New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-08-02
THE ROMANCE
THE GREAT GAINES CASE.
a Life-Tlme Lawsuit.

afucl6 from 1tttlblfI y Iiuyu~Hte LOl AuSuee
The notes are our own, prepared by per
son who is probably more familiar with the
record of this case than ony other one now
living.
We understand that the life Of Mrs.
Gaines is being written under the supervis-
ion of the lady by gentleman OF great
culture, in whose hands the necessary ma
terial has been placed. 1t will probably
he the only correct account of the strange
events of this strange life; for Mrs. Gaines
alone has preserved the entire record in
and out of court;
when, hereafter, some distinguished
American lawyer shall retire from his prac-
tice to write the history of his country
jurisprudence, this case will be registered
by him as the most remarkable in the rec
ords of its courts"
So said the Supreme Court of the United
States, speaking in the person of Associate
Justice Wayne, when in 1860, for the sixth
time, it decided upon an issue in the famous
case OF Myra Clark Gaines.
Justice Wayne's language was judiciallY
careful. The subject of his reference JUS
tilted him in terming it the ''most remark
able" in all the records of American courts.
When he thus spoke it had been for twenty
six years threading the tortuous path of the
law. Commenced in 1894, it had been in
every court of Louisiana, and six times in
the Supreme Court of the United States.
1t had at times been represented by the
ablest counsel in the country, and at other
times by no counsel at all. 1t had enlisted
on one side romantic and sympathetic en-
thusiasm, aud on the other had incurred
the opposition of most immense and per
fectly honest private interests. 1t had divided
the Court in the most irreconcilable and
aptagonistic opinions. II had been decided
upon the same issues OF fact, by the same
bench of Judges, in the light of substan-
tally the same testimony, in precisely OPP
posite directions.
One woman had been the moving spirit of
all this litigation.
Her suit was a most audacious one. She
attacked that most sensitive, most carefully
guarded interest, the possession OF real
property, and threatened in her efforts the
overthrow of all that was stable in the ideas
OF law and custom, in respect to it. Her
claim was for houses, lands, and human
property, which had passed into the hands
OF hundreds of different owners. Their
title could be traced back for years preyi-
GUS to the commencement Of this suit, with
out blenlsh of irregularity. 1t had come
through dozens OF hands, all of whom had
bought and sold in perfect good faith, and
without the'shadow Of suspicion.
It was the one woman against five humid
red men.
It was one resolute claim for abstract
Justice against five hundred apparent
rights, fortified in every tradition Of law,
and every selfish Interest of organized So
ciety.
The evidence to support the claim was
as remarkable as the demand itself. AT the
end of twenty six years of law, when Jus.
tice Wayne pronounced his decision, he
passed in review upon allegations of fact
running back into the last century He
inquired into She most private life of indi-
g =-fii5itisis, aud analysed their most intimate
relations in the earliest five years of the
present century. Upon the view which the
court took Of the occurrence or otherwise
of circumstances alleged to have happened
in those years depended the result Of this
case. And finally, they being determined
favorably to the claims Of Mrs. Gaines, her
fortunes turned upon the established exist
ence Of will. which even she did not pre-
tend ever had an existence after the de-
cease OF the testator, and the purport Of
( which had no other proof than the recoilec-
tons, after the lapse of more than forty
years, Of aged aud infirm persons who re-
membered hearing it read.
TNerH 1.-The will was proven In 1884
twenty one years instead Of forty years
after the death Of the testator. Besides, Du.
seraux De la Croix, who had been appointed
executor Of the will Of 1918 and tutor to
Mrs. Gaines. petitioned the Court Of Pro
bates to snmmon the notaFies Of the city to
answer as to the existence Of the will Of
1878, stating under oath that he "has strong
reasons to believe, and does verify believe,
that the late Daniel Clark has made will
posteEior to that which has been opened
before your honorable court, and in the
dispositions or which be thinks to be inter
ested; that its existence was known by sew
erAl personal
This petition bears date August Is, 1918,
only two days, instead Of forty years. aftsr
the death Of the teatatora
Such were some Of the features which the
learned justice pronounced most remark
abIe.n n !
Let us draw from this tangled skein of
real life the thread Of romancs. whose re-
mote end, silyered BY Tine, has rs origin
seventy years ago In an atmosphere OF socI.
ETY., and under system of government Is
toreign that we can now SCARCELY realize
them.
We mnst 90 back to the commencement
OF the present century, and imagine our
selves IN New Orleans under the Spanish
rale. The laws were curious mixture Of
weak civil authority and decsying eccleai-
aalie4l control. The Spanish possessions In
AMozl94 were but N extra pawn upon the
chessheaEd Of Enropean politics. New Or
leans Hs4 tue tropical city; lie population
l1nal8am1ted from q dozen different races;
ils morals corrupted hom a. many different
Sources Already IsWaa he eeas Of Iuxurv.
~ he great MiaSlsippl f0lssd past rs lev
- lisa as now. Kish princes e Isndsi e.
A.e wealthy merchants, ana extensive
sre4eEH| Is well as proud eFsndesa = an
anela I1glns. slipped Ans1ktia undsf the
nfa1noIial.
Anans y pea msn Of lle slIy 4 lhIs