The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-06-01
s9ashrille &9niQll.
WV. OAMEROS . 90. publishers:
The Late Judge CatrOn.

| u ElsNIh L. ID 4 y Z j. loOD.
The Late Judge CatrOn.
The following extracts from a letter
written in 1851, by the late Judge Cat
ron, to the author Of Portraits and
Memoirs of Eminent Americans furn-
ish a very acceptable sketch of tae life
and character of the writer:
DEAR SR-Some days since l receiv-
ed your letter of the 18th instant, in
| in which you express a desire to pub
lish in your Magazine a sketch OF my
life, with portrait, &c.
For your kindness and good opinion
be pleased to accept my thanks. 4 do
not believe there ls man living who
could give you any tolerable amount of
my early life, except myself, and when
the incidents were narrated, they would
prove what Campbell says of Lord
| Mansfeld-that when he came up from
Scotland to Westminster School on a
Highland pony, the chances We're a
billion TO one against his ever being
Chief Justice: and | can safely say,
] that ouite as many chances stood
in the way Of my being Supreme
Judge. when of the same age
as was his Lordship when he wended
his way South, with his pony as his sole
companion. Your readers would only
learn that I had been reared on p
farm, and had been hogged through,
the common schools in Western Nir-
ginia and Kentucky, and then had had
the advantages of such academies as
the country afforded; humble enough
in all conscience, and where little else
than Latin, and the lower Mathematics,
was added to the common school train
ing; that with this amount of acquired
knowledge, / read history, novels, and
| poetry; grounded myself well, as l
thought, in Virginia politics that l
read everything that came to hand
| Fielding, Smollett, SterDe, Goldsmith,
and up through Tom Paine, Hume and
Gibbon. Everything, or nearly so, then
TO be had in the country, of history,
ancient and modern, and much OF it,
with 8 devOuring appetite Preston
1 John, Peter the Hermit, Richard and
/ Saladin, Falstaft and Frederick were
all iumbled up together tits due how
ever, TO say, that preparatory to taking
| up Blackstone, | carefully resread
| Humes History of England, with
Smollett's and Bissetts combinations,
Robertson's 3 Charles the Fifth, and also
| Gibbons Decline and Fall; and made
extensive notes on each, which 1
thought exceedingly valuable at the
time They were on large toolscap,
bound in paste-board, and all told, were,
when packed on each other, two thirds
as high as q table, nor did l doubt
that 1ay condensed Gibbon would go forth
one day to the world in print; nor do /
! now remember at what time it was
used to kindle the Office fire; but
this was its fate. With my old
friends, Pope, Shakespeare, and Sterne.
[ had to act, as | have often done
since with my snuff-bOx-hide them
from myself. But Just then the yerita-
bic History Of New York, by Deidrich
Knickerbocker, made its appearance
among US young men of the West
which did not attempt to resist then,
nor at any time afterwards. And it is
well did not, for the matchless hui
NOR of that production has stood, me
in hand many times before jurles, who
got into the dangerous mood of an in
clinstion to cry, when the clear interest
of my client was that they would
laugh. -.-r
The Bible, being the common reader
of my early schools, of course / knew
it almost by memory. of geography ]
learned more than most men, and
know more now With this confused
mass of self taught knowledge, | COM
menced TO read law in April, 1872, in
the State of Tennessee. Up to this
date, l had never been sick a day or
hour, and had frame rarely excelled !
one that could bear ardent and vigor-
Gus application for sixteen hours IN the
day, and which was well tried for about
four years at something like this rate.
Late in 1915, tried my chances at the
bar and succeeded; certainly In the
main chance of getting fees; but, then,
| had a good deal of worldly expert
ence and availed myself of the cases in
court, through q heavy circuit, of q re
tiring brother lawyer and friend who
WAS elected to Congress. To his busl-
ness l attended, taken the unpaid fees;
and as he had side in almost every
important case, II ran from the score
at the start, and which my elder breth
rem literally applied for a year or two.
| Having served q campaign under Cen
eral Jackson, and brought home some
army popularity, the Legislature elect
ed me Attorney for the Government in
my circuit, when my law license had the
sand on it. The courts were full OF IN
dictments for crimes, from murder
down. Here had to fight the battle
single and alone, and to work day and
night No man ever worked much
harder, ! think; my Circuit Judge was
an excellent criminal lawyer, and being
partly Scotch, always stood firmly by
the State, and leaned strongly against
the culprit, so that l got on very well,
but often with sn arrogance that would
have done credit to Csstlereagh for
blundering in my law, certainly, if not
bad grammar. Like his lordshlp, was
given to white Waistcoats and small
clothes, and drew pretty largely on the
| adventitious aid furnished by the tailor.
The lawyers then travelled the CIRCUIT
from county 10 county, usually OF
Sunday. Each man that was we'll sp
pointed, carried pistols and holsters. a
negro waiter with large portmanteau
behind him. All went on horseback,
The pistols were carried, not to shoot
thieves and robbers, but u fight each
other if by any chance 8 quarrel was
hatched up, furnishing occasion for a
duel, then a very favorite amusement
and literally INDUCED in--and the At
torney-G General for the circuit was ex.
pected 70 be and always was, prepared
for such a contingency. He managed
10 keep from fighting, however. His
equipments we're Of the best, with a led
third horse now and then for the sake
of parade Many are the anecdotes
could furnish Of nights on the road.
side, st country taverns, where the
corps of lawyers halted short Of the
county town, and made as free with
whisky punch and empty bottles as did
| our Irish brethren at Galway assize
st about the same time Nor were
games at cards overlooked. But the
law of the circuit was, that no due
should come Of a brswl on these occa
sions; if any one happened TO suffer
from 8 smashed bottle, he took it anG
made up on the spot
One station ] filed when at the bar
amounting almost to a monopoly, i
was that OF drawing bills of exception
A writ Of error lay in all cases, civil anC
criminal, on refusal to grant a new
trial, often the entire facts, had to ap-
pear with the Judges charge on them
We then took few notes Of evidence
having TO do more in a day than could
be done in a week, If AL that witnesses
said was tediously written out as the
trial progressed The trial being end
ed, then the exceptions were required
st once; perhaps on the last day Of thC
term. The writing was always done
at the bar, and in the confusion o
business. So sdroit did / become By
constant practice, that ] could for hour
write down and detail what every wit