The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1868-05-07

mination of becoming partisan power
in the land, are well calculated to
satisfy all rehectipg men that it is
fortunate for the liberties of our peo-
! pie and for the welfare of our country
that there are so many denominations
in the United States. If this were
the only Church. the South would be
ground under the heels of such a
tyranny as neither Pope nor Sheridan
attempted to establish.
RicAmond Dispatch.
THE CELEBRATED GAINES CASE.
The final decision of the suit of
Mrs. Gaines against the city of New
Orleans, by the Supreme Court, ter
inmates one of the most extraordina-
ry cases of litigation in the whole his
tory of civil jurisprudence. tits re-
markable, says the Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin" lin an able re-
view of the case.) for the curiosity
of the case itself: for the large amount
of property which it involves; and
for the wonderful display of endu-
ring pertinancy with which the plain
tiff has devoted her life to the prose-
cution of what has been held to be n
hopeless cause. Seven times has
Mrs. Gaines pleaded her case before
the Supreme Court, sometimes with
partial success, sometimes with none
until, at last, after forty years of in
cessant litigation, she has won the
day, and establishes her claim to
large portion of tkA city of New
Orleans, valued, very modestly, at
100000. The fight has been fought
by Mrs Gaines single-handed. She
has literally gone through fire and
food, as she has travelled over the
country, always intent upon the one
great business of her life. With a
buoyancy of temperament that knew
no abatement with an abiding faith
in the justice of her cause and of its
ultimate success; with few friends and
very limited means; with life slipping
away under the long delays and slow
processes of the law, this truly re-
markablc woman persevered until she
has conquered fortune.
A brief outline of this singular
case will be interesting to our
readers: In 1894. Zulime nee Car
riere, a beautiful Creole of New Or
leans, married one Jerome des Gran
ges, in New Orleans. In 1902 or
1903, DAME! Clark, a prominent cit
izen of New Orleans became attached
to Madame des Oranges, and about
the same time, it is alleged that it was
discovered that des Oranges had a
wife living in France, and that the
second marriage thus proving void,
Daniel Clark privately married the
lady in Philadelphia. Of this mar
riage the present plaintiff claims 70
have been born in Philadelphia, in
1902 or 1903. Her mother and her.
self were committed to the care of
her fathers friend and partner, Mr..
Daniel W. Coke, of this city. She
afterwards became an inmate of the
family of Colonel Samuel B. Davis,
and was known among her school
fellws, some of whom still remember
her as Myra Davis. When she grew
up, it became known to her that her
true name was Clark, and she has
established the existence of awill of
Daniel Clark's, acknowledging her
as his legitimate daughter. Yet her
own mother, who, during Clark's life,
married M. Gardette, we'll known
citizen cf Philadelphia, was never
summoned as q witness by Mrs.
Gaines, and her father, Daniel Clark,
during his wife's life, addressed Miss
Cation, of Baltimore, who, however,
did not accept the advances.
Myra Clark married Mr.. William
Wallace Whitney, of New. York, by
whom she had two children, son
and daughter, still living. After Mr..
Whitney's death, she married Gen.
Edmund Pendleton Gaines, who died
in 1S49. One child, the issue of her
second marriage, died in infancy.
Daniel Clark owned large tracts
of ground within the limits of New
Orleans, which became immensely val
liable. More than a thousand suits
have been instituted by Mrs. Gaines
to recover these properties, upon
which many of the finest improve
ments now stand. The decision of
the Supreme Court only applies, d.
rectly, to three suits, but its ruling
will cover the whole ground.
This case has been one of singular
intricacys and has turned, as will be
seen by the above brief statement,
upon the question of the Legitimacy