Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-05-22

with Mr. Colyar in my life. Mr.. Shane
said he thought Mr.. Colyar was there; he
was not sure. | was not a member of the
Legislature at that time. / do not know
anything of plan to defeat the getting a
quorum. / have defended the State gov
eminent on all occasions. / was EMPLOYED
by friends of Messrs. Martin and Williams
II was a voluntary act on NV part. |
understood Mr. Colyar had been a member
Of the Congress at Richmond. ! think the
members Of the Legislature ought TO have
been present at their places, and not TO
have absented themselves for the purpose
Of obstructing the action of the Legislature.
| never heard of any armed men being
here to oppose the government or the Lee
gislature. i know of no instructions given
to the sheriff concerning the arrest of the
sergeant-at-srms and the members, beyond
that contained in the writ itself. | do not
know why Capt. Heydt did not have the
counsel that he wished. | never heard of
his having had any difficulty of that sort
till | heard him state it in evidence. |
think the editor of the Gazette was in favor
of the members absenting themselves so as
to prevent a quorum. | was utterly
opposed to this policy. | did not attemp,
TO persuade my clients to go back 20 the
Legislature, for did not know them.
To a Senator; My opinion of Brown
lows government was that he had no regard
for law or for anything but his own will.
TESTIMONY OF JUDGE LEA.
Judge John NJ. Lea was sworn and ex-
amined by Mr.. Ewing: l was Judge of
the Criminal Court up to May, 1866.
have known Judge Frazier for about
twenty years. He has always main
tanned the character of good and honor
able man, conscientious in the discharge of
public and private duties. never con-
versed with him on public and political
questions, nor upon questions of State gov
eminent Last April year ago there was
no quorum in the Quarterly County Court,
and the business of the county was about
to stop Judge Frazier was about to
hold his court. But / obtained his
cooperation with that of some others
in memorializing the Governor on
the subject, entreating him to issue a suf.
ficient number of commissions to give
quorum of justices to transact the business
of the county. In this paper we represent
ed that such procedure on the part of His
LACCAlNhIl NOulu nave lllt GilSCL Vi St
curing the confidence of the people in the
State government, and its whole tenor of
course involved, even to a greater degree
than it expressed, confidence and approval
in the government of the State in the hands
ofthe present Executive. Judge Frazier was
one of the parties who signed this docu-
ment l was in town during the trial of
the habeas corpus. | happened at this time
to meet Judge Frazier on the street, and he
asked me where my office was, and asked
me TO aid him in the decision of the case
submitted TO him. This was prevented
from doing, in consequence of having to
leave town almost Immediately for Mem
phis. / am sure that | animadverted very
strongly on the character of the recusant
members, and that he fully concurred with
me in the views | expressed. | referred
Judge Frazier to Jefierson's Manual and
one or two other treaties on parliamentary
law with which | was acquainted. / think
he concurred with me that it is revolution
airy and anarchical for members TO absent
themselves from the House for the purpose
of obstructing legislation.
Cross examined by Mr.. Maynard: be-
came first acquainted with Judge Frazier
in the spring of 1910. He was lawyer in
practice then, and had been for several
years. | referred him to Jeflerson's Manu-
al, to Mansfield, and an English treatise
relating to cases in the House Of Commons,
the name and title of which | have for
gotten. | suppose there was much excite
ment prevailing here at that time.
gathered this from the newspapers of the
city, as | was at Memphis, and therefore
not personally cognizant of what was going
on.
The court then adorned