they please. It is a right 
 which is truly inalienable, which cannot be surrendered 
 even by the most solemn constitutional compact, for the 
 power to bargain it away involves the power to alter the 
 rights of mankind. To admit that any generation can be 
 barred from this right by the action of predecessors is to 
 deny the right itself in toto. The essence of the right con- 
 sists in making the change whenever the people please. 
 Such is the right. Its exercise can be justified only by con- 
 siderations of national interest, and is always proper when 
 interest justifies it. In other words, there can be no such 
 thing as power or good faith in conflict with the irnc inter- 
 est of either nations or individuals. True interest and 
 power always pull in the same direction 
 
 When the Federal army, under General Sherman, ap- 
 proached the capitol at Millcdgeville, in 1864, the General 
 Assembly was in session. The panic the intelligence pro- 
 duced was very great ; nor was it confined exclusively to 
 the citizens of the city. A large number of members of 
 the Legislature shared it with them. Vehicles of every 
 description were in urgent demand ; the most fabulous 
 prices were paid for every sort, from the gentleman's coach 
 down to the clumsiest and most unsightly ox-cart. Gov- 
 ernor Brown, in view of the near approach of the Federal 
 army, and consequent dispersion of the Legislature, sent a 
 message to the General Assembly, officially communicating 
 the intelligence already so appallingly known to the mem- 
 bers individually, wherein he submitted to their judgment 
 the necessity, or propriety, of adopting some measure which 
 would authorize him to exercise extra constitutional or dis- 
 cretionary powers in certain emergencies, until the Legis- 
 lature should re-convene. The message was immediately
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 287 
 
 taken up in the Senate, and the recommendation, or sug- 
 gestion therein contained, adopted by that body, ncm. con., 
 or nearly so. It was forthwith transmitted to the House, 
 and immediately taken up for action. Judge Stephens at 
 once rose and opposed its adoption in a thirty minutes' 
 speech of superlative power and eloquence. Its effect was 
 electrical and crushing. After making a noble plea for "a 
 government of laws and not of men," he concluded by say- 
 ing, in substance: 
 
 "I, sir, have been denounced by some mistaken, but 
 doubtless well-meaning men, as an enemy to the admin- 
 istration of the Confederate government, because I op- 
 posed those of its measures, which, in my judgment, in- 
 volved unconstitutional stretches of power, dangerous 
 alike to the success of our common cause and to popular 
 liberty. Time will determine whether they or I are the 
 better friends to the administration I, who warn it of the 
 rocks and breakers ahead that will wreck it, or they, who, 
 if they have eyes to see, see not, or tongues to speak, speak 
 only to flatter or deceive. It has been said that I am a foe 
 to President Davis. That is not true. It has been said I 
 am the friend of Governor Brown. That is true. It is also 
 true that I warmly espoused his side of the controversy with 
 the President on the subjects of conscription, impressment, 
 etc. Why? Because, Governor Brown was right. Pres- 
 ident Davis was wrong, in my humble judgment no per- 
 sonal feeling, one way or the other, lent bias to that judg- 
 ment. Governor Brown was right in that controversy: in 
 the measure now before the House, he is wrong. / ivant 
 no master ! I am the political friend of no man, of no man 
 FREEMAN! alack! who is ready to accept a master! be he 
 Abe Lincoln, or Jeff. Davis, or Joe Brown, or anybody 
 else! I am the friend of citizen-liberty,, of rational, consti- 
 tutional liberty, to-day, to-morrow and forever! And be- 
 fore I support any measure authorizing, by any possibility,
 
 288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 the exercise of powers so monstrous and so dangerous to 
 that liberty as those contemplated in the resolutions on 
 your table ; or before I stand by any man who would, if he 
 could, by any semblance of authority, exercise such pow- 
 ers, may my right hand forget her cunning and my tongue 
 cleave to the roof of my mouth ! No, sir never ! I would 
 perish sooner. If I am to have a master, HE must forge 
 the chains; I will never hold out my hands to take on the 
 accursed manacles ! " 
 
 The Hon. L. N. Trammell, who was a member of the 
 House, and to whom I am indebted for the incident, pro- 
 nounced that speech the grandest outburst of fervid, patri- 
 otic, pent-up, indignant eloquence he ever heard uttered. 
 The resolution was tabled without a division. 
 
 When the awful curtain fell upon the scene of surrender 
 at Appomattox, the last hope of the Confederacy was lost. 
 Nothing was left to the Confederates but to secure the best 
 terms they could with their successful adversary. Of course, 
 it was a question, of a few days only, how long the small but 
 heroic army of General Johnston could continue the strug- 
 gle against the combined forces of Grant and Sherman. 
 The stipulations of Johnston's surrender, as set forth in the 
 Sherman-Johnston convention, were alike honorable to the 
 patriotism and magnanimity of both, and reflect credit alike 
 upon the spirit of the warrior and the sagacity of the states- 
 man. The work of that convention was, after the surren- 
 der of the army, with all its appointments and equipments, 
 ignored and repudiated by Andrew Johnson, who had just 
 acceded to the presidency of the United States, in conse- 
 quence of the ever-to-be-lamented assassination of Mr. Lin- 
 coln. Mr. Johnson lived long enough to regret if his sub- 
 sequent political course may be regarded as testimony 
 that he put his foot upon that basis of settlement not the 
 reconstruction, but the reconciliation of the States. The effects 
 of that rejection or rather, of that ignorition, (if I may be
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 289 
 
 allowed to coin p. word,) are felt now; and happy it will be 
 if all their traces shall be wiped out ere many years yet to 
 come "be numbered with those before the flood." 
 
 For several years, Judge Stephens was a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church ; he, however, dissolved his connec- 
 tion therewith not because his faith in the truth of Chris- 
 tianity had in any degree abated, but because he had lost 
 faith in so many who called themselves Christian me'n. The 
 contrast between their practice and their profession was too 
 marked and too wide for his charity to cover; for this rea- 
 son, coupled with the additional one, that he did not en- 
 tirely subscribe to all the tenets, rites and ordinances of any 
 of the denominations, he quit the fellowship. In February, 
 1866, he gives this partial epitome of his religious faith, in 
 a letter to a female friend : 
 
 I think I am very nearly, if not 
 
 quite, devoid of religious prejudices I believe 
 
 in Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of men. I be- 
 lieve He was made man for our Teacher and Pattern, and 
 that His teachings and life should receive implicit obedi- 
 ence and imitation, so far as God may, with propriety and 
 without offense, be imitated by men. While I believe all 
 this, yet I confess to you frankly, that I have never been 
 able to believe that any one of the many organizations, 
 claiming each for itself to be His peculiar and exclusive 
 representative on earth, is either altogether bad or alto- 
 gether good. I can but regard them all as partaking of the 
 infirmities of the poor human beings who compose them. 
 
 Judge Stephens suffered intensely at times from dyspep- 
 sia. It was his physical demon his thorn in the flesh. 
 His occasional fits of depression of melancholy some- 
 times augmented into moroseness, which none but those 
 who knew him with some degree of intimacy could well ac- 
 count for are attributable to that cause. 
 
 To the same friend, he writes:
 
 2QO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 SPARTA, February 12, 1866. 
 
 You were perfectly right, my 
 
 friend, in saying that I ought to be back in . I have 
 
 never been so well off since I left there as I was while there ; 
 and this leads me to incur the horrible risk of boring you 
 (this idea of being a bore at all, particularly of being a bore 
 to you, is intolerable) by giving you some account of my 
 health. Do you know what dyspepsia is ? I hope you do 
 not. I really think it is the worst bodily (ah ! and mental) 
 affliction I ever endured. About five years ago, I was an 
 intense sufferer from it. The horror of it must be felt to be 
 understood. The deep melancholy; the constant feeling of 
 being on the verge of paralysis, and of consequent imbecil- 
 ity; the profound disgust with life, petulance which con- 
 stantly disgusts one with his own littleness ; the waking up 
 twenty times in a night with a sense of deadness in your 
 limbs, and with a sense that if you had waked one moment 
 later, you must have died instantly can you begin to con- 
 ceive of it, my friend? I believe a dyspeptic must have 
 written these lines: 
 
 " But, ah ! life's beauty and its pride, 
 
 Its freshness and its light, 
 Have fled, and little left beside 
 
 But weariness and blight." 
 
 By the way, do you know these lines? You must have 
 seen them, but I trust and believe that you have never 
 knoii'ii them. I have. I will only mention one other very 
 distressing peculiarity of this horrible visitation : the utter 
 incapacity for any prolonged mental exertion. Well, I re- 
 covered; I never felt, however, that I was in possession of 
 good health again until last fall, during my sojourn in the 
 
 glorious climate of , and at a distance from cares, 
 
 and in the midst of friends who made the time pass so de- 
 lightfully. Then I regained my health fully, and "Rich- 
 ard" felt that he was "himself again." Now, what I have 
 to tell you farther is, that I have, to a very considerable 
 extent, relapsed into that old "slough of despond." This 
 attack is not so decided as the old one ; and then there arc 
 now many mitigating surroundings; for you must remem- 
 ber that the great horror consists in the effect upon the 
 Diind upon its fears and affections, and upon its natural
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2QI 
 
 clinging to life. In the first place, it is no mean advantage 
 to have the experience of having passed through all this 
 before. In the next place, a man who has lost a country, 
 lost thousands of warm friends in the mismanagement of a 
 holy cause ; who has seen human blood poured out like 
 great rivers, yet poured in vain such a man must have a 
 very diminished appreciation of the value of any one poor 
 life, even if that one happens to be his own. Such an ex- 
 perience necessarily reduces a man's capacity for misery. 
 I do not say this in a spirit of sardonic defiance, but in the 
 sober spirit of comforting philosophy that same old phi- 
 losophy which discovered that a fellow at the bottom of 
 fortune's wheel has at least one advantage from the situa- 
 tion the sense of security against anything worse. Well, 
 the " murder is out" now. I have never written so much 
 as this at any one time before in my life, to any one person, 
 on the subject of my own ailments. I have talked it some- 
 times during the days of my horrors, but then I could reg- 
 ulate the quantity by my observations on the patience 01 
 the listener. I have thrown myself utterly upon your 
 mercy, trusting somewhat to your generosity, as well as to 
 the warmth and truth of your friendship. But, my friend, 
 don't you believe but what I shall get well again. I should 
 get over it very soon if I could control my own time, as I 
 hope to do soon, but that I have not been able to do for a 
 long time past. You have no idea how I am constantly 
 pressed and annoyed by people who come to me for advice 
 and assistance in these terrible times; but be assured that 
 I am preserving a reasonable patience, even under the tor- 
 tures of a disease which tries one's patience in a peculiar 
 degree. They are my fellow-sufferers in a noble cause, and 
 that memory invests them with a respect which is not al- 
 ways clue to their personal worth. I hope to be able to 
 take a little recreation soon, and run away from trouble for 
 a while and get well again 
 
 To another female friend, he writes : 
 
 SPARTA, March 18, 1866. 
 
 After finishing and sealing up 
 
 my letter of last night, I have remembered to return to you
 
 2Q2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 brother's letter which sent me. I cannot let it pass 
 
 by without telling you how profoundly I am gratified at the 
 good understanding and cordial relations which now seem 
 to be established between those whom I love best. There 
 is between you and dear brother a great deal more in com- 
 mon than you have even yet suspected. With a very 
 marked simplicity of character in most respects, he still has 
 a peculiar reserve which has never been entirely penetrated 
 by anybody but me, and perhaps not entirely even by me. 
 He has been an extraordinary sufferer mental as well as 
 physical and I am sure he has never confided the nature 
 of his keenest mental sufferings to anybody but me. I 
 would tell you all about it if I could do so without a breach 
 of confidence. I will only add that he has come out con- 
 queror over all his sufferings, and has at last ceased to suffer 
 from the one great cause. He has a deep, intense nature, 
 but long, and patient, and watchful self discipline has ob- 
 tained the mastery over it. He now moves along for 
 years has moved along in peace and contentment, with 
 eye, and heart, and soul fixed steadily on the things which 
 lie beyond the dark, cold river. His earthly affections are 
 warm and pure, and, in one instance, very strong; but they 
 are all subordinated to duty and to Heaven. His religion 
 is very beautiful, and forms a large part of the present man. 
 It is exceedingly modest, almost shrinking from all human 
 observation ; but it is very deep and very constant. He 
 does not know that I am aware of this ; and if I were to tell 
 him of it, it would be like the sudden dropping of a great 
 stone into a deep, quiet, shady pool. He has never talked 
 much to me about religion, and still less to other people; 
 what I know of his religion has been gathered chiefly from 
 my habit of putting things together in connections, which 
 sometimes brings true \\<Ait out of them scd satis. 
 
 '& 
 
 After the election of Mr. A. H. Stephens to the United 
 States Senatorship by the General Assembly of 1865-66, he- 
 was granted permission to visit the federal capital. His Fort 
 Warren parole had previously restricted the theater of his 
 movements to the State of Georgia. From Washington 
 City, he wrote his brother:
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 293 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., Aprils, 1866. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The President 
 
 received me with frankness, and I may say cordiality. The 
 cabinet received me as cordially as any cabinet ever did. 
 All sides Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and 
 Radicals seemed glad to see me. General Grant seems to 
 be very marked in his regards for me. He is a most extra- 
 ordinary man in some respects. The invitation given me 
 to spend the evening with him, to which I alluded in my 
 other letter, I did not understand exactly at first. It was 
 the evening of one of his receptions. There was a very 
 large company. President Johnson was there the first in- 
 stance of a President of the United States ever going out 
 into society, as it may be termed, or accepting an invitation 
 to join a party of friends on such an occasion as this. I was 
 much entertained at two things I witnessed there or rath- 
 er, one thing and two reflections on it: that was that Gen- 
 eral Grant and the President seemed a little awkward, or 
 not at ease, in the characters they were acting. They both 
 seemed to be out of their element. This, in Grant, I was 
 pleased at ; but somehow I would have preferred to see the 
 President more graceful and elegant or rather, more at 
 ease in his manners. Everything, however, passed off very 
 well and very agreeably. There was a perfect jam and a 
 great array of fashion and court-style. I send you two slips 
 one from the Herald and one from the Times correspond- 
 ents giving an account of it. The longest one is from the 
 Herald. My own opinion is that I was more looked at than 
 any man present, and more talked to, though I did en- 
 deavor to keep in the back-ground. Sir Frederick Bruce 
 sought an introduction to me. I give this as an illustration 
 of the state of things. He is a gentleman of fine personal 
 appearance, and talks well. I declined to see him on his 
 visit to Fort Warren. Mr. Burlingame told me Sir Freder- 
 ick wished to see me when he \vas there, and Major Liver- 
 more said if I would signify a request to see him, under his 
 orders, he would allow it. I told Mr. Burlingame that it might 
 not be approved at Washington, as I was a State-prisoner and 
 he a foreign minister, etc., and no such interview had been 
 anticipated or thought of when he had been permitted to
 
 294 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 visit the fort, or when I had been permitted to sec such 
 friends as I might desire. Sir Frederick alluded, the other 
 night, to his visit to Fort Warren, and his desire then to 
 see me, etc., but did not disclose any knowledge, on his 
 part, of my agency in his not succeeding. 
 
 But I find my letter becoming too long. You wish, 
 doubtless, to know what I think of things here. Well, I 
 think of them just about as I did before I got here. Noth- 
 ing will be done towards the admission of Southern mem- 
 bers this session. This question will most probably be de- 
 cided by the next fall elections. The most radical men in 
 Congress the most rabid talk with me heartily, freely and 
 fully, and I think I may say, almost unanimously, would 
 prefer to see me in the Senate to any other man from the 
 South or, at least, they say so. So my election has cer- 
 tainly clone the State no harm in this particular. The point 
 on which they are going to rally is a proposition to amend 
 the Constitution on the suffrage question to allow admis- 
 sion to those States which will agree to an amendment al- 
 lowing representation on the ratio of votes. This will be, I 
 think, the Radical platform for the next fall elections, and 
 I need not say that I think it will be rather a dangerous 
 platform for us before the Northern people. How easily 
 this might have been avoided by the Southern people in 
 allowing a wisely-restricted suffrage to the black race in 
 their new Constitutions! This proposition, however, ema- 
 nates from no real philanthropic sentiment for the negro. 
 It is, when sifted to the bottom, founded upon nothing but 
 a desire for power. It is not believed that the Southern 
 States will grant suffrage under it to the black race, even if 
 it should be adopted. The object is to deprive the South 
 of political power, and to leave the poor, unfortunate sons 
 of Africa, as our fellow-citizens, to their fate. 
 
 I called to see Senator Wilson yesterday. This was in 
 discharge of an act of duty for his personal kindness to me 
 while in prison. He introduced Mrs. Wilson to me at Gen- 
 eral Grant's party; I, therefore, called to see both of them. 
 We had a long, pleasant talk, differing widely on many 
 points, but agreeably. I got a letter, a day or two ago, 
 from Mrs. S . She is in Baltimore, and I shall go 
 over to see her in a few days. She will continue or remain 
 there next, or rather this week. I shall try and prevail on
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2Q5 
 
 her to go on with me to Georgia. I now think I shall start 
 home the latter part of the week. That, though, is uncer- 
 tain. Many urge me to remain here, and if I see any pros- 
 pect of doing good by it, I may do so ; but, really, I do 
 not now see that I can do more good than I shall do by the 
 latter part of this week. By that time, my views will be 
 very generally known. The loss of the Civil Rights bill 
 or rather, the passage of that bill, in the Senate, over the 
 veto might have been prevented. I cannot go into par- 
 ticulars now one more vote would have sustained the veto. 
 The vote stood 33 to 15 48 voting. The whole Senate 
 now is 50; but Stockton having been turned out leaves a 
 full Senate 49. Dixon, of Connecticut, was sick in his 
 room, and would have voted, making the vote 33 to 16. 
 That would have sustained the veto, under the understand- 
 ing of the Senate. By that understanding, it required 17 
 votes when the whole vote was 49 ; but I think differently. 
 If Dixon had voted, as he would have done if he had 
 thought that his vote would have prevented the passage of 
 the bill, the vote would have stood, 33 yeas to 16 nays, 
 making 49 in all; 33 is not two-thirds of 49. The general 
 opinion was that it would take 17 votes to sustain the veto, 
 and he did not go to the Senate. But I think 16 would 
 have done it. The bill, I have no doubt, will pass the 
 House. I don't attach any great importance to this meas- 
 ure. It will not affect Georgia, I think, or any other State 
 that has done as she has. 1 have not read the bill care- 
 fully ; but this is my understanding of it: the great error of 
 the bill is the principle assumed in its passage, the jurisdic- 
 tion claimed by Congress, etc 
 
 To his intimate friend, Samuel Barnett, Judge Stephens 
 writes, May 25, 1866: 
 
 [From L. S. to Samuel Barnett, Esq.] 
 
 DEAR SAM You are, of course, aware of what decision 
 Judge Reese has made in our insurance case. Mr. Hull 
 acquiesces in it, and has sent me the money three thou- 
 sand and sixty dollars which I have paid over to Mrs. 
 Stanford, reserving five hundred as counsel-fees. Is this 
 enough? I am sure it is not too much; and yet, I felt
 
 296 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 equally sure that, in taking a fee from a poor widow, you 
 would trust our joint interest to my sense of proper charity. 
 That is really my only apology for not consulting you be- 
 fore fixing the fee. In a similar case, I should expect you 
 to do just as I have done. The money was in hand and 
 the woman wanted it not only desired it, but needed it. 
 If you had been at hand, I certainly should have consulted 
 you before paying it over, and fixing our fees; but as you 
 were not present, and sometime required to hear from you, 
 why, I just did as I would have you do in such a case I 
 acted for both of us; and, as I have begun to play dictator, 
 I believe I will run the part through, and tell you that your 
 half of it is in my hands, subject to your order. What shall 
 I do with it? We are all well as usual, and I hope you and 
 yours are so, too. I saw your two boys, the other day, out 
 at Dick's school. The eldest is a very close copy of you. 
 I was pleased to make their acquaintance, and pleased at 
 the air with which they greeted me. It plainly told that 
 they knew they were grasping the hand of their father's 
 friend, and that they had no doubt of a cordial reception 
 for his sake. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 P. S. Did I tell you I had found Underwood's answer? 
 I am awfully afraid we shall never get any fee in that case 
 beyond the tobacco which I have already got out of him. 
 You don't smoke? Well, then, you will get no "half" in 
 this business. L. S. 
 
 The next extract from one of his letters not only discloses 
 his method of reading an author, but illustrates a prominent 
 feature of his intellectual character: 
 
 [From L. S. to a female friend.] 
 
 JUNE 6, 1866. 
 
 You say you know I love study ; 
 
 and so I do in my own way ; but I have a horror of details 
 and minutiae. I love to group facts into large generaliza- 
 tions, but the plodding after small facts, which have no sig- 
 nificance, save in the brains of heated enthusiasts, is, irk-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 297 
 
 some and impossible to me beyond conception. I scarcely 
 ever read any book entire, except those I read purely for 
 entertainment. When I am studying to master a subject, 
 I wouldn't read all that any one man in the world ever 
 wrote on it, if he wrote much. When I am studying, I am 
 a terrible fellow to skip pages, and often chapters. I want, 
 first, the grand outlines, and then I will call for such fillings 
 up as I need ; and a great deal of the filling up, which is 
 almost always considered essential by those who write 
 books, I never do heed, and, therefore, cannot very pa- 
 tiently tolerate 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 JULY, 1866. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER We got home yesterday, before sunset, 
 all right. As we were entering the yard-gate, I remarked 
 to Becky, who was in the buggy with me, that it seemed 
 that she and her little sisters ought to be running to meet 
 me, and that a return home without a welcome or joyous 
 greeting from somebody or other was a sad thing. Little 
 did I then know how complete the lack of a welcome would 
 be when we drove up in front of the door. Cosby was sit- 
 ting on the colonnade, reading Shakspeare. The little 
 ones cried out, "How d'ye, Mr. Conncl?" before they got 
 out of the carriage, and then hurried to shake hands with 
 him. He slowly laid aside his book and spectacles, and 
 gave them a very hearty greeting. He and they were soon 
 deeply immersed in the exchange of news, and he gave no 
 indication of being at all aware of my being out in the yard. 
 None of the servants came to meet us. As Henry was 
 with us to take the horses, my thoughts turned on Pompey, 
 whose habit was to rarely fail in giving his welcome on my 
 return home, and my eye went in search of him, but found 
 him not. I felt uneasy, but said not a word to anybody. 
 Presently, the little ones, who got the news from Cosby, 
 came running out, and told me that Pompey was dead. I 
 almost reeled, as if somebody had struck me a blow. Poor 
 old Pompey, then, would never welcome me any more! 
 Dead ! and buried out of my sight forever ! The first thought 
 was for the poor old dog himself the next for myself; the 
 realization of how rapidly the things which love me were 
 passing away shot through my heart with a keen and sud- 
 29
 
 298 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 den pang ! There are very few people in this world who 
 would believe how much I was affected by the fate of a dog 
 a mere dog nothing but a dog! He was, nevertheless, a 
 great deal to me. I do almost mourn and grieve for the 
 
 poor old fellow ! I never was 
 
 so much affected by any death outside of my own race 
 not even in the warm and tender-hearted days of my child- 
 hood. My poor old dog ! my poor old dog ! If he was a 
 spirit still existing, and cognizant of the scene from which 
 his body has departed, he feels to-day a grateful pleasure 
 in the tears which his beloved master is shedding over his 
 grave. I could have better spared many more valuable 
 thingfs.* 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, July 24, 1866. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I am now read- 
 ing Napoleon's "Julius Caesar." The book is a very dif- 
 ferent one from what I expected. It is in two volumes. 
 The first one I have not quite got through with yet. It is 
 taken up with an epitome of the History of Rome up to the 
 time of Caesar's figuring in it. I like it very much. It is 
 connected and clear, and, above all, what is agreeable to 
 me, it gives the dates, as it goes along, from the founding 
 of the city. It exhibits more learning than I should have 
 supposed Napoleon to possess ; the citation of authorities 
 is more numerous than in any history I ever read, and a 
 good portion of the pages is filled in this way. The paper 
 upon which it is published is thick and heavy, making the 
 volumes cumbrous and inconvenient to handle ; besides, the 
 leaves are not cut, which annoys me some; but, upon the 
 
 * Judge Stephens had a peculiar fondness for dogs and for horses. No 
 one could be more kind to them, or more considerate of their comfort. 
 He loved to feed them from hi.s own hand, and took delight in seeing them 
 eat. He prepared for the historic dog, A'ic, *o long the pet of "Liberty 
 Hall," this epitaph : 
 
 Rio: 
 
 " Here rest the Remains 
 
 Of what, in Life, was a Satire on the Human Race, 
 
 And an Honor to his own 
 
 A Faithful DOG."
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2QC) 
 
 whole, I am tolerably well pleased. I suppose the cream 
 of the work is in the last, or second volume. He has this 
 philosophy that men first make, or found, or form, insti- 
 tutions, and then these institutions form, or mold, the char- 
 acters of men. These, in their time, react on the institu- 
 tions, etc. He is a man of ideas. I see, clearly, that he 
 is about to make Caesar the great man of Rome. He was 
 the advocate of popular rights against the incroachments of 
 an insolent, corrupt aristocracy. I always had kindness of 
 feeling towards Caesar until I read Cicero last summer. 
 Whether Napoleon will win back my generous sympathy 
 for him, I don't know yet. I got my first ideas of Caesar 
 from Dr. Foster.* 
 
 [ From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, July 25, 1866. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I am still on 
 
 "Julius Caesar." I need hardly say, I suppose, that Na- 
 poleon is winning back, in some degree, my old regard for 
 the great man 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, July 31, 1866. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I got nothing from you this morning. 
 I am anxious to hear from you about the convention, 
 whether you will go or not. I see that the great Ocean 
 Telegraph has succeeded at last. America and Europe are 
 put in immediate communication through the wonderful 
 and mysterious agency of magnetic electricity ! What next? 
 I have got through with the second volume of "Julius Cae- 
 sar," by Napoleon, but was sadly disappointed at the end. 
 It closed with the crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar, the 
 beginning of the civil war. I had expected the volume to 
 
 * The Dr. Foster alluded to was the late Dr. Thomas Foster, of Walker 
 county. He was a bold, original thinker, and a gentleman of learning 
 and culture. To him, as much as to any one else, is the State indebted 
 for the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Mr. Stephens' 
 speech carried the measure in the Legislature. Dr. Foster supplied him 
 with much of his data, both of fact and argument.
 
 3OO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 finish a full history of his whole life, closing with the Et ///, 
 Brute! which, in the fore part of the work, Napoleon says 
 were his last words. He says that Caesar spoke and wrote 
 Greek nearly as well as he did Latin. Of course, there is 
 to be another volume perhaps more, I don't know. Na- 
 poleon is a great man himself. In drawing the character 
 of Caesar, he is evidently drawing the character of one whom 
 he would like to be considered himself. The book shows 
 mind of a high order, and sentiments which ought to do 
 honor to any rational mind. Some points are cleared up 
 in this book which were always unexplained to me: one is, 
 What was the exact point of difference between Cresar and 
 the Senate, which led to civil war? I can but think, with 
 Dr. Foster, that Caesar was not so nntcJi to blame for the 
 sad results as others. His enemies, at first, passed a reso- 
 lution in the Senate that he should disband his army. This 
 he had before said he would do if Pompey would do the 
 same. The time was not out for which they both held 
 their commissions; his lacked a year or more. After the 
 Senate passed the resolution ordering him to disband his 
 army, very much to the surprise of Marcellus, the Consul 
 at the time, who had taken the lead in the matter, Cicero 
 offered a resolution that Pompey also disband his army, and 
 this resolution likewise passed by over two hundred ma- 
 jority, lint Marcellus would not obey the last resolution. 
 He and others (a few) declared the commonwealth in dan- 
 ger; and, without any legal authority, called upon Pompey 
 to protect Rome to levy troops, etc. Pompey consented, 
 and assumed the powers thus usurped. Upon this news 
 reaching Gesar, he crossed the Rubicon. The reason of 
 the opposition to Gesar in the Senate was his known hos- 
 tility to the Aristocratic party and their policy, which had 
 been carried out by Sylla. He was the representative man 
 of the people of that party; while the Gracchi and Marius 
 were the representatives of the Democratic party. Gusar, 
 on the paternal line, had descended from plebeian stock. 
 
 The following extracts from letters addressed to a female 
 friend evince a strong and beautiful religious element of his 
 nature never ostentatiously displayed, but always felt, and 
 on befitting occasions acknowledged:
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3OI 
 
 JUNE 3, 1867. 
 
 There is not, in all the beauty 
 
 of the plan for man's salvation, a more beautiful picture than 
 the provision of a Priest after the order of Melchisedek. 
 "Touched with a sense of our infirmities," His sympathy, 
 His suffering with and for those He came to save, His very 
 suffering is, in a certain limited sense, incompatible with a 
 totality of perfection. The hitman nature, touched with a 
 sense of our infirmities, partaking, not at all of our sin, but 
 still in our ivcafaicss, is the very thing which renders Him a 
 Mediator between God and man, which brings the Son into 
 the closest and sweetest relations with the hearts of men. 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 JANUARY 6, 1 867. 
 
 The very same sentiment 
 
 has different phases, and finds vent in different expressions, 
 without suffering any change of nature or force. God is 
 above all change in Himself, and yet He is ever presenting 
 Himself to His creatures in endless changes of manifesta- 
 tion and expression the necessary result of His fullness 
 and infinitude of glory. Of course, I do not mean a com- 
 parison; I only mean to illustrate, by the highest example, 
 an idea which struck me as likely to need illustration. Spec- 
 ulations concerning the Divine character (I know no better 
 word) are always dangerous ground, and should be cau- 
 tiously and reverently restrained within proper limits ; but 
 there are limits, after all, within which our conceptions of 
 God are not speculations at all, but knon'lcdgc more cer- 
 tain, by far, than that which we can possibly have of any 
 other being in the universe. To dwell on his known attri- 
 butes and character, and from these, as our starting point, 
 to learn the Unknown so far as poor human reason can 
 draw sure conclusions from sure premises is not irrever- 
 ence, but the study of the profoundest wisdom, reverence, 
 fear, love, and worship. My thoughts turn, very often, 
 upon the contemplation and reverent study of the Supreme 
 Intelligence which fashioned the universe, and filled it with 
 beauty ; and of the Infinite love which provided redemption 
 for man, who had fallen from the high estate of his creation.
 
 3O2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 I am prone perhaps too prone to draw from that high 
 and holy source illustrations for even the tritest ideas of 
 every-day life. What, after all, is religion but the knowl- 
 edge of God, applied to all the affairs of life? The knowl- 
 edge involves and carries with it the love and adoration ; 
 and the deepest knowledge brings love and adoration of the 
 highest type 
 
 After the lapse of twenty-nine years, he thus recalls a 
 half-dreamy rcvery of his orphaned childhood: 
 
 [ From same to same. ] 
 
 MAY 8, 1867. 
 
 This is a bright and beautiful morning a bright and 
 beautiful morning in May; a bright and beautiful morning, 
 bursting upon my little sense with a brilliance which is a 
 glorious contrast with the clouds, and rain, and gloom of 
 yesterday and the day before. Yes, the morning is bright 
 and beautiful, but it is cool quite cool. We have had a 
 narrow escape from frost. The green glories, which are so 
 radiant with life and sunlight, have had a narrow escape 
 from death and darkness. But they have escaped ; and if 
 they had human thoughts and feelings, they might now be 
 rejoicing in the new joy of a great peril safely passed. I 
 remember, there was a frost just twenty-nine years ago this 
 very day the 8th of May, 1838. Ah! how far back my 
 memory runs ! How well I remember that clay, twenty- 
 nine years ago ! I was a little school-boy then, boarding 
 in the country, and walking to the village school, a distance 
 of two miles. That morning, I mastered a lesson before 
 breakfast, sitting in a .v: t 7>/< r that hung out in the large, 
 white, sanely, shady yard sitting, swinging to and fro, with 
 a slight, gentle motion, and conning my lesson, yet listen- 
 ing all the while to the low, soft music of the young poul- 
 try crying for their morning meal. I was a little dreamer, 
 even then ; strangely enough, too strangely for so young 
 a dreamer, my thoughts turned to the past, not the future. 
 The lesson finished, the book was laid in my lap, my arms 
 were clasped around the poles which formed the swing, one 
 foot keeping up the gentle swaying motion, by a regular, 
 recurring, mechanical, and almost unconscious touch upon
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 30$ 
 
 the ground ; my head drooped upon my breast, and thought 
 floated upon the sweet, plaintive sounds around me, away 
 to the spot where reposed the ashes of my loved but wirc- 
 mfmbered dead. I was in the past, and yet not in the land 
 of memory. Imagination was picturing out the scenes of the 
 old homestead, as best it could from the treasured materials 
 of imperfect tradition. There was the log-house in which I 
 was born, the garden, the orchard, the immense wild grape- 
 vine, amid the great rocks, at a little distance ; and the 
 spring the glorious spring, bursting from a rock under a 
 great bluff, and dashing and dancing down the valley in a 
 bright stream, that sang as merrily as it danced. And I 
 strayed back up the hill again, in search of the living forms 
 that moved amid the scene. Father, brothers, and sisters 
 rose up before my eager eyes, but my deepest interest was 
 centered in the tall form of a tcojuan, still young and hand- 
 some, moving with a sedate grace, which bespoke the very 
 sweetness of dignity, and selecting for her walk the very 
 sweetest spots, with an unerring instinct, that told of a heart 
 at once deeply loving and deeply halloived. She seemed 
 to cast bright and hopeful glances towards the "new house" 
 rising unfinished from a clump of trees on the brow of a gen- 
 tle slope. She had laid away some of her darlings among 
 the cedars in the garden ; but she was now beginning to 
 emerge from the darker shades of poverty, and was about 
 to secure a better house, a sweeter home, for the dear ones 
 who were left to her love. But, ah ! the "new house " was 
 destined to remain unfinished forever! The cedars in the 
 garden ! The lovely form pointed me to the cedars in the 
 garden, and then faded from my view. I followed her point- 
 ing, and stood solitary and desolate among the cedars in 
 the garden ! Amid their deep, dark shade was a grave 
 her grave, already grass-grown from age ! Lilies sweet, 
 white lilies were bending over it, and dropping their fra- 
 grance upon the sacred dust. The boy in the swing uttered 
 a low, deep moan, and burst into tears tears of intense 
 yearning for the unknown blessing of a mother's love ! . . 
 
 In May, 1865, Mr. A. H.Stephens, ex- Vice-President of 
 the Confederate States, was arrested at his home by a de-
 
 304 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tachmcnt of United States soldiers. He was carried to 
 Boston harbor, and imprisoned in Fort Warren. After 
 months of confinement, friends from the South, and else- 
 where, were permitted to visit him. This was accomplished 
 mainly through the personal and persistent exertions of the 
 late Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice-President of the United 
 States. It was by his efforts, too, that Mr. Stephens was 
 granted more comfortable quarters, after weeks of exposure 
 and suffering in a damp, unwholesome dungeon. As soon 
 as intelligence reached Judge Stephens that he would be 
 allowed to see his brother, he left his business, his home, 
 his children, to visit and stay with the captive thus vol- 
 untarily accepting the privations of prison-life, and sharing 
 with him the hardships of a common cell. It is a noble 
 exemplification of unselfish devotion, recalling and excel- 
 ling the beautiful, fraternal affection which makes the fame 
 of the Cicero brothers " w/a'/er than it is brilliant." The 
 incident proved to be one of the fortunate felicities in the 
 life of Judge Stephens a "blessing in disguise." Among 
 the almost daily visitors to Fort Warren, after permission 
 granted, were Dr. Salter and family. They were residents 
 of Boston. Of the members of the family, was one whom 
 Judge Stephens had met five years before, in Washington 
 City a bright and beautiful girl, then not past her teens. 
 Memories, doubtless, of those earlier and better days were 
 revived ; a mutual attachment sprang up between them ; it 
 ripened into a warmer passion, and she Mary W. Salter 
 became his wife in June, 1867. This excellent lady is still 
 in life scrtts in. ca'luui irdcat ; but still, it is hardly doing 
 violence to this necrological office to record, that, in all re- 
 spects, she was to him a help-meet indeed, and that the tes- 
 timonials he has left of her worth and her virtues, and of 
 his high appreciation of her in the relations of wife and 
 mother, shed an aromatic redolence around their wedded 
 life. I well remember the last time I saw Judge Stephens.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3O$ 
 
 It was the afternoon he left Atlanta to return no more 
 in the first days of July, 1872. He had been engaged by 
 the Governor, as counsel in behalf of the State, to assist in 
 investigating the alleged frauds of the preceding State ad- 
 ministration ; and some weeks had been occupied in making 
 the investigation. We took a long walk together. The 
 thought of going home was uppermost in his mind, and the 
 pleasure it gave him lit up his features with an unwonted 
 glow of sunshine and joy. He spoke of the sweet attrac- 
 tions of his home; of his wife and children, so affection- 
 ately and so fondly ; and then a tear standing in his large, 
 deep-set, blue eye he said, "How I wish I were through 
 with this business ! I would not give one day at home for 
 a lifetime of the toil and turmoil of public or professional 
 life." His manner lent emphasis to the words, and deep- 
 ened the impression they made. 
 
 [ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 415 NORTH FOURTH STREET, 
 February 13, 1868. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Your two letters, or rather, coverings, 
 with contents, of the /th instant, were received last night. 
 I regret very much indeed the fatality, or bad luck, which 
 caused the delay of my letter to you, inclosing the intro- 
 duction. Your suggestions have produced a very deep im- 
 pression upon me. The impression is not unlike that which 
 I supposed was produced upon Myers, the painter, by a 
 view of Healy's picture, according to the account you gave 
 me of it. I was myself very much pleased with the intro- 
 duction indeed, better pleased with it than with any part 
 of the work ; but when I read your remarks upon it, and 
 saw your suggestions for improvement, I changed my mind 
 about the whole concern. I became disgusted, not only 
 with the introduction, but with the whole work. If matters 
 had not gone so far, I should have pitched the whole into 
 the fire and retired to my den, there to live out my days, 
 few or many, in perfect seclusion. 
 
 I am now fully convinced that writing is not my forte.
 
 3O6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 The truth is, I have no forte. I am fit for nothing, and 
 ought never to have attempted to do what nature never de- 
 signed me to do. Had I got your letter a few days ago, 
 the introduction would have been thoroughly remodeled. 
 But it is now all over the country in the mails and in the 
 hands of the newspaper men in this city, and all the lead- 
 ing presses in New York and Boston, to appear simultane- 
 ously to-morrow morning so Mr. Jones informs me. It 
 is too late to touch it now, before its full appearance before 
 the public. The first impression will be that which will 
 ever accompany it. For the book, I might do with it as 
 Foster's boy proposed to his father to do with the beef- 
 throw it away, and try my hand upon another; but that 
 would do no essential good. I now feel about the whole 
 book the whole undertaking as John Dyson did when 
 his rusticity and ill-breeding exposed him to the laugh of 
 genteel company "/ wish I was to home ; " but when I 
 
 shall get there, I do not know I have 
 
 lost all interest I had to see the book out: I now feel as if 
 it would be a fortunate thing for me and my reputation, 
 that something should occur to arrest its further progress, 
 and prevent its ever seeing the light. I hardly think I can 
 be at our Taliaferro court. 
 
 If you can go over there, I wish you would; and if you 
 can be at Columbia court, I wish you would attend to a case 
 in equity in that court for me ; my client is Crawford, a brother 
 to George W. ; Charles, I believe, his name is. If you can- 
 not go conveniently, it will make no great difference I shall 
 write to Shockley, and ask him to continue it ; but I should 
 like for you to go, if you can, without inconvenience. I 
 don't know if you have any court to attend that week: it 
 is the first Monday in March, I believe. My love to all. 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 
 
 The book alluded to in the foregoing letter is "The His- 
 tory of the War between the States." How well founded 
 Mr. Stephens' misgivings were as to its merits and popu- 
 larity, may be judged of by the fact that his receipts from 
 sales amounted to the sum of forty thousand dollars.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 307 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 SPRINGFIELD, MASS., February 25, 1868. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I see the House 
 
 has passed a resolution, directing articles of impeachment to 
 be brought in against the President : this I have been look- 
 ing for for sometime. The President's letter to the Senate, 
 in answer to their resolution on the subject, is an able pa- 
 per, and will forever justify his acts in the minds of rightly- 
 thinking men, whatever may be the result of the impeach- 
 ment question. I have said nothing to you on politics, 
 lately nothing since I left home. The reason has been, I 
 take very little interest in the subject. I feel like a passen- 
 ger who has no control in the direction of the ship ; and 
 hence, it is just as well to be silent, and not busy myself 
 about matters over which I cannot exercise any control, and 
 not to permit myself to vex my mind, or think about pub- 
 lic affairs 
 
 Judge Stephens felt the most anxious solicitude in the re- 
 sult of the Presidential election of 1868 ; but he took no ac- 
 tive part in the contest. The ashes left by the fires of the 
 sectional war were yet too warm to be stirred. The ex- 
 pression of any choice for the presidency, by any Southern 
 leader who had been prominently identified with the for- 
 tunes of his section, in the struggle, would, he believed, 
 hurt, rather than help, the cause he had at heart; and there- 
 fore, conforming his conduct to the principle of the mathe- 
 matical axiom, ' ' the addition of a negative quantity is equiv- 
 alent to the subtraction of a positive one," he held himself 
 aloof from active participation in the contest. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 , June i, 1868. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have just writ- 
 ten to her in relation, or in answer, to what she asks about 
 Judge Chase, that, in my opinion, Pendleton is the man for 
 the Democratic party to nominate. In my opinion, he is 
 the strongest man that can be nominated, and, upon the
 
 3O8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 whole, is the best, all things considered. I stated that I 
 would be willing to take Hancock, Thomas Seymour, Gov- 
 ernor Parker, or Adams, or any one that the Democracy 
 may likely nominate, not excepting Judge Chase. In the 
 present state of things, if the Democracy should nominate 
 him, he would be preferred by the South as a choice of 
 evils. This I gave as my own opinion ; but I stated that I 
 did not think that the Western Democracy would nominate 
 Chase. I stated that I thought that Hancock and Adams 
 would make a ticket that would take well in Georgia. But 
 can Hancock run well in the West? I added, wouldn't his 
 compulsory connection with Mrs. Surratt's condemnation 
 lose him many votes at the West? The letter, I told her, 
 was for herself only, but I concluded by saying that, in my 
 opinion, Pendleton was, or ought to be, the man 
 
 [ L. S. to Hon. Iverson L. Harris.] 
 
 SPARTA, July 21, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR JUDGE Great is my regret that I cannot be at 
 home when you propose to spend the day with me on your 
 way to commencement. I start, to-morrow morning, for 
 the Virginia Springs ; and the state of my health requires 
 that there should be no failure in the trip. I do not expect 
 to return before the middle of September. I hope you 
 will avail yourself of some other early occasion to make me 
 a visit. By the way, why don't you come to our courts? 
 Come to our next, and spend your time with me ; and let 
 me know beforehand whether you will come or not. 
 
 I have long intended to tell you how much I admire your 
 dissenting opinion in the case where the majority of the 
 court decided against the validity of a contract for a substi- 
 tute in the Confederate armies. Your opinion, for the lu- 
 minous, philosophical, and sound views which it presents 
 on a subject of profound interest to mankind, is entitled to 
 immortality. If I were not very busy in preparing to leave 
 home, I would go into particulars. As it is, I must content 
 myself with the general expression, which means all it says, 
 Most truly, your friend, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 A proposition was made that Mr. A. H. Stephens should 
 move his residence from Crawfordvillc to Sparta, and that
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 309 
 
 the brothers should form a copartnership in the practice of 
 law. The letter following relates to that subject. They 
 had never been of counsel on opposing sides. If the pro- 
 position of partnership was ever seriously entertained, the 
 consummation of it was frustrated by the terrible mishap 
 which befell the elder brother in February, 1869, and from 
 the physical effects of which he never sufficiently recovered, 
 during Linton's lifetime, to be able to leave his home. 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, Novembers, 1868. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I fully 
 
 reciprocate your feelings and wishes as to our being together, 
 as much as possible, during the remnant of my days, or our 
 joint lives. I am the more and more, every day, impressed 
 with the conviction of the truth of the great uncertainty of 
 human affairs, and especially of the uncertainty of human 
 life. I know I am approaching that period at which, or 
 beyond which, a few years, at best, can be reasonably ex- 
 pected. This thought, or reflection, however, does not 
 bring with it any feelings of regret or sadness ; it only more 
 fully awakens a desire to have all things in order, and to be 
 ready to depart when the time comes; and also quickens a 
 wish, while I am here, to enjoy, to the best advantage, and 
 as fully as possible, those pleasures which contribute what 
 of happiness is allowed to this form of existence. To me, 
 amongst those, none are greater than such as spring from 
 association and communion with you, especially when we 
 are entirely to ourselves. I have often thought of the many, 
 many associations of this sort such as our travels to the 
 western part of the State, in 1847, as we ll as our repeated 
 travels to Washington and other places, to say nothing of 
 our short drives from here to Sparta, and from court to 
 court 
 
 [From A. II . S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, December 31, 1868. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I never heard the 
 
 inquiry made before about the origin of ism, in our Ian-
 
 3IO BTOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 guage. I have thought about it since, and have solved the 
 puzzle quite satisfactorily to myself. I think it is a sort of 
 contraction of them into on, and then into ism. I will take 
 catechism to illustrate by: First, it was catechise, then cat- 
 echise 'cm, then "catechism." The noun catechism came 
 to be used to express the process of "catechising 'em." 
 So incivism, from " incivise them;" so radicalism, from 
 "radicalizing them," and so on. When once the form of 
 making a noun from a previous proceeding, or process, was 
 instituted, it was adopted, without reference to its origin. 
 But I can say no more : you have my solution. It will 
 do to account for it, if no better be pointed out. Radical- 
 ism is the process of " radicalizing them." I rather suspect 
 catechism was the first of the words. It was the one I be- 
 gan with, in solving the problem 
 
 The above was in "answer to an inquiry of Judge Ste- 
 phens. They frequently, in their correspondence, discussed 
 the meaning of the like terminations; c. g. , God-head, God- 
 ship, etc.; as, see the following: 
 
 [From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, January 2, 1869. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER What is the origin of 
 
 ship, at the end of English words ; such as, worship, author- 
 ship, etc. ? Also, what is the origin of ness, at the end of 
 certain other words; such as, greatness, highness, manli- 
 ness, etc. ? 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S.] 
 
 SPARTA, January 6, 1869. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER With a big and 
 
 troublesome clay's work before me, I begin by writing you 
 a line to let you hear from us all. I am quite unwell an- 
 noyed to death, besides being sick made sick chief!}', per- 
 haps, by annoyances. Land sold here, yesterday, at prices 
 considerably higher than any recently obtained: one large 
 place of thirteen hundred acres, at four dollars per acre, 
 and one of one thousand acres at seven dollars. 
 
 Your account of the origin of "ism" is Certainly very
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3 1 1 
 
 ingenious; but I don't think it is correct. When you said 
 you thought that the habit of forming words with the ter- 
 mination "ism," began with the word " catechism, " the 
 thing became rich in humor. The fact is, I laughed over 
 your theory heartily. It certainly never could have started 
 with any other word. How do you account for the termi- 
 nation "ise, " in verbs; such as, advertise, catechise, har- 
 monise, etc.? The "ise," in verbs, and the "ism," in 
 nouns, are from the same root. What that root is cannot 
 be told by my poor skill in the old English roots; but the 
 meaning of that root is, to do, or make. Take advertise, 
 for instance: advert and "is?" are its three distinct roots. 
 To advertise a thing is to make it adverted to ; you see my 
 idea. The termination, "ship," means a state, or situation; 
 and I strongly suspect that it comes from no, I am wrong; 
 it don't mean state. State is passive, but ship is active. It 
 means something very nearly akin to process, or practice, 
 or acting. For instance, authorship, author, practice, au- 
 thor-acting ; heirship, heir-practice, or heir-acting. Some- 
 times, the meaning becomes more obvious by reversing the 
 positions of the parts; as, author-acting, heir-acting, means 
 acting-author or acting-heir. The termination, "ness," 
 means being, existence, or essence; and I suspect "esse," in 
 Latin, and essence and ness, are all from the same root, 
 which probably pervades many languages, if it is, indeed, 
 absent from any. The word to express "being" is irreg- 
 ular in all languages ; and irregularity is in proportion to 
 universality. 
 
 But enough. I have no time now. The fact is, I am 
 harrassed, annoyed and worn almost to despair and pros- 
 tration. I intend to go and see you in ?, few days. 
 
 Most affectionately, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, February 13, 1870. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER By the way, the 
 
 adjournment of the Richmond court may have a contagious 
 influence on our courts generally; and I shall not be at all 
 surprised if your court is also adjourned. I suppose you 
 noticed an account of the adjournment in August that it 
 was put on the ground of doubt as to the validity of any
 
 312 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 proceedings which might be had. I think the adjournment, 
 on that ground, was a mistake, and a mistake which, from 
 its contagious nature, may produce annoying delays in busi- 
 ness. If the courts would only go along and attend to 
 their business, I have very little doubt that the validity of 
 their proceedings would be sustained without even serious 
 question. Any government that is likely to be put on us 
 will treat all its predecessors as cfc facto governments, what- 
 ever it may say about them. The fact is, no Radical can 
 believe more strongly than I do, that all the government 
 which we have had since the war ended has been utterly 
 illegal ; but I am not prepared, nor clo I believe the Rad- 
 icals are prepared, to pronounce it all mill and void. They 
 hold that all the government, under secession, was illegal ; 
 and yet, in their new Constitution, they affirmed every bit 
 of it, except such parts as were in conflict with their own 
 subsequent action. So it will be again. This is the neces- 
 sity of society, and cannot be ignored in action, however 
 much it may be denied in speech 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, May 31, 1870. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Alfriend 
 
 himself had a decided attack of the same disease, and laid 
 up on account of it yesterday and the day before. 1 got 
 quite a laugh on him, last night, by dragging out of him a 
 confession that he had not used, for himself, the remedies 
 which he was prescribing for his patients. He made an ex- 
 planation ; but it was so lame that it did not make impres- 
 sion enough to be even remembered. The explanation is 
 his reluctance to take medicine. I don't think it would be 
 quite just to go so far as to say that it is his lack of faith 
 in the virtue of the medicine ; and yet, there is undoubt- 
 edly a general tendency in mankind to appreciate the virtue 
 of medicine more highly for other's than for one's self. I 
 hope we shall all be well again in a few days 
 
 I have been reading "Bledsoe" with great entertainment 
 and some profit. He is a very peculiar man. He is quite 
 a thinker and logical, too; but the light of his understand- 
 ing seems to be always refracted by its passage through the 
 medium of his passions. It will always lead to error, in-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 313 
 
 stead of truth, unless it is subjected to the correcting guid- 
 ance of some other mind that understands the laws of re- 
 fraction. Still, he is a luminous body, and emits light in 
 great profusion. Even his article on the "Theory of Rea- 
 soning," while it is freer from the blurs and errors of zeal 
 and passion than any other which I have ever read from 
 him, is still not entirely free. I think that is a grand arti- 
 cle ; and yet, I do not think it goes to the bottom of the 
 subject. It is far in advance of anything else ever seen on 
 the same subject, but does not go to the full extent of the 
 ideas which I have long entertained on that subject. He 
 has gone far ahead of me in the power and beauty of his 
 illustrations, without going so far as I have gone with the 
 main idea. The idea that deductive reasoning leads to new 
 truth, and so becomes worthy of the name of reasoning^ 
 only when it is employed upon the relations of things, in- 
 stead of their properties, etc Sam. Barnett 
 
 came over Wednesday and staid with us until Saturday 
 morning. His visit was a very pleasant one to all of us, 
 and apparently to him also 
 
 Judge Stephens' norms of political action were fixed, pro- 
 nounced and stable, as those he prescribed for the govern- 
 ment of his personal conduct were "without variableness 
 or shadow of turning." Truth simple, naked, rugged 
 was the divinity he worshipped ; he bowed before no other 
 altar: there he knelt "with an almost Eastern idolatry." 
 He scorned any " policy" in political tactics, as in anything 
 else, which compromised, in the least, any cardinal doctrine 
 of his creed. He spurned triumph when achieved at the 
 sacrifice of one jot or tittle of the truth, as he understood 
 it. He regarded "the coalition" between the Democrats 
 and the Liberal Republicans, proposed about this time, as 
 little less than a surrender, on the part of the former, of 
 the most cherished principles of their faith. Hence, he re- 
 pudiated "the coalition." His counsels did not prevail 
 ultimately ; and the movement culminated, two years after- 
 wards, in the nomination of Mr. Greeley for the Presidency 
 30
 
 314 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 by the Liberal Republicans, and the ratification of their 
 nomination by the Democrats. Posterity will determine 
 who was the more sagacious he, and the minority with 
 whom he acted, or the large majority of the Democratic 
 party. Two facts are historic: the one that Mr. Greeley 
 was defeated the other is that Governor Smith was elected 
 to the gubernatorial chair without regular opposition, first, 
 and re-elected by the largest popular majority ever received 
 by any candidate before for any office in the State. The 
 platform upon which Smith was elected was framed by 
 Linton Stephens. 
 
 On the 2<Sth of July, he writes to his brother: 
 
 SPARTA, July 28, 1870. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have 
 
 just written a letter to Andy Dawson, on politics, pouring 
 hot shot into the Chase movement, and into all people who 
 want to abandon principle and go into coalitions for public 
 plunder. I have talked with several leading Democrats in 
 this county, and found them all right. They all said the)' 
 wanted me to go to the convention. I told them I would 
 go if chosen. I do believe that even one powerful battery 
 would be sufficient to break up coalition and drive the hosts 
 into the support of sound principles. The strong power 
 to use on them is to convince them that a sound man, on 
 sound principles, will be run aiiy/iow, and that coalition will, 
 therefore, be a necessary failure. Coalition flees from fail- 
 ure, as purity flees from pollution. They would pull clown 
 their own banner, and take chances for the good luck which 
 falls pretty liberally to even the rogues who help honest 
 men into power. 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LINTON STEP] i ENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, August 7, 1870. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER The delegates 
 
 from this county to the Democratic convention are Ben
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 315 
 
 Harris, John Culver, T. J. Adams, and myself. I doubt 
 whether any of them will go to the convention, except Ben 
 Harris and myself. I shall go with very little hope of doing 
 any good. The men of luck, all over the world, have been 
 against the cause of good government ever since secession ; 
 and it is still unbroken. It is just as perverse and persistent 
 as the run of cards. I believe that the Prussians will beat 
 Napoleon, and accomplish Bismarck's, scheme of a consol- 
 idated German Empire. I believe so, only because the run 
 of luck is that way against liberty, everywJicrc. The ideas 
 now moving the world are, for the most part, morbid and 
 crazy ideas, which are the legitimate fruit of hot-bed and 
 universal education. I am beginning to believe that many 
 things, usually accounted as unmixed blessings to mankind 
 are more curses than blessings. Education is one of them, 
 and religion is another. I speak of education and religion, 
 so-called, and such as pass current in the world. Speaking 
 of education reminds me to tell you that I expect to have 
 your protege, Harris, for the teacher of our little school. 
 I wrote to Professor Waddell to send me a teacher. He 
 offered Harris, with a very high commendation of his tal- 
 ents, attainments, and character; and I have just written 
 my acceptance of the offer. He is to remain at Athens, 
 perfecting himself in the pronunciation of French, under Pro- 
 fessor Charbonnier, until the ist of October, and is then to 
 come and open the school. So the children have quite a 
 vacation still before them 
 
 He was of the committee on the business of the State 
 Democratic convention, and here follows the platform, as 
 drafted by him, whereon the party so triumphantly swept 
 the State : 
 
 Resolved, i. That the Democratic party of the State of 
 Georgia stand upon the principles of the Democratic party 
 of the Union bringing into special prominence, as appli- 
 cable to the present extraordinary condition of the country, 
 the unchangeable doctrine that : This is a Union of States, 
 and of the indestructibility of the States, and of their rights, 
 and of their equality with each other, as an indispensable 
 part of our political system,
 
 316 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Resolved, 2. That, in the approaching State election, the 
 Democratic party cordially invite everybody to co-operate 
 with them in a zealous determination to change, as far as 
 the several elections to be held can do so, the present usurp- 
 ing and corrupt administration of the State government, by 
 placing in power men who are true to the principles of con- 
 stitutional government, and to a faithful and economical ad- 
 ministation of public affairs. 
 
 Rcsok'cd, 3. That the president of this convention be in- 
 structed to appoint an executive committee, composed of two 
 from each Congressional district, who shall choose a chair- 
 man from outside their own number, with power on their 
 part to call a future convention of the Democratic part}-, 
 and with such other powers as have been usually exercised 
 by Democratic executive committees; and that their ap- 
 pointment last until the assemblage of the next Democratic 
 convention. 
 
 Judge Stephens \vas selected chairman of the State Demo- 
 cratic Executive Committee. In his letter of acceptance, 
 he avowed so strongly his unalterable adhesion to the old 
 faith, that some of the new-departurists, so-called, con- 
 demned his letter as impolitic. He resigned in consequence 
 thereof. A meeting of the committee was called at Macon 
 to fill the vacancy thereby created. The following letter to 
 his friend, Hon. Martin J. Crawford, a member of the com- 
 mittee, evoked by the occasion, explains itself: 
 
 SPARTA, September 19, 1870. 
 
 DKAK JUDGE Your letter, forwarded to me from home 
 while I was at Greene court, was received last week. I had 
 no opportunity to answer it then, nor was my mind then 
 made up as to all I might have to say in answer. I did not 
 need a moment's reflection to say that it gratified me very 
 much, and made me laugh very heartily; but I needed both 
 further developments and further reflection to determine my 
 course; and I at once foresaw that, if my course should be 
 what I have now determined it shall be, I should have to 
 ask your assistance. Don't be alarmed, for I am not going 
 to ask anything that involves martyrdom, or even heroism,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 or that requires you to incur any personal hazard whatever. 
 Don't understand me as intimating the least doubt that you 
 are capable of winning the hero's chaplet, or the martyr's 
 crown, in a proper case : I only mean that, in the present in- 
 stance, there is no need for the sacrifice. 
 
 The assistance I want involves a confidence, and although 
 a confidence like a bargain, requires tivo to make it; yet, I 
 do not feel that I am presuming too far on your friendship, 
 in assuming that it will be accepted by you for me, as it 
 would be accepted by me for you, in a like case. The ex- 
 ecutive committee, when it meets at Macon, on the 2/th 
 instant, may, or may not, elect me chairman. If I am not 
 elected, why, there is an end of it, and there is nothing fur- 
 ther to be done on my part ; bi.it if I am elected, then I 
 wish to decline the appointment ; and I wish you to express 
 this determination for me after the event, and on the spot, 
 and at the moment. Of course, I cannot allow the com- 
 pletion of the committee to be longer delayed by any ac- 
 tion of mine; and, therefore, it shall not be prevented, by 
 me, from securing a chairman before it disperses. 
 
 The confidence which I commit to you, is to keep my in- 
 tention sacredly secret until the election is over. Don't com- 
 municate it to anybody at all, but keep it in your own breast 
 until the election is over. I should despise myself if I were 
 capable of holding out my intended declension as an induce- 
 ment to bestow on me an empty personal compliment ; but 
 I am not weak enough to place the least value in it, if it 
 should come in a way to deprive it of all meaning. 
 
 Therefore, it is essential that my intention shall not be 
 made known before the proper time. If the question shall 
 be raised, as it may be, whether I would accept or not, you 
 are authorized to say I would ; and then, if I should be 
 elected, you are further authorized, and specially requested, 
 to say that I do accept, and do also resign. There is a great 
 deal in the way of putting a thing, and the way to put this 
 thing is, not that I decline the position, but that I accept it, 
 and resign it. There is a substantial and wide difference 
 between the two things, and my form of statement is the 
 proper one to develop the difference. The language which 
 I have myself used in the preceding part of this letter, about 
 " declining" and "declension," is inaccurate, and should 
 not be repeated. The proper language, if the position be
 
 3l8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tendered to me, would be that I accept it, and resign it; 
 and, therefore, the proper response beforehand, if the ques- 
 tion should be asked, is, that I u'onld accept it. I ask you 
 to act for me, because the action which I propose to take 
 must be taken on the spot before the committee disperses, 
 and I can't afford to be present myself at the meeting which 
 is to make the election I can't afford to be even in the 
 city of Alacon at the time; for I icill not assume the ap- 
 pearance of seeking the place. I am not seeking it, and I 
 don't mean to incur the appearance of seeking it; and now, 
 a few words for you, and for you alone, as to my course 
 after the organization of the committee: It will depend on 
 the action they may take in making that organization. If 
 they tender the chairmanship to me, and pass a resolution 
 leaving the subject of selecting candidates with reference to 
 so-called disabilities just where the convention left it, I shall 
 be "harmonious;" but if they undertake to put any con- 
 demnation on my course or views, I shall make the terrapin 
 crai^'l. I know that I hold in my hands the necessary coals 
 of fire, and I shall not withhold them from the back of the 
 animal. I don't intend to be thrown into disgrace, because 
 I am unwilling to join in betraying the Democratic party 
 by hauling down its colors, silencing its guns, and surren- 
 dering it bodily into the hands of the enemy; or, what is 
 the same thing, by hauling down its colors and silencing its 
 guns, and thus leaving it to become the inevitable prey of 
 the enemy. The men who want to haul clown the colors 
 and silence the guns want it as a means to an end, and that 
 end is surrender. Some of them, who are working on that 
 line, and talking largely about ruling me out of the Demo- 
 cratic party, have just now, for the first time, come into the 
 Democratic part}' themselves, and have come only to betray 
 it, and to secure its defeat and destruction ; and they are, 
 
 at this moment, carrying B 's money in their pockets 
 
 as a price of their treachery. If I were with you in per- 
 son, I would tell you things which I am not yet read)" to 
 write, even to you ; for I am not yet willing to commit them 
 to the chances of the mail. \Yhen men talk about "ac- 
 cepting our government as it is," as the convention in the 
 th district talked the other day, and about putting 
 
 away "dead issues," as and - habitually talk, 
 
 I know what they mean they mean treason ; and they take
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 319 
 
 an inside position only to surrender the fortress. If the 
 "issues" which the Democratic party made at New York, 
 in 1868, against the validity of Radical usurpations and war- 
 fare on the States, are indeed "dead," then the Democratic 
 party is dead also dead already although, like the dead 
 stage-horse, it may not find out the fact until it gets to the 
 next station. To abandon these issues, and accept the gov- 
 ernment as it is, means to form a coalition on the basis of 
 giving some of the offices to so-called Democrats, and con- 
 ducting the government on Radical principles, and all who 
 
 join the coalition will become followers of at a long 
 
 distance behind. The fact is, they will be out of smelling 
 distance at the start, and will need infinite self-abasement to 
 bring them within range of it. They will have to acknowl- 
 edge 's superior sagacity in foreseeing the necessity 
 
 three years in advance of themselves, and they will also 
 have to confess, with great openness and contrition, their 
 mortal sin in having withheld from him their aid during the 
 very period when their aid might have enabled him to ac- 
 complish still greater ameliorations of a necessary bad thing. 
 This question, as to paying any regard to so-called disa- 
 bilities in soliciting candidates for Congress, can be placed 
 in a practical light that is exceedingly plain. It may be, 
 as Judge Hook, in his recent letter, said with great force, 
 that the Radical Congress will be compelled, by public opin- 
 ion, to recede from its prescriptive policy, and by act re- 
 move all the so-called disabilities. If so, of course, it is all 
 useless and foolish to pay any regard to those so-called dis- 
 abilities in selecting candidates, or choosing members of 
 Congress. But suppose Judge Hook is mistaken, and the 
 Radical Congress shall not recede: then the removal of so- 
 called disabilities will remain as it heretofore has been a 
 matter of grace, in favor of particular persons ; and no man 
 of sense can doubt that the grace will be granted to none 
 but such as will agree to accept the government as it is 
 usurpations and all and conduct it on that basis without 
 even a pledge against unlimited usurpation in the future. 
 
 Why, and actually favored and advised the 
 
 ratification of the so-called XVth amendment. This is the 
 crucial test: Does the proposed candidate accept the gov- 
 ernment as it is confessed usurpations and all or does he, 
 as the National Democratic party, in its late utterance at
 
 32O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 New York, declared it would do, wage war upon the usurp- 
 ations, and insist upon the Constitution in its purity, and 
 upon the rights of the States, which have been trampled 
 in the dust by these usurpations? To vote fora man hold- 
 ing the first of these positions is simply to kill the Demo- 
 cratic party by the action of its own members. If Radical- 
 ism is to be fought at all, I suppose it ought to be fought 
 for some reason ; and when a man tells me either that he 
 does not intend to attack it, or that he intends to attack it 
 without weapons, or with the weakest weapons in his ar- 
 mory, I know his course will never whip it ; and when he 
 pretends that it will, he is either a fool or a traitor. The 
 cry of "revolution" and "revolutionary," which is now ap- 
 plied, in unison, by the lira and the True Georgian, the 
 Constitution and the Telcgrapli, to any "issue" which is 
 made against the validity of the so-called XlVth and XVth 
 amendments, is as useless as it is treacherous. The turn 
 which its vociferators endeavor to give to it is, that any de- 
 nial of the validity of these so-called amendments is an at- 
 tack on our present established form of government. Es- 
 tablished? How? By Congressional enactment and Pres- 
 idential proclamation ! / say these pretended additions to 
 the Constitution could be "established" only in the mode 
 prescribed by the Constitution itself; and that, not having 
 been so established, they are nullities, and ought to be 
 treated, and by the Democratic party icill be treated, as 
 nullities, whenever that party comes into the administration 
 of the government. They are just as much nullities as if 
 they had been enacted and proclaimed by a mob in the 
 street. They are not established, nor never will be, until 
 the country shall accept, as a finality, the doctrine that the 
 Constitution can be changed by Congressional enactment 
 and Presidential proclamation. The Alien and Sedition 
 acts raised the question as to what f oilers were conferred in 
 the Constitution, and the XlVth and XVth (so-called) 
 amendments raise the question as to what papers, or serif's, 
 or ii.'orci<-, if you please, are in the Constitution, and form 
 a part of it. I low is the one issue any more revolutionary 
 than the other? Nobody proposes to resist the present 
 government with arms, but only to turn out the usurpers 
 by t'otcs, and then administer the government according to 
 the true Constitution, leaving the usurpers to submit, as we
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 321 
 
 have done, or inaugurate a revolution of violence and 
 blood-shed, if they shall so choose. But enough. The 
 importance of the subject is my excuse for the length of 
 this letter. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 LIXTON STEPHENS. 
 
 P. S. I take it for granted that you will attend the meet- 
 ing of the committee. I beg you to do so. L. S. 
 
 [From L. S. to Hon. Martin J. Crawford.] 
 
 SPARTA, September 21, 1870. 
 
 DEAR JUDGE Since writing to you the other day, reflec- 
 tion has changed my mind, and I now hasten to say that I 
 do not wish to have the chairmanship, even if tendered to 
 me ; and, of course, my position noiv is, that I would not 
 accept it, if it should be tendered. If you find yourself in- 
 clined, on this announcement, to revert to the fable of the 
 fox and the sour grapes, I beg you to make an accurate an- 
 alysis of the two cases. I persuade myself that such an 
 analysis cannot fail to disclose a difference. The fox made 
 repeated attempts to get the grapes, and, after finding that 
 they were beyond his reach, he said they were sonr, and 
 then he walked away. It has always seemed to me that he 
 had no reason for the change of opinion which he expressed 
 in relation to the quality of the grapes, and I have, accord- 
 ingly, always believed that the change was feigned, and not 
 real. My belief has always been, that the fox had just as 
 good an opinion of the grapes when he was walking away 
 from them, as when he was jumping at ' evi, and that he 
 would have quickly retraced his retreating steps, if some 
 friendly hand had bent down the bough for him. The real 
 points in his case are reducible to two : the first is, that he 
 undoubtedly committed the criincn falsi; and the other is, 
 that his motive was to preserve his dignity under ridiculous 
 circumstances. My case presents very different features. 
 I have never tried to get the chairmanship, and, therefore, 
 I have no failure which needs to be covered. On the con- 
 trary, I let it go when I might have held it by virtue of the 
 proxies, after it had been put into my hands, wisougJit. In 
 the next and last place, I have really changed my opinion 
 about the quality of the fruit. At first, it was fair to the
 
 322 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 eye, and promised to be pleasant to the taste ; and I would 
 have taken it, if I could have carried off the pri/e without 
 raising the whole neighborhood at my heels. The fox evi- 
 dently entered upon his enterprise with a determination to 
 snatch the spoil, if possible, and then flee from the wrath 
 to come. For my part, I never had a fancy for carrying 
 even my own property in a running attitude, I don't think 
 the situation a graceful one. I was remarkably good at the 
 game of " deer, " when I was a boy, and I was famous at 
 "wrap-jacket;" but now I would surrender my own hat 
 rather than run for it or scramble for it. I have arrived at 
 a time of life when a man may lose his dignity in trying to 
 preserve his property. I don't want anything that I can't 
 hold without a "fuss;" not that I am opposed to a fuss, 
 perse, and on proper principles; but I haven't the heart to 
 keep up a clamor when I can stop it by dropping sonietliing 
 I happen to have. The sensation of being pursued for 
 " some nm you've got, " is an unpleasant one. I'd drop it at 
 the start, even if it were a thing of the greatest value. But, 
 as I have said, I have changed my opinion about the fruit, 
 and I now regard it as a thing of no value at all. The fact 
 is, the Democratic party in Georgia, and in the United 
 States, is rapidly becoming a mere tail to the reconstruc- 
 tionists, and my idea is, that neither honor nor profit can 
 be found in identifying one's self with its fortunes. The 
 tail is the least respectable member, even of a noble animal ; 
 and my compassion is excited for the agony of degradation 
 which awaits the Democrats who are struggling for the fail- 
 skip of Radicalism. I shall not cease to point out to them 
 the self-abasement which they are about to perpetrate, so 
 long as I can see the least prospect of preserving a sound nu- 
 cleus for the basis of a subsequent reorganization ; but I shall 
 take no part or lot in the present concern. It is rotten 
 ruined by the infernal lust for office. Defeat, disastrous and 
 disgraceful, is alike its doom and its due. The first fruits 
 are already seen in the Maine election. The Connecticut 
 Legislature refused to conform to the so-called XVth amend- 
 ment; the Democracy of Pennsylvania and California, and 
 perhaps other States, have declared against its validity, and 
 \ve are ingloriously abandoning the fight which our friends 
 are making for us. And we are doing it for the greed of 
 office, and at the dictation of a Congressional committee !
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 323 
 
 The chairman of it, , docs not have the confidence 
 
 of his own constituency, as I am informed. Their foolish- 
 ness even exceeds their want of principle. But enough. 
 Mark the prediction ! 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Judge Stephens, although he declined the chairmanship, 
 felt anxious concern, and took an active part in the guber- 
 natorial contest. So far as his heavy professional engage- 
 ments permitted, all his energies were given to the success 
 of the ticket. Take, as a specimen, the letter below, ad- 
 dressed to his client, friend, and kinsman: 
 
 [ From L. S. to Hon. T. J. Smith. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 2, 1870. 
 
 DEAR JACK Your letter was handed to me yesterday. 
 The interest it manifested in me and my fortunes is very 
 gratifying to me. I knew before, just as I know now, that 
 you have a great regard for me; but I am not superior to 
 the human weakness which finds pleasure in repeated ex- 
 pressions of an already known regard, even when I also 
 know that the expression called out in any particular in- 
 stance is not equal to the regard in general. 
 
 And now I am very sorry to be compelled to tell you, 
 that you must not depend on me co represent you in your 
 defense against the suit of Wilkinson & Wilkinson. I don't 
 see how it is possible for me to do so, if Judge Andrews 
 goes on with our Hancock court until Saturday night, as he 
 must do, unless he leaves a large amount of unfinished bus- 
 iness. It will be impossible for me to be at Washington 
 court on Saturday, or on any other day of that week. The 
 Judge has usually adjourned our court on Friday night, and 
 gone home Saturday morning ; but the probabilities are, that 
 Friday night, this time, will find the business in a state 
 which will oblige him to go on Saturday with the court. 
 We have a number of criminal cases, several of them capi- 
 tal, and Friday night is very apt to find us right in the 
 midst of one of these. But, however this may be, I know 
 that, by Friday night, I shall be worn out with these crimi-
 
 324 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 nal trials. This class of cases always wears me far more 
 than civil business; and I shall be incapable of discharging 
 my duties at Oglethorpe the following week, unless I can 
 get a little intervening rest. If I go to Washington, I shall 
 have to take a night drive, and get no day of rest; but if 
 I do not go, I shall at least have Sunday. The fact is, I 
 firmly believe that, after toiling through the criminal trials 
 here, and riding the greater part of the night afterwards to 
 reach your court, I should be incapable of doing justice to 
 your* case the next day, and should do you an injury, instead 
 of a service, by keeping the lead out of fresher, and there- 
 fore safer, hands. My idea of your defense is briefly, but 
 clearly, embodied in the plea which I drew up and sent 
 down by John Traywick ; and I think it would be wielded 
 by Governor Johnson and Judge Harris with more power 
 and effect than it could be by me especially in a jaded and 
 worn-out condition. It is my deliberate judgment that my 
 attempt to serve you, if made under the circumstances 
 that must attend it, would hint, instead of help, your case. 
 I have as much confidence, perhaps, as I ought to have in 
 my legal ability; but experience leaves me no doubt of the 
 great extent to which my capacity for any particular busi- 
 ness is impaired by preceding wear and tear. If I should 
 appear in your case, under the disadvantageous circum- 
 stances which would necessarily attend me, I should, in all 
 probability, have the mortification of disappointing you, 
 and of being obliged to believe that my friend's cause had 
 only suffered from my incompetent effort to serve it. This 
 is my sincere feeling and judgment. If the case goes to 
 the Supreme Court, my services would be as valuable to 
 you then as anybody else's, perhaps; and I will render them 
 with the greatest pleasure. 
 
 I am much gratified, but not at all surprised, to find that 
 you approve my recent course in relation to so-called "eli- 
 gibility." It is approved most heartily by brother, General 
 Toombs, Governor Johnson, and by almost everybody in old 
 Hancock. The fhct is, it is approved by all sensible men, 
 who have not made up their minds to abandon principle for 
 office. The number of these, as shown by recent develop- 
 ments, is alarmingly large. They have made up their minds 
 to accept and abide by all the usurpation and malignant op- 
 pression perpetrated by the Radical party, for the gracious
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 325 
 
 privilege of being allowed to hold office, if they can get it. 
 In my judgment, this class of so-called Democrats are just 
 as guilty as the Radicals, and still more contemptible. They 
 pledge themselves not to disturb, but to accept, and abide 
 by, and carry o ut what they themselves have been' loudest in 
 denouncing as enormously criminal and destructive. This 
 constitutes their guilt. The contempt comes from the base- 
 ness of their motive, as well as the ignominious failure 
 which will inevitably mark their treachery. They are fol- 
 lowers of , at a long distance behind ; and they will 
 
 soon discover that they can remove the intervening land 
 between him and them only by vigorous dirt-eating. They 
 will have to acknowledge his superior forecast, and, like the 
 dog returning to his vomit, gulp down again all the dirty 
 denunciations which they have poured out upon his head. 
 The depths of self-abasement to which they will descend 
 are unfathomable; and then their failure will be as ignomin- 
 ious as their motives are base. It may turn out that the 
 Radical party will be compelled, by the force of public opin- 
 ion, to recede from their prescriptive policy altogether, and 
 pass an act of Congress removing the so-called disabilities 
 from everybody ; but so long as the removal continues to be 
 as it has heretofore been a grace extended to particular 
 persons the grace will never be as it never has been ex- 
 tended to anybody without an assurance, either from him- 
 self or somebody else who vouches for him, that he will sus- 
 tain and carry out the reconstruction scheme including the 
 XlVth and XVth so-called amendments of the Constitution. 
 You may rely upon this proposition as true, i^itJiout any 
 exception. It is possible that they may occasionally ' ' catch 
 a Tartar" in some fellow who will refuse to stand up to the 
 assurance given for him by his vouchers; but I have yet to 
 find a single instance of this kind. Of all the men who 
 have had their so-called disabilities removed, I do no know 
 one who is not obliged to answer, if the direct question is 
 asked him, that he intends to abide by and carry out the 
 reconstruction scheme. I need not point out to you the 
 vast difference between abiding by and carrying out these 
 measures, on the one hand, and on the other, the mere 
 yielding to them, or not resisting them, so long as they are 
 enforced by the bayonet. To resist them, under present 
 circumstances, would only fasten them on us by our own
 
 326 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 folly: to abide by them and cany them out would be to 
 fasten them upon us by our own baseness. The true course 
 of wisdom and patriotism is, neither to resist them nor ac- 
 cept them, but to hold them as they truly are nullities 
 which are to be utterly disregarded and wiped out, when- 
 ever sound men are put into power. The vital principle of 
 the Democratic party is, devotion to the true Constitution, 
 and opposition to these monstrous usurpations ; and when- 
 ever this issue is allowed to die, the Democratic party will, 
 and ought, to die with it. Their mission is, not by force, 
 but by the peaceful ballot, to put into power sound men, 
 who are pledged to wipe out all the usurpations, and re- 
 establish the true Constitution in its purity. The first thing 
 to be done for the Democratic party is to purge it of its 
 rotten element. If it were purified, it would soon become 
 as strong as it would immediately be glorious. My hope 
 now is that the ignominious defeat which awaits its present 
 desertion of principle, will teach it the much-needed lesson, 
 that its success depends on its fidelity to truth. But enough. 
 All in usual health, and all join me in love and good wishes 
 to you all. Your friend, 
 
 LIXTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [ From L. S. to Colonel Herbert Fielder. ] 
 
 OCTOBER 8, 1870. 
 
 Mv DEAR SIR My acknowledgment of your letter, ex- 
 pressing your approval of my recent course, was postponed, 
 in the hope of having leisure to write you somewhat at 
 length ; but I am at last obliged to confine myself to a briei 
 expression of the pleasure I received from your approba- 
 tion, and of my high appreciation of the views presented 
 by you on the same line. I am particularly gratified to 
 find, as I have found, that I am completely sustained by 
 the very first intellects in the Democratic party. I believe 
 I am sustained by all sensible men who have not made up 
 their minds to abandon principle for the chances of office. 
 I am just in the midst of my principal courts; otherwise, 
 I should take great pleasure in giving you some additional 
 views connected with those so strongly expressed by you. 
 I am truly obliged to you for your letter. 
 
 Yours, very truly, LINTOX STEPHENS,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 327 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 10, 1870. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I imagine, 
 
 however, that it is just as well I have no time to write any- 
 thing at all ; for I am satisfied that the so-called Democracy 
 are bent on destruction for the present. I know that the 
 only idea of those who are manipulating the Democratic 
 party, just now, is to get a tiling that will zvi/i, and my hope 
 is that the disastrous beating that awaits them, on their 
 present line, may knock some sense into them. Want of 
 sense is their greatest trouble ; for, great as their baseness 
 is, it is exceeded by their folly. I know they will quit their 
 present folly as soon as it gets its inevitable threshing. 
 They always quit a thing that fails to win at the first trial, 
 just as they have already run away from the New York 
 platform, and from every vestige of Democratic principle; 
 but my fear is that, in dropping their present folly, they 
 will take up with something else that will be no better. It 
 is almost impossible for corrupt men to have faith in the 
 power of truth. Naturally enough, they cannot expect it to 
 exert over others an influence of which they themselves 
 have no perception. They will never find out that the bat- 
 tles of truth, when they are lost at all, as in 1868, are lost, 
 not by the fidelity and candor of her supporters, but by the 
 treachery of her pretended friends. 
 
 My last and surest hope is that the people will find out, 
 from bitter experience, that their present leaders are even 
 bigger fools than knaves, and will at last commit their for- 
 tunes to the counsels of sensible and honest men. 
 
 The Constitution of the State requires a poll-tax to be 
 assessed, which shall be exclusively "appropriated for educa- 
 tional purposes. A large number, of the colored people 
 especially, failed to pay that tax in 1869. The Radical 
 Legislature of the following year ignored that provision of 
 the Constitution by passing an act instructing the several 
 collectors to "desist" from collecting the poll-tax for the 
 years 1868, 1869 and 1870. The manifest aim of the pro- 
 ceeding was to secure the benefit of the colored vote in the
 
 328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 coming election of Governor and members of the General 
 Assembly. In the count} 7 of Judge Stephens' residence, 
 that population largely preponderated ; and, standing by 
 the Constitution, he made issue with the action of the 
 Legislature, on the clay of the election, by challenging the 
 votes of such as had not paid poll-tax for the preceding 
 year; and, when overruled by a majority of the managers 
 of election three out of five on his own affidavit, he had 
 the refractory majority immediately arrested, carried before 
 a magistrate, tried, committed, and they, refusing to give 
 bail, imprisoned. Their places were at once supplied, and 
 the election proceeded. The affair created prodigious ex- 
 citement. It was an episode in the life of Judge Stephens, 
 in that it brought on a personal collision with an old friend. 
 He was the only person Judge Stephens, since the date of 
 his majority, ever struck in anger, and the only man he ever 
 knocked down in his life. The affront was very gross. 
 The unfortunate matter was, however, soon amicably ad- 
 justed in a manner honorable alike to each, as the following 
 correspondence discloses: 
 
 [From Dr. A. S. Brown to L. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, December 24, 1870. 
 
 HON. LIXTON STEPHENS From a misapprehension 01 
 facts, I did a very foolish thing on Tuesday. I heard that 
 the managers of election were arrested, the ballot-box 
 seized, and an armed party were in line, near the court- 
 house. I hastened to town. On the way, I met many 
 persons, white and black ; all I could get to stop said they 
 were going for arms. 
 
 On reaching the street, I inquired of several gentlemen 
 about the disturbance ; had no intelligible answer, and, 
 without due reflection, came to the conclusion that it was a 
 plan previously arranged, and that a collision with the ne- 
 groes was inevitable and speedy. I selected you as the pre- 
 sumed author of the revolutionary procedure. 
 
 1 am satisfied that the arrest of the managers was right 
 and lawful ; that the ballot-box was properly cared for, and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 329 
 
 that the appearance of an armed force of citizens on the 
 scene was a mistake, and that you had nothing to do with 
 this armed party whatever. 
 
 Therefore, I make the most ample amende in my power ; 
 withdraw, with pleasure, my language and my action to- 
 wards you ; and I now respectfully request the re-establish- 
 ment of our former friendly relations. 
 
 Yours, respectfully, A. S. BROWN. 
 
 [Reply.] 
 
 SPARTA, December 24, 1 870. 
 
 DR. A. S. BROWN Sir: Your note, by Eddie, is just re- 
 ceived, and is entirely satisfactory. I was utterly surprised 
 at the time; and now, the misapprehension under which 
 you acted, as you inform me, explains it all. I can and do 
 truly say that the explanation restores us to our former re- 
 lations, and leaves no grudge in my mind. 
 
 Yours, respectfully, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Although Dr. Brown was satisfied of the prudence and 
 propriety of Judge Stephens' course in arresting the three 
 managers, Governor Bullock pretended not to be. At his 
 instance, Judge Stephens was arrested, by a United States 
 marshal, on the ground stated in the following^etter : 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, January 18, 1871. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER Soon after 
 
 I got home, I was arrested by a United States marshal, 
 under a warrant issued by United States Commissioner 
 Swayze, founded on affidavits of the two negro managers 
 of election in this county, charging me with divers viola- 
 tions of the Enforcement act "intimidation," "hinder- 
 ing," etc., under the sixth section and interfering with 
 managers of election in the discharge of their duties, etc., 
 under the nineteenth section. The marshal called himself 
 Seaford. He was very polite took my word for my ap- 
 pearance at Macon next Friday, the 2Oth instant, and took 
 his leave. I asked him to take me before Judge Erskine, 
 
 31
 
 33O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 instead of Commissioner Swayze. This he would not do. 
 I expected him to decline it, as he did; but I wanted the 
 benefit of his refusal. 
 
 The people here are in pretty much of a stir. George 
 Pierce is to go with me to Macon, and carry a power of at- 
 torney, which was signed by a large number yesterday, and 
 will be signed by more to-day, authorizing him to sign their 
 names to any bond that may be required of me; besides 
 George, who knows all the facts of the prosecution of the 
 managers, Clarence Simmons and John Culver (one of the 
 two dissenting managers) will go over as witnesses, in case 
 I shall need them. I don't expect to need them; for I 
 think I shall draw everything out of the two negroes, and 
 thus get the concluding argument on the commitment trial. 
 If I am not deprived of my voice by a horrible cold, which 
 has been developed, or caught, perhaps, since I left you, I 
 think I shall make the infernal rascals sorry that they ever 
 molested me. I have got thunder in me : I only pray for 
 a happy vent 
 
 Judge Stephens, as has been seen, opposed, with his 
 might, every new departure from the old landmarks of the 
 Constitution. He believed the XlVth and XVth amend- 
 ments of the Constitution to be nullities, and that they 
 ought to be treated as nullities by the courts. The recon- 
 struction aUs of Congress, and all the monstrous outrages 
 upon popular liberty and local self-government, which were 
 germinated of the same spirit and spawn, he loathed and 
 spat upon. The following speech, which he made in his 
 own defense, in January, 1871, at Macon, when arraigned 
 before the United States commissioner on a charge of hav- 
 ing violated the Enforcement act, so-called, avouches the 
 accuracy of this statement. The reader will concede that 
 the wealth of all forensic literature may be searched in vain 
 for a performance that surpasses it in point of genuine man- 
 liness, civil courage, nervous English, the eloquence of pa- 
 triotic fervor, or cogent, compact, red-hot logic. It is a 
 demonstration of his whole proposition, "if there be one 
 in Euclid: "
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 331 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. LINTON STEPHENS, IN MACON, GEORGIA, ON 
 THE "RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES," AND THE "ENFORCE- 
 MENT ACT" OF 1870, DELIVERED 230 OF JANUARY, 1871. 
 
 May it please the Court : I know full well that, if your 
 Honor is not superior to the average of poor human nature, 
 you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to give my defense 
 in this case an impartial consideration, and an honest deci- 
 sion. The prosecution against me is founded on the course 
 which I took in the recent political election, which resulted 
 in a victory for my party and a defeat for yours. It is also di- 
 rectly in the line of an assault which was lately made against 
 me in the newspapers, by the official head of your party in 
 this State. I, therefore, recognize in this case apolitical pros- 
 ecution, just as distinctly as I recognize in my judge a most 
 zealous and determined political opponent. Yet, sir, there 
 are other considerations which encourage me to hope that I 
 may obtain, even from you, that decision which is demanded 
 by justice and by the laws. From the personal knowledge 
 of you which I have acquired since the beginning of this 
 trial, I have discovered that you are a man of decided intel- 
 ligence ; and I am told that you are a man of courage. I 
 am also told that you, yourself, have been, in some in- 
 stances, a victim of political persecution, and an object of 
 unjust obloquy. Surely, such a man, with such an expe- 
 rience, ought to give a fair hearing to one whose only fault 
 is not any wrong which he has committed against the laws, 
 but the damage which he has inflicted upon a political party. 
 My greatest encouragement, however, is derived from my 
 confidence in the lawfulness of my conduct and the power 
 of truth. To truth, bravely upheld, belongs a triumph 
 which cannot be defeated, nor long delayed, not even by 
 the intensest prejudices of partisan strife. I am strength- 
 ened, too, in the advocacy of truth, on this occasion, by the 
 consciousness that, in defending myself, I shall be but de- 
 fending principles which are dear to every American, be- 
 cause they lie at the foundation of the whole fabric of Amer- 
 ican constitutional liberty. Now, sir, unless I am much 
 mistaken in the estimate which I have formed of your char- 
 acter, will you listen to my defense any the less favorably 
 because of the frankness and boldness with which I shall 
 present it.
 
 332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 I am accused under the Enforcement act of Congress. 
 
 My first proposition is, that this whole act is not a law, 
 but a mere legal nullity. 
 
 It was passed with the professed object of carrying into 
 effect what are called the XlVth and XVth amendments of 
 the Constitution of the United States, and depends on their 
 validity for its own. 
 
 These so-called amendments are, as I shall now proceed 
 to show, not tntc amendments of the Constitution, and do 
 not form any part of that sacred instrument. They are 
 nothing but usurpations and nullities, having no validity 
 themselves, and therefore incapable of imparting any to the 
 Enforcement act, or to any other act whatsoever. 
 
 I take occasion to say, that I regard the Xlllth amend- 
 ment, abolishing slavery, as clearly distinguishable from the 
 XlVth and XVth so-called amendments, in the manner both 
 of its proposal and of its ratification. The contrast between 
 it and them will contribute to make their invalidity all the 
 more apparent. It is true, that when the Xlllth amend- 
 ment was proposed, ten States of the Union were absent 
 from Congress ; but their absence was voluntary, and there- 
 fore did not affect the validity of their proposal. It is true, 
 also, that the Legislatures which ratified it for these ten States 
 had their initiation in a palpable usurpation of power on 
 the part of the President of the United States ; yet, it is also 
 unquestionably true, that they were elected and sustained 
 by overwhelming majorities of the true constitutional con- 
 stituencies of the States for which they acted ; they rested 
 on the consent of the people, or constitutional constituen- 
 cies of the States, and were therefore truly " Legislatures of 
 the States." This amendment was ratified by these Legis- 
 latures of the States in good faith, and in conformity with 
 the almost unanimous wish of the constitutional " Peoples." 
 
 How different is the case of the XlVth and XVth so- 
 called amendments ! If these are parts of the Constitution, 
 I ask, How did they become so? Were they proposed by 
 Congress in a constitutional manner? 
 
 In framing and proposing them, every State in the Union 
 was entitled, by the express terms of the Constitution, to 
 be represented in speech and vote by "two Senators" and 
 "at least one Representative." But ten States of the Union 
 were absent. This time their absence was not voluntary, but
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 333 
 
 compulsory: when they were claiming a hearing, through 
 their constitutional representatives, they were driven away, 
 and denied all participation in framing and proposing these 
 amendments ! Was this a constitutional mode of proposal ? 
 I say, it was an unconstitutional mode, and that the pro- 
 posal was, ab initio, null and void. 
 
 But how stands the ratification of these so-called amend- 
 ments? To say nothing about the duress of bayonets and 
 Congressional dictation, under which the ratification was 
 forced through the ratifying bodies in the ten Southern 
 States, the great question is, Who were these ratifying 
 bodies? Were they Legislatures of the States? They were 
 not. They were the creatures of notorious and avowed Con- 
 gressional usurpation. They were elected, not by the con- 
 stitutional constituencies of the States, but by constituen- 
 cies created by Congress, not only outside of the Constitu- 
 tion, but in palpable violation of one of its express provi- 
 sions. The suffrage, or political power, of the States is not 
 delegated to the General Government by the Constitution ; 
 but, on the contrary, its reservation, by the States, is ren- 
 dered exceedingly emphatic by that provision of the Con- 
 stitution which, instead of creating a constituency to elect 
 its own officers President, Vice-President, and members of 
 Congress adopts the constituencies of the States, as regu- 
 lated by the States themselves, for the election of the most 
 numerous branch of their own Legislatures. 
 
 Ten of the ratifications, which were falsely counted in 
 favor of these miscalled amendments as ratifications by Leg- 
 islatures, were only ratifications by bodies which had their 
 origin in Congressional usurpation, were elected by illegal 
 constituencies, unknown to the Constitution of the United 
 States, or the Constitutions of the States, and were organ- 
 ized and manipulated under the control of military com- 
 manders who claimed and exercised the jurisdiction of pass- 
 ing upon the election and qualification of their members. 
 Can these joint products of usurpation, fraud, and force be 
 palmed off as Legislatures of States ? Can ratifications by 
 them be accepted as ratifications by Legislatures of States? 
 Can falsehood thus be converted into truth by the thimble- 
 rigging of Presidential proclamations ? These bodies were, 
 indeed, set up by their usurping creators as Legislatures 
 for and over States ; but until the known truth of recent his-
 
 334 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tory can be blotted out by the mere power of shameless as- 
 sertion, they cannot be recognized as Legislatures of States. 
 The Parliament of Great Britain is a Legislature _/tfr and over 
 poor, down-trodden Ireland; but what Irishman will ever 
 recognize it as the Legislature of Ireland ! 
 
 The false, spurious, and revolutionary character of these 
 ratifying bodies is rendered still more glaring by the fact 
 that, supported by the bayonet, they subverted, or rather 
 repressed, the true, legitimate Legislatures of all the States 
 where reconstruction was applied. That such Legislatures 
 existed in these States, and are indeed still existing, is de- 
 monstrable from the facts, viewed in the light of either of 
 the two theories of secession that of its validity or inva- 
 lidity. On either theory, the seceding States remained 
 States. On the one theory, they were States of the Union ; 
 on the other, they have remained all the while States in the 
 Union. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
 recent case of White i>s. Texas, speaking through Mr. Chief 
 Justice Chase, held that secession was invalid, and that the 
 States which had attempted it remained, and still are, States 
 in the Union. 
 
 A State is not a disorganized mass of people : it is an or- 
 ganized political body. It must have a constitution of some 
 sort, written or traditional. Being an organized body, it 
 must have a law of organization, or composition, or consti- 
 tution, defining the depositary of its political power. Where 
 there is no such constitutional, or constituting, or organ- 
 izing, or fundamental law, there can be no organization 
 no State. These ten States, then, which seceded, or at- 
 tempted to secede (as the one theory or the other may be 
 held), have all the while had Constitutions. In point of fact, 
 each of these has ever been a written Constitution, giving 
 the ballot to defined classes of citizens who are known as 
 the constitutional constituency of the State. This consti- 
 tutional constituency is entrusted by each of these constitu- 
 tions with power over the constitution itself, in modifying 
 or changing it, and, of course, in modifying or changing the 
 organization or composition of the constitutional constitu- 
 ency. This constitutional constituency is the depositary of 
 the highest political power of the State. Any change made 
 in the Constitution or organization of the State, or in the 
 composition of the constitutional constituency, as it may ex-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 335 
 
 ist at any time, without the concurrent action of the consti- 
 tutional constituency itself, is revolution : it is disorganiza- 
 tion ; it is the subversion or suppression (as it may prove 
 permanent or temporary) of one organization, and the sub- 
 stitution of any other ; it is the abolition (permanent or tem- 
 porary) of the old State, and the introduction of a new one. 
 
 Each of these ten States, in 1865, at the close of the war, 
 being then a State, had a Constitution and a constitutional 
 constituency linked back by unbroken succession to the 
 Constitution and constitutional constituency as they existed 
 before secession. Secession made no break in the chain. 
 The provision which was put in the Constitution at the time 
 of secession, connecting the State with the Confederate 
 States, instead of with the United States, as its Federal 
 head, is wholly immaterial to the present purpose. On the 
 one theory, it was simply void, and left the organization of 
 the State, the Constitution, and the constitutional constit- 
 uency intact. On the other theory, being valid, it modified, 
 but did not impair, the integrity of the State organization. 
 All this follows from, or rather is comprehended in, the one 
 proposition that these ten States have never lost their char- 
 acter as States. 
 
 Each of these ten States, being a State at the close of the 
 war, in 1865, stands now de jure, just as it stood then, un- 
 less it has, since that time, been changed by the action of 
 its constitutional constituency. I think each of them was 
 so changed in the latter part of that same year. In each 
 of them, a convention was elected by a large and unques- 
 tionable majority of the constitutional constituency (al- 
 though a portion of them were excluded from voting) for 
 the purpose of modifying the Constitution. These conven- 
 tions repealed the ordinance of secession, abolished slavery, 
 and made some other changes in the several Constitutions, 
 but, in most of the States, left the constitutional constit- 
 uencies just as they stood before. In conformity with the 
 Constitutions, as last modified by those conventions, each 
 of the States was speedily provided with a complete gov- 
 ernment, consisting of a legislative, executive, and judicial 
 department. It was by the Legislatures thus formed that 
 the XHIth amendment of the Constitution of the United 
 States, abolishing slavery, was ratified. 
 
 Since that time, no change has been made in the organi-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 zation of any of these States, with the co-operation or con- 
 currence of the constitutional constituencies. Only very 
 small minorities of the constitutional constituencies have 
 co-operated in the work of reconstruction. It is a notori- 
 ous and unquestionable fact, that an overwhelming- majority 
 of them, in each of the States, have been steadily and un- 
 swervingly opposed to it, and have voted against it, when- 
 ever they have voted at all. 
 
 The clear result, in my judgment, is that each of these 
 States now stands dc jure, just as she was left by the action 
 of her convention in 1865, with a complete government, 
 formed under the Constitution of that year, including a 
 Legislature which still constitutionally exists, and is capa- 
 ble of assembling any day, if it were only allowed to do so 
 by the withdrawal of the bayonet. But she stands dc facto, 
 suppressed by a government originated and imposed on her 
 by an external power, and supported alone by the bayonet. 
 Such a government is the embodiment of anti-republican- 
 ism and despotism. Under just such a government, Ire- 
 land is writhing and Poland is crushed. 
 
 Is it not now demonstrated that the bodies which ratified 
 the so-called XlVth and XVth amendments, in the name 
 of these ten States, were the revolutionary products of ex- 
 ternal force and fraud, displacing the true Legislatures which 
 alone could have given a constitutional ratification ? 
 
 The so-called amendments, then, have been neither con- 
 stitutionally proposed nor constitutionally ratified. How 
 can they form parts of the Constitution ? 
 
 A successful answer to this question would long ago have 
 brought that peace and harmony which can never come 
 from might overbearing right. Instead of giving such an 
 answer, the authors of these measures have sought to 
 drown reason and argument in clamorous charges of vio- 
 lence and revolution against the victims, not the perpetra- 
 tors, of those crimes. 
 
 But an answer has at last been attempted from an unex- 
 pected quarter. Strangely enough, it comes from one 
 who has greatly distinguished himself by the vigor and 
 ability with which he has denounced the whole scheme of 
 reconstruction as a revolutionary usurpation and nullity; 
 and, still more strangely, he adheres to that denunciation, 
 while now arguing that these so-called amendments the
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 337 
 
 creatures and culminating points of that reconstruction 
 scheme are valid parts of the Constitution. Such a con- 
 clusion from such a beginning ! And yet, he is hailed by 
 his new allies as a very Daniel come unto judgment. They 
 were in a sore strait for an argument. 
 
 He says these so-called amendments have become parts 
 of the Constitution, because they have been proclaimed as 
 such by the power which, under the Constitution, has. the 
 "jurisdiction" to proclaim amendments. 
 
 There has been much said, sir, about issues which are 
 "dead:" surely here is one which is not only alive, but 
 very lively. Let Americans hear and mark it: The Con- 
 stitution of the United States can be changed can be sub- 
 verted by Presidential proclamation ! I once knew a man 
 whose motto was, that a lie, well told, was better than the 
 truth, because, he said, truth was a stubborn, unmanagea- 
 ble thing ; but a lie, in the hands of a genius, could be 
 fitted exactly to the exigencies of the case ; but even he 
 admitted that the lie must be well told, or it would not 
 serve. If it should appear to be a lie, it would be turned 
 from a thing of power into a thing for contempt. There 
 has been progress, sir, since that man taught. It is now- 
 discovered that a known, proven lie is as good as the truth, 
 provided it can only get " proclaimed by a power having 
 "jurisdiction" to proclaim it! I, sir, know of no power 
 either on the earth, or above it, or under it that has "ju- 
 risdiction" to "proclaim" lies\ Nay, sir, I know of no 
 power which has jurisdiction to proclaim amendments to 
 the Constitution. According to my reading of that instru- 
 ment, amendments constitutionally proposed "shall be 
 valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitu- 
 tion, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths 
 of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may 
 be proposed by the Congress." The ratification by three- 
 fourths of the States, acting through their Legislatures or 
 their conventions, sets the seal of validity on the amend- 
 ment and makes it a part of the Constitution. Nothing 
 else can do it. It must be a true ratification by a trite Legis- 
 lature, or a true convention of the State. A false ratifica- 
 tion by a true Legislature of the State will not do. A true 
 ratification by a spurious Legislature will not do. The va-
 
 338 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 lidity of the amendment, and its authority as a part of the 
 Constitution, are made to depend upon the historic truth of 
 its ratification as required by the Constitution. Proclama- 
 tions of falsehoods from Presidents, or from anybody else, 
 have nothing to do with the subject. This is plain doctrine, 
 drawn from the Constitution itself. The validity of the 
 Constitution, in all its parts, depends upon the facts of their 
 history. 
 
 But, according to this new discovery, the President of the 
 United States can subvert the whole Constitution, and make 
 himself a legal and valid autocrat, by simply " proclaiming " 
 that an amendment of the Constitution to that effect has 
 been proposed by two-thirds of each house of Congress, and 
 ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
 although it may be known of all men that there is not one 
 word of truth in the proclamation. The President of the 
 United States can legally convert himself into an autocrat 
 by his own proclamation. Theories are quickly put into 
 practice in these days. Let the country beware ! 
 
 We are also told by this new Daniel, not only that the 
 usurpation has become obligatory by its success, but there 
 is no hope of getting rid of it ; for he says it cannot be 
 changed without another amendment, ratified by three- 
 fourths of the States, and that there is no prospect of get- 
 ting these three-fourths. Wonderful ! Why, he himself 
 has taught us that the whole thing may be accomplished by 
 a Presidential proclamation. We have only to elect a Dem- 
 ocratic President, and let him ' ' proclaim " that a new amend- 
 ment, abolishing the XlVth and XVth, has been duly pro- 
 posed and duly ratified, and the thing is done. That, sir, 
 would be the way taught by this new light; but it would 
 never be my w y ay. I do not propose to walk in the ways of 
 falsehood: I prefer truth, because it is nobler and grander. 
 I believe, also, that, when it is supported by true and bold 
 men, it is always more powerful. My way would be to elect 
 a Democratic President, and let him treat the usurpation as 
 a usurpation and a nullity, and let him withdraw the bayonet 
 and "proclaim" that the revolutionary governments in 
 these ten States would not be supported by him, but that 
 the constitutional republican governments which now exist 
 here would be left free to rise from their state of forcible 
 repression, and do their natural and legitimate work of true
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 339 
 
 restoration, real peace, sincere and cordial fraternity. The 
 whole problem is solved by the simple withdrawal oi the 
 bayonet. 
 
 I have now shown that the XlVth and XVth amendments 
 do not form any part of the Constitution, and thus have 
 made good my first position, that the whole Enforcement 
 act, which depends solely upon them for its validity, is not 
 a law, but merely a legal nullity. 
 
 My second position is that, even if the so-called XlVth 
 and XVth amendments were valid, yet all those parts of 
 the Enforcement act, claimed as applicable to my case, arc 
 utterly "outside" of them, and (being confessedly outside 
 of the Constitution, apart from them) are unconstitutional, 
 and not binding as law. 
 
 The XlVth amendment, and the small part of the En- 
 forcement act relating to it, have no relevancy to this pros- 
 ecution, and I shall say nothing further about them. 
 
 Those parts of the act, claimed as applicable to my case, 
 rest solely upon the XVth for their validity; and, in order 
 to see whether they are outside of it or not, it becomes 
 necessary to know what are the terms and extent of the 
 amendment. 
 
 The effect of its terms is strangely misapprehended. It 
 seems to be regarded as a thing which, by its terms, secures 
 the right of suffrage to the negro, and empowers Congress 
 to enforce that right. This is a total and most dangerous 
 mistake. Here is the amendment ; it is not longer than the 
 first joint of my little finger: 
 
 "SECTION i. The right of citizens of the United States 
 to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, 
 or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous con- 
 dition of servitude. 
 
 "SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this 
 article by appropriate legislation." 
 
 This is the whole of it. Now, sir, I defy refutation, when 
 I affirm that, by these terms, the right of suffrage is not 
 conferred upon, nor secured to, any person or class of per- 
 sons whomsoever. The whole is simply a prohibition on 
 the United States, and the several States. The United 
 States, in legislating for the District of Columbia or a Ter-
 
 34O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ritory, and the several States, in regulating their suffrage, 
 each for herself, are prohibited from denying it to anybody, 
 or abridging its exercise on either one of the three grounds 
 race, color, or previous condition of servitude but are left 
 perfectly free to abridge it or deny it on any other ground 
 whatsoever sex, female or male, ignorance or intelligence, 
 poverty or wealth, crime or virtue, or any other of an in- 
 numerable multitude of other grounds. In point of fact, 
 the right is denied, both by the United States and by each 
 one of the several States, on many of these other grounds, 
 and the denial is enforced under heavy penalties, not only 
 by the laws of the States, but by this very Enforcement act 
 itself. To say that the right is conferred on or secured to 
 anybody, because it cannot be denied for any one or all of 
 three reasons out of an indefinite number of possible and 
 usual reasons, is simply absurd. As well say that a plat of 
 ground is fenced or secured from intrusion by putting a wall 
 on one of its many sides, leaving all the other sides perfectly 
 open. A right is not conferred or secured by a law when 
 it can be denied without a violation of that law. 
 
 This brings me to the crucial test of my second position. 
 Whether I have violated any provisions of the Enforcement 
 act or not, it is at least certain that I have not violated the 
 XVth amendment. It is affirmatively proven, by the testi- 
 mony of the two prosecutors in this case the two negro 
 managers of election that I did not object to, or in any 
 manner interfere with, any vote on the ground of either 
 race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It is mani- 
 fest, then, that if I have violated any part or parts of the 
 Enforcement act, such part or parts are "outside" of the 
 amendment, and unauthorized by it, since I have not vio- 
 lated the amendment itself. I have not violated the amend- 
 ment, even if its prohibition reached private citizens, instead 
 of being confined, as it plainly is, to the United States and 
 the States severally. 
 
 The truth is, that far the greater part of the Enforcement 
 act is "outside" of the amendments which it professes to 
 enforce. This act presents another live and very lively issue 
 to the people of this country; and already are the thunders 
 of opposition heard from Republican as well as from Dem- 
 ocratic quarters. Under the pretense of restraining the 
 United States and the several States from denying or abridg-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 34! 
 
 ing the right of suffrage on account of race, color, or pre- 
 vious condition of servitude, this act takes control of the 
 general and local elections in all the States seizing the 
 whole political power of the country, and wielding it by the 
 bayonet ; and fills up pages of the statute-book with new 
 offenses and heavy penalties leveled, not against the United 
 States or the several States, or their officers, by whom alone 
 the XVth amendment can possibly be violated, but against 
 private citizens. The Alien and Sedition acts, which, by 
 the power of their recoil, exterminated their authors, were 
 not equal to this act, either in the nakedness or the danger 
 of their usurpation. If this act shall prevail and abide as 
 law, then our heritage of local self-government, lost to us, 
 will pass into history, and there stand out forever a glory 
 to the noble sires who wrung it from one tyranny, and a 
 shame to the degenerate sons who surrendered it to another. 
 
 My third and last position is, that even if the Enforce- 
 ment act were valid in all its parts, yet I have not violated 
 any one of them. I am accused under its fifth and nine- 
 teenth sections. 
 
 The fifth provides a penalty against "preventing, hinder- 
 ing, controlling, or intimidating, or attempting to prevent, 
 hinder, control, or intimidate," any person from voting, "to 
 whom the right of suffrage is secured or guaranteed by the 
 XVth amendment." I have already demonstrated that the 
 XVth amendment secures or guarantees the right of suffrage 
 to nobody whomsoever. It is impossible, therefore, that I 
 am, or that anybody ever can be, guilty under that section. 
 
 But again : The testimony utterly fails to show that I in- 
 terfered in any way with the voting of any person legally 
 entitled to vote, or, indeed, with the voting of any person 
 whomsoever. It was incumbent upon the prosecution to 
 show what persons, if any, and that they were persons en- 
 titled to vote. The Enforcement act itself inflicts a penalty 
 on all persons who vote illegally, and, of course, cannot in- 
 tend to punish the prevention or hindrance of illegal voting. 
 The attempted proof, as to my interference with voters, re- 
 lates to four persons only. It fails to show that either one 
 of the four was a person entitled to vote ; it fails to show 
 that three of them did not actually vote ; it fails to show- 
 that any one of them offered to vote or even desired to do
 
 342 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 so; it fails to show that any one of them heard me make a 
 single remark, saw me do a single act, or was even in my 
 presence from the beginning to the end of the three days' 
 election. 
 
 As to the remark which I made to a small crowd, about 
 prosecuting all who should vote without having paid their 
 taxes, I have this to say : In the first place, it is not shown 
 who composed that crowd, nor that a single one of them 
 was a person entitled to vote. In the next place, the re- 
 mark was a lawful one; for it was simply the declaration of 
 an intention, not to interfere with legal voters, but to prose- 
 cute criminals; and, therefore, cannot be tortured into a 
 threat in any legal or criminal sense of that word. A threat, 
 to be criminal, must be the declaration of an intention to 
 do some unlawful act; and it never can be unlawful to ap- 
 peal to the laws. 
 
 I pass to the charge, under the nineteenth section, that I 
 interfered with the managers of election in the discharge ot 
 their duties, by causing their arrest under judicial warrant. 
 That part of the nineteenth section which is invoked against 
 me is in these words : "Or interfere in any manner with any 
 officer of said elections in the discharge of his duties." 
 
 My first answer to this charge is, that the managers were 
 arrested, not in the discharge of their duties, but in the vio- 
 lation of one of the most important of them one prescribed, 
 not only by the Constitution of the State, but by this very 
 Enforcement act itself: for the act made it their duty to re- 
 ject all illegal votes, and provided a penalty for receiving 
 them. These managers had received, and were still receiv- 
 ing, the votes of persons who had not paid their taxes 01 
 the year next preceding the election, as required by the 
 Constitution of this State. The testimony shows that this 
 fact was fully proven, and not denied by them, on the com- 
 mitment trial before the magistrate. The reply to it then 
 was, and now is, not a denial, but a justification, on two 
 grounds: one of these grounds was, that the oath which 
 they had taken, under the Akerman Election act, required 
 them to let every person vote who was of apparent full age, 
 was a resident of the county, and had not previously voted 
 in that election. They said then, and it is now said again 
 here, that they could not inquire into the non-payment of 
 taxes, or any other Constitutional qualification for voting,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 343 
 
 except only non-age, non-residence, and previous voting in 
 that election ; and yet, a man who was of full age, and a 
 resident of the county, and who had not previously voted, 
 was excluded by these same managers on the ground that 
 he was a convicted felon. Their own action in excluding 
 the felon is utterly inconsistent with their construction of 
 the obligation of their oath. The oath, as construed by 
 them, and now coustrued here by the prosecuting attorney, 
 is in plain conflict with the Constitution, and is, therefore, 
 void, and could not relieve them from their Constitutional 
 duty to exclude all who had not paid their taxes. The first 
 ground of the managers' justification, therefore, fails. 
 
 Their other ground was, that the unpaid tax of those 
 whom they had allowed to vote without payment of taxes 
 was only poll-tax, and that the poll-tax had been declared 
 by the Legislature to be illegal and unwarranted by the Con- 
 stitution, and its further collection suspended. 
 
 The fact that it was only poll-tax does not appear from 
 the evidence before your honor, but I admit it to be true. 
 I did not come here to quibble: I am here to justify my 
 conduct under the laiv, on the truth as it exists, whether 
 proven here or not. My answer is, that this declaratory 
 act of the Legislature is false, unconstitutional, null and 
 void. The act is but the opinion of the Legislature, con- 
 cerning the constitutionality of a previous act of 1869, im- 
 posing the poll-tax of that year. That act is before me, 
 imposing a poll-tax of one dollar per head "for educational 
 purposes," using the very words which are used by the Con- 
 stitution itself in defining the purpose for which poll-taxes 
 may be imposed. Now, sir, the question which I ask is, 
 What is it that makes tins act "illegal" or unwarranted by 
 the Constitution? Surely it is not made so by the subse- 
 quent declaration of the Legislature, put forth just before 
 the election, to serve a palpable, fraudulent, party purpose. 
 
 The Legislature is not a court ; but, on the contrary, it 
 is expressly prohibited by the Constitution from exercising 
 judicial functions, and its declarations concerning the con- 
 stitutionality of legislative acts have no more authority 
 than those of private citizens. The single question, then, 
 is whether the declaration in this case is true. The Legis- 
 lature assigned its reason for the opinion it gave. What is 
 that reason ? It is, that the Constitution limits the imposi-
 
 344 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tion of poll-taxes to educational purposes ; and that when 
 the poll-tax in question was imposed, there was no system 
 of common schools or educational purpose to which it could 
 be applied. Therefore, they said its imposition was "ille- 
 gal and unwarranted by the Constitution." They said it 
 was unwarranted by the Constitution to provide the money 
 before organizing the schools to which the money was to 
 be applied; that is to say, the only constitutional way to 
 organize the schools was to go in debt for them ! I lack 
 words, sir, to properly characterize the silliness of this reason. 
 But, curiously enough, the Constitution itself took the 
 very course which these sapient legislators declared to be 
 illegal and unwarranted by the Constitution. It provided 
 money and devoted it to these very common schools, which 
 were still in the womb of the future at the time of its adop- 
 tion. It dedicated to that purpose the whole educational 
 fund which was then on hand. Therefore, I say, this de- 
 claratory act is not only false, but is in the very teeth of the 
 Constitution itself. Mark you, sir: it did not repeal, nor 
 attempt to repeal, the poll-tax: it only suspended its collec- 
 tion. But, I say, if it had been a repeal in terms, instead 
 of a mere suspension, it could not change the case as to the 
 right of a person to vote without having paid the tax. The 
 constitutional requirement is, that "he shall have paid all 
 taxes which may have been required of him, and which he 
 may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law 
 for the year next preceding the election." The poll-tax 
 was required in April, 1869, and continued to be required 
 up to the passage of the aforesaid false declaratory act in 
 October, 1870 a year and a half. During all that period, 
 tax-payers had "opportunity" to pay it. On the day of 
 election, then, any man who had not paid his poll-tax for 
 1869 stood in the position of not having paid a tax which 
 had been required of him, and which he had had very many 
 opportunities of paying agreeably to law. He stood clearly 
 within the letter of the constitutional disqualification for 
 voting. He stood also within its reason and spirit, for its 
 true intention was to discriminate against the citizen who 
 should not have discharged a public duty for the year next 
 preceding the election. Nothing but payment could remove 
 from him the character of a public delinquent. Legislative 
 remission of the tax cannot serve the purpose, for he still
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 345 
 
 stands, after that, as a man who has failed in a public duty. 
 The most that can be said for him is, that after the repeal, 
 the tax ceased to be required of him ; but the only material 
 facts that // had been required, and could have been paid, 
 but had not been paid remain unaltered. 
 
 The managers, then, in receiving the votes of persons who 
 had not paid their poll-tax were not in "the discharge of 
 their duties. " Whether they tJiougJit so is not the question. 
 If they were really wrong, then I was rigJit ; and surely I 
 am not to be punished for being right. There was no inter- 
 ference with them in the discharge of their duties. 
 
 But again : even if I were wrong in the opinion which I 
 entertained of their duty, yet I did not interfere with them 
 unlawfully. The whole context of that clause, in the nine- 
 teenth section, under which I am accused, shows that the 
 interference contemplated is an unlawful interference es- 
 pecially the words which come immediately after it: "Or 
 by any of such means or ot/ter unlawful means," etc. This 
 word "other" shows, conclusively, that all the means con- 
 templated were only such as were of an unlawful character. 
 This would be implied in construing any penal statute, even 
 if it were not expressed ; for the universal rule of construc- 
 tion for penal statutes is to construe strictly against the 
 prosecution, and liberally in favor of the accused. Is it pos- 
 sible that any judge can have the hardihood to hold that it 
 was the intention of this Enforcement act to impart to man- 
 agers of election the sacred character of Eastern Brahmins, 
 making them too holy to be touched even for their crimes? 
 Surely it was not intended to give them greater sanctity 
 than belongs to peers of the British Parliament, or to legis- 
 lators in our own country, while engaged in legislation. 
 Notwithstanding all the high privileges accorded to them, 
 all of these are subject to arrest in any place, at any mo- 
 ment, under a warrant charging breach of the peace or fel- 
 ony. Was it intended to protect these managers from im- 
 mediate accountability for all felonies which they might 
 commit during three whole days? Until this shall be held 
 as the intention of the Enforcement act, it is impossible to 
 maintain that I have violated it in any particular whatever. 
 
 The Constitution declares that "the right of the citizen 
 to appeal to the courts shall never be impaired. " My whole 
 offense, sir, is this that I appealed to a court of competent 
 
 32
 
 346 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OK 
 
 jurisdiction! I devoutly believed that I was right in my 
 opinion of the law. I believe so now; but, whether I was 
 right or wrong in my opinion, who will dare to say that I 
 was wrong in testing that opinion not by the strong hand, 
 but by appealing to a court appointed by the Constitution 
 for the very purpose of deciding the question ? That court 
 decided that I was right; and the "interference" which 
 followed, sir, was the interference, not of myself, but of the 
 lau 1 , as expounded and administered by a judicial tribunal. 
 Moreover, sir, the decision of that tribunal stands as the 
 law of the case until it shall be reversed according to law. 
 These managers were charged with felony under the laws 
 of this State. Was it a crime for me to seek a judicial in- 
 quiry into the truth or probability of such a charge? I 
 suspect, sir, that my real crime, in the estimation of my 
 prosecutors, is, that the judicial interposition invoked by 
 me had the effect of preventing numerous repetitions of a 
 crime which would have done signal service to their political 
 party. 
 
 If angry power demands a sacrifice from those who have 
 thwarted its fraudulent purposes, 1 feel honored, sir, in 
 being selected as the victim. If my suffering could arouse 
 my countrymen to a just and lofty indignation against the 
 despotism which, in attacking me, is but assailing law, 
 order, and constitutional government, I would not shrink 
 from the sacrifice, though my blood should be required in- 
 stead of my liberty ! 
 
 The doctrine of constitutional popular liberty, so truly 
 and so boldly set forth in the foregoing speech, has, since 
 its delivery, been indorsed in an exhaustive decision of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. That decision is but 
 the commentary whereof this speech is the text. 
 
 It is a proof of the stupidity of the commissioner, and 
 the madness of the times, to add that Judge Stephens was 
 committed to answer the alleged charge before the United 
 States District Court, at Savannah. He gave bond and 
 security, voluntarily and eagerly tendered to an hundred 
 fold over the amount nominated in the bond. The grand 
 jury, in the Federal court, ignored the charge, and there 
 the infamous prosecution was dropped.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 347 
 
 [From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 
 
 CRAWFORDVILLE, January 27, 1871. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have just received, by the express, 
 your letter of yesterday. I was exceedingly interested in 
 reading it, and was highly gratified at the whole. Your 
 reporter must have been my friend McGuire. I was, as I 
 told you before, not disappointed at the result at all ; and 
 I repeat, I think the ultimate result will not only add vastly 
 to your already high reputation, but do an immense deal of 
 good for the cause of truth, right, and the sound principles 
 of government. The popular mind needs an awakening 
 up. Particular cases have always been the immediate occa- 
 sion of all past similar awakenings, and, perhaps, ever will 
 be. Most fortunate it is for any man, so far as it relates to 
 his fame and distinction, to be the one prominent in the 
 case of the awakening 
 
 The people everywhere look upon it, I think, as the 
 greatest thing you ever did. As to the newspapers, they 
 really do not understand it ; they measure the merits of a 
 production of this sort by the extravagance of opprobrious 
 words and epithets it contains. I speak of our editors in 
 the main. There are some exceptions, but many of them 
 don't know where they stand. Their instincts are right, 
 but they need an awakening up. It is fortunate you made 
 
 the speech when and where you did in Macon 
 
 I do hope you will, just as soon as you get through with 
 your speech, bring it over. You can go back the same 
 night if you wish, but I shall expect you to stay one night, 
 at least. Make the preparation of this speech your first 
 business, and get through with it as soon as you can with- 
 out hurrying the mind: let that act, at all times, in free 
 play. I have some ideas of my own about the case, which, 
 I suppose, you have presented ; but, lest you may not have 
 done so, I wish to give them to you to use in your note, or 
 otherwise, as you may think proper, if you approve. I 
 have no apprehensions whatever of a conviction ; but if that 
 should take place, so much the better for you in respect to 
 present, as well as future, true honor, fame, and glory. 
 Love to all 
 
 Judge Stephens rarely appeared 'for the prosecution of 
 any case in the courts affecting life. <( Blood-money, " as
 
 34 (<! BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 it has been not inaptly called, he did not covet; but in the 
 case referred to in the .succeeding letter, he would have 
 taken a fee, it it had been offered him before he was retained 
 for the defense. Although the slain, in this instance, was 
 his friend, no rule of professional ethics would allow him to 
 refuse his services, previously applied for, to the slayer, who 
 was likewise his friend: 
 
 SPARTA, July 28, 1871. 
 
 DR. S. (i. WHITE My Dear Sir: When I got home from 
 the North, on the 1 6th instant, I found your letter of the 
 4th, in behalf of the mother, sisters, and brother of Captain 
 Lewis H. Kenan, asking me to represent the prosecution 
 lor his homicide against J. R. Strother. 1 had to go right 
 off, next morning, to Wilkes court to defend a man charged 
 with murder; and when I got back from there, I had to go 
 into an adjourned court, which is still sitting here. 
 
 J have the opportunity to answer you to-day only because 
 1 am too sick to be in the court-house. Indeed, 1 am so 
 sick that I am availing myself, as you see, of an amanuen- 
 sis. I got a telegram at Boston, on the 5th instant, from 
 Obadiah Arnold, requesting me to appear in the defense of 
 this same prosecution. Acting on my uniform rule of de 
 fending any accused person who applied to me, to the ex- 
 Unit, at least, of seeing that he had a legal trial provided 
 he secures me a reasonable fee, looking to the nature of the 
 case and his ability to pay I responded to Arnold that 1 
 would appear for the defense. Such was my engagement 
 eleven days before I got your message. 
 
 I take this occasion to say, that I presume the mother, 
 sisters, and brother of Lewis know, as you do, that he was 
 rny friend, and that I was his. I was great!}' pained at the 
 news of his death, and do most deeply lament the event and 
 the manner of it. I assure you and them that 1 shall do 
 nothing in the defense beyond my convictions of duty ; and 
 the extent to which I may be carried by my views of duty 
 will depend upon the developments in the case. 
 
 1 trust that my position in this case will not, as it ought 
 not to do, cause the slightest interruption of cordial rela- 
 tions between myself and those most attached to my la- 
 mented friend. Yours, very truly, 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS.
 
 JUDGE I.INTON STEPHENS. 349 
 
 [ From L. S. to Colonel Herbert Fielder. ] 
 
 SPARTA, July 29, 1871. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR The night after receiving your very sug- 
 gestive letter, in relation to the proper course to be pursued 
 by the South, I was suddenly seized with bilious dysentery. 
 I am now getting better, and, therefore, will not delay my 
 answer; but I am not yet at all well, and, therefore, my an- 
 swer must be brief. 
 
 There is great force in your views, and they are on the 
 line of wisdom, in my judgment, as they certainly are on 
 the line of honor and courage, in the judgment of all hon- 
 orable and brave men. There is a great deal, however, in 
 the name which is given to a thing in the mode of putting 
 a case. Mr. Calhoun, for instance, killed the most salutary 
 doctrine of nullification by calling it nullification. That name 
 gave rise to the great popular outcry against the arrogance 
 of a single State nullifying^, law passed by all the rest. The 
 popular voice might have been secured in its favor, if he 
 had only called it the State veto : then the idea would have 
 impinged upon the popular brain and heart in tins form : 
 The vice of all governments \se.rcess; the whole philoso- 
 phy of good government consists in checks, which render the 
 passage of laws difficult. Hence the beauty and utility of 
 dividing the powers of government among tJirce co-ordinate 
 and co-equal departments. A logical adherence to the rea- 
 son of this division, or to the division as it is actually made 
 in the Constitution of the United States, would lead inevi- 
 tably to the true and sound conclusion that nothing can ac- 
 quire the force of law, and be executed ^^ such, unless the 
 legislative and executive departments, in all cases, and the 
 legislative, executive, and judicial departments, in most 
 cases, shall concur in the constitutionality of the measure. 
 Each department must be governed by its own convictions 
 of the law, and dares not to subordinate its own views of 
 the Constitution, which is the highest law, to the views of 
 any other department, nor to the concurrent views of the 
 other two departments. Whenever occasion comes for 
 either department to act on the law, it must necessarily act 
 on its own constructions of the law. This is a very familiar 
 doctrine when applied to the courts ; but it is equally sound 
 and important when applied to the legislative, the executive.
 
 35O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 and to the citizen. The right and the duty to judge of the 
 law belong to all alike, and, in the case of all, rest upon the 
 very same foundation the necessity of the case: it cannot 
 be otherwise. The rule of conduct for everybody is the law, 
 and nobody can pursue the rule until he first determines 
 what the law is. There is, to be sure, a marked peculiarity 
 in the instance of the citizen: while he, like all the depart- 
 ments of the government, must act on his own convictions 
 of the law, when he acts at all, yet he takes the risk of hav- 
 ing his views of the law overruled by the tribunal appointed 
 to determine and administer the law between him and any- 
 body else with whom he may have an issue. So he may 
 suffer in his person, as well as in his property, for views 
 which the appointed tribunal may hold to be wron^. The 
 departments of government are subject to this risk in an 
 essentially modified and much more limited degree. The 
 individuals who fill them are subject, politically only, to the 
 high court of impeachment; and there, the punislimcnt ex- 
 tends only to removal from office and disqualification for 
 office. This idea of equality and independence of the three 
 departments of government is not well understood; but it 
 is, nevertheless, true, &&& fundamentally important. It is a 
 great error to suppose, as is supposed by the small party 
 leaders of this day, that the Supreme Court is appointed as 
 an expounder of the Constitution for the other departments : 
 there is nothing like this in the Constitution. The Supreme 
 Court decides cases in law and equity; and even its judg- 
 ments in particular "cases," like those of all otlicr courts, 
 are void, if outside of '^jurisdiction. If the Supreme Court 
 were to adjudge a man to be hung for killing another in a 
 private quarrel, nobody would think of respecting the judg- 
 ment. It was on this idea that Mr. Jefferson was fully just- 
 ified in turning out the prisoners who were under sentence 
 for violating the infamous Alien and Sedition acts. The 
 courts which pronounced the sentences had no jurisdiction. 
 The acts conferred it in terms; but the}' were null in effect. 
 Nor is there any mischief, or rebellion, or revolution in this 
 doctrine; on the contrarv, there is nothing but the great 
 blessedness of triple security against the vice of all govern- 
 ments excess. If I seem to have wandered from my sub- 
 ject, the wandering is only seeming not real : I have only 
 been developing one very important branch of a very large
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 351 
 
 and important idea the idea of checks on government. A 
 people who are content, that the veto of one man shall pre- 
 vent a measure from becoming a law, certainly could not 
 be greatly shocked if the veto of a great sovereign State 
 should have the 'same effect the effect of not nullifying la\v, 
 but of preventing measures from having the validity of law. 
 My illustration of the importance of nomenclature, and 
 the mode of putting things, has run into great length ; but I 
 beg you to excuse its length for the sake of its importance. 
 Now, allow me to throw your idea into a different form 
 to put it in a new mode : / should say the South ought to 
 take an immovable stand against all " new departures " from 
 the true principles of the Constitution, as seen in the time- 
 honored creeds of ALL STATE-RIGHT parties, and as embodied 
 and applied to the facts of the situation, in the New York 
 platform of the Democratic party. One of the fundamen- 
 tal principles is, that all usurpations, all assumptions of pow- 
 ers not delegated, all frauds, are NULLITIES, not laivs ; and 
 'when such acts assail and suppress, or repress, constitutional 
 governments in the States, they are also " revolutionary" 
 and literally treasonable, if enforced by arms. This is liter- 
 ally " levying war against the United States " just as much 
 so as if the British army were to attack the State of Massa- 
 chusetts ; and when war is levied against any part of the 
 United States, by a citizen of any State, he is a literal traitor 
 against the United States. The South should not co-operate 
 with any party which refuses to stand by the State-rights 
 creed, which is now to be found embodied and organized no- 
 where but in the time-honored and unchanged creed of the 
 Democratic party. The departurists themselves have taken 
 a name which ought to damn them, and will damn them, if 
 skillfully used by the true and bold men. Theirs is the blun- 
 der of secession over again. We want no secessions no 
 departures but we want, in a superlative degree, not a divi- 
 sion, but a concentration, of all the constitutional forces in 
 a grand effort to prevent the war which was waged for the 
 presentation of our system of government from being con- 
 verted into a false and fraudulent pretext for overthrowing 
 it. Whether I have worried you or not, I have at least 
 wearied out myself, and must close. I would be very glad 
 to hear from you again, and to see your pen enlisted in the 
 grand fight. With high appreciation and kindest regards, 
 Yours, very truly, LINTON STEPHENS.
 
 352 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 The hint given in the following letter to his young friend, 
 who had just commenced the practice of the law, may be 
 useful to older members of the profession. The prisoner, 
 whom he defended, and who was acquitted, was charged 
 with the crime of murder: 
 
 [From I,. S. to Zcno 1. Fit/patrick, Ks<|. ] 
 
 SPARTA, October 29, 1871. 
 
 Of course, I am gratified at 
 
 your account of the estimate which is put upon my speech 
 in behalf of Sandy Luther. Let me, however, tell you a 
 secret which may not be useless to you as a lawyer. 
 
 While the speech was the thing which struck the crowd, 
 and which was also certainly needful to the end in view, yet 
 it was the examination of witnesses which laid the indis- 
 pensable foundation for the speech, and for the acquittal, 
 without striking the spectators as being at all remarkable.- 
 I made the State's own witnesses show (as the truth was) 
 that it was really a case of great forbearance and magna- 
 nimity, instead of either malice, or hasty, unlawful resent- 
 ment. 
 
 But enough. With kind regards to Colonel Lawson, and 
 best wishes to you and the "firm," I am truly 
 
 Your friend, LINTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 The following letter is in answer to one written him by 
 his life-long friend and college class-mate. Judge Pottle 
 (now, 18/6, presiding so ably and acceptably over the Su- 
 perior Courts of the Northern circuit), wherein he urged 
 Judge Stephens to allow his name to be presented to the 
 General Assembly for the United States Senatorship : 
 
 [From L. S. to Hun. Kchvard II. Pottle, j 
 
 SPARTA, October 30, 1871. 
 
 DEAR MED Your letter was received Saturday night. 
 The spirit of friendship which it shows towards your country, 
 and towards me personally, is ^appreciated not one whit the 
 less because it was no surprise to me. On the contrary, I
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 353 
 
 value it the more highly for the very reason that it is in 
 exact conformity with what I expected of you. It is a 
 pleasure, as great as it is rare, not to be disappointed in 
 people of whom we think well. I am not a candidate for 
 the United States Senate, nor for any office in the world ; 
 nor do I see that any crisis has arisen, or believe that any 
 will arise, which can require me to accept office. On the 
 contrary, I believe that the great cause, which should now 
 command the unselfish devotion of every good man, can, 
 just at this juncture, be better served by another, than by 
 me, in the position of Senator-elect. I think Herschel V. 
 Johnson is the man. He is no candidate, and knows noth- 
 ing of my thoughts on the subject; but he is all right, and 
 has a pou'er peculiar to himself from the very fact that our 
 State was defrauded of her constitutional representation 
 when applying therefor, through Jiini, as one of her chosen 
 Senators. The other one chosen with him is, of course, 
 now out of the question put so by his physical "disabil- 
 ity. "* Johnson, if elected, will not, like poor , and 
 
 , and , go whining to Washington, and beg- 
 ging the removal of fraudulent "disabilities," but will de- 
 mand his seat as a constitutional right claim and get a hear- 
 ing on that question, and then make a speech which would 
 ring through the whole country, and secure the election of 
 a Democratic President. He would do that magnificently, 
 and that is the thing which just now most needs to be done. 
 I know, too, that / should be much more effective in put- 
 ting him forward than I could be in asking anything for 
 myself. It is pre-eminently a time which demands unsel- 
 fish and devoted effort for the cause, regardless of all per- 
 sonal considerations 
 
 Truly, your friend, LINTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 P. S. As you say, it is no time for dead-heads: we need 
 men. I would prefer to be unrepresented rather than mis- 
 represented at all times; and, just at this time, I would pre- 
 fer to be unrepresented rather than represented feebly. If 
 you can go to Atlanta, do so. Let us all do whatever we 
 can, and I believe you can do much. L. S. 
 
 * Hon. A. II. Stephens was elected United States Senator in 1866.
 
 354 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 [From L. S. to Samuel Barnett, Esq.] 
 
 SPARTA, November 28, 1871. 
 
 DEAR SAM Just a line in behalf of a young friend whom 
 I believe to be as capable and deserving as he is needy. 
 Malcolm Johnston wishes to retain his position as assistant 
 secretary of the Agricultural Society. Please use your in- 
 fluence for him, if you can do so consistently with your 
 views and obligations. I suggest that you might secure the 
 object, by getting a promise beforehand to retain him, from 
 the person for whom you may vote as principal secretary. 
 If Malcolm retains his place, I .shall be very, very much 
 gratified. In great haste, 
 
 Your friend, LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 SPARTA, March 4, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER We got home 
 
 the first night after poor Ben Harris was buried. I do miss 
 him profoundly. His death is a heavy blow to me. He 
 retained his perfect senses and speech to almost the last 
 breath. Just before the last, he said, with marked calmness 
 and distinctness, that he "trusted in the mercy of God, and 
 was not afraid to die." It was said in response to a ques- 
 tion put to him by some friend. It was a great saying, 
 made, as it was, right in the face of death. He was a man 
 of very uncommon virtues and worth. I shall always miss 
 him.* 
 
 [From L. S. to Dr. R. H. Salter. j 
 
 SPARTA, March 9, 1872. 
 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR My delay in answering your letter of 
 the 22d ultimo has been caused by continued ill-health. 
 Mary and I got home from Atlanta on the 28th last Wed- 
 
 *The gentleman, whose death is noted in tin: preceding letter, was the 
 Hon. Benjamin T. Harris, of Hancock a lending citizen of the county, 
 repeatedly elected to offices of trust and honor, and whose virtues and 
 worth will keep hi.> memory green rind fragrant in tin hearts of those who 
 knew him.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 355 
 
 nesday a week ago about IO o'clock at night, and in the 
 midst of a rain. Our carriage failed to meet us at the de- 
 pot, nor was the usual public hack there ; nor, indeed, did 
 we find there a single human being neither the railroad 
 agent nor anybody else. The night was remarkably dark. 
 I never saw a darker one. I got the conductor of our train 
 to lock up our baggage in a freight-car, which was standing 
 at the depot, and a fellow-passenger, who got off with us, 
 stumbled about through the darkness, and found a negro- 
 house, and brought out, in great triumph, a lamp not a 
 lantern, mark you, but a naked, feeble lamp. This had to 
 be carefully guarded from wind and rain to keep it alive 
 through our journey his destination being the hotel, dis- 
 tant about half a mile, and ours, of course, our own house, 
 distant a good, or rather a bad, solid mile. Mr. Lewis (our 
 fellow-sufferer) had his hands full of his own baggage, and 
 Mary, as being the stronger of us two, volunteered to carry 
 the remnant of ours (consisting of her bag and a bundle or 
 two), leaving me, the invalid, to do the lightest &\\ty \ that 
 is to say, the duty of nursing and carrying the light. Well, 
 I found this same office of carrying the light, just as many 
 better men have found it before me, to be the most difficult 
 of all. I had to make a screen for the lamp, first out of one 
 hand and then out of the other, and then out of my hat, ac- 
 cording to the changing drifts of wind and rain. By the 
 time we got home, I was wet, chilled, and most thoroughly 
 worried. I was truly angry because the carriage had not 
 met us in accordance with the timely notice which we had 
 given of our coming. When we got in the house, we found 
 it lighted up, and all the family awaiting our coming. This 
 was too bad ! Evidently expecting us, and yet they had left 
 us to trudge home, as best we might, through darkness and 
 rain ! I met the girls with a cold kiss, and without a word 
 of greeting. We soon, however, had the satisfaction of 
 finding that Brad had not met us with the carriage because 
 he had, in the darkness of the night, run it off from a bridge 
 into a ditch, and had turned it over and broken the harness all 
 to pieces. 
 
 The upshot of the whole matter was, that 1 got a cold, 
 and quite a backset in my recovery. Yesterday was the 
 first day I have really felt like getting well. To-day I feel 
 still better; and now I expect to return to Atlanta day after
 
 35^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 to-morrow (Monday), and resume my work there. My sick- 
 ness has greatly deranged the plan I had formed for avoid- 
 ing conflict in my business at different point*. If 1 had kept 
 well, I should now have my Atlanta business at a point 
 where I could leave it until the second week of April, and 
 could therefore attend to other business which is now press- 
 ing at other places, and which I shall have to abandon, un- 
 less I can get it postponed. This I hope to do, but it is 
 doubtful ; so my employment for the State may not improb- 
 ably turn out a losing business to me, in point of money, 
 at least; for the business which conflicts with it is in my 
 regular circuit of practice, and, if abandoned, may seriously 
 diminish my future engagements. But this conflict is dis- 
 tressing to me for higher reasons than my own interests; for 
 some of the business which I have to abandon involves the 
 life of one man, and almost the whole fortune of another 
 both of whom are begging me to stand by them, and one 
 of whom is my dear friend, Colonel Jack Smith. lie has 
 lately had the misfortune to have his house burned up, with 
 all it contained ; and he now has two law-suits, which, if 
 they go against him, will almost, if not quite, ruin him I 
 am truly distressed. You will doubtless be surprised that 
 1 do not stand by my friend, and leave the State to get other 
 counsel. The public considerations which forbid this course 
 are almost absolutely imperative. To explain them would 
 require much space, and might not interest you at all. I 
 can only say, general!}', that there has been much gallant 
 volunteering in favor of the State, followed, in ever}' in- 
 stance, by a mysterious and very ////gallant backing out, or, 
 at least, by a silence which looks like backing out; and it 
 is so construed by the people. When the matter was at 
 last put into my hands by the (iovernor, the general feeling 
 and expression was, that it would n<n\.> be put through, with- 
 out fear, affection, or favor. To disappoint this general and 
 confident expectation would not only damage me personally, 
 but, what is much worse, it would destroy public confidence. 
 and contribute largely to increase the public demoralization. 
 1 have made my decision, after taking counsel with, not 
 only my own heart and head, but with , and, through 
 her, with St. Joseph, and all her numerous other saints, 
 
 whose very names are unknown to me " \Ye 
 
 all" send love to "you all." 
 
 Yours, affectionately, LINTON STKPHK.NS.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 357 
 
 [From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, March 15, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This allusion to 
 
 politics reminds me to tell you that I think our Governor 
 and General Colquitt, and the great bulk of our Georgia 
 leaders, are decidedly inclined to the policy of opposing 
 Grant with anybody who is most likely to beat him, and are 
 also decidedly inclined to believe that he can be most easily 
 beaten by a liberal Republican. I believe, also, that Gen- 
 eral Toombs is the same way. I just give you these points in 
 order that you may know how matters are in our own midst. 
 1 am opposed to running anybody who will not stand on 
 a sound Democratic platform ; but I am in despair. Our 
 host is panic-stricken, and wofully demoralized much more 
 so than the Radicals, and cannot be rallied for this campaign. 
 My fear and belief are, that the demoralization will be fast- 
 ened upon it for years to conic, if the policy of running a lib- 
 eral Republican be adopted; hence, I prefer to run a sound 
 man. In one case, it is defeat, without the loss of honor or 
 our anny ; in the other case, it is defeat, with a routed army, 
 and the panic made chronic 
 
 [From I.. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, March 16, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I have received, 
 
 since rny return here, an invitation to make the next com- 
 mencement oration for Mercer University, i am inclined 
 to accept, and give them a discourse on this theme: "The 
 Uniformity of Causation The only Basis of Harmon}' be- 
 tween True Science and Rational Religion." What do you 
 think of it? 1 could give the intellectual world some new 
 and striking ideas on that subject. Does the tkcinc strike 
 you at all? If it does not, why, then, 1 should doubt 
 whether my treatment of it would make any real impression 
 on thinkers. The uniformity of causation is the very bot- 
 tom of the whole system of inductive philosophy ; but it 
 has not been made to appear as suck to the world. The 
 proposition that causation is uniform has so many corolla- 
 ries, etc M was quite entertained 
 
 by Martin Crawford while she was here. He called, one
 
 35 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 night, to see me, and sat in our bed-room until bec'-time. He 
 was in a good vein. She asked him if Governor Smith 
 would get back to Atlanta Monday night. He said, in his 
 slow, jesting way: "I don't think he will he has got oft 
 into the country, with nobody but his \vife. S/ic don't want 
 any " appintim '/i A" you know, and I think Smith is just now 
 
 very fond of that kind of company." 
 
 Affectionately, LINTOX STEPHENS. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, April 7, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I was very 
 
 much pleased with your remarks on your editorial life. You 
 made it the -occasion to strike some very powerful blows. 
 By the way, have you seen the late speech of Voorhees? 
 It is tremendous blasting the fraudulent amendments and 
 all the frauds and usurpations, and denouncing the whole 
 Radical rule in terms not inferior to Demosthenes against 
 Philip. It is grand! That speech, as a platform, w,ould 
 be like fire in a sedge-field. Do publish it, entire, in the 
 SUM, and praise it in the high terms, which it so richly de- 
 serves. His groupings are powerful and thrilling. It was 
 a Titan hurling mountains. I had no idea the man had so 
 much/<newin him. If the Democratic party want to suc- 
 ceed in saving the country, or in the low purpose of even 
 getting office, let them rail}- to Voorhees' speech 
 
 SI'ARTA, April 19, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER I suppose Billy 
 
 told you of Croley's acquittal here last week. That was 
 very gratifying to me : the case had given me great anx- 
 iety. I don't think it will ever bring me a dollar in the 
 way of a fee ; but I have the satisfaction of having got off 
 a good fellow one of "our kin," as we used to call all the 
 Paddies we saw on our journey through Pennsylvania, in 
 1848. By the way, I have heard of a very sensible remark, 
 made by Bishop Pierce, in relation to my speech the first 
 one of mine he ever heard. The remark was in reply to a 
 question, on the part of young Torn Pierce a preacher, 
 and nephew of the bishop as to how my speech could be
 
 JUDGE I.INTON STEPHFAS. 359 
 
 reconciled with the teachings of the New Testament? The 
 answer was, "The court-house is a place to hear lau< rather 
 than gospel." 
 
 The following communication from Samuel Lumpkin, 
 Esq., the present (1876) accomplished solickor-general for 
 the Ninth Judicial District of Georgia, gives some account 
 of the speech referred to in the preceding letter, and his 
 impressions of LINTON STEPHENS AS AN ADVOCATE: 
 
 DEAR SIR A compliance with your request to give you 
 a statement of the impressions made upon me by the late 
 Judge Linton Stephens, as an advocate, involves the per- 
 formance of a task at once delicate and responsible. While 
 I accede to your wish, it must be understood that what I 
 shall say does not pretend to be exhaustive of Judge Ste- 
 phens' great power in this respect. Indeed, to do him full 
 justice would require a much longer and more intimate ac- 
 quaintance with him, and a much closer study of the habits 
 and peculiarities of his mind than my years and opportu- 
 nities have allowed. 
 
 As an advocate, he had few peers. His whole soul was 
 always in the matter of his discourse, and, whether his ulti- 
 mate purpose was to please the fancy or convince the judg- 
 ment, he rarely failed. As Professor Goodrich observes of 
 Sir John Eliot, " His fervor, acting on a clear and powerful 
 understanding, gave him a simplicity, directness, and con- 
 tinuity of thought, a rapidity of progress, and a vehemence 
 of appeal, which reminded one of the style of Demosthe- 
 nes." At times, he exhibited a wonderful power of per- 
 suasion. It has been written, "Words are things, and in 
 the mouth of one who knows what words are, what potent 
 things they are !" Judge Stephens knew well what they 
 were, and how to use them. When he chose to call into 
 action the better emotions of human nature, he was never 
 at a loss; and, as results of this exercise, courts and juries 
 have been held spell-bound, and strong men made to weep 
 by the winning tones and touching pathos of his speech. 
 A distinguished Georgian once said of him, that, though 
 almost rugged in his manly face and form, he had in his 
 manner all the gentleness and tenderness of a woman; but
 
 360 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 this does not constitute his chief characteristic as an orator. 
 He possessed, in a far greater degree, the power of com- 
 pelling the convictions of men by the force of argument. 
 He invariably impressed his listeners with the sincerity of 
 his own belief in the truth of what he said, and then, in 
 spite of opposition, carried like convictions to their minds. 
 
 "As rushing clown, when winter reigns, 
 Resistless to the shaking plains, 
 The torrent tears its way, 
 And all that bars its onward course 
 Sweep.-, to the sea with headlong force," 
 
 so did the power of this man's eloquence sweep away all 
 obstacles that stood before him. 
 
 His reasoning was close and strictly analytical. It has 
 been said of Lord Chatham that he had no power ' ' to divide 
 a speech into distinct copartments one designed to con- 
 vince the understanding, and another to move the passions 
 or the will but that all went together, conviction and per- 
 suasion, intellect and feeling, like chain-shot." Not so with 
 our distinguished friend. He had a great faculty for exer- 
 cising the "intrinsic, incommunicable power " of stern logic. 
 His mind was capable of arranging and classifying the most 
 complicated questions, and then presenting them with such 
 simplicity that the most unlearned and unskillful readily 
 comprehended them. He seldom made a mistake in prop- 
 erly dividing the propositions growing out of his subject, 
 and he could argue abstractly upon their merits without 
 resorting to the employment of passionate appeals to make 
 his remarks impressive. When he did unite the two ele- 
 ments of logic and persuasion, he achieved the crowning- 
 glory of his eloquence ; and the leading characteristic of that 
 eloquence, in any view, was its force. Whether he rea- 
 soned, or appealed to the sympathies, or denounced, it was 
 always done forcibly. 
 
 Again : few men had greater power to make a proposi- 
 tion appear ridiculous. There is a passage in the speech he 
 made in his own defense, at Macon, in January, 18/1, before 
 the: United States commissioner, under the charge of vio- 
 lating the Enforcement act (so-called) of Congress, which, 
 you remember, splendidly illustrates his almost unequaled 
 power and skill to use the weapon of ridicule. \ shall not
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 361 
 
 transcribe it ; for sure I am that the speech will be pub- 
 lished entire in your volume. 
 
 Words cannot describe the influence he exerted over the 
 minds of others. It is certain that many, who held opin- 
 ions contrary to his, declined to express them in his pres- 
 ence not in anticipation of uncourteous treatment, but of 
 certain and overwhelming defeat in the argument. He com- 
 pelled them to see things from his stand-point; and it not 
 unfrequently happened, in his practice, that opposing coun- 
 sel, thoroughly satisfied by his reasoning, vouchsafed no 
 reply. 
 
 No man excelled Judge Stephens in remembering facts. 
 His mind grasped every detail of the evidence so thor- 
 oughly and so accurately that he was never involved in any- 
 thing like self-contradiction, or doubt, in stating what had 
 been proven, or in drawing his conclusions therefrom. He 
 comprehended, without difficulty, the most complicated 
 testimony, seeing instantly what most men arrived at by 
 slow processes. He could, at pleasure, recall any particu- 
 lar part of the evidence he required, every fact being ap- 
 parently prominent in his mind at the same moment ; and 
 he never failed to mention all that went to strengthen his 
 side. He seemed peculiarly gifted in seizing upon the 
 strong points of his case, in giving every circumstance its 
 most favorable significance, and in making available to his 
 client's interest every possible view of the entire transaction 
 under consideration. Nothing was ever left for associate 
 counsel after Judge Stephens had presented the facts of a 
 case. 
 
 One of the finest addresses I ever heard before a jury was 
 made by him in behalf of Timothy J. Croley, an Irishman, 
 charged with murder, and tried in the Superior Court of 
 Hancock county, at April term, 1872. While the defend- 
 ant was beating a colored man with a pistol, for provoca- 
 tion by words, given some two hours before, the pistol fired 
 and killed him. It was a case in which the jury might well 
 have found a verdict of guilty, upon the idea that the ac- 
 cused had exhibited "a disregard of human life," amount- 
 ing to criminal negligence. 
 
 The defense was, "Hom- 
 icide by misadventure." To avoid conviction for murder, 
 it was argued that there was no intention to kill ; nor yet, 
 
 33
 
 362 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH CF 
 
 criminal negligence, because the beating was not such a one 
 as would ordinarily result in death the shooting, it was 
 claimed, being accidental. It was conceded by both sides 
 that the offense could not be voluntary man-slaughter. To 
 escape a verdict for involuntary man-slaughter, and secure 
 an acquittal, the defendant sought to justify the baliery on 
 account of the provocation given, which may be done under 
 our statute, the jury having the right to determine whether 
 or not the opprobrious words used shall constitute a justifi- 
 cation. The deceased had called Croley a "d d Irish 
 dog," and used language to the effect that his mother be- 
 fore him was no better than a dog. In commenting upon 
 it, Judge Stephens, in substance, said: 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Jury: Let us analyze this insult. In 
 the first place, he called this man a dog! Think of the deg- 
 radation imputed to a man when he is placed on a level with 
 the brute creation ! A man having feelings, sensibilities, 
 and pride of character a man made in the image of his 
 God, with a heart, brain, and soul to be called a d-o-g! 
 Hut this is not all : he said Croley 's inotlicr was no better than 
 a clog that mother who had nursed and watched over him 
 in his infancy his best and earliest friend, whose prayers 
 had ascended to Heaven in his behalf ere he was conscious 
 of their meaning, and whose love had followed him, in all 
 the fullness of its devotion, until her latest breath! Ah! 
 gentlemen, this was more than Jiinnan nature could stand. 
 It is not wonderful, then, if this man's blood boiled under 
 such a provocation, even if it had been no worse. But it 
 icas worse: he called him an J-r-i-s-/' dog! This was a re- 
 proach to his patriotism an insult to the green shores 
 of Krin. Would it not be worse to call a man a Georgia 
 scoundrel than simply to call him a scoundrel ? Would not 
 the insult to a colored man be made more offensive by call- 
 ing him a n-i-g-g-c-r thief? Then, why was it not worse to 
 call Croley an I-r-i-s-k dog? And this insult was still worse: 
 he called him a d n Irish dog! Not content with degrad- 
 ing Croley and his mother to the condition of brutes, and 
 reproaching them for their nativity, he uses profanity to 
 make his abuse even more emphatic and unendurable. 
 What did it matter if two hours had elapsed between the 
 provocation and the resentment? The State's counsel had 
 spoken of cooling time : this was an insult about which, the
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 363 
 
 longer a man thought, the hotter he got. If he was 'red- 
 hot ' at the time it was given, in two hours he must have be- 
 come ' white-hot. ' Croley was called upon to resent it, not 
 o : } by every impulse of pride and manhood within him, 
 but by his love for the land that gave him birth. He had 
 been an unworthy son of the Emerald Isle, had he done 
 less. The beating given the deceased was what he deserved ; 
 it was his ; he had earned it, and he might have expected 
 it. What else could he, or any rational man, have expected 
 under the circumstances?" 
 
 The solicitor-general, invoking the decisions of the Su- 
 preme Court, in the cases of Brown rs. The State (40 Ga., 
 689), and Kitchens vs. The State (41 Ga., 217), had insisted, 
 before the court and jury, that, while the jury are made the 
 judges of the law, in criminal cases, they must take that 
 law from the court. Here, .the great power of Judge Ste- 
 phens was expended to its fullest extent. His idea was, 
 that the jury were a part of the court, and, as such, had 
 legal and constitutional rights, as distinct and as well defined 
 as those of the judge; and that it was the duty of each 
 branch of the court to earnestly maintain its respective 
 rights, just as each of the three co-ordinate departments or 
 our government, while co-operating with the other two, pre- 
 serves its independence of them. In defense of what he 
 regarded as one of these great rights of juries one which 
 had been purchased and perpetuated by the blood of he- 
 roes he proclaimed that the decisions cited were not laic, 
 and iici'C)' could be laiv, binding upon 3. free people, though 
 repeated by a thousand judges through a thousand years. 
 He told the jurors that they were judges of the law, in crim- 
 inal cases, by a right older even than Magna Charta, and 
 that they were the last conservators of that right, and could 
 preserve it inviolate in spite of all the decisions of all the 
 courts on earth. In thus addressing these sworn jurors, 
 Judge Stephens was battling, not only for Croley, but for 
 the establishment of a principle in which he believed with 
 all his heart. It has never been my lot to hear a better 
 speech. Not Erskine, in behalf of Hardy, could have been 
 more grandly impressive. For three hours he commanded 
 the attention of every man in the crowded court-room, and 
 none were weary when he closed. 
 
 The jury very soon returned a verdict of not guilty !
 
 364 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Judge Stephens sometimes exhibited great tact and great 
 power in another way: he would make his view of the 
 law and facts so convincingly clear that opposition seemed 
 unreasonable, and then defy the tribunal addressed to ad- 
 judge against him. It was not often he resorted to this 
 style of argument, but instances did occur when he used it 
 most effectually. 
 
 He was greater, as a lawyer, in civil than in criminal cases. 
 The reason was this : from the nature of his mind, he was 
 accustomed to regard criminal law as something not to be 
 determined by what was written in statute-books and com- 
 mentaries, but as a system of natural justice, written by the 
 finger of God upon the hearts of all men. He very often 
 rested the defense of persons charged with crimes upon 
 the validity of principles that I have heard the distinguished 
 Georgian, already referred to, speak of as "laws which no 
 Legislature made, and which, thank God ! no Legislature 
 can repeal." Hence, he did not devote to the study of 
 criminal jurisprudence so much time and attention as he 
 thought it necessary to bestow upon the proibundcr and 
 more intricate depths of the la\v regulating "the rights of 
 things." While, therefore, he was more impassioned in the 
 conduct of criminal causes, he was more learned and more 
 logical in the management and argument of civil cases. . . 
 
 I have attempted no eulogy of Judge Stephens ; nor shall 
 I, in this connection, attempt any expression of my grati- 
 tude for his many kind acts to me, or of that profound sor- 
 row with \vhich, in common with every Georgian, I lament 
 his untimely death. I feel sure that his countrymen will 
 hold in grateful remembrance his truthfulness, his courage, 
 his patriotism, and his fidelity to every trust. 
 
 Most truly, yours, SAMUEL LUMPKIN. 
 
 [From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 
 
 ATLANTA, April 29, 1872. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER This morning I got two letters from 
 you one of the 2/th and the other of last night. I am 
 truly glad that the latest news from poor Pluck leaves room 
 for his recovery. By the way, I take this occasion to make 
 a confession in relation to Pluck : when I first knew he was
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 365 
 
 dangerously sick, I rather think a wish arose in my secret 
 breast scarcely acknowledged to myself that his sickness 
 should end in death. While I knew that result would give 
 you some sadness, yet I thought it would, on the whole, 
 be a real relief both to you and the poor dog. I did not 
 comprehend how much you were attached to him, nor how 
 deeply you would be pained by his death. Since I have 
 learned the real state of the case, I truly hope that he may 
 get well, and that the parting between master and dog may 
 long be deferred. I feel a new and tenderer interest than 
 ever before in the fortunes of poor Pluck. "Oh, long may 
 he wave!" etc. The mutual tie which you have dis- 
 closed, as existing between you and your dog, gives me a 
 
 new glimpse into the interior of your present life. M 
 
 has frequently said that you seemed to possess a charm 
 against loneliness, and I have felt a concurrence in that opin- 
 ion to a greater extent than I allowed myself to express. 
 During the last two or three years, while you have seemed 
 to enjoy company, and to be quite cheerful, yet you have 
 seemed to me to be less dependent on company for your en- 
 joyment than you ever were before, and your cheerfulness 
 has seemed to be less determinate and less dependent on 
 your surroundings. You have seemed to be absorbed in 
 your own currents of thought, and to live very much in a 
 world of your own, where your purely intellectual nature 
 predominated over your emotional, in a degree very unusual 
 with you in former days. Now I see, or think I see, that, 
 to some extent, I have been mistaken. 
 
 The General is resolute in his purpose to attack the con- 
 stitutionality of the legislation passed after the expiration 
 of the forty days. He has talked to me about it several 
 times the last time having been about two hours ago. He 
 seems to have pretty calmly studied the views I presented 
 to him as to what would probably be claimed by the enemy 
 as to the logical consequences of the decision, if it should 
 be made as he desires it; and, really, he presents some very 
 strong counter views as to the probable course of the enemy. 
 I will give you the strongest one not precisely as he gave 
 it to me, but in the clearer and stronger form (as I conceive 
 it) which has been worked out by my own reflection. Mark 
 you, the foundation of the whole trouble from that decision 
 would be in the material it would furnish for attacking the
 
 366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 validity of the election in December, 1870. If we can save 
 that election, it upholds everything else, and there is no 
 danger. Well, Congress is fully committed to the validity 
 of that election. The House has received our members, 
 chosen in that election, and the Senate has received our 
 Senator, elected by the Legislature which was chosen in 
 that election. Grant also refused to back Conley in his in- 
 tended resistance to the claims of Governor Smith. Grant 
 must have held Smith to be the true Governor, and, of 
 course, the present Legislature to be the true Legislature. 
 Grant also would have to carry a very heavy load in bring- 
 ing back into power the crowd of exposed thieves, who 
 bowed and retired, at his own bidding, in favor of what he 
 recognized as the legitimate government. True, he might' 
 say his recognition was founded on the decision of the high- 
 est judicial tribunal in the State, and that he changes his 
 course with the change of that decision. But Congress 
 could not say this at least, the House could not for they 
 received our members before any judicial decision had been 
 made. To change front on the question would certainly be 
 embarrassing; even to such upholders and perpetrators of 
 usurpation. They could easily avoid doing so, either by 
 saying the first judicial decision was the right one, or by tak- 
 ing the true ground, for once, and saying that the election 
 does not, by any means, fall within the act under which it 
 was held, since the lawful time for the election, having 
 passed, the election had to be held at some subsequent time ; 
 and this election was undoubtedly the true expression of the 
 constitutional constituency. What do you think of this? I 
 shall adhere, / think, to my determination not to raise the 
 question in the cases where it would benefit me ; but I shall 
 certainly not oppose the General's argument in the case 
 where he raises the question against me. I shall not argue 
 against my convictions, and I shall give that explanation of 
 my silence. But it is nearly night. 
 
 Yours, most affectionately, 
 
 LIXTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Judge Stephens' health, never robust, began to fail, per- 
 ceptibly, in 1868. Any imprudence in diet, or exposure 
 to inclement weather, or severe physical exertion, affected
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 367 
 
 him more or less seriously; still, he rallied so speedily that 
 the increasing frequency and violence of his attacks of illness 
 occasioned little of uneasy apprehension even in the minds 
 of those most intimately apprised of the fact. His recu- 
 perative energies seemed indeed marvelous ; and when dys- 
 pepsia his lifetime demon relaxed its grasp and gave re- 
 spite to jubilant and playful spirits for a spell, they believed 
 it could not otherwise be than that many years of life re- 
 mained to him. But the heavy, incessant strain upon all 
 his faculties, physical and mental, in the spring of 1872, 
 required a power of endurance which his enfeebled consti- 
 tution could not supply. Outside of professional business 
 large, onerous, exacting, in his own immediate circuit of 
 practice he was retained, as counsel, by Governor Smith 
 to investigate the enormous frauds perpetrated against the 
 State during the preceding administration, and to prosecute 
 the offenders. Never unmindful of the business of his life, 
 nor indolent in the profession of his choice a profession 
 which is said to be "ancient as magistracy, noble as virtue, 
 necessary as justice " he brought to his aid all his resources 
 of zeal, fidelity, assiduity, and candor. How well he per- 
 formed that difficult office with what ability, fidelity, and 
 conscientiousness is known to the people of Georgia; for 
 his services then and there rendered alas! cut short too 
 soon are among the diamonds that sparkle in the diadem 
 of the State. 
 
 It was whilst he was prosecuting these cases in the courts 
 that he was invited to address the people on the political 
 situation at the capitol. The Presidential election \vas ap- 
 proaching; no Democratic candidate had been nominated. 
 Public sentiment was in its formative period its crysalis 
 state. It was his last appearance upon the politcal platform. 
 Weary and forworn with the professional work of the day, 
 the words he uttered were words of admonition and warn- 
 ing. Suine present then disputed the history he recited;
 
 368 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 others derided the prophecy he made : but all since agree 
 that the admonition and tJic warning came from a political 
 seer ; and what was prophecy then has ripened into history 
 now. Here follows his speech : 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN It is a source of real regret that 
 bodily weariness and mental lassitude, resulting from close 
 confinement, for several consecutive clays, in the court-room, 
 will subtract so much from the small power which I might 
 otherwise have to address you in a manner worthy of the 
 great cause and of this intelligent audience. As I must 
 husband my strength and resources, I shall not attempt, 
 even if I could do so, to entertain your imagination, or to 
 amuse you. I come to address the arguments of reason to 
 your understanding, and to your hearts, the appeals of cour- 
 age and honor. 
 
 There are two great questions which demand immediate 
 answers from the Democratic State-rights people of this 
 country: the first of these is, Shall the struggle for the es- 
 tablishment of Democratic State-rights principles be main- 
 tained ; or, shall we abandon that struggle and accept the 
 antagonistic principle of unlimited power in the central gov- 
 ernment, and its inevitable logical sequence despotism ? 
 
 There are now two candidates before this country for the 
 Presidency General Grant and Mr. Greeley. What will 
 either of these do for the advancement of Democratic State- 
 rights principles? And when any many asks me to con- 
 template and ponder the policy of supporting either, the 
 question recurs, and I cannot refrain from putting it: Is the 
 struggle for the restoration of these principles to be main- 
 tained? 
 
 What are these two antagonistic principles? State-rights 
 on the one hand Democratic ; and on the other, centralism. 
 
 My friends, have you contemplated the difference between 
 the two? What is State-rights? What is the essence of it 
 in a nut-shell? It is, that while we recognize in the gen- 
 eral government all the powers that have been delegated 
 to it by the true Constitution, it is none but those that have 
 been thus delegated by the true Constitution. All other 
 rights are reserved to the States, and the States hold these ; 
 that is, all reserved rights, subordinate to no body nor com-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 369 
 
 bination of men: they are subordinate only to God, who 
 gave them. 
 
 Rights are not dependent upon the pleasures of men 
 they are not matters of grace ; and when a man talks to me 
 about State-rights that are subordinate which they can ex- 
 ercise, subject to the central government, in the exercise 01 
 its solemn constitutional obligation to maintain the equal 
 rights of citizens then he is talking of one thing and I of 
 another; he is talking of State-rights that are subordinate : 
 I know of no State-rights that are not absolute. ,' 
 
 What is this antagonistic principle centralism unlim- 
 ited power in the central government? I care not whether 
 that unlimited power is to be exercised by one man, or by 
 one thousand: it is no better in one case than in the other. 
 
 The curse of the principle is the unlimited nature of the 
 power! What does it do? Take its works: the tree is to 
 be judged by its fruits. It sets aside the government of 
 our States at will, and erects in their places others of its 
 own creation. It legislates, not for the whole country, but 
 for particular States, whenever it chooses to do so ; it 
 makes a law for the "Rebel" States no such law for the 
 loyal ; it makes a law for Virginia, by name, another for 
 Alabama, and one then for Georgia, by name. 
 
 Our fathers fought the Revolution on the principle that 
 there could be no taxation without representation. That 
 was but one small branch of a larger and a grander princi- 
 ple, and that is, that there is no security for good govern- 
 ment, unless the men who make the laws, whether they be 
 few or many, are subjected to the operations of the laws 
 that they themselves make ; and whenever a power, exter- 
 nal to Georgia, makes laws for her, to which the law-mak- 
 ing power itself is not subject, you have the completion of 
 despotism ; you have the same sort of government that 
 poor Poland enjoys from Russia ; you have the same sort 
 of government that gallant Ireland disdains to accept from 
 England, and struggles under to-night. 
 
 The Democratic State-rights principle is the only divine 
 right of government that I recognize on this earth. [Ap- 
 plause.] I pray God that I may ever be true to His holy 
 throne, and to all His good gifts to men ; and I recognize 
 among His good gifts, as one of the brightest, the right of 
 self-government in every people who are fit to exercise it.
 
 37O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Where are the champions who will stand for this God given 
 right of self-government? Who will stand with me, for one, 
 upon the determination to struggle for its restoration for 
 it is now in the dust and to struggle on this line, not only 
 through the whole "summer," but through the whole of 
 lifetime? I pray that I may die, and be buried out of sight, 
 rather than that I should ever live to see the day when my 
 own brethren, who have fought with me under this glorious 
 banner, shall ever make up their minds to abandon it. [Ap- 
 plause.] Which side are you on, and are you in earnest? 
 
 Fellow-citizens, you are all for the maintenance of the 
 true principle the God-given principle the divine right. 
 You are for State-rights for the supremacy of Democratic 
 principles, which, in this crisis, means State-rights, nothing 
 else ; Democratic principles mean nothing but State-rights, 
 for which Democrats and old Whigs used to fight, until the 
 old Whig party received its death-wound, in 1852, when 
 General Scott was run by such men as Sumner, Greeley, 
 and Morton, and they gave it a weight it could not carry, 
 and made it stagger and fall into its grave forever. Mr. 
 Greeley is one of the men who killed the old Whig party 
 by abolitionism. 
 
 I say Democratic principles now are just simply State- 
 rights principles, for which Democrats and old Whigs, up 
 to that time, stood shoulder to shoulder ; and for which 
 Democrats it may be now only Southern Democrats they 
 say, we are going to lose our Northern allies ; and if we lose 
 them, I never intend to run after them [applause] ; it may 
 be, Southern Democrats only are now, and hereafter, to 
 contend for these principles; but whether we have been 
 Whigs or Democrats, let all men, who have drank from this 
 cup of centralism, reconstruction, ku-kluxism and suspension 
 of habeas corpus drank to the dregs and found it exceed- 
 ingly bitter let all those make up their minds now, for a 
 lifetime, never to bow down to the power that oppresses us. 
 
 How do these two candidates for President stand in ref- 
 erence to these two antagonistic principles State-rights 
 and centralism ? I believe that everybody admits that 
 Grant is a centralist; and how anybody cati doubt that 
 Greeley is just as intense a one, and more able, is a matter 
 of amazement to me. [Applause.] He has advocated 
 every one of these radical, despotic, centralizing measures 
 every one. He has been the leader.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3/1 
 
 Ah ! some tell me we must ignore the past and stand 
 upon the present. I am willing to ignore any man's past 
 and stand upon his present, if I believe that his present is 
 right, and that he is sincerely and honestly repentant for 
 his past, and intends himself to stand upon his present. I 
 won't stand upon any man's present when I have no confi- 
 dence in the man himself. But what is Mr. Greeley's 
 present? Is it any better than his past? Why, in his very 
 letter of acceptance, giving his own interpretation of the 
 platform on which he is running, he takes it upon himself 
 to group all the things that we hold most dear State-rights, 
 which he does not even deign to designate by that name 
 he says "local government" the supremacy of the civil 
 over the military power, sacredness of habeas corpus, local 
 government as against centralism he groups all these to 
 tell us, and he does tell us, that he holds them all subordin- 
 ate to what he calls the central government's solemn con- 
 stitutional obligation to maintain the equal rights of citizens 
 subordinate to the very power, the very duty, which he 
 claims as the authority for the passage of every abomination 
 which has disgraced our statute-books, and oppressed lib- 
 erty and liberty's sons. [Applause.] 
 
 Do you want to know where the enforcement acts came 
 from the ku-klux acts, the suspension of habeas corpus? 
 They came from this very same cry. Mr. Greeley led the 
 race he sounded the key-note. Has he ever taken one 
 word of it back? Not one. Don't be deceived, my coun- 
 trymen; for I tell you that your liberties are dependent 
 upon your decision of this question. Don't let people de- 
 ceive you ; lie lias never taken back one word of it; but, on 
 the contrary, he takes pains, in his last letter, to re-assert 
 the very quintessence of the principle which was invoked for 
 their passage, and on which he justified and demanded 
 them. Is not this the truth? 
 
 What was the ground on which the enforcement of all 
 those odious measures was demanded by Butler, by Mor- 
 ton, by Grant, by Greeley, by Trumbull, by the whole 
 Radical crew? It was this very same plea of solemn con- 
 stitutional obligation to maintain the equal rights of citizens. 
 That was the party slogan under which they rode over you 
 and your rights; and when I hear the same music now, 1 
 expect to see the same dance follow it. [Applause and 
 laughter.]
 
 3~2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 Talk to me about Greeley doing anything to advance 
 Democratic principles ! Some folks say that his friends in 
 Congress voted against the renewal of the suspension of 
 habeas corpus. That is very good. I give them credit for 
 that; but I never stopped to count his friends, or learn what 
 they did ; my principle of action is, when two men avow, 
 equally, the right to oppress me, I shall never stop to count 
 the chances whether one or the other shall find it to his in- 
 terest to exercise that right of oppression or not. If he 
 avows the right, I know he will exercise it whenever he 
 finds it to his interest. [Applause.] 
 
 Our fathers declared their independence of Great Britain 
 after the Stamp act had been repealed, and they declared it 
 because, in the repeal, the right to tax without representa- 
 tion was claimed and reserved. After the blow had been 
 withdrawn, your fathers fought the Revolution against the 
 right of the tyrant to repeat the blow. Mr. Webster truly 
 and grandly said: "The Revolution of '76 was fought on a 
 preamble." That was just equivalent to saying that it was 
 fought on a principle ; and nothing was worth either the 
 blood or the money that was spent in the conflict, unless 
 the fight was one on principle. Give me principle, and I 
 will fight on and fight ever, and die fighting! But when 
 you take away principle, I have no longer any contest ; and 
 I say to you, "(3 Israel, to your tents! " 
 
 Some people say, "Anybody to beat Grant!" "Down 
 with Grant ! " I don't say " Down with Grant ! " nor down 
 with Greeley, nor down with Suinner, nor down with any- 
 body! What I say is, down with radicalism, and every- 
 body who supports it, whether it be Grant, or Greeley, or 
 anybody else ! I say down with Grant, because he sup- 
 ports radicalism. I say up with the true Democratic can- 
 didate that will be true to that banner, because under it I 
 am willing to fight; and Democrats and State-rights men 
 everywhere will fight with pride, and with honor and en- 
 thusiasm, and these are the greatest elements I know of 
 success. [Applause.] 
 
 General Grant had quite a respectable set of principles 
 when the war closed. Talk about Greeley going on a bond 
 for our President, Davis! So he did; that was one good 
 thing he did; I give him credit for it; and I thank God that 
 I am capable of giving even the devil his due. When Stan-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 373 
 
 ton, that arch-fiend, was about to arrest Generals Lee, Gor- 
 don, and Cobb, and that noble band that surrendered to 
 him overwhelmed, as they said then not conquered and 
 I hope to God they may never be conquered General Grant 
 said: "If it is done, I will resign;" and "resign," in this 
 case, meant throwing up thirty thousand dollars a year ; a 
 tolerably handsome thing, even in the estimation of people 
 here, in Atlanta, who are accustomed to seeing and hearing 
 of very large operations. Not, fellow-citizens, that I mean 
 to intimate that the people of Atlanta have been responsible 
 for these large operations. You have gone through the 
 ordeal of Bullock's radical, corrupt administration, and, even 
 when the bait was held out to you, you have refused it 
 yes, in establishing in your city this very house, where you 
 are now assembled. You stood true to honor you passed 
 through the fire. I have found the smell of fire on the gar- 
 ments of sonic; but, thank God! the great bulk of your 
 citizens have shown themselves to be firm adherents of honest 
 principles: they have gone through this ordeal, and come 
 out purified gold. I don't know a body of sounder Demo- 
 crats than the Democrats of Atlanta. When I spoke 01 
 large operations here, I meant it as no reproach. God 
 forbid. 
 
 The man that preserves his virtue under temptation will 
 do to be trusted always : the man that preserves it up to the 
 time when temptation comes, we simply don't know what 
 he will do when it does come. 
 
 General Grant said he would throw up his commission if 
 Lee and his brave comrades were arrested. That's a good 
 thing ; I give him credit for it. President Johnson sent him 
 down here to take a survey of the South, and report on our 
 condition. He came ; he was in this city ; he was in divers 
 central points of our country. He went back and reported 
 that we were all right ; that we ought to be restored to our 
 places in the Union immediately, without any XlVth or 
 XVth miscalled amendments (for that was before they were 
 enacted) ; without any reconstruction and Radicalism ; with- 
 out any Enforcement act ; without any ku-klux laws ; with- 
 out any suspension of habeas corpus. 
 
 And why was it not done? Why were we not restored? 
 The Radical cry zvas raised against it, and again the same 
 old arch-fiend, Horace Greeley, lieadedthatcty. Grant quit
 
 374 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 his good principles, and went over, and became the expo- 
 nent 'of Greeley's bad ones. This is the greatest objection that 
 I have to Grant: that he quit his own principles and went 
 over to Greeley's; and as long as reason maintains her 
 throne in me, and the pulsations of my heart permit me to 
 live, so help me God, I never intend to follow that man's 
 example! [Applause.] 
 
 Democratic principles restored by supporting Grant or 
 Greeley ! I would just as soon think of advancing the prin- 
 ciples of Christianity by hauling down the banner of Christ, 
 and hoisting the colors of Mahomet! [Applause.] 
 
 The combination, or coalition, if you please, made by 
 Democrats and Liberals, in Missouri and Tennessee, is 
 quoted, and we are urged to follow the example. The 
 proposition that was made by good Democrats and true, to 
 accept Judge Davis as a candidate, is quoted. There was 
 something in each of these cases to be gained for the ad- 
 vancement of Democratic principles in Missouri and in Ten- 
 nessee. The combination, with Gratz Brown in the one and 
 Senter in the other, stood pledged 'in each State to strike loose 
 the fetters of about forty thousand Democratic voters, who 
 were then under the iron heel of proscription ; and when 
 that was done, these States were in the possession of the 
 Democracy. There was some sense in that. Judge Davis, 
 on the Supreme Bench, conceived that his solemn constitu- 
 tional obligation required him to pronounce sentence of un- 
 constitutionality on some of the acts which had been passed 
 by Greeley, Grant, and Sumner, to carry out tlieir ideas of 
 constitutional obligation. lie pronounced these acts null 
 and void. Judge Davis, under his solemn sense of duty, 
 held those acts to be revolutionary, unconstitutional, null 
 and void. He turned loose Milligan after he had been con- 
 demned by a military tribunal to be shot. He was about to 
 turn loose McArdle, but Greeley again came to the rescue, 
 and Congress, at the crack of his lash, passed a law to pre- 
 vent Judge Davis from turning loose any other victim of 
 tyranny. 
 
 Judge Davis, God knows, is not all I would have him to 
 be; indeed, I never expect to find any human being who is 
 up to the standard of perfection not even those who were 
 made last, and therefore made best, of whom the poet 
 said:
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 375 
 
 "Auld Nature swears the lovely dears, 
 
 Her noblest work she classes, O ! 
 Her 'prentice hand she tried on man, 
 And then she made the lassies, O ! " 
 
 Not even these, far above the 'prentice work, can claim 
 perfection ; but to compare Judge Davis with Horace Gree- 
 ley, and say that one was no better than the other well, 
 it is ungrateful, to say the least of it; and whenever we 
 speak thus disparagingly of our friends in the North, and 
 say that those there who are battling for our rights are no 
 better than those who are helping to oppress us, shall we be 
 surprised if our friends in the North continue to fall away 
 from us? No people can long retain friends who do not 
 treat them right when they do have them. Even the gal- 
 lant Voorhees, who has always fought the fight, kept the 
 faith always been true to the flag of Democratic princi- 
 ples is maligned and misrepresented ; and papers and men, 
 calling themselves Democrats, charge that he has been 
 bought up by Grant, only because he is not willing to take 
 a Radical that is just as much a Radical as Grant or anybody 
 else. [Applause.] 
 
 What are you going to get by it? Why, I am told, if 
 the Democratic party elects Greeley, he will be good to us. 
 Give us something! [Laughter.] What is he going to give 
 us? Give us any principles? Where is the principle he is 
 going to give? He has not even said that he is going to 
 give us anything; but the hope is that he is going to give 
 some of us, who are walling to take it, a little share of the 
 plunder. [Laughter.] Was there ever a more proper ap- 
 plication of the motto, "Fear the Greeks when they are 
 bringing gifts?" Fear the Radicals when they are bring- 
 ing gifts ; and I tell you that Radicals will never, never give 
 you any gifts only to persuade you away from your prin- 
 ciples. Greeley wants you to swap your principles for a 
 few pitiful little offices for sonic people [laughter] ; and I don't 
 know whether sonic people will ever get the offices or not ; 
 and I would not care. 
 
 But you say the Democratic party is so much bigger than 
 Greeley's little segment, that has to do this great work of 
 electing him and that is not done yet [laughter] that it 
 will swallow up the little Greeley concern ; and it has been 
 wittily put: " Can a minnow swallow a whale?" No! A
 
 3/6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 minnow cannot swallow a whale ! but even a whale, if he 
 be passive and float upon the water, without putting forth 
 his fin-power, could be floated by a set of little minnows 
 into any convenient harbor. And this coalition is never to 
 be formed, except upon the condition that all the Democracy 
 that has influence is to become passive to become dormant. 
 We are to quit struggling to secure Democratic principles, 
 and to go to fighting to secure the election of a Radical. 
 
 Well, I have seen little steam-tugs move great men-of- 
 war on the deep ; I have seen them pull them into the har- 
 bor: if the man-of-war will only let off its steam and become 
 passive, the little tug can take it safely in. And just so, if 
 this great Democratic mass will turn off all the Democratic 
 steam Greeley for one tug one great big tug Gratz 
 Brown a little one over in Missouri Sumner a tug, too 
 and I have no doubt you will find a tug in Georgia, too. 
 These tugs will be perfectly able to land this great Demo- 
 cratic leviathan safely on the Radical shore ; and that is just 
 where you are going, if you go with Greeley. 
 
 There is nothing in that but a new phase of the "new 
 departure. " That was a proposition to sanction all the usurp- 
 ations to quit being Democrats to radicalize the Demo- 
 cratic party, and accept the new principle of centralism 
 unlimited power ; and Greeleyism is nothing but a more vir- 
 ulent type of that same disease. God forbid that anybody 
 should understand me as intimating that the great number 
 of people who have been, like my friend, who so eloquently 
 addressed you just now (General Garlington), debating the 
 question whether to go for Greeley or not, should be held 
 by me as tainted by the Radical party! Not at all! I beg 
 you not to take the step ; because, if you do, they will radi- 
 calize you. There cannot be any other result. 
 
 General Grant said, "Let us have peace;" the new de- 
 parture and Greeleyism mean the same thing ; it is addressed 
 to your fears ; it is addressed to your sense of personal com- 
 fort. Buy your peace by grounding the arms of your op- 
 position to Radicalism, and acknowledge our right to rule 
 you, without limitation, in all things! That is a peace I 
 never mean to accept! When they give me riglit, 1 will 
 give them peace and co-operation ; when the}' give me ivrong, 
 I will give them undying resistance. [Applause.] I know 
 no way to maintain right but by fighting wrong. All men,
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 377 
 
 who are in favor of maintaining their r'ghts, are called upon 
 to rally to fight against the foul wrongs that have trodden 
 the right in the dust. Wherever you can find it, strike a 
 blow, if it is inscribed on the banner carried by Grant, by 
 Sumner, or by Greeley. 
 
 I understand the policy of not pressing all your princi- 
 ples upon a man at one time, if he will accept sonic vital 
 one ; I can understand the policy though by no means a 
 favorite with me of taking Judge Davis on account of his 
 position on these reconstruction measures, because he held 
 that the central government was limited, and when it ex- 
 ceeded its powers, its acts were null and void and this is a 
 great point. I can understand that; but I don't understand 
 any policy that can ever justify true men in giving support 
 to a Radical who does not hold a single principle in com- 
 mon with you, and in opposition to the other Radicals. 
 Why, say some, Greeley is quarreling with Grant. Sumner 
 is quarreling with Grant; Sumner made a great speech 
 against Grant the other day; and what do you reckon his 
 objections were? He charged Grant with usurpation, but 
 it was only that he had usurped a power which he said the 
 Senate should have exercised. It was not the usurpation, 
 but the person who perpetrated it, that Sumner complained 
 of. He has quarreled with Grant, but his only quarrel with 
 him was that Grant had robbed him of his rights. He 
 complained, too, that Grant had violated the laws of na- 
 tions, and committed a great outrage upon a foreign black 
 republic; but did he say one word about any usurpation 
 that Grant had ever perpetrated upon us upon folks at 
 home, either white or black ? 
 
 Greeley says Grant is corrupt : he takes gifts ; stands up 
 to his friends ; is guilty of excessive nepotism ; but what 
 does he say when it comes to this grand central question 
 the solemn constitutional obligation of the central govern- 
 ment to maintain the equal rights of citizens, which, they 
 say, not only justifies but requires them to pass all these 
 odious measures under which we have groaned, and under 
 which the gallant State of South Carolina is groaning to- 
 night? My God! how can a South Carolinian hesitate on 
 Greeley? I put it to my friend (turning to General Gar- 
 lington), the only way to get out of these tangles is to stand 
 by your principles and by your guns. [Applause.] 
 
 34
 
 3/8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 It is a prime rule in whist, when you don't know what to 
 play, to play ' ' trumps ; " and if you don't know who to vote 
 for, play trumps; for trumps are always principles. I know 
 something about Grant and Greeley's common principles: 
 they put the Enforcement act upon us. I met them with 
 argument ; I whipped the fight. I well remember the words 
 of cheer which were given me in that contest by the peo- 
 ple, and their rejoicing in my triumph. I was proud, and 
 it made my heart glad to see your devotion to principle. 
 But I did not whip the fight by running away from it, but 
 by fighting it with all the strength that God had given me. 
 It is only by fighting Radicalism that you can do anything. 
 Democrats can't succeed by yielding their principles, or ceas- 
 ing to fight their enemies. The Atlanta Democrats never 
 acted on that idea. I have known the Democrats of Fulton 
 county when they were in the minority: they have made it 
 a glorious majority by fighting. Georgia didn't act that 
 way cease to fight. 
 
 The Democratic convention, which assembled in this city 
 last August a year ago, had principles in it. It was abso- 
 lutely a Bourbon platform; it was actually written by a 
 Bourbon, who is one of the strictest of the sect; and under 
 that Bourbon platform you tore Bullock and his foul confed- 
 erates from the throne, and put a Legislature and a Gov- 
 ernor there of whom you are proud to-day. A Bourbon ! 
 They say a Bourbon never forgets and never learns. Well, 
 I tell you, I can never learn the new lesson they want to 
 teach me until I forget all I know and knew before; and as 
 long as life shall last, and I preserve the principles with 
 which 1 was born, I shall refuse to learn the new lesson. 
 They would teach me to advance my principles by support- 
 ing my worst enemy. 
 
 But it is said we can't do anything! They say the De- 
 mocracy was whipped in '68, and there's an end of the argu- 
 ment. Well, the Democrats were very badly whipped in 
 1840; they were about as badly whipped a set of fellows as 
 I ever saw. They did not think it was the end ; they fought 
 on; they whipped the Whigs, in 1844, almost as badly as 
 they got whipped in 1840. In 1848 they were whipped 
 again ; they did not quit the fight. In 1 852 they were again 
 successful; they elected Pierce. In 1856 they elected Buch- 
 anan ; and those are the only two consecutive triumphs of
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 379 
 
 the Democratic party, in a presidential contest, since my rec- 
 ollection. The next time they lost again. When people 
 tell me that, because they lost in 1868, they can't succeed 
 no\v, I know they don't understand these American people, 
 or else they want to deceive me one or the other. No man 
 comprehends the people of these States, unless he under- 
 stands that there is a vast ma.ss of the people who don't owe 
 any party a^iegiance, and that they go in each campaign 
 according to the issues of the times. 
 
 Whipped in 1868! How could it have been otherwise? 
 That platforn said the reconstruction acts were revolutionary, 
 unconstitutional, null and void; and the doctrine of that 
 platform was, that the bayonet ought to be withdrawn, and 
 the people left free to resume State-rights, fo^m their own 
 State Constitutions and organizations. That was the doc- 
 trine of that platform. Well, Seymour would never get up 
 on it; he never would say that the reconstruction acts were 
 revolutionary, unconstitutional, null and void; and Frank 
 Blair he wrote his Broadhead letter, and said that the bay- 
 onet ought to undo what it had wrongfully done. Frank 
 jumped clean over the platform. And this is the way the 
 platform stood : one-half on one side, afraid to get up ; the 
 other naif jumped clean over, and on the other side, and 
 the two held together by nothing but the ligature of a com- 
 mon nomination. The two candidates were like a pair of 
 saddle-bags. And then the New York World refused to 
 support the candidates, and said that even these saddle-bags 
 should be taken down. 
 
 Yes, we were whipped in 1868; but remember that, in 
 1870, the elections in the Northern States went vastly in 
 favor of the Democrats, with substantial gains in Congress. 
 The new departure was sprung to stop the mischief; the 
 Democratic work was going on too well ; it had to be stop- 
 ped, and the new departure was put forward to stop it ; and 
 now Greeley comes. The first gun that fires under them is 
 Oregon gone Radical now. It is true and I thank God 
 it is that the best way to gain victory is to deserve it. 
 There is more power in the truth than there is in falsehood. 
 There is more in right than there is in wrong; and if you 
 have got but true men, whether few or many, relatively, 
 that is the road of success as well as of honor. 
 
 There is another great question I began by saying there
 
 380 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 were two and the other is, Shall the Democratic party gov- 
 ern the Baltimore convention, or shall the Baltimore con- 
 vention govern the Democratic party? Shall the principal 
 govern the agent, or the agent the principal? Shall the 
 servant obey the master, or the master the servant ? There 
 is a cry now, " Let us all go to Baltimore ; we won't discuss 
 it; we won't decide anything here go to Baltimore; " and 
 this when the proposition to be discussed at Baltimore is, 
 whether or not Democratic principles are to be advanced by 
 trusting them to the keeping of one of the chiefs of the 
 Radicals ? 
 
 If I were in the church, I would as soon think of abiding 
 by the decision of the church, if the question debated was 
 whether Christ should be repudiated, and Mahomet or 
 Juggernaut substituted instead. I abide by the Democratic 
 party as long as it remains a Democratic party, and no lon- 
 ger ; I abide by the Democratic party so long as it main- 
 tains Democratic principles or some vital one, at least, of the 
 Democratic principles and no longer. I don 't mean anything 
 harsh, but simply to tell you a plain truth that 1 regard 
 any body of men, associated politically for any purpose other 
 than to maintain principles, as no better than a band of 
 spoilsmen, bound together for plunder. The only cause of 
 allegiance that binds a true man to any party, is the faith 
 that it teaches. Suppose the Baltimore convention nom- 
 inates Grant, will you take him ? [A voice " No !"] Sup- 
 pose it nominates Greeley, why take him in preference to 
 Grant? He is no better. 
 
 They say he is an honest man a good man. They talk 
 about his old white hat, and make jokes about his old white 
 coat, to put people in a good humor. May be it is like a 
 Bourbon to have a memory, and I have not lost mine. 1 
 remember he was the man that raised his voice in the North, 
 and said we had the right to secede, and that if the North 
 made war upon us, it would be a crime. Yes, he said " let 
 the wayward sisters go in peace. " After the war began he, 
 too, raised the cry of war ; and, to show how malignant he 
 was, he said that, when the war was over, the rebels should 
 not go free, but should have a punishment. Hear it ! hear 
 it! Southrons, hear it ! Georgians, hear it ! Georgia men 
 and Georgia women, he said they should have a punishment 
 that could be read in the anxious faces of our mothers, and
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 381 
 
 the rags of our children ! That's what he said. Save me 
 from all such honesty as that. I believe I would rather 
 trust the honesty of Bullock himself than such honesty as 
 that. Treachery is what I call it ; malignity is what I call 
 it not benevolence. I don't want to "shake hands over 
 such a chasm. " I will tell you when I will ' ' shake hands over 
 the bloody chasm : " when he comes and o.Ters me his hand 
 over these enforcement acts, and the ku-klux act under 
 which South Carolina is groaning this night and offers to 
 shake hands with me, and sw r ears on these locked hands that 
 he gives up his principles, and that these so-called laws shall 
 be repealed, and never be repeated, and gives up the prin- 
 ciple that our rights are subject to the obligation of the cen- 
 tral power to maintain the equal rights of citizens, then I 
 will shake hands with him, and not before. [Applause.] 
 
 I want no Judas' kisses nor Judas' shaking of the hand ; 
 and I will kiss no man, and I would not kiss even any wo- 
 man [applause], much as I love them and God knows I 
 love to live to love them [applause] I would not even ac- 
 cept a woman's lips that came to offer Delilah's kiss. Talk- 
 to me about abiding the Baltimore convention ! I \vill abide 
 by it in all questions of policy, but I will not abide by that 
 convention, nor any other convention that bids me depart 
 from principle; and I want to know if these gentlemen who 
 say stand by the Baltimore convention, whatever they do, 
 will stand by it if they adopt the Philadelphia platform and 
 nominate Grant? The Cincinnati platform is no better in 
 principle than the Philadelphia platform. 
 
 But the office-rot has got among them ; yes, and that is 
 what's the matter. They are like Esau some of them: 
 they would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. I 
 don't speak of the people ; but there are men who are pin- 
 ing for pottage. They have been ineligible ; they could 
 not get a crumb for lo, these seven years. [Laughter.] 
 The office-rot is what is the matter ; they seek plunder. 
 There are some who are even willing to change their posi- 
 tion from the plundered to the plunderers. As for me, let 
 me abide by the oppression. I would rather support prin- 
 ciple than secure profit by committing the deed. Trust, 
 then, in the wisdom and justice of God. I do verily believe 
 that He, not as a speculative being, but as a natural Being, 
 rules every movement of this whole earth. It is my com-
 
 382 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 fort and my consolation that there is a God who rules the 
 world, and that if I do not prove untrue to Him, I need fear 
 no human oppression now nor hereafter. Stand by His 
 good gifts; He gave us this great right to govern ourselves; 
 let us not abandon it; let us honor, and not dishonor Him. 
 
 These, fellow-citizens, are my views of the political situ- 
 ation; these are my resolves as to my duty. I will go for 
 the maintenance of Democratic principles; and if I can't 
 get the man who goes for all, I will take the one who goes 
 for some of the vital principles of the Democracy ; I will 
 take no subordinate rights, but absolute State-rights. The 
 way to win is to hoist your colors. I do not mean any new 
 departurists I don't mean any radicalized colors, but the 
 true Democratic State-rights colors that hold reconstruction 
 and all its triumphs to be revolutionary, unconstitutional, 
 null, and void. We may not succeed in electing a Presi- 
 dent in this campaign, but we can put the party on this sort 
 of a platform, and give it standard-bearers worthy to carry 
 its colors. We will be in condition to carry the next elec- 
 tion ; but, at all events, it will keep the tnitJi for future use. 
 
 I see some say it takes a very nice calculation to tell 
 whether Greeiey has the strength to succeed. Well, my 
 God ! if there is any doubt, then, will you hesitate? I have 
 been sincere, and am warm, because my whole soul is in 
 this business. I do not intend to die a slave myself, and I 
 do not intend peacefully to submit to slavery as an inherit- 
 ance for my children ; and, it we cannot do anything else, 
 we can, at least, maintain the glorious party we have inau- 
 gurated in old Georgia; and I would rather to-day have the 
 Georgia Democracy go forth into another canvass, true to 
 their principles, with true standard-bearers, than to have all 
 the spoils the office-seekers will ever get out of Greeiey. 
 All the favors Greeiey would give Democrats would be to 
 such Democrats as would never do honor to their party. 
 You could get all that out of Grant if you would go over to 
 him. They say he is scared he is badly scared at the 
 prospect before him. Well, if you go over to him, he is 
 fond of his friends. If you want peace, and \\ill take it on 
 his terms; if you will acknowledge his right to lick you 
 whenever he wants to, he will take off all those enforcement 
 acts; but they won't stay off long; for as long as the prin- 
 ciple is acknowledged, it has got to bear its fruits. The
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 383 
 
 thistle will bear the same fruits again, plant it in whatever 
 soil you may. You might stop Vesuvius by plunging Stone 
 Mountain into it, but the fires would break out at some new 
 crater. The vital force may stop, for a season, its opera- 
 tion in one direction, but it will break out somewhere else. 
 If you take off the ku-klux bill, they will give you an edu- 
 cational bill next; then a religious bill, after awhile, to es- 
 tablish your religion. 
 
 Now, this constitutional obligation they talk about, to 
 maintain the rights of citizens the XlVth and XVth mis- 
 called amendments, the XlVth and XVth frauds, the XlVth 
 and XVth falsehoods, because the XlVth and XVth usurp- 
 ations come last they say they override everything else 
 the provision that habeas corpus shall not be suspended in 
 time of peace everything these frauds which are not in 
 the Constitution at all, and, if they were, never could be 
 rightly construed, as they construe them they say they 
 override everything that was ever in the Constitution be- 
 fore. As long as this principle is held ; as long as men are 
 in power, who acknowledge it; as long as a party cannot 
 be found in the country to war against that principle: that 
 principle will live and flourish. The thorn-tree will bear 
 thorns, and the American people will have plucked the last 
 fig from the tree of liberty. [Great applause.] 
 
 A few days after the delivery of that speech days of un- 
 remitting toil in the court-room and in the closet he went 
 home, in an exhausted condition of health, to meet his en- 
 gagements in Hancock Superior Court. Employed on one 
 side or the other of every important cause, the labor it im- 
 posed quite overcame him. When the excitement of the 
 week the gandia certaminis had abated, he was left in a 
 state of complete nervous prostration. On Friday, he was 
 confined to his room; Saturday, he was worse; and, al- 
 though no alarm was felt, a physician was called in. 
 
 During the night, his condition became critical. At 5 
 o'clock P. M., Sunday, the I4th of July, 18/2, he ceased to 
 breathe. 
 
 Retaining perfect consciousness to the last moment, and
 
 384 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 fully appreciating his situation, with all its relations past, 
 present, and future he took his way into the Great Dark- 
 ness undismayed dying, as he had lived, "fearing God 
 and knowing no other fear." 
 
 His obsequies arc thus described by Frank L. Little, 
 Esq., at that time editor of the Southern Times and Planter: 
 
 JUDGE STEPHENS' BURIAL. 
 
 This event occurred on Tuesday morning, at 10 o'clock. 
 By general consent, all the places of business had been 
 closed since his death, and every house was draped in 
 mourning. Many sympathizing friends visited his residence 
 on Monday; but, on Tuesday, the throng of people poured 
 in from all sides, until hundreds were here to look, for the 
 last time, upon the remains of the deceased, and to assist 
 in the sad ceremony of his burial. Kvery man, and woman, 
 and child seemed to be bowing under the consciousness of 
 individual loss, and the general gloom was deeper than \ve 
 have ever seen it before. The few words spoken were in a 
 suppressed tone, and were all about the great loss to his 
 family and country. 
 
 When the appointed hour for the burial had arrived, the 
 plate was adjusted over the glass, and the pall-bearers, in 
 the following order, bore him from the library, where his 
 remains had been lying, to the open grave : 
 
 WM. W. SIMPSON and CAPTAIN L. L. LAMAR. 
 L. PIERCE, Jr., and J. CLARENCE SIMMONS. 
 HENRY H. CULVER and DR. E. D. ALFRIEND. 
 HENRY HARRIS and F. L. LITTLE. 
 
 The grave is just in front of his residence, beautifully sur- 
 rounded with shrubbery and embowered vith shade-trees. 
 Under the reading of the impressive words of the burial- 
 service, by his life-long friend, Colonel C. \Y. DuBose, 
 whose voice was tremulous with his o\vn deep emotions, 
 not many eyes remained dry. This ended, the grave was 
 soon filled, and all that was mortal of this distinguished 
 man hid away forever from the sight of friends and loved 
 ones. His body "was committed to the dust, his soul to 
 the God who trave it.'
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHEN'S. 385 
 
 Not least of the significant and affecting circumstances of 
 his funeral rites was the large number of colored people 
 who were present to testify their sense of sorrow at the 
 common loss and pay respect to his memory. Their houses, 
 too, were "draped in mourning," and they wept over the 
 grave of their real benefactor and friend, whose counsels, in 
 the early days of emancipation, they did not heed, but 
 which later and riper experience had taught them were sal- 
 utary and wise: for, to all men, at all times, he spoke tntc 
 things rather than pleasing things "\'cra pro gratis." 
 
 In stature, Judge Stephens stood six feet, with more bone 
 and muscle than flesh. All the features of his face were 
 distinctly marked. His forehead, broad at the base, broad- 
 ened as it ascended to the region of what phrenologists de- 
 nominate Causality, Comparison, and Ideality. In youth, 
 he had a thick suit of dark-brown hair, inclined to curl and 
 crisp, which time somewhat whitened, but scarcely thinned. 
 His was a deep-set, clear, blue eye, which, in repose, wore an 
 expression of thoughtfulness and almost unworldly sadness ; 
 in moments of hilarity, it laughed with rich, soft light, be- 
 traying an almost feminine tenderness and gentleness ; whilst, 
 on occasions which called into exercise the heroic virtues, 
 or excited the sterner passions of anger or indignation, it 
 flashed forth a flame that was terrible to the trembling trans- 
 gressor. His nose, fashioned rather alter the Roman than 
 the Grecian mould, was large and prominent ; his chin, more 
 broad than sharp, lent a Spartan resolution to the whole ex- 
 pression of his face ; his head, like Napoleon's and Frank- 
 lin's, grew larger after he had passed his third decade. His 
 dress, never sloven, was sometimes negligent; he cared lit- 
 tle for the fit of a garment, if it sat easy and was unsoilcd. 
 
 The handwriting of Judge Stephens was remarkably legi- 
 ble, and somewhat feminine in type ; it was formed upon no 
 model, and resembled none I ever saw. With abundant
 
 386 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 indications to show that he used the pen with ease and rap- 
 idity, there are seldom to be discovered any signs of hurry 
 none of carelessness. In the large number of letters which 
 I have had occasion to examine, there are to be found very 
 few interlineations, and not more than one or two erasures. 
 In this respect, his manuscript was as unblemished as one 
 of Mr. John Quincy Adams', of whom it has been related 
 that he never made an alteration on the written page during 
 the last fifty years of his busy life. 
 
 In social life, he avoided the crowd. The circle of his 
 intimate friends was not a large one ; but of that "charmed 
 circle" he was the idol; and, perhaps, it is not extravagant 
 to record that, while the death of many Georgians has cre- 
 ated a sorrow more extensive in its range, the death of none 
 ever penetrated the hearts of so large a number with an 
 anguish so personal, so near, so keen, so bitter as that occa- 
 sioned by the death of Linton Stephens. How many felt 
 as did the large-hearted, stalwart man feel when, standing 
 by the open grave of Daniel Webster, he said: "How 
 
 LONESOME THE WORLD SEEMS ! " 
 
 Judge Stephens was an earnest student throughout his life. 
 He had studied men, and knew them well ; his judgments of 
 character, sometimes almost intuitively formed, were rarely 
 erroneous. It was in books, however, that he found the 
 chiefest source of intellectual enjoyment ; they were his pas- 
 sion and delight pra'sidiuni ct duke dcais. 
 
 He did not cultivate, with any great degree of assiduity, 
 the knowledge of Greek, imperfectly acquired at college ; 
 but his knowledge of the Latin language and literature was 
 extensive, accurate, and intimate. Tacitus, Cicero, and 
 Horace were special favorites each of his kind. His knowl- 
 edge of the best English authors, both of prose and verse, 
 was comprehensive, various, and wonderfully exact, for one 
 whose vocation was the study and mastery of the "jealous 
 science of the law." Bacon and Burke, <f welded together,"
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 387 
 
 he said, would have made the grandest character in IvVory. 
 It is safe to say, he had no superior in the State in a pro- 
 found and philosophical knowledge of English and Ameri- 
 can history political, ecclesiastical, or literary. He re- 
 garded Hume, in style, as the Prince of British historians 
 neat, perspicuous, nervous, condensed far surpassing, for 
 that sort of writing, the elaborate finish of Gibbon matc- 
 riam supcrabat opus the stately elegance of Robertson, of 
 the studied, breathless antitheses of Macaulay. 
 
 Of American historians, he esteemed Motley before Ban- 
 croft or Prescott. Prescott was too precise as to little mat- 
 ters; Bancroft had more words than ideas. Acidison, among 
 all the English fine writers of prose, he admired most, in 
 sentiment as well as style. He has been heard to say, that 
 "Washington Irving was the Addison of America. " "Dean 
 Swift," he said, "was a dirty dog, but no man ever wrote 
 or uttered the Saxon of our tongue so vigorously as Dean 
 Swift." Shakspcare and the English Bible he knew almost 
 by heart. Pope, he said, was the greatest didactic poet of 
 any language; Burns, Byron, Dryden, Goldsmith all of 
 different vein were his companions each of whom he had 
 studied, and thoroughly appreciated. 
 
 Milton he did not very greatly admire, for the same rea- 
 son that he little affected Gibbon : it required too much 01 
 palpable, ostensible effort to ' ' manufacture the Milionic gran- 
 deur." The quiet, quaint, half-hid humor of Tristram Shandy 
 he could read and laugh over by the hour, all day long ; and 
 lie said "Sterne mistook his calling when he put on the sa- 
 cerdotal robes." He never could detect any wit in Rabe- 
 lais; and he said, " I have searched for it in vain ; Toombs 
 or Tom Thomas can, and frequently do, speak more witti- 
 cisms in one night than Rabelais, in a lifetime, wrote. " Bul- 
 wer was his beau-ideal vi a monarch in the realms of fiction 
 greater than Thackeray, or Dickens, or Scott, because he 
 had a deeper and more philosophic insight into human na-
 
 388 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 ture especially in its nob'er manifestations ; and his great- 
 est merit was the beauty, and fidelity, and delicacy with 
 which he portrayed the excellence of female character, in 
 its best exhibitions. He once said: "There is no gram- 
 mar, and hardly a dictionary, in our language. Webster is 
 the best defincr ; but his orthography, in so many instances, 
 is not akin to the etymology ; for example, theater is only 
 the step-daughter of theatre, etc. Home Tooke was the 
 greatest of English philologists. He knew the power of 
 words, and made them things ; the shortest cut to a knowl- 
 edge of our mother-tongue is through the "Diversions of 
 Purley. " He had peculiar aptitude and fondness for meta- 
 physical study and inquiry; and, in the line of speculative 
 philosophy, he ranked Sir William Hamilton above Reid or 
 Stewart even alongside his great prototype, Aristotle. 
 
 He was passionately fond of biography "the philosophy 
 which teaches by example " more aptly and specifically than 
 history; and he gave full indulgence to his taste for that 
 sort of reading. " Kennedy's Life of Wirt " he considered 
 the best specimen of American biography, whether regarded 
 in point of style, the skillful handling of his material, the 
 delicacy and elegance of the portraiture, or the attractive 
 light in which he presents his subject, as an example for the 
 emulation of youth. 
 
 His colloquial talents were of the first rate. Like Burke, 
 he talked because "his mind was full;" he never opened 
 his mouth without having something to say. His conversa- 
 tion was alike instructive and entertaining at times, adorned 
 with classical allusion, enlivened with apt anecdote, enriched 
 with prompt and sparkling wit, and illustrated by serious or 
 comic incident. No man had a keener appreciation of the 
 ludicrous, either in incident or in character ; and none more 
 exquisitely enjoyed a well-told story, or better relished a good 
 joke; when the humor was on him, and the occasion to his 
 liking, few knew so well how "to set the table on a roar."
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 389 
 
 All men of mark have their special theaters whereon 
 their peculiar talents and abilities show to greatest advan- 
 tage. There are those who shine most brilliantly in the 
 forum, addressing the bench like Toombs or PIull or ad- 
 dressing the Twelve, like Wright or Lumpkin ; others there 
 are, whose Titanic strength is best displayed before delib- 
 erative assemblies, like Johnson or the elder Stephens ; 
 others, again, are in their element and in their glory on the 
 hustings, like Hill and Yancey; others, yet again, in the 
 lecture-room, like McCay or LeConte. I believe the great- 
 est exhibitions of intellectual resource and power ever made 
 by Linton Stephens were in familiar conversation, when, in- 
 spired by the topic under discussion, and conscious of no 
 effort on his own part, he poured forth a wealth of learning 
 and wisdom, wit, logic, and eloquence, that was marvelous 
 to the auditor. He was one of the few men I have known, 
 whose mental bulk and stature aggrandized on approach 
 possibly some frailty may have been, at the same time, 
 more fully disclosed to view but his real greatness en- 
 larged it did not diminish. 
 
 Other and abler pens have, in the preceding pages, por- 
 trayed him in the character of statesman, jurist, orator, 
 friend: one, especially, has befittingly complemented 
 what his own letters do not entirely reveal the excellence 
 and beauty of the endearing and nobler parts of his nature, 
 as daily exemplified in social and domestic life, and which, 
 lending a mild and sweet expression to the sterner features 
 of great mental endowment severely cultured masculine 
 will, unquailing courage, complete the picture of MAN. 
 
 The affluence of just, discriminate, appreciative eulogy, 
 which was heaped upon his tomb through channels of the 
 public press, the courts, political conventions, primary as- 
 semblies of the people, epistolary correspondence, private 
 conversation, is unequaled, perhaps, in the history of any 
 citizen of the commonwealth certainly, in that of any one
 
 39O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 who never occupied the highest political station. He, him- 
 self, was unconscious of the space he filled in the general 
 eye, and of the hold he had upon the popular heart. His 
 manly modesty would have crimsoned at suggestion of the 
 fact; still, the sorrow deep, boding, awful so keenly 
 felt, so eloquently uttered, when "tidings of his death came 
 like wailing over the land," avouches the truth that he was 
 the foremost citizen of the State when the awful curtain 
 dropped. 
 
 When few of the many testimonials, in my possession, of 
 the estimation wherein he was held, and of the sharp grief 
 the news of his death shot to the hearts of great and good 
 men, who knew, appreciated, admired him, are transcribed, 
 my "labor of love" will have been imperfectly performed. 
 
 I am under obligations to Hon. Miles W. Lewis for the 
 following admirable estimate of Judge Stephens' character 
 as a legislator: 
 
 WOODLAWN, GREENE COUNTY, GEORGIA, 
 September 24, 1873. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR Yours of the i8th instant is before me. 
 You state that you are preparing a biographical memoir of 
 the late Judge Stephens, and that, from the frequent and 
 respectful mention made of me in his correspondence with 
 his brother, Alexander, you infer that we often inter- 
 changed letters, and ask a loan of them. It would afford 
 me great pleasure to comply with your request; but, al- 
 though Judge Stephens and myself were very intimate, I 
 remember no letter he ever wrote me, except such as were 
 entirely on professional business. This I consider a strange 
 misfortune, considering our social relations; for I claim no 
 more honor than is due to truth when I tell you that, al- 
 though the number of those who partook of his kindness 
 and enjoyed his friendship was little less extensive than the 
 circle of his acquaintance, yet those with whom he was in- 
 timate, and to whom he freely unlocked the arcana of his 
 great heart, were comparatively very few, and that I was 
 one of the favored few.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 39 
 
 You also state truly that I served with him in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, and ask me to aid your labor by giving you 
 my reminiscences of him as a legislator, to be incorporated 
 in the volume over my own name. I greatly regret that 
 the imperfections of memory, the want of data at my com- 
 mand, and press of business, will render the contribution 
 unsatisfactory to both of us, and unworthy of the character 
 and talents of our deceased friend; but if I can chisel out 
 even an humble and unsightly block to fill up an interstice 
 in the literary monument you are erecting to his memory, 
 it shall be at your free disposal. You are engaged in a 
 noble enterprise no less a one than enshrining in the an- 
 nals of biographical literature, as it is already in the hearts 
 of his counrymen, the memory of one of Georgia's noblest 
 and greatest dead. H*s State could have but ill spared his 
 services at any crisis in her history ; but at the particular 
 and peculiar time of his death, I hesitate not to say that 
 Georgia yea, the whole Republic could have sustained 
 no greater loss in the death of any one of her distinguished 
 sons. Who, that knew his power and influence, can esti- 
 mate the depth and extent of the wound inflicted on con- 
 stitutional liberty by the fatal shaft which death aimed at 
 this shining mark? Might not the administration of our 
 State government, in all its departments (improved as it has 
 been in the recent past), have been still purer, less selhsh, 
 more patriotic, more statesman-like, and more glorious? 
 Might not the circle of this improvement, as the ripple on 
 the agitated surface of the recently placid lake, have en- 
 larged until its influence would have been felt throughout 
 the whole extent of this mighty confederation ? Who can 
 say nay? 
 
 But to the duty assigned me of sketching, as best I may, 
 his characteristics as a legislator. This I can do only in 
 general terms, being unable to particularize and illustrate 
 each trait, by striking incidents in his legislative career, 
 coming under rny own observation, from the fact that we 
 served together in but one General Assembly he in the 
 House and I in the Senate each attending closely to the 
 business and debates transpiring in his own branch ; but 
 whenever I heard his familiar voice in debate, unless per- 
 sonally engaged in important business in the Senate, I al- 
 ways repaired to the Representative hall. He never spoke
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 merely to be talking, and for notoriety; and never, except 
 on matters of grave importance, and, usually, such as vi- 
 tally affected the interests of the (then) Southern Confed- 
 eracy such as the conscript acts, the indorsement by the 
 State of the Confederate bonds, the principles on which, 
 and for which, the war should be carried on, and when and 
 how it should be terminated ; for the discussion of these 
 important subjects, which, at that time, absorbed the inter- 
 est and attention of the whole South, he marshaled all his 
 intellectual forces. These were neither few nor feeble, but 
 formidable to opponents, and such as gave to allies assur- 
 ance of victory. 
 
 His speeches were characterized by practical or, as it is 
 generally termed common sense, sound logic, animation, 
 zeal (not "without knowledge"), withering sarcasm, fine 
 discrimination, and fervid eloquence; in short, he held in 
 his intellectual armory, and used as occasion demanded, all 
 the weapons whose skillful handling constitutes the able de- 
 bater and eloquent orator. lie accomplished his purposes 
 by no maneuvering or indirect means, but marched boldly 
 up to his work, strong in his consciousness of right, fearless 
 of consequences to himself, "asking no favors and shrink- 
 ing from no responsibility." Even his opponents honored 
 .him for the purity of his motives, and admired his great 
 ability. He was always the champion of the liberty of the 
 people; and if there was any subject in the whole range of 
 political science, which he thoroughly comprehended, and 
 which was the idol of his patriotic affections, that subject 
 was CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY. In its defense, he fought 
 his most celebrated battles, and achieved his most brilliant 
 victories. 
 
 In the ordinary routine of legislation, and in his daily in- 
 tercourse with his fellow-members, he was distinguished by 
 the same traits of character which so signally marked his 
 conduct in social life. He was truthful, candid, guileless, 
 generous, and brave. In each and all these qualities, if he 
 ever had a superior, the writer never saw him. This judg- 
 ment is pronounced with no fear of its being criticized or 
 questioned by those who knew him. 
 
 Pardon a short paragraph on one of his prominent traits 
 as a lawyer. His rare legal attainments will doubtless form 
 the subject of a leading chapter in your memoir; but he
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 was as magnanimous and generous as he was able and elo- 
 quent. An instance in point I not only witnessed, but ex- 
 perienced, and gratefully remember. I was engaged in the 
 defense of some negro prisoners, indicted for a crime which 
 rendered them so odious that they were threatened with 
 Lynch-law, if acquitted in the court, which placed their 
 counsel in a position by no means enviable. Friends warned 
 me of the danger of a loss of popularity, and the forfeiture 
 of the friendship and patronage of the most influential class 
 of society. In my jury-speech, I spoke of the seductive 
 whisperings of ambition and vain warnings of pretended or 
 real friends that had been breathed into my ear treated 
 them all (I trust) with becoming contempt, and made the 
 best defense I could, under the circumstances. Judge Ste- 
 phens follov.-ed me in the prosecution. Never shall I forget 
 his look of approval, as advancing to me, when I s.it down, 
 he said: "Miles, who has been talking in that vvay about 
 you?" After informing him, he opened one of his most 
 masterly efforts by paying me a high compliment for the 
 force of the argument, and the honor I had reflected on the 
 profession, by what he termed rny manly and independent 
 bearing m the case. Then followed a withering rebuke to 
 my would-be friends for endeavoring to turn me aside from 
 the path of professional duty. I then felt, and still feel, 
 richly compensated for any danger I was in from the malev- 
 olence of enemies or the desertion of friends. But lest I 
 transcend the limits assigned me, I will close this imperfect 
 sketch of our departed friend with a familiar, but appropri- 
 ate, couplet from the ancient classics: 
 
 " Clarum et venerabile nomen, 
 
 Gentibus, et multuin nosta? quod proderat urbi." 
 
 Yours, truly, MILES W. LEWIS. 
 
 The Hon. Richard H. Clark thus graphically and elegantly 
 describes the effect of one of Judge Stephens' speeches in 
 the General Assembly in 1854: 
 
 The State capitol was located in Milledgeville in (I be- 
 lieve) the year 1807, because it was the nearest practical 
 
 35
 
 394 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 geographical center of the State. This was before the day 
 of railroads, and before there were settlements beyond the 
 Ocmulgee. When Cherokee, Western, and Southwestern 
 Georgia became settled, the lands of the Creeks and Chero- 
 kees occupied, and the railroad system of the- State estab- 
 lished, Milledgcville was left rather out of the way for the 
 great majority of the white, or business, population. The 
 removal of the capitol to Macon or Atlanta beg.m to be 
 mooted, and, at the session of 1847, took shape in the effort 
 to pass a law to that effect. Then, and after, the move 
 would have succeeded, if all the friends of removal could 
 have agreed on the site; but the contest between Ivlacon 
 and Atlanta operated to keep the capitol at Milledgeville. 
 The removal feeling, nevertheless, continued to grow until 
 the sessions of i853-'4. An act passed "the House" to 
 move the capitol to Macon. J5y a count of the Senate, 
 it was ascertained that the same act would pass that bod}'. 
 This knowledge created intense interest among "he people 
 of Milledgeville. They /-//that all their real estate would, 
 by the removal, become as ashes on their hands, and this, 
 with many, was absolute poverty. Every man, and, in- 
 deed, woman, and even children, turned out to "stem the 
 tide " in the Senate. I have never witnessed any excitement, 
 of tJic kind, so intense, deep, and pervading. The bill was 
 made the special order for a day in (I think') February, 1854. 
 On that day, before the hour for the special order had ar- 
 rived, the gallery, the lobby, the aisles, the windows every- 
 where that sitting or standing-room could be had -was filled 
 with the population of Milledgeville. The oldest citizens 
 such as the eldest McComb were furnished with the most 
 comfortable and mogt conspicuous seats. If all of them 
 had been on trial for their lives, they could not have looked 
 more serious, more anxious, or more troubled. We, who 
 were/my/ for the removal, were moved with compassion at 
 the sight; yet, we felt it a public duty that must be dis- 
 charged, and the people of Milledgeville had our deepest 
 sympathy in our reali/ation that nothing that could be done 
 would prevent the enactment of the law for the removal. 
 They had always been the kindest of people all, even to 
 the negro servants, who were the best collection in the State. 
 There is no man, with both sense and sou!, who has ever
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 395 
 
 attachment for the place and people, and one that must be 
 a dear memory, even down to the latest period of the long- 
 est liver. Especially so it must be with those who passed 
 there those long biennial sessions of some ninety days, and 
 remained all the while as the guests of the very aged Mrs. 
 Huson, or of (as he was familiarly called) "Old Bob Mc- 
 Comb." When the time came and the special order was 
 taken up, there was the most profound silence. It was of 
 a kind that reminded one of a funeral occasion, when men 
 and women were gathered to pay the last sad rites to a dear 
 friend, just preceding the burial. Now, this simile is appro- 
 priate; for a majority of the Senate then proposed to bury 
 forever dear old Miilcdgeville, the capital of Georgia; and 
 her whole population had come out as mourners. My mem- 
 ory fails me, if any effort was made in the way for or against 
 the bill, before the speech of Judge Stephens. I think net; 
 but if so, the efforts were not marked by an}- length or 
 power. I /iv/Oa' that several of the most effective speakers 
 on the removal side were reserved for closing the debate. 
 The Milledgeville people had made a strong friend of Judge 
 Stephens. His friendship was not merely political it was 
 personal, z.n& feelingly personal. He was their champion 
 indeed, all their hopes were centered in him to check the 
 current that was fast and forcibly running against them. It 
 was an occasion where everything conspired to a successful 
 effort. There was the subject the people, the interests, 
 the affections, the time, the audience, TJIF ORATOR. It is 
 useless indeed, it is impossible to describe the oration. 
 It lasted for an hour and a half, and as much was said as 
 was possible for man to embrace in that much time. For 
 logic, for pathos, for humor, for ingenuity, it was grand ; 
 and, if judged by its effects, it was unsurpassed. The si- 
 lence that prevailed at the beginning became, if possible, 
 deeper, as the orator proceeded. The Milledgeville men 
 and women wept tears of joy, and the most inveterate 
 removal man looked ashamed of the deed he was about to 
 commit; and, before Judge Stephens concluded, we re- 
 garded "Old Bob McComb," and his sort, as bearing "a 
 charmed life," and that it was sacrilege to. touch their per- 
 son or property, either indirectly or directly, with or with- 
 out the forms of law. I do not remember, except on one 
 occasion, that all the feeling I had was one of enthusiastic
 
 396 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 admiration for the genius of tJic speaker. This feeling so 
 took possession of me that, in casting- my eyes to the gal- 
 lery to see the effect of the oratory there, I discovered Judge 
 Stephens' wife, and the thought that, with lightning rap- 
 idity came to me, was, "How proud she must be of her 
 husband ! " for if I, who was no kinsman, nor intimate, and, 
 for the occasion, his antagonist, was proud, what must be 
 her admiration? The speaker not only excited the admira- 
 tion of both friend and foe, but did what is seldom done 
 ne-i'er, in my knowledge that is, capture all of them. It 
 is as true as truth itself, that, without a demand, we laid 
 down our arms and surrendered at discretion. When Judge 
 Stephens concluded, it needed no vote to tell the fate of the 
 bill. Every man felt it stronger than language or vote could 
 express. The Senator from Bibb, Mr. Dean, seeing the 
 effect, endeavored to rally his voters; but it was of no use. 
 He appealed to me to answer Judge Stephens a feat we 
 occasionally did for each other and I told him if I tlien 
 spoke, it would be against Ids bill, for it would take time to 
 get over the spell of Stephens' eloquence. But the vote 
 had to be taken on (I believe) Judge Stephens' motion to 
 indefinitely postpone, and there was no one who said ' ' nay, " 
 and that feebly, but the " old guard " of the removal army 
 they who, through defeat, tears, and disasters, yet had the 
 courage to stand by their colors myself among the rest. 
 It remains to be added, that the effect of that speech was 
 not merely to defeat removal tJien, but killed it so dead that 
 it never kicked again until after a four-years' bloody war. 
 To prevent misconstruction, it seems necessary to state that, 
 from the first, I was in favor of removal. I have often, in 
 the times alluded to, told my Milledgeville friends that the 
 "fates were against them," and, at no very distant da}-, re- 
 moval would be accomplished. When it came, it came in 
 a way I dreamed not of. 
 
 RICHARD 1 1. CLARK. 
 
 Hon. Herbert Fielder wrote of him: 
 
 CUTIIKKRT, July 24, 1873. 
 
 For close, severe, persistent, aggressive, and irresistible 
 logic upon fair, and open, and manly statement of facts
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 397 
 
 I know of no man, among all my acquaintances, who was 
 his superior; and, I can say, barely any who was, in every 
 respect, his equal. His eloquence was like his logic. His 
 voice was musical, his manner was so earnest, and his voice 
 so in harmony with his manner, and both so true an index 
 to the great thoughts that agitated his brain and stirred up 
 his passionate nature, that he commanded the attention of 
 all grades of mind, from his equals down to the masses. 
 
 When he argued a question, he not only was understood, 
 but/?// by every auditor; and when he was done, the ques- 
 tion was exhausted; yet, he was neither prolix nor tedi- 
 ous. He followed wherever his convictions of truth led 
 him, and the thoughts he uttered came from his great mind 
 clothed in the habiliments of sentiment, affection, hatred, 
 or contempt, that such thoughts would naturally produce in 
 his great and fearless heart. 
 
 He was only a few years my senior, and I can't remem- 
 ber the time, since I came to manhood, that I have not 
 been accustomed to hear Linton Stephens spoken of as a 
 model of personal integrity and honor. 
 
 But his most distinguished characteristic was, that he had 
 an iron nerve, a firmness and inflexible adherence to his con- 
 victions of right, and a fixed belief in the imperious neces- 
 sity for doing what principle dictated in every case. 
 
 Other men whom we know, and love to honor, have tal- 
 ents equal, perhaps, to his, in some, and possibly superior, 
 in other respects; still, in others, fall below his level; but I 
 know of no man who surpassed, if, possibly, any who 
 equaled, Judge Stephens in the firmness and inflexibility 01 
 his mind, when once made up on any subject. Foes could 
 not intimidate, nor friends persuade, him to abandon any 
 position, the correctness of which was dictated to him by 
 his expanding powers of conception and analysis. . . . 
 I am truly, etc., HERBERT FIELDER. 
 
 The following, from ex-Governor Hcrschel V. Johnson, 
 will be read with interest: 
 
 SANDY GROVE, BARTOW POST-OFFICE, 
 July 4, 1873. 
 
 I knew Judge Stephens well, and I had many interesting 
 conversations with him upon almost every subject that in-
 
 398 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 tcrcsts intelligent men. I estimated him highly as a man 
 of strong and original thought, extensive learning espe- 
 cially in his profession and of marked independence and 
 fearlessness in the cmbracement and advocacy of what he 
 believed to be true; indeed, [ regard his devotion to truth 
 and principle as the prominent element of his character. 
 He was candid, patient, astute, and thorough in the inves- 
 tigation of all questions which duty required him to con- 
 sider. In his persona] intercourse, he was amiable, unas- 
 suming, candid, and sincere. It is difficult to measure the 
 loss of such a mail, with such intellectual and moral endow- 
 ments as he possessed ; it was a great public calamity. 
 
 His name and. career are worthy of commemoration ; the}' 
 should not be permitted to perish; and I air> truly gratified 
 that you are crystalizhig them into permanent and. enduring 
 form. I wish you all possible success. 
 I am, dear sir, sincerely 
 
 Your obedient servant and friend, 
 
 HKKscma. V. JOHNSON. 
 
 The following tribute to his memory, from the pen 01 
 Hon. Edward II. Pottle, appeared in the Sparta 'Hiucs ami 
 Planter: 
 
 WAR R KNTOX , J u i y 2 7 , 1 8 / 2 . 
 
 MK. EDITOR Permit me, through the columns of your 
 paper, to offer my tribute to the memory of your distin- 
 guished citi/.en, Judge Linton Stephens. 
 
 There is a positive "pleasure in grief, and T cannot refrain 
 from giving expression to some of the emotions which his 
 death has inspired in my own breast. Jt is a real pleasure 
 to me to con over the numerous incidents in his life, and in 
 them to note how true: manhood may be illustrated. Per- 
 haps there are few living, outside his own family-circle, who 
 knew him so !<>ng and so well as myseli, and who have had 
 so many opportunities ior knowing the excellencies of his 
 character, just thirty-two years ago, 1 made his acquaint- 
 ance, when we both were boys, in the State University. 
 He was then entering the Sophomore class. His staid and 
 regular habits were marked, as well as that vivacity which
 
 JUrGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 399 
 
 followed him through life ; and now, atter the lapse ol so 
 many years, no changes were observable in him, except de- 
 velopments. His manhood never lost the type of his boy- 
 hood. 
 
 He had the best-trained mind I ever knew: its caste was 
 metaphysical and logical ; and hence the disposition, patent 
 to every one, to disregard authority or books, and rest his 
 conclusions on his own mental resources. In early life, he 
 was a student: he read, he studied, he thought; and what 
 he learned, he learned well learned to treasure up in the 
 store-house of his own wonderful memory. He never stud- 
 ied to get ideas, but to compare them. Ideas he had of his 
 own ; and if, in search of truth, he found ideas of others 
 antagonizing with his own, he rejected them, unless, tried 
 in the crucible of his own severe logic, they were found to 
 be the truth. He was a man of convictions; and the pecu- 
 liar emphasis with which he always gave the word truth, in 
 his addresses, was a sure mark of his devotion to it. There 
 was a maturity in his mind, while in college, which few 
 young men possess a hardness which gave promise of a 
 useful and illustrious future. I well remember an incident 
 while he was in the Senior class. The subject of the lec- 
 ture and recitation was, taxation, direct and indirect, on the 
 department of political economy. In answer to a question 
 growing out of the text, he dissented from the author, and 
 the current opinions on that subject, and the hour was spent 
 in earnest discussion between him and the president, who, 
 at its close, paid him a compliment which proved to be a 
 prophecy. The ease with which he mastered his lesson 
 was a marvel to us all. He always had time for recreation, 
 and the lecture-room always found him ready for exercise. 
 Unlike the most of students, he had no specialties in his 
 studies; he excelled in mathematics, as well as in other 
 branches ; and in debate, he showed the powers of analysis 
 which characterized him in after life. 
 
 At his graduation where the first honor was awarded 
 him no one doubted the merited distinction. His social 
 qualities imparted a charm ; and hence his popularity with 
 his companions at college. There was a stream of humor 
 and pleasantry which never ran dry, and a raciness in con- 
 versation which has kept alive man}' of his sayings to this 
 day. His friendship was warm and real, and his attach-
 
 4OO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 merits strong. To dissolve them without a struggle was 
 hard for him to do with a cause. 
 
 I have heard it said of him, during his life, that he was 
 inclined to skepticism. This was a great mistake. I never 
 knew one who, in theory, had a more sacred regard for the 
 truth of religion and its divine origin. It is true, lie had 
 views which were not in harmony with the teachings of 
 some books; but the teachings of the Bible he cordially re- 
 ceived. Not long before his death, he proposed to write a 
 treatise on one of the topics of moral science, in which he 
 intended to combat errors of some good men, which, in his 
 judgment, tended to encourage unbelief, and obscure the 
 real beauties of the Christian system as revelation unfolds 
 them. 
 
 After a long and intimate acquaintance with him, I can 
 say that I never knew a man of a warmer heart; with him 
 it was a luxury to love; and some of the most pleasant mo- 
 ments of my life have been spent with him in recounting 
 the happy scenes of the home-circle. 
 
 As a lawyer, he has left an example worthy of universal 
 imitation: honorable in his relations, faithful to his clients, 
 and devoted to truth. On the bench, he has left an endur- 
 ing monument to his fame as a lawyer' and his honesty as 
 a judge. In the case of Hill (colored) vs. The State, re- 
 ported in volume 28, Ga. R. , he dissented from a majority 
 of the court on a question of great interest to the bar, and 
 one affecting liberty and right. Though the accused was a 
 slave, he gave him the benefit of a lofty principle of consti- 
 tutional law, which was unanimously declared to be law, 
 subsequently, in Washington vs. The State, 36 Ga. R., and 
 that, too, upon the able dissenting opinion which Judge 
 Stephens had delivered in the former case. Of this rever- 
 sal, he was ever afterwards justly proud, because the deci- 
 sion had settled a great right which every human being en- 
 joyed under the laws and Constitution of the State. We 
 all remember his grand orations in defense of outraged lib- 
 erty and la\v. These utterances of his will live in history 
 along with the best-prepared orations of men who have been 
 made immortal. 
 
 In common with your bereaved community, I, too, mourn 
 the loss of a friend. His warm hand I have clasped from 
 boyhood to the closing of your last court. 
 
 " Friend after friend departs,"
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4O1 
 
 And the heart-stricken and sad can only find relief in the 
 memories of the past and the hopes of the future. Death 
 comes, and the arm of affection cannot stay the stroke. In 
 the midst of life it comes invades the family-circle and 
 bears away its victim to the tomb. It comes in ghastly 
 form, as well as in sudden and resistless strokes; it comes 
 to warn, and to remind us that we are mortal; it comes to 
 teach us, "So to number our days that we may apply our 
 hearts unto wisdom." Beneath its touch man's proud in- 
 tellect is dethroned ; and how low he lies! The speaking 
 eye is dimmed of its luster, and the warm heart stops its 
 throbs. Let us, in this affliction, heed the note of warning 
 as it comes from the new-made grave of our honored friend, 
 ' ' Be ye also ready ! " 
 
 I am yours, truly, E. H. POTTLE. 
 
 ATLANTA, July 29, 1872. 
 
 Hox. A. IT. STEPHENS My Dear Sir: During the many 
 days which have passed since your bereavement, thoughts 
 of your great sorrow have been ever before me. May I be 
 allowed to express the sympathy I so deeply feel? To re- 
 alize how great the loss is to you, I have but to recall your 
 hours of sleepless watching at the bedside of your brother 
 when he was prostrated with measles at Manassas, and the 
 privations to which you subjected yourself, when you were 
 illy able to bear them, that you micrht minister to his com- 
 fort. 
 
 Let it solace you now, my friend, to remember how faith- 
 fully you have discharged fraternal obligations ; and, al- 
 though I know the kind offices were rendered by you in the 
 spirit of love, not duty, yet that must have made them more 
 grateful to him, and should make the memory of them the 
 more comforting to you. You have another element of 
 consolation in the knowledge that he was loved and revered 
 by all who knew him personally, and by many who knew 
 him only as the talented and distinguished statesman and 
 the pure patriot. The great heart of Georgia sends forth 
 to-day one universal throb of regret at the loss which she, 
 as a commonwealth, has sustained in his death. The good 
 and true cannot help but admire the fealty with which he 
 clung to his principles, while so many are bowing to the
 
 4O2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 high priest of radicalism ; and all feel that he has left us at 
 a time "when our need was the sorest," of such wise coun- 
 sels as he was in the habit of imparting, and the example 
 of such unflinching integrity, as he ever exhibited. When 
 the pure and excellent of earth pass through the silent halls 
 of death, they find them but the entrance to heaven's efful- 
 gent glory. Can we wish our loved and lost back amid 
 the turmoil and strifes of tin's world, when we remember 
 that they chvcll with God, and that the Lamb, who is in the 
 midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them to 
 living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from 
 their eyes? 
 
 Hoping that the rich consolation of the gospel may sus- 
 tain you under your heavy trial, and commending you to 
 Him who alone can speak comfort to your sorrowing heart, 
 I remain, with the highest admiration and most profound 
 respect, 
 
 Your friend, MRS. JAMKS 1 1 INK. 
 
 SANDY GROVE, July 18, 1(872. 
 HON. A. H. STEPHENS 
 
 This stanza comes to me, unbidden, upon the announce- 
 ment of the departure of your brother to the spirit-world; 
 and I hasten to give utterance, as far as language is ade- 
 quate, to rny unfeigned grief and sympathy. I sympathize 
 with you, with his widowed wife and orphaned children, 
 with his many friends and admirers, and with the State at 
 large. There are but few hearts, within this numerous 
 circle, that will not heave a sigh that Linton Stephens has 
 passed from the scenes and activities of earth. lie was so 
 noble in his nature, so stern and inflexible in his devotion 
 to truth and principle, so able and eloquent in their advo- 
 cacy, so energetic and constant in his labor for the public 
 welfare, that he had impressed himself so deeply and 
 broadly upon the general mind, that lie had already, though 
 comparatively young, won the conviction in the popular 
 heart, that he was ubiquitous, not in a personal sense, but
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 403 
 
 in the sense that his fame occupied a field commensurate 
 with the vast interests of the country. 
 
 But words of praise from me are nothing: they are emp- 
 tiness to you, who filled for him alike the place of father 
 and brother, and cherished both affections with the deepest 
 intensity; they are less than emptiness to him who is be- 
 yond their reach ; but I utter them, most sincerely, for what 
 they may be worth for your consolation. Oh, how myste- 
 rious arc the ways of Providence ! What lessons of pro- 
 found humility are inculcated by the majesty of His foot- 
 steps ! How uncertain is our probation here ! How the 
 path of life is bestrewed by monuments of sorrow and dis- 
 appointed hopes! What is called death is always sad and 
 unwelcome to survivors. Even when infancy is cut clown, 
 like a bud, by the wintry blast, or old age is arrested in its 
 tottering steps, tender affections are severed, and anguish 
 exudes from every wound until the heart overflows with 
 bitter grief; but when manhood, in his prime in the me- 
 ridian of intellectual maturity, and in the midst of useful- 
 ness, surrounded by all that makes the present happy, and 
 the future bright, in its promise ^of fame and distinction 
 is stricken down, the blow is crushing. But 
 
 Leaves have their time to fall, 
 
 And flowers to wither in the North wind's breath, 
 
 And stars to set : but all 
 
 Ihou hast all seasons for thine, O death! 
 
 Calm resignation to the will of God is our duty, and its 
 performance is sweet, however mournful, when we recog- 
 nize that He is our Father "too wise to err and too good 
 to be unkind." To him I commend you, and all the dear 
 ones clad in weeds of woe by reason of this heavy bereave- 
 ment. Take comfort in these reflections: that he lived a 
 useful life, and leaves to his family the heritage of unsullied 
 honor; that, in our view of the mercy and wisdom of the 
 Lord, he has been summoned at the very best time for him, 
 and for those who loved him so fondly ; that he is not dead, 
 but lives in the eternal world, the same identical man that 
 lie was here; that lie has gone Jioinc, just a little in advance 
 of you and all of us, where, under the tutelage of angelic 
 spirits, his intellectual and moral faculties will rise, and 
 grow, and expand forever.
 
 404 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 I had a brief interview with him, last January, in Atlanta; 
 but the last time I had an opportunity for protracted con- 
 versation with him was in Savannah, whilst we were attend- 
 ing the Federal court, as counsel for Garsed. \Ye talked 
 frequently, and nearly always on religious topics, in which, 
 1 thought, he took pleasure. He listened to my views with 
 deep interest; he argued with me in many of them, and, 
 as to others, he expressed no opinions; because, he said, 
 " whilst lie could not combat them, he did not rationally per- 
 ceive their truth. " But he bought two or three new church 
 works, intending to read them. I never learned, however, 
 whether he read them, nor, if he did, what impression they 
 made upon his mind. lie was a lover of truth ; his mind 
 was always open to its reception, and I have rarely met a 
 man freer from prejudice and educational bias. He was a 
 strong and original thinker. Few equaled him in force and 
 perspicuity of language, and in the power of condensed, log- 
 ical thought. I never conversed with him without pleasure 
 and profit. I regret that the occasions of our meeting were 
 so seldom. If he had remained here to the usual limit of 
 man's appointed time, he would have had no superior, as 
 he had few peers. lie would have been a conspicuous figure 
 among the greatest actors of his da}-, and wielded tremen- 
 dous influence in public affairs. His love of country was 
 animated with the courage of martyrdom ; and constitu- 
 tional liberty had no more able and eloquent defender. His 
 removal is a public calamity. But I will say no more. His 
 eulogy is the place which he filled in the admiration, confi- 
 dence, and affections of the people. May he rest in peace, 
 and perennial laurel cluster around his memory! 
 
 Mrs. Johnson, Gertrude, and Winder unite with me in 
 these expressions of sympathy. The rest of my children 
 are scattered. 
 
 May the Lord bless, and console, and shield Linton's 
 widow and orphans, and may lie be the great Rock under 
 whose shade you may retire, in this heavy tempest of sor- 
 row, is the heart-felt prayer of 
 
 Yours, most sincerely and faithfully, 
 
 HKRSCHF.I. V. JOHNSON. 
 
 BOSTON, MASS., July 26, 1872. 
 
 MY DK.AR MR. STKHIF.NS How my heart yearned towards 
 you, and for you, when the telegram announced to us the
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 405 
 
 death of Linton and such a brother ! Not one in a million 
 so tender, so kind, so generous, so brave as he. In one 
 point of view, it did seem to me that the agony of sorrow 
 might extinguish your life. On second thought, it came to 
 my mind, "According to thy day, so shall thy strength be. " 
 Yes, our dear Mr. Stephe 's has schooled himself not to rely 
 too much on exterior comforts not to confide altogether 
 in human affections ; but he cherishes entirely such a strong 
 sense of divine love, that he will exclaim, at the weight and 
 fullness of his grief, in most humble submission and Chris- 
 tian cheerfulness, "Not my will, but thine be done! " 
 
 When I first became acquainted with Linton, I entertained 
 a very high respect and esteem for him. As I knew him 
 better and more intimately, I began to love him; and this 
 love grew stronger and stronger every day ; it was more 
 like the affection of a dutiful son towards a loving father 
 than anything else. I cannot tell you how terrible was the 
 blow when it came upon us. I cannot at all realize, now, 
 that I shall see his face no more in the flesh. Poor wife 
 and poor children ! But Almighty God is good and merci- 
 ful, and will have them in His hoi}- keeping, and will be 
 more than husband, father, and all, if they put their trust 
 in Him. 
 
 I have taken up my pen several times to say a word to 
 you, but hesitated, and laid it down again. To-day, I have 
 made the venture. My feeling was rather, if it could have 
 been, to act somewhat like the friends of Job, who "sat 
 down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, 
 and spake not a word to him ; for they saw that his grief 
 was very great ;" and I thought I ought to keep silence, 
 and hesitated about expressing my deep sympathy for you ; 
 but you might reply, like Job to his friends, "Miserable 
 comforters are ye all!" Still, I cannot, under the circum- 
 stances, be entirely silent. I must at least tell you what I 
 feel it is my part to do: I would kneel beside you, and the 
 other dear ones Linton has left behind, in silent, earnest 
 prayer, press you all to my heart, sustain the drooping 
 heads, take the hands in loving pressure and sympathy, 
 but speak not 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 R. H. SALTER.
 
 406 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 I am obliged to Pope Barrow, Esq., for the following ex- 
 cellent portraiture of some of the capital features in Judge 
 Stephens' character : 
 
 Lin ton Stephens was one of the few the very few of 
 whom it may be truly said, "None kncis him but to love 
 him." But to the thousands to whom his name and fame 
 were familiar, and to man}" of those perhaps a large ma- 
 jority who were numbered among his personal acquaint- 
 ances, his real character was, in many of its best features, 
 completely unknown, lie cared not to reveal himself in- 
 deed, he seldom ever did, except to those who belonged to 
 what I might call the inner-circle of his friends. The out- 
 side world honored him, respected and trusted him ; for, 
 however little they might know of him, that little was 
 enough always to command confidence; but his intimate 
 friends, whilst they also entertained these same sentiments 
 of admiration of his talents, and implicit faith in him as a 
 man, felt for him that affection which the beautiful story of 
 David and Jonathan has handed clown to us as "passing the 
 love of woman." Those who knew him best loved him 
 best. There was no danger, in becoming better acquainted 
 with him, of having any illusions destroyed which are so 
 often the creatures of first acquaintance with men of fas- 
 cinating minds. In his case, every impression he made 
 upon an acquaintance, from first to last, was genuine and 
 true. Nothing was done for effect. He was, at all times, 
 natural and nai'i'c. As his real character and the generous 
 proportions of his mind unfolded themselves more and more 
 to his associates, it was hard to decide which to admire 
 most, the pure and unsullied nature of the man, or the 
 splendid intellectual powers with which he was endowed. 
 
 My acquaintance with him dates back to my boyhood; 
 and I remember quite well the first impressions he made 
 upon me; they have never been erased nor altered. They 
 were perfectly correct interpretations of his character, and 
 have been strengthened and confirmed as years passed on ; 
 and the slight acquaintance, then begun, ripened into a
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 407 
 
 warm friendship, which continued, uninterruptedly, until 
 his death. Judge Stephens possessed so many sterling 
 attributes of mind and character, that it would be impossi- 
 ble to speak of them all in the brief limits of a memoir like 
 this, which is not purposed to inform the reader in regard 
 to his character or his achievements, but to remind him ot 
 some of his traits, and thereby serve, perhaps, to call up, 
 in his own mind, many another familiar recollection of this 
 great man. There are thousands in Georgia who, when 
 they read these brief reminiscences, will each recall some 
 half-forgotten experience of his own that is linked to the 
 memory of Linton Stephens, which, for the time, perhaps, 
 will carry his thoughts back with a softened heart, to freshen 
 and deepen his recollections of him, and serve to keep his 
 memory green among those whom he loved so well in life. 
 I have found that all with whom I have spoken of him, 
 since his death, who knew him as well as I did, had formed 
 the same impressions of his character, had cherished the 
 same kind of incidental recollections of intercourse with 
 him in life all of them illustrative of his warm, generous, 
 faithful, and affectionate nature and have mourned his loss 
 in their hearts almost as one dropped from the circle of their 
 own hearth-stone. Few men have ever lived who were so 
 true to themselves as to stamp themselves thus upon thou- 
 sands of different men with the same identical impression. 
 The influence which he exerted over his fellow-men was 
 such as any man might well be proud of; and he well de- 
 served it. It has been said by a very profound thinker, that 
 there are two kinds of men who control and wield power 
 over masses of their fellows: one is of that class to which 
 great orators and poets belong; they persuade and reason 
 men into acquiescence; they present arguments and utter 
 appeals to their hearers and readers, and produce, some- 
 times, great results. But it is the great questions they dis- 
 cuss, around which the interest gathers, and not the man 
 himself. The other class of men, according to this same 
 philosopher, who make great leaders, are those who, with- 
 out giving reasons, without striving in argument, and who, 
 not turning aside from their line to examine the movements 
 of others, are followed, and trusted, and appealed to in all 
 emergencies. They inspire confidence; they commit no 
 blunders; and, better than that, they are true to their faith, 
 whatever it may be, even if it takes them to the stake.
 
 408 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 It has frequently occurred to me, in reading this analysis 
 of great men, by Kmerson as he has classified them that 
 Judge Stephens united, in an extraordinary degree, some ot 
 the best attributes of both classes. He possessed, in a large 
 degree, the argumentative and persuasive powers of the 
 orator; and, at the same time, he exerted an insensible in- 
 fluence independent of these, and which, in one sense, was 
 more powerful. There was great force in him ; no one 
 could fail to realize it and feel it, who came in contact with 
 him. Men followed him and trusted him, not doubting or 
 fearing, because they knew he had no doubts nor fears him- 
 self. Such men are rare; they are more valuable to their 
 generation than it ever gives them credit for; they do more 
 good than is ever known, and prevent more harm ; their 
 presence in a community or a State is a repressive on fraud 
 and wrong. 
 
 One of the most striking attributes, to the common eye, 
 that Judge Stephens assumed, was in his profession as a 
 lawyer, when engaged in the crrtaniina of the court-house. 
 The Northern circuit was, during the whole of his career, 
 renowned for the high rank of its bar, as gentlemen who 
 united, in many instances, the highest accomplishments of 
 legal learning to the most powerful and effective oratorical 
 powers. Younger than most of the lawyers with whom he 
 came in actual contact in his circuit, he was trained, from 
 the beginning, to put forth his best energies and tax his 
 great powers to the uttermost. Like a young gladiator just 
 alighted in the arena, he had to measure swords with vet- 
 erans whose sinews were toughened by a hundred conflicts. 
 The name he has built for himself in that circuit best attests 
 how, in all those years of arduous practice, his demeanor 
 as a man, and his success as a lawyer, have endeared him 
 to the hearts of the people, and elevated him to the highest 
 rank of the profession. 
 
 In his manner and his methods of conducting an impor- 
 tant case, it was easy to see that he was no imitator. He 
 reminded you of nobody else. His success was very great. 
 If he was satisfied that justice and right were all on his side, 
 it was impossible for him to lose the case ; he was irresistible 
 in such cases ; he had the large faculty, in addressing juries, 
 of giving them a clear insight into the case in his very open- 
 ing sentences. To this one gift he owed many a triumph.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4CQ 
 
 There were things in the practice of law, however, that 
 always exasperated him to the last degree. One of these 
 was a lying witness. If he found out that a witness was 
 falsely swearing away his client's rights, his eyes, his fea- 
 tures, and his whole form would show unmistakably that he 
 was a dangerous man to trifle with. At such times, no or- 
 dinary man could encounter his eye and utter a falsehood 
 on the stand. 
 
 But Linton Stephens was made for better times than these 
 degenerate days. He would chafe himself to death at the 
 corruption which, in the last years of his life, he saw, but 
 could not prevent. Bound to earth by as many ties, both 
 of affection and duty, as any one of us who is left, it is yet 
 better for him as it is; but as for us, who knew him, and 
 loved him, and who now mourn for him, when we chance 
 to revisit scenes that are intimately associated with him, we 
 cannot repress a sigh 
 
 " For the toucli of a vanished hand, 
 The sound of a voice that is still." 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 POPE BARROW. 
 
 SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA, 
 
 SATURDAY, October 5, 1872. 
 
 The honorable court met pursuant to adjournment. 
 
 Present their Honors Hiram Warner and H. K. McCay 
 and W. W. Montgomery, Judges. 
 
 Upon motion of Hon. Robert Toombs, it is ordered that 
 the following memorial and accompanying resolutions, com- 
 memorative of Hon. Linton Stephens, be spread upon the 
 minutes. 
 
 The committee appointed by the Supreme Court of Geor- 
 gia, during this term, to report ' ' suitable resolutions com- 
 memorative of Judge Stephens," submit the following 
 
 REPORT : 
 
 The bench and bar of this court are again called upon to 
 hold a meeting of sorrow, commemorative of another of 
 
 36
 
 4IO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 their most distinguished, valued, and beloved professional 
 brethren. The hand of death, which has recently stricken 
 the name of Linton Stephens from the roll of the living, 
 leaves not upon our record a more perfect model of a pure, 
 able, learned, and upright magistrate ; of a just, profound, 
 brilliant, and successful lawyer; of an earnest, self-sacrific- 
 ing, devoted patriot; of a great-hearted, true man, whose 
 life was spent in the practice of virtue, the pursuit and vin- 
 dication of truth, and in the service of his fellow-men. 
 
 Linton Stephens was born in what was then Wilkcs 
 county no\v the county of Taliaferro in this State, on 
 the first day of July, 1823. His father, of Scotch-Irish de- 
 scent, was a gentleman of unusual education and intellectual 
 attainments, in the day and among the people with whom his 
 lot was cast, and his family ranked vdth the first-class of 
 the early settlers of our commonwealth lie was left an 
 orphan in childhood, with a slender patrimony; but he had 
 great advantages in his youth, of which he availed himself 
 to an extent rare among the youth of our country. 
 
 The providence which deprived him of a father's foster- 
 ing protection committed him to the care of one pre-emi- 
 nently qualified to discharge the duties of a father, brother, 
 protector, and friend. Deep, fervent, unbounded fraternal 
 affection molded that grand development of his moral and 
 intellectual character, which won the confidence, the affec- 
 tion, and admiration of all who knew him. Having been 
 thoroughly prepared under this training, he entered the 
 Freshman class of Franklin College, the University of Geor- 
 gia, in 1839, when sixteen years of age. He was immedi- 
 ately recognized as the head of a large class of Georgia's 
 chosen sons which position he maintained throughout his 
 collegiate course and graduated with the first ho lor of his 
 Ahna Mater without a competitor and without a rival. 
 After leaving college, he was placed in the office of one of 
 your committee to study law, and was soon afterwards sent 
 to the University of Virginia, where he graduated at the 
 head of the law-class under Judge Tucker, who foresaw and 
 foretold his great professional success. After graduating 
 in law, at the University of Virginia, he went to Harvard, 
 in Massachusetts, to attend the lectures of Judge Story, of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, and remained 
 there until Judge Story's death, when he came to Washing-
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 411 
 
 ton City and spent a winter in attending the Supreme Court 
 of the United States and the debates in Congress. He re- 
 turned to Georgia in 1846, having given three years to pre- 
 paration for his profession thoroughly prepared to bear 
 the armor which he put on and was admitted to the bar, 
 in his native county, in 1846. 
 
 He located at Crawfordville, in his native county, and 
 became a leader of causes in the court-house before he was 
 scarcely known out of it. In 1849, he was elected to rep- 
 resent Taliaferro county in the Legislature, and re-elected 
 in 1850 and 1851. 
 
 Thoroughly versed in the principles of constitutional gov- 
 ernment, his compatriots immediately recognized his merit 
 and genius, and placed him at the post of labor and of 
 honor. 
 
 In 1852, he married the daughter of Judge James Thom- 
 as, of Sparta, and removed to Hancock county; and the 
 next year, the people of Hancock again called him into the 
 public service as their representative in the Legislature, and 
 continued to re-elect him until 1855, when he was a candi- 
 date for Congress in a district opposed to his political opin- 
 ions by a large majority, to which his power and influence 
 reduced to an extent which made his defeat a triumph of 
 his principles. In 1857, he contested the same district with 
 the same honorable result. In 1859, Judge Stephens was 
 appointed to the Supreme Court of the State, and was unan- 
 imously confirmed by the Legislature to this honorable post, 
 and, after thirteen months' service in that position, resigned 
 it on account of ill-health. 
 
 We pass over his judicial record ; it will pass down to 
 future ages in our reports. His judgments were clear, con- 
 cise, exhaustive expositions of the law and facts of the cases 
 decided by him, and contain no word w r hich his friends 
 would wish to blot. 
 
 In 1860, he was elected to the Secession convention of 
 the State of Georgia, and voted against the resolution. He 
 acknowledged the right, but opposed the policy ; but after 
 the resolution was passed, and that grand, historic act was 
 accomplished, true to his principles and allegiance to his 
 State, he put his whole strength, and power, and soul into 
 the cause of his country. He immediately returned to his 
 home, raised a company for the vindication of the right,
 
 412 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 and joined the Fifteenth Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, 
 and was elected lieutenant-colonel of that regiment ; went to 
 Virginia to meet the foe, and continued in the Army of 
 Northern Virginia until 1862, when his health compelled 
 him to retire from military service. Upon his return home, 
 he was again called into public service by the people of his 
 county, who again elected him to the Legislature in 1862, 
 and continued him in that capacity until the end of the war; 
 but when his State was invaded in 1863, he raised a bat- 
 talion of cavalry and again entered into military service for 
 the defense of his native land, and served until the spring 
 of 1864. When the invader was devastating our land, he 
 again put on his sword, and stood in the front until com- 
 pelled to retire, from ill-health, to the duties of a legislator. 
 
 Having lost his first wife before the war, in 1867 Judge 
 Stephens married Miss Mary W. Salter, of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 From the surrender of our armies, in 1865, to the time of 
 his death, on the I4th of July, 1872, Judge Stephens was 
 actively engaged in a very large and lucrative practice of 
 his profession ; and his last grand and successful effort was 
 made in the vindication of public justice, and in the advo- 
 cacy of the rights of the people. 
 
 His mind was peculiarly adapted to the profession which 
 he had selected, elevated and adorned, clear, vigorous, an- 
 alytical, and comprehensive ; it seized truth, facts, and law 
 with an iron grasp, and stripped sophistry and error naked 
 to the mortal gaze of all beholders; while his stern integ- 
 rity and devotion to truth gave irresistible power to his lofty 
 intellect. 
 
 Judge Stephens was a husband a father; and here his 
 genial, kind, and affectionate nature shone with peculiar 
 brilliancy, shedding happiness and joy over a household in 
 which he was peculiarly blessed. But we forbear to enter 
 those sacred precincts in which there is no human conso- 
 lation. 
 
 The committee offer the following resolutions: 
 
 AV^/rvY/, i. That, in the death of Linton Stephens, the 
 bench and bar of Georgia have lost an eminent jurist, and 
 the country one of the best, ablest, and truest sons, whose 
 memory we should perpetuate for the benefit of future gen- 
 erations.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 413 
 
 Resolved, 2. That we respectfully tender to his bereaved 
 widow and children the heart-felt sympathy of the bench 
 and bar, and the officers of this court, whose warm friend- 
 ship and affection he so well deserved and so fully possessed. 
 Resolved, 3. That, in token of this, we will wear the 
 usual badge of mourning during thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, 4. That a copy of this report and resolutions be 
 transmitted to Mrs. Stephens, for the family, and that this 
 court be requested to have them entered on its minutes, 
 and that the gazettes of the State be requested to publish 
 them. 
 
 ROBERT TOOMBS, 
 CHARLES J. JENKINS, 
 R. F. LVON, 
 IVERSON L. HARRIS, 
 HENRY I.. BENNING. 
 
 [ From the Atlanta Constitution. ] 
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
 Tain cari capitis ? 
 
 " What shame or limit can there be 
 In yearning for so loved a form ? " 
 
 In our private grief for our friend, it is difficult to realize 
 the extent of the public loss which has befallen Georgia in 
 the death of this her distinguished and trusted son. Nor 
 can its proportions be fully appreciated until AVC get further 
 from it. As one who feels it deeply, in both its public and 
 private aspects, I am constrained, in advance of this full 
 realization, to pay the partial tribute called for at once by 
 affection and admiration. If the portraiture be at all life- 
 like, it will receive many a response from saddened hearts 
 throughout the length and breadth of the State. 
 
 Three great qualities fitted him for eminent public use- 
 fulness : great capacity, great honesty, and great fidelity. 
 These properties inspired their proper counterpart, and gave 
 him (what was no less necessary to usefulness) the entire, 
 deserved, and familiar confidence of the people of his na- 
 tive State. 
 
 His capacity was great, not only of tlwugJit, extending 
 over a very wide range, but also of expression, and that not
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 limited to thinkers only, like himself, but embracing the 
 common mind as well. 
 
 He did not live and reason apart from other men, but was 
 one of their number, in accord with their modes and habits, 
 understood them, and conveyed his own thoughts to them 
 in strong, vigorous Anglo-Saxon, like Bullion, with a plain 
 stamp. 
 
 His honesty was not less great and varied than his intel- 
 lectual endowments. It pervaded his public and private 
 life his heart, head, and tongue. He was an honest seeker 
 after truth. Falsehood, in all its forms, he detested and 
 despised. He loved the truth in his heart. His intellectual 
 appetite craved truth as its proper nutriment, and his tongue 
 was equally candid and sincere. His manners exactly ex- 
 pressed him. He was, in fact, just what he seemed to be. 
 
 Such qualities justly commanded the public confidence, 
 resting on a strong foundation of tried merit. That slow 
 growth had become, after long and varied tests, deeply 
 rooted and vigorous in the public mind, and it met no 
 checks or drawbacks on his part; for lie was honest with 
 himself, and his gold had been first tried in the fire, for his 
 own use, before it was offered for currency among others. 
 
 And so he was a bulwark of public virtue. Dishonesty 
 shrank from his presence ; tolerant in all else, for this he 
 had little tolerance. Honesty rested fearlessly upon his 
 strong championship, and felt safe in his hands. 
 
 A powerful intellect, of extraordinary breadth and scope, 
 yet as acute as it was comprehensive capable of vigorous 
 action upon subtle and delicate points a grasp of a subject 
 perfectly vise-like a nervous, direct energy of expression, 
 which cut through all vapors were at his command. These 
 faculties equally fitted him for the investigation of law or 
 of fact. A clear, general view of the entire subject, in all 
 its relations, and in its just proportions, enabled him to sys- 
 tematize his thoughts and adjust himself to a case with won- 
 derful rapidity. He never rested in investigation until he 
 touched bottom, and, from the rock, once found, he could 
 hardly be dislodged by any form of sophistry. If he had 
 any difficult}', it was in his hearers in their want of dis- 
 crimination to perceive real, not fanciful, distinctions. But 
 this very infirmity was incorporated in his scheme of pre- 
 senting his case, so that he could show nice points even to 
 dull eyes.
 
 JUDGE L1NTON STEPHENS. 415 
 
 But it was, after all, the honest heart behind all this of 
 which the intellect and will were the mere executive officers 
 and agents which secured the public confidence that, with 
 all these faculties, he would do good, and not harm ; that 
 he was not easily deceived himself, and would not willingly 
 deceive others. Of his powers in that direction, we cannot 
 speak ; for they were not put to the test. 
 
 The warmth and sincerity of his personal friendships ex- 
 plain something of the grief, as well as sense, of public loss 
 which his death has occasioned. His public and private 
 character were all of a piece ; only, in his private intercourse, 
 there was incomparably more of tenderness and marked 
 kindness than the severely logical character of his intellect 
 would have led those to suppose who only knew him in argu- 
 ment. Not comparatively alone, but positively, he was 
 considerate and kind in an eminent degree, in his intercourse 
 with others, and never gave willful or intentional offense to 
 any honest man, to any dull man, to the weak or to the 
 helpless. 
 
 All these traits were big, plain, and distinct no mistake 
 about them, nor about the man ; and the people knew that 
 they understood him. He had been tested until they were 
 satisfied; he had been seen weighed in the balance again 
 and again, under very varying conditions, and not found 
 wanting. We do not mean that he was without faults, for 
 he was a man ; but they were not secret or disguised. He 
 wore no mask, and his faults were better known than their 
 palliations and his struggles against them. Suffice it to say, 
 they were not those of a selfish nature. Let none judge of 
 them harshly only sorrowfully for they injured himself 
 more than others, and deceived no one. 
 
 His death occurred in his full intellectual prime. His sun 
 went down at the high noon of his faculties. These were 
 very remarkable, and very reliable. He was grown in a 
 great school, accustomed to emergencies, full of resources, 
 and ready with them a trained intellectual athlete, belong- 
 ing to himself. His self-reliance was great and well-founded, 
 and inspired the full confidence of his hearers. Few men 
 had so thorough possession of their own faculties. 
 
 As a judge, his decisions were founded on principle 
 not authority. He made authority he was authority for 
 he found a solid basis ever before he began to build. His
 
 4l6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 decisions needed little bolstering ; they could stand alone. 
 
 But he exemplified a most rare combination of gifts be- 
 ing great, not only as a judge, but as an advocate, before 
 court or jury, or on the hustings, in cases civil or criminal, 
 upon questions of law or fact, in the preparation or at the 
 trial, or in the examination of witnesses. 
 
 Indeed, a measured estimate of his faculties would be 
 regarded extravagant. Such power did a high intellect ac- 
 quire, under the guidance of honesty. He grappled with 
 great problems with a singular mixture of abstract and prac- 
 tical power, and subtlety and common sense, in his percep- 
 tions of truth; and, strange to say, where he went himself 
 into the very heart of these problems, he was usually able 
 to carry others along with him. 
 
 This brief notice would be incomplete, if I failed to say 
 he was a firm believer in Christianity. I remember the 
 marked emphasis with which he once expressed this con- 
 viction, with that characteristic clearness and boldness which 
 admitted of no misconception, in the words, "1 believe 
 Christ is God. " His further remark was, substantially, that, 
 with this great intervention of Deity, all lesser and ancillary 
 miracles, introducing the Christian system to mankind, fol- 
 lowed on proper evidence, as matters of course. As his 
 manner was, the great, huge fact stood out first, unmistak- 
 able, and its qualifications and modes were supcradded af- 
 terwards. 
 
 The public loss is indeed great the gap left, wide and 
 yawning. Such capacities, so handled, lost at any time, to 
 any State, would be a calamity. By Georgia, and just now, 
 it is peculiarly felt; and yet, to say farewell to the man is 
 harder than to say it to the statesman, the jurist, the pub- 
 lic servant. That respect for his character which delighted 
 to do him public honor, and to speak his praise as the peer 
 of the first statesmen of the country, is lost in that deeper 
 feeling of affection which found familiar expression in sim- 
 ply calling him " Linton " a name which, in the wide limits 
 of Georgia, and in many a circle beyond, is full of mean- 
 ing, and needs no appendages and no tribute. " Linton ! " 
 It calls up the whole, at once, of that noble nature in which 
 was garnered so much of public and private worth, of in- 
 tellectual treasure and training, of friendship, honesty, and 
 truth.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 41 7 
 
 If such the loss to the public and his friends, what is it 
 to the nearer circle? We cannot intrude here. We can 
 bub commend them, in this hour, to a consolation and sym- 
 pathy above what humanity can give. There is an awful 
 Power to which all must bow. This Power, alone, has the 
 balm to heal the wounds which it has made, and bind up 
 the hearts it has broken. 
 
 Mercifully^ each day draws us closer to the future leaves 
 a veil betwixt us and the past. The earth of our State now 
 teems with the loved and lost, who went to her bosom be- 
 fore the lapse of three score years and ten. Another name, 
 worthy of Westminster Abbey, is added to the honored 
 
 dead of Georgia. 
 
 SAMUEL BARNETT. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 DEATH OF JUDGE STEPHENS. 
 
 Hon. George F. Pierce, of Hancock, introduced the fol- 
 lowing resolutions: 
 
 1. Resolved by the Democratic party of Georgia in conven- 
 tion assembled, That, in the recent death of Hon. Linton 
 Stephens, an elected delegate to this convention, the cause 
 of constitutional liberty has lost one of its ablest and noblest 
 defenders. 
 
 2. Resolved, That Georgia has lost a son whose intellect, 
 cultivation, fidelity, integrity, pure private character, and 
 devotion to principle, illustrated on the bench, at the bar, 
 in the forum, in legislative halls, and in social life, reflected 
 honor upon his native State; and, at this time, when his 
 noble qualities of mind and heart are peculiarly needed, she 
 mourns his death as a mother a beloved son on whom she 
 could depend under the sternest trials and in the darkest 
 hours. 
 
 3. Resolved, That his well-earned fame is the heritage of 
 all true Georgians, and it shall be our pleasure to cherish 
 and emulate it. 
 
 4. Resolved, That we tender to his distinguished brother, 
 the Hon. A. H. Stephens, our heart-felt sympathy; and,
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 commending his wife and children to the tender care of the 
 God of the widow and the fatherless, we beg to assure them 
 that, in every Georgian, they have a friend who will deem 
 it a privilege to serve them. 
 
 After submitting the resolutions, Mr. Pierce said: 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION For 
 myself and associate delegates from the county^of Hancock, 
 and for the stricken and bereaved county which we have 
 the honor to represent in this convention, I move the adop- 
 tion of the resolutions which have just been read. I con- 
 ceive it to be eminently proper that the Democratic party 
 of Georgia should deplore the untimely death of the distin- 
 guished gentleman to whom the resolutions relate ; for, in 
 all the length and breadth of the land, none could be found 
 more steadfastly attached to its principles, and none more 
 valiant always to battle for their defense. I think it ex- 
 tremely becoming that Georgia should mourn the loss of 
 her illustrious son ; for, among all her children those who 
 yet live to do her honor, and those whose dust is now min- 
 gling with his in her honored soil there was none whose 
 heart pulsated to the common mother with stronger and 
 more earnest love. It is well that the voice of angry con- 
 tention should be hushed to silence to-day, and that all the 
 lovers of constitutional liberty, who are assembled here, 
 should join in common love to do him honor; for, since the 
 days when Hampden and Sydney died, none have lived 
 who loved liberty more dearly than did he. ' 
 
 I do not propose to-day, Mr. Chairman, to undertake to 
 pronounce any eulogium upon the illustrious dead. Let 
 this be done not by those who loved him more, for there 
 were none, but by those abler to do it well ; for, sir, only 
 a master's hand should strike the chords which make the 
 music to sing his praise. It ; s my purpose, in the name of 
 my county, simply to submit the resolutions which have 
 been read, and to commit to Georgia's keeping the price- 
 less memories of his public life. 
 
 \Yhen this duty shall have been discharged, Hancock's 
 delegation will return to their people and his to those who 
 knew him best and loved him most and, joined together, 
 we shall keep, in hallowed remembrance, his local service 
 and his private worth.
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 419 
 
 And, standing here to-day, sir, in the midst of Georgia's 
 distinguished living, and in presence of her honored dead, 
 remembering all the glories which cluster along the line of 
 her history, it is my privilege, for my county, to say that 
 we proudly feel that if we have contributed nothing more 
 to the greatness of our mother-State, the gift of the distin- 
 guished ability and distinguished virtue of Linton Stephens 
 makes as bright a jewel as sparkles in the gathered treas- 
 ures of her glorious past ! 
 
 Mr. Pierce was followed by Hon. Julian Hartridge, who 
 said : 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION I 
 beg leave to second the gentleman's motion. While I rec- 
 ognize the ability of the gentleman to do justice to his hon- 
 ored and illustrious colleague now, alas! numbered with 
 the dead I ask the privilege to render my tribute to the 
 memory of the noble deceased. True, he was the honored 
 citizen of a single county, yet he belonged to the whole 
 State, which, aside from the ties of family and relations, he 
 loved better than all the world better than the emolu- 
 ments of wealth, honors, distinction, and power combined. 
 Wherever the State's interest, principles, honor, and integ- 
 rity were concerned, there his heart beat, and beat warmly. 
 
 I beg the privilege of seconding the motion of the gen- 
 tleman from Hancock, the home of the distinguished dead. 
 Though he lived in a community remote from my portion 
 of the State, yet, in spirit, he was ever near, and our hearts 
 ever beat in true accord in the desire to improve, uphold, 
 and maintain the honor and integrity of our common State, 
 and promote the welfare of the noble old commonwealth 
 that gave us birth ; and, therefore, we feel that he belonged 
 to us as well as to others ; for, as it is in a private family, 
 when a loved child dies, a chord is touched, a sympathy is 
 excited, and a tear is to be shed over the last and lamented 
 remains, so it is when a man, distinguished by virtue, intel- 
 lect, and devotion to State a champion of her honor and 
 liberties is cut off by an all-wise Providence, then every 
 citizen feels as if one of his family has died. 
 
 Therefore, I lay the hilmble tribute to the memory of an 
 honored and beloved fellow-citizen, and to the dead brother
 
 42O BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 of one whose hearth-stone is draped in sorrow and desola- 
 tion ; and, though one brother is mouldering in the grave 
 sacred sepulchre of a departed patriot there is another 
 still left, who has, is now, and will ever be dear to Georgia, 
 whose heart, clothed in sackcloth, is bowed in humility to 
 his God, and whose head, venerable with wisdom and age, 
 is covered with ashes. 
 
 Hon. Warren Akin said: 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN I beg to bring some tribute to the mem- 
 ory of the noble and distinguished dead. The gentleman 
 from Hancock, when he spoke of his stricken and bereaved 
 community, would have been more correct to state that 
 Georgia had been stricken and bereaved. 
 
 I have known the deceased long and well. I have seen 
 him at the bar of justice, in the forum, in the assembly, on 
 the bench everywhere, and I have ever found him a man 
 of truth, honor, and principle, and of all the ennobling vir- 
 tues becoming a man and a patriot always reliable, honest, 
 and avowed in everything that pertained to his associations 
 with his fellow-man, and his doctrines regarding National 
 or State policy. 
 
 If opposed, he was ever honorable and liberal. He loved 
 the truth, and despised all that was low and mean. Ever 
 ready to co-operate with the good and patriotic, he made 
 no compromise with the wicked. He was a hero among 
 the fearless, and a terror to the dishonest and the evil-doer. 
 
 I hope the resolutions of the gentleman from Hancock 
 will be adopted by a rising vote. Linton Stephens -that 
 loved name he sleeps the sleep of death ! yet, while Geor- 
 gia 'has patriots, though she should lie groveling in the dust 
 under a conqueror's heel, subdued to despair with the mel- 
 ancholy music of the victor's clanking chains, or should she 
 mount higher and assert triumphantly her liberties and her 
 honor; while there are women who love free government 
 and, thank God! they do love it with the warmest pulsa- 
 tions of their patriotic hearts there will be a hallowed re- 
 membrance of Linton Stephens, the champion of his State's 
 and country's honor, and the valiant defender of his beloved 
 people. 
 
 Hon. Albert R. Lamar said:
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 421 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT I trust I shall not weary the patience of 
 this convention if I ask a moment in which to lay an offer- 
 ing upon the grave of my friend a friend whose devotion 
 and fidelity outlived political vicissitudes, and yielded only 
 to a common conqueror. It is meet that Georgia should 
 pay funeral rites to one of her noblest sons. 
 
 It is proper that we, his friends and companions, should 
 send words of condolence and sympathy to his stricken 
 household; and I may safely say that there is not a heart 
 in this assembly that does not cherish a tender feeling for 
 him whose hearth-stone has been made dark and desolate 
 by this terrible affliction. 
 
 The time and the occasion will not permit me to pass an 
 eulogium upon the character and services of Linton Ste- 
 phens ; but the future historian may find, in his name and 
 fame, much with which to adorn and ennoble the annals of 
 these troublous times. 
 
 He was a Spartan in all the sterner virtues of manhood 
 a Bayard in courage, integrity, and accomplishments. We, 
 who have seen him face fearful odds in vindication and de- 
 fense of the rights of his people, have had cause to say: 
 
 "How high a pitch his resolution soars! " 
 
 I can recall a recent incident which illustrates the salient 
 point in his character: At the late convention which pre- 
 ceded this, he stood almost unaided and alone in a contest, 
 upon the other side of which were arrayed many of the 
 most cherished friends of his life. 
 
 There are gentlemen here who can bear testimony as to 
 how he bore himself in that contest. 
 
 You and I, Mr. President, will remember how a gentle- 
 man, returning from the room of the Committee on Busi- 
 ness, with voice and face aglow with admiration, remarked 
 to me, "Is not Linton Stephens a man of iron soul! " 
 
 He was, indeed, sir; and if mortals are permitted to take 
 into another world the temperaments of this, we may feel 
 assured that our departed friend is steering his barque on 
 eternity's ocean, with a sublime and unfaltering faith that 
 he will reach a haven of rest in the sunlight of Mercy and 
 Love on the other shore. 
 
 Mr. President, the mute faces* that look down upon us 
 
 * The walls of the Representative hall, at Atlanta, are adorned with 
 large, life-size portraits of James Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin, 
 Crawford, Troup, Clarke, Ilowell Cobb, Jefferson, and others.
 
 422 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 from these walls to-day are fitting reminders that broad 
 acres, crowded marts, beautiful temples, and hoarded mill- 
 ions are the least of the great elements which constitute a 
 State. They tell us that brave and virtuous men are the 
 greatest glories of the commonwealth ; and in the heroic 
 mold in which these men were cast was cast Linton Ste- 
 phens, body and soul. 
 
 But one moon has waxed since he sat here in the prime 
 and plenitude of vigorous health and intellectual prowess. 
 In the night that shall follow this day, that same moon will 
 shed her waning sheen upon the spot Where he sleeps in 
 the embrace of his honored mother! 
 
 In time, we, too, sir, shall cease our strifes, and our pride, 
 our ambition, and our hopes will follow us to the grave! 
 In view, then, of this sudden and startling blow, which has 
 fallen in our midst, may we not, with bowed heads and 
 burdened hearts, exclaim : 
 
 "What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue! "
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 423 
 
 JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 Obiit 1 41)1 July, 1872. 
 
 [The following tribute to the memory of the Hon. Linton 
 Stephens is from the pen of a niece of Henry W. Longfel- 
 low, the American poet, who has attained so much distinc- 
 tion in the Eastern as well as the Western continent. We 
 feel that our readers will, as we do, highly appreciate this 
 tribute, not only from the tone of its touching sympathy, 
 but from the source from which it comes. EDITORS SUN.] 
 
 Another noble name is added 
 
 To the list of shrined dead ; 
 Another strong, grand form departed 
 
 To his lowly, narrow bed ! 
 
 Another guiding hand is taken 
 
 One more heart is calm and still ; 
 O my God ! 'tis now in anguish 
 
 Bow me to Thy higher will ! 
 
 Gone, in all his prime and vigor, 
 
 Passed from out the field of life ; 
 But he bore himself as conqueror, 
 
 Nobly in that weary strife ! 
 
 To Thy feet, O Holy Jesus, 
 
 Now we bring this crushing load ; 
 Only by Thy help and guidance 
 
 Can we tread this thorny road. 
 
 In Thy hands, we then, confiding, 
 
 Leave the one to us so dear 
 Leave until a spirit risen 
 
 In Thy glory shall appear! 
 Boston, August n, 1872. MARIAN ADEI.E LONGKEI.I.OW.
 
 424 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 (From the Atlanta Sun.) 
 
 LINTON STEPHENS. 
 
 KY A. R. WATSON. 
 
 I. 
 
 Oh, Eagle of our gentle Georgia clime, 
 
 Kyrieil so near the sky ! 
 Whose sturdy wings beat strong against our time- 
 
 Of never-flinching eye ! 
 
 II. 
 Of sternest pulse, .and eager, bounding flight, 
 
 Touching the sun-tipped brow 
 That domes the top of fame's imperial height", 
 
 Where eyrie such as thou ! 
 
 III. 
 Oh, Eagle ! stricken from our Georgia skies, 
 
 And stretched upon the plain, 
 With the full blaze of morning in thine eyes, 
 
 Ours is the awful pain ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Oh, Archer! that, amid the quivering strife, 
 
 Winged swift thy truest darts, 
 And, through the core of his majestic life, 
 
 Smit deep into our hearts! 
 
 V. 
 Oh, conqueror Death ! thrice victor, pass along, 
 
 Trophied above the past ! 
 Our pulse of greatness, erewhile brave and stron 
 
 Is at its ebb at last ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 A little room is all that's needed now 
 
 Oh, mother earth, be kind! 
 Methinks your breast should feel a newer glow 
 
 With dust like his enshrined.
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Addison, Appreciation of 115 
 
 Akin, Warren, Remarks of, occasioned by death of Stephens . . . 420 
 
 Alfriend, Alfred, Letter of advice to 275 
 
 Alfriend, Dr. E. W 53, 184, 384 
 
 American party, Organization and early dissolution of 116 
 
 Ancients contrasted with the moderns 36 
 
 Anthony, Rev. Samuel 205 
 
 Aristocracy, True vs. false 19 
 
 Barnett, Samuel, Letters to 295, 354 
 
 Tribute to memory of Stephens 413 
 
 Barrow, Pope, Reminiscences of Stephens 406 
 
 Benning, Henry L., Criticism on history, (Note) 72 
 
 One of Supreme Court committee to report resolutions on death 
 
 of Stephens 413 
 
 Bird, J. L 10, 39, 43 
 
 Law-partner of Stephens 92 
 
 Bleckley, Logan E., Estimate of Stephens as a judge 165 
 
 Brown, A. S., Personal collision with, subsequent correspondence 
 
 and reconciliation with 328, 329 
 
 Brown, Joseph E., Nominated for Governor 127 
 
 Stephens' estimate of, Ib 271, 275, 287 
 
 Bryan, Mrs. Mary E 206 
 
 Bullard, Ward, Second teacher of Stephens 7 
 
 Bulwer, Estimate of 18, 25, 387 
 
 Burch, R. S 53 
 
 Calhoun, J. C., Appreciation of 281 
 
 Unfortunate nomenclature in calling the "State's veto" "Nul- 
 lification " 349 
 
 Cass, Lewis 51 
 
 Clay, Henry, Account of speech before American Colonization 
 
 Society 85 
 
 Anecdote of, by Crittenden 87
 
 426 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Clark, R. H., Recollections of Stephens' speech, at Milledgeville, 
 
 against removing the capitol, and its effect 393 
 
 Clinch, General I). L., Opinion of prudence and wholesomeness of 
 
 observing forms of etiquette 65 
 
 Anecdote told by 69 
 
 Joke on 86 
 
 Cobb, Howell, Trick on the Washington hackman 49, 62 
 
 Opinion of Linton's talents 92 
 
 Elected Governor of Georgia . . 106, 128, 221, 259, 260, 264, 265 
 
 Cobb, T. R. R., Mention of by Rev. Dr. Curry 12 
 
 Rapid rise in profession of the law 91, 144 
 
 College Honors, Estimate put upon 47 
 
 Common-place book, Importance of keeping 24 
 
 Confederate debt, Opposition to indorsement of 269 
 
 Council, Cosby 175, 181, 187, 197, 198, 230, 263, 268 
 
 Conscription Act, Opposition to the principle 245 
 
 Constitution, Account of formation of, and of its leading supporters 
 
 and opponents 27 
 
 Crawford, M. J., Letters to on chairmanship of State Democratic Ex- 
 ecutive Committee 316, 323 
 
 Crittenden, J. J., Anecdote of Clay 87, 207 
 
 Experience as soldier in war of 1812 244 
 
 Deafness, Advantages of 76 
 
 Diplomatic Dinner at Washington, Description of 53 
 
 Douglas, S. A., Course on Kansas Constitution reviewed 129 
 
 Position on Central-American question 136, 220, 235 
 
 DuBose, C. W 223, 227, 232, 384 
 
 Eloquence, Difference between spoken and svritten 62 
 
 Ewing, Thomas, Puns of 7 1 
 
 Excess, The vice of government 350 
 
 Fielder, Herbert, Letter to 326 
 
 Letter to, on the true theory of government and the necessity 
 
 of checks against excess 349 
 
 Impressions of Stephens 396 
 
 Foster, Dr. Thomas, Early advocate of construction of Western and 
 
 Atlantic Railroad, (Note) 299 
 
 Opinion of C;vsar 299 
 
 Fouche, Simpson, Prepares Linton for college : Reminiscences of the 
 
 boy 8 
 
 Founders of the Government, Character and principles of 26
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 427 
 
 Gartrell, L. J 10 
 
 General Assembly of 1849, Distinguished persons composing it . . 93 
 
 Gibbon, Estimate of 47 
 
 Government and Society, Their nature and analysis of 281 
 
 Grammar, Instances of popular errors of, in speaking and writing . . 29 
 
 Grier, Aaron 5 
 
 Grier, Margaret, Her character % 3 
 
 Grier, Robert, (Note) 3 
 
 Grier, Robert C., (Note) 3 
 
 Habeas Corpus, Resolutions on suspension of writ, introduced in the 
 
 General Assembly 269 
 
 Hambleton, J. P 235 
 
 Hamilton, A., Character and opinions 28 
 
 The Federalist 81 
 
 Harris,, Iverson L., Letter to, on miracles 210 
 
 Letter to, on dissenting opinion in Supreme Court 308 
 
 One of Supreme Court committee on death of Stephens . . . 413 
 
 Harry, Body-servant of A. H. Stephens 95, 96 
 
 Hartridge, Julian, Remarks in convention commemorative of Ste- 
 phens 419 
 
 Hayes, Cornelia 5 
 
 Henderson, R. J., Fitness for brigadier-generalship in Confederate 
 
 army 260 
 
 Henry, Patrick, Opposed adoption of the Constitution 27 
 
 Hill, B. H., Advocates coalition between Bell and Douglas men, in 
 
 1860, to defeat Lincoln 227, 236 
 
 Hill, Joshua, Defeats Stephens for Congress in 1857 . . . 127, 136, 139 
 
 Mine, Mrs. James, Letter of condolence 401 
 
 liistory, Method of studying 30 
 
 Independence, Manly 19 
 
 Jackson, Professor James, Practical joke on 15 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, Advocated adoption of the United States Consti- 
 tution 27 
 
 Jenkins, Charles J 106, in, 413 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, Repudiates the Sherman-Johnson Convention of 
 
 1865, after surrender of Confederate army 288 
 
 Johnson, Herschel V., Elected Governor ill 
 
 Appoints Stephens counsel for Georgia in controversy with 
 
 Alabama 122 
 
 Speech at Macon 223 
 
 Stephens favors his election to United States Senate .... 352 
 
 Letter to editor 397 
 
 Letter of condolence to A. H. S 402
 
 428 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Johnson, James 223 
 
 Johhson, Sam., First reporter of parliamentary debates 102 
 
 Johnston, Malcolm 354 
 
 Johnston, Mark 22 
 
 Johnston, R. M., Personal relations with Stephens io7 
 
 Law-partnership, //>. : Reminiscences of Stephens . . . 177, 255 
 
 Lamar, A. R., Remarks in State convention on occasion of Stephens' 
 
 death 419 
 
 Lane, A. J., Letter to 244 
 
 Lewis, M. W., Reminiscences of Stephens 390 
 
 Lies, Best way to avoid telling ''modest" ones 248 
 
 Lindsay, John, Character of 4 
 
 Lindsay, Matilda, Mother of Linton, her character 4 
 
 Longfellow, Marian Adele, Tribute to memory of Stephens .... 423 
 
 Longstreet, A. B., In the pulpit 32 
 
 Locusts, Periodical appearance and multitude of 39 
 
 Lumpkin, Joseph Henry 51, 222 
 
 His opinion of Stephens as a judge and jurist 227 
 
 Pleasant supper-table, passage with 228 
 
 Lumpkin, Samuel, Reminiscences of Stephens, and estimate of his 
 
 powers as an advocate 359 
 
 Lundy, William, Reminiscences of Stephens in his college life . . 12 
 
 Lynch-Law, pro and con 196, 200 
 
 Lyon, R. F 413 
 
 McCay, H. K 409 
 
 McDonald, Charles J 106, 164 
 
 Madison, James, Advocacy of adoption of the Constitution .... 27 
 Meteorological Phenomenon, Description of remarkable one, in 1840 23 
 
 Montgomery, W. W 409 
 
 Moot-courts 68, 69, 75, 88, 89 
 
 Nomenclature, Mistaken or misapplied, as to dogs 251 
 
 To men '. 252 
 
 To measures 281, 349 
 
 Orphanage, Sensibility excited by it 83 
 
 Olin, Rev. Dr. Stephen, Professor of Rhetoric at University of Geor- 
 gia, and method of teaching 3^ 
 
 Sermon at Washington 59 
 
 Orr, G. J 13 
 
 Palmer, Rev, Dr, B, M., Fast-day sermon at Milledgeville . . 254, 255
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 429 
 
 Peace, Terms on which to restore 271 
 
 Petigru, James L., Anecdote of 176 
 
 Phi-Kappa Society II 
 
 Pierce, Bishop G. F., Fast-day sermon at Milledgeville 254 
 
 Witticism of 359 
 
 Pierce, George F., junior, Resolutions commemorative of Stephens, 
 
 offered by, in State Democratic convention 417 
 
 Remarks thereon 418 
 
 Platform, State Democratic of 1870, drafted by Stephens 315 
 
 Politicians, The enemies of mankind 104 
 
 Pottle. E. II 10 
 
 Tribute to memory of Stephens 398 
 
 President, Loss of the steamer, marvelous incident 95 
 
 Mills' conjecture as to the cause, //'. 
 
 Pretenders, Their chief frailty, excess 252 
 
 Punishments, Necessary evils, but not designed 78 
 
 Rhetoric, Method of studying and use of 33 
 
 Religious impressions 25 
 
 Sentiments 289 
 
 Opinion of religious organizations 301 
 
 Riot among students and citizens, at Athens, animadversions on . . 39 
 
 
 
 Salter, Dr. R. II 304 
 
 Letter to 354 
 
 Letter of condolence from 404 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, Compared with Bulwer 25, 250, 251 
 
 Secession, Opposes the policy 241 
 
 Not unconstitutional 285 
 
 Sims, Robert 235 
 
 Smith, T. J., Letters to 323, 356 
 
 Social Compact, Significance of 283 
 
 Speeches at Atlanta 368 
 
 At Milledgeville 287 
 
 Defense before United States commissioner at Macon .... 331 
 
 vSpring of the year, Influence of, on health of men and plants ... 22 
 State Democratic Convention, Proceedings on occasion of Stephens' 
 
 death 417 
 
 Stephens, Aaron G 3, 5 
 
 Stephens, Alexander, The paternal grandfather of Linton, his char- 
 acter, etc I, 2 
 
 Stephens, Alexander H., Birth 3 
 
 Guardian of Linton 8 
 
 Letters to Linton during his college-life 17, 48
 
 43 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Stephens, Alexander II. (Continued.) 
 
 Account of Whig national convention of 1844 49 
 
 Dr. Olin 59 
 
 Letters 62, 65 
 
 Routine of a busy congressman's life in 1844 67 
 
 Letters to Linton while a law-student at the University of Vir- 
 ginia .... 69, 71, 75, 79, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 94, 96 
 Opinion of the " Whig Exposition," drawn up by Linton . . 96 
 
 May-Bradley affair in Washington 97 
 
 Party organizations 98 
 
 Supposed understanding between Seward and one of Taylor's 
 
 cabinet ministers 99 
 
 Coalition of Northern Whigs and Free-soilers loo 
 
 Dr. Johnson first reported parliamentary debate, and wrote re- 
 ported speech of Pitt which overthrew Walpole's ministry in 
 
 1740 101, 102 
 
 Politicians, the enemies of mankind 104 
 
 Letter occasioned by the death of Mrs. Stephens 126 
 
 On Linton entering military service of Confederacy .... 242 
 Presiding sense of duty, and perfect submission to will of Provi- 
 dence 243 
 
 Letter from Washington in 1866, reception there, (irant, An- 
 drew Johnson, Sir Frederick Bpuce, Burlingame, etc. . . . 293 
 
 Napoleon's Qvsar 298, 299 
 
 Letter from Philadelphia, apprehensive of success of his work 
 
 on "War between the States'' 305 
 
 Letter from Springfield, Johnson-impeachment 307 
 
 Law-partnership 309 
 
 Severe injury from a fall in 1869 309 
 
 Terminations of certain Fnglish words 309, 310 
 
 Linton's Macon speech 347 
 
 Stephens, Andrew H., Father of Linton, character, etc 2, 3 
 
 Stephens, Catharine 1! 4, 5 
 
 Stephens, John 1 4 
 
 Stephens, Linton, Birth 4 
 
 Patrimony 7 
 
 First teacher, master Strange 7 
 
 Second teacher, master Rullard 7 
 
 Prepared for college by Fouche 8 
 
 Filters University of Georgia to 
 
 Graduated 10 
 
 Letter to A. II. S., Opinion of Judge Longstreet in the pulpit, 32 
 
 Visits Washington City 48 
 
 Reads law under Toombs 48
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 431 
 
 Stephens, Lin ton (Continued.) 
 
 Letters to A. H. S 50, 52 
 
 Enters law-school at University of Virginia 48 
 
 Letters to A. H. S. while a law-student . . 55, 62, 63, 65, 69, 
 
 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 83 
 
 Receives diploma 89 
 
 Enters law-school at Cambridge 89 
 
 Admitted to the bar 91 
 
 Rapid rise in profession, first case 91 
 
 Partnership with Bird g 2 
 
 Elected to the Legislature 92 
 
 Prefers nomination of Taylor to that of Clay 93 
 
 Supports "compromise measures" of 1850 106 
 
 Constitutional Union party 106 
 
 Supports Cobh for Governor 106 
 
 Supports the Webster-Jenkins Presidential ticket 106 
 
 Marriage 107 
 
 Removes to Hancock 107 
 
 Law-partnership with Johnston 107 
 
 Middle Georgia bar 108 
 
 Letters to Johnston 108, 109 
 
 Elected to Georgia Senate lit 
 
 Supports Jenkins for Governor ill 
 
 Resolutions on Nebraska question 112 
 
 Family correspondence 113, 115 
 
 Death of infant daughter 115 
 
 Appreciation of Addison 115 
 
 On Know-Nothing platform of 1855 116 
 
 On the party 118 
 
 Opinion of the Stephens-Campbell debate on "Georgia and 
 
 Ohio" 118, 121 
 
 Appointed counsel for Georgia in controversy with Alabama, 122 
 
 Nominated for Congress 123 
 
 Supports the Buchanan-Breckinridge nomination '. 124 
 
 Delegate to National Democratic Convention at Cincinnati . 124 
 Incident at Senator Toombs' complimentary banquet to the 
 
 Georgia delegation 124 
 
 Death of his wife 125 
 
 Second nomination for Congress 127 
 
 Governor Brown 127 
 
 Douglas and the Kansas Lecompton Constitution 129 
 
 His charities 134 
 
 Rejection of Kansas' admission 137 
 
 Letters to A. H. S 139, 141
 
 432 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Stephens, Linton [Continued.) 
 
 To Johnston 142 
 
 To A. H. Stephens on Kansas Conference bill, Winter Davis' 
 
 speeeh 146, 148 
 
 Declining a third nomination for Congress 149 
 
 Outrages by British ships 150 
 
 Recreation tour to Northwest 152 
 
 Sympathy for Douglas in his Senatorial contest with Lincoln . 154 
 
 Letter to Johnston 155 
 
 Sleeplessness 160 
 
 Visit to Washington 162 
 
 Letters to Johnston 162, 163 
 
 Appointed Associate Justice of Supreme Court of Georgia . . 164 
 
 Judge Bleckley's estimate of him as a judge 165, 174 
 
 Letter to Johnston . . . 175 
 
 Letter to his three eldest daughters 189 
 
 Letters relating to domestic matters 193, 206 
 
 Letter to Harris on miracles 210 
 
 Letters to A. H. S 214, 216 
 
 Decision in Jones' case 217, 218 
 
 Harris as a judge and man 219 
 
 Separation of families of negro slaves 229 
 
 Combination of Douglas and Bell parties to defeat election of 
 
 Lincoln 2 }o 
 
 Resigns his seat on Supreme Court bench 2}i 
 
 General regret 252 
 
 Critique on A. II. S.'s version of "stoning Stephen" . . . 232 
 
 Part in Presidential campaign of 1860 233 
 
 Letter to Johnston thereon 2,3 
 
 To A. II. S. on same subject 234 
 
 To A. II. S. on secession 237, 239 
 
 A co-operationist, delegate to State Convention of 1861, sep- 
 arate State action, etc 240 
 
 Opposes immediate secession, but yields to will of majority 
 
 after passage of ordinance 241 
 
 Resolutions favoring State unity 241, 242 
 
 Enlists in military service of Confederacy, elected lieutenant- 
 colonel Fifteenth Georgia Infantry 242 
 
 Resigns 242 
 
 Declines colonelcy of regiment 24^ 
 
 Opposes conscription 245 
 
 Letter to ]. A. Stewart on conscription, etc 245 
 
 Letter to A. II. S., silence, best way to avoid telling "modest 
 lies" 248
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 433 
 
 Stephens, Linton (Continued.) 
 
 Letter to Mary Grier 254 
 
 To A. II. S., Opposition to habeas corpus suspension . . 255, 258 
 
 Letters to A. H. S 259, 268 
 
 Supplies to destitute in sections overrun by Federal army . . 269 
 Opposition to State Indorsement of Confederate debt .... 269 
 Letter of advice to his young friend, Alfred Alfriend . . . 273 
 
 Letters to A. H. S 278, 281 
 
 Extract from speech opposing granting plenary powers to the 
 
 Governor 287 
 
 Epitome of religious faith 289, 301 
 
 Victim to dyspepsia 289, 291 
 
 Letter to Barnett 295 
 
 Method of reading an author 296 
 
 Death of his dog " Pompey " 297 
 
 Epitaph for the dog " Rio " -. 298 
 
 Fondness for dogs and horses, (Note) 298 
 
 Visits his brother at Fort Warren 304 
 
 His second marriage 304 
 
 Presidential contest of 1868, Chase, Pendleton, Davis, ct al. . 307 
 
 Letter to Judge Harris 308 
 
 Meaning of termination of certain English words 310 
 
 To A. H. S. on adjournment of Superior Court of Richmond 
 
 county i . . . . 311 
 
 Bledsoe as an author 312 
 
 Coalition between Democrats and Liberal Republicans ... 314 
 
 Georgia Democratic platform of 1870 315 
 
 Chosen chairman State Executive Committee 315 
 
 Resigns 316 
 
 Letters on the subject to Crawford 316, 323 
 
 To T. J. Smith 323 
 
 To A. II. S., Policy of Democratic party 327 
 
 Collision with Dr. Brown on election day, correspondence and 
 
 adjustment 328, 329 
 
 Arrested for alleged violation of Enforcement act, so-called . 329 
 
 Speech at Macon in his own defense 331 
 
 Committed, but grand jury ignore the bill 346 
 
 Letter to Dr. White, "blood money" 348 
 
 To Fielder 349 
 
 To Fit/.patrick, hint to a young lawyer 352 
 
 Letter to Pottle on senatorial candidature 352 
 
 To Barnett, recommending Malcolm Johnston 354 
 
 To A. H. S., death of B. T. Harris 354 
 
 To Dr. Salter, detailing mishap 354 
 
 To A. H. S., " new-departurists " 357
 
 434 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 Stephens, Lin ton (Con tinned.) 
 
 To A. II. S., Voorhees' speech 358 
 
 To A. II. S., defense of Croley, witticisms of Bishop Pierce, 358 
 
 To A. II. S 364 
 
 Failing health '. 366 
 
 Last political speech 368 
 
 Last sickness and death 383 
 
 Burial 384 
 
 Personal appearance, tastes, habits, etc 386 
 
 Stevens, Rev. C. W., (Note) 204 
 
 Stewart, J. A., Letter to, on conscription, etc 245 
 
 Stiles, Rev. Dr. ]. C., As a pulpit orator 224, 225 
 
 Strange, Master, First teacher of Linton 7 
 
 Streaks, Things run in 158 
 
 Story, Joseph 59 
 
 Notions of work, and how to work, and how to recreate ... 63 
 
 Anecdote of 71 
 
 His mess at Washington in 1844 89 
 
 Social character no Federalist death, (Note) 89, 90 
 
 Style, Importance of good, in writing 44 
 
 Supreme Court. Proceedings in, occasioned by death of Stephens . . 409 
 Thomas, James, Father-in-law of Stephens . . 107, 137, 150, 152, 
 
 '55' '59> 1 77> '83, 184, 200, 208, 214, 230, 237 
 Thomas, T. W 132, 141, 143, 144, 145, 242 
 
 Toombs, Robert, Legal preceptor of Linton 48 
 
 At Newark 51 
 
 Witty answer to Burt 93 
 
 Opinion of " Whig Exposition " 96 
 
 Position on Central-American question 135 
 
 On Lecompton Constitution . . 137, 150, 207, 220, 230, 237, 
 
 238, 239, 240, 260, 264, 265 
 Chairman of Supreme Court committee to report resolutions on 
 
 occasion of Stephens' death 409 
 
 Trammell, L. N 288 
 
 Tucker, Henry St. George 48, 56, 64, 69, 70, 71 
 
 His opinion of Hamilton 81 
 
 Universalists, Doctrine of, criticized 20 
 
 Warner, Hiram 409 
 
 Watson, A. R., Poetical tribute to the memory of Stephens .... 424 
 
 Webster, Daniel, Speech at Baltimore in 1844 50 
 
 Candidate for the Presidency 106 
 
 Whig party, Disruption of 116 
 
 Wilson, Henry, Kindly offices of, to A. II. S. while prisoner of State 
 
 at Fort Warren 304 
 
 Wright, Augustus R 235 
 
 Yancey, William 1 68, 79, 238, 240
 
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