Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-04-19
r P''
The shaekIeford Peace Treaty-Our Spe-
efal Correspondent, "P. P.," Re
fuses 70 Ratffy-Hs Stands By
his COIOrs, and VIII Fight IL
Out On this Line.

fuses to Ratffy-He Stands by
his COIOrs, and VIII Fight 10
Out on this Line.
EDITORS APPEAL@On my arrival In
your city, the morning Of the third
instant, a friend called my attention to
an article in your journal Of that date
relative 10 the adjustment Of the matters
in difference Between the members Of
the bar of the eleventh judicial district
of Mississippi and their presiding judge,
G. g. Shackleford. IL is with reluctance
that / exhume this matter, but it is due
me that /, as one of the purpOrted sign
ers of that treaty, should be set right ON
the record. 1t is due my friends, who
have, from time to time, evineed 50
much solieitude in my behalf in this
struggle for the constitutional privilege
to write, speak and publish whatever j
please, being individually responsible
for the abuse Of that privilege. 1t Is
also due the press, and especially
your journal, whose correspondent /
have 50 long been, and whose
chief l have so long known, and whose
esteem l appreciate 50 highly, that I
should adopt the means Of placing my
self in my true position in this stubborn
quarrel between the bench and bar of
my former district.
This treaty was entered into without
my knowledge, and, as far as il relates
to me, without my authority, and as
soon as I heard Of it I refused to ratify
it, although | appreciated the true in
tentions which impelled the members of
the bar to include RE in the general am
80 1bfafAa1 - H.
after his onslaught on me at the Bolivar
court. l would have c~heerfully acceded
to an honorable peace, for war brings
with IL many serious inconvenience,
but the terms of capitulation, as to me,
were such as to require me to degrade
myself by Withdrawing what everybody
knows 10 be true, and thus yield to the
divineright of judges to t|yrannize Over
the helpless. The other members of the
bar could very well sign, as their sin
consisted only in p~etitiOning the tyrant
to resign when he had dealt 50 summa-
rily with certain ODes of their number.
But my Offense was rank; mine was
the objectionable sin Of abusing,
as he deserved to be, an immac-
ulate judge, and the terms of
my forgiveness were based upon his
infallibility on the one hand, and very
deep contrition on the other, that I had
ever presumed him to be otherwise. This
l have never subscribed to, as viii be
seen by the following extract from nay
valedictory, on retiring from the BOttUdT
Times, on the 9Th instant
We have aimed our blows altogether at
public officials, TO keep them in remembrance
that they are but men, and, at best, but the
servants Of the people-the creatures of this
creative power. In doing this, we have wrung
the wtthers OF many a CALLED jade, we know,
but they have taken il ever in a philosophical
way, and reasoned that the burdens always
the pleasures Of power With one
notable exception has this been 50. We refer
70 the conduct Of a certain Judge, one &C.
5hackleford. It IS an oft-tOld tale, ana l refer
70 II only to tell the sequel. He suspends me
from the roll OF attorneys in his court for dar-
ing TO tell the truth about his official conduct
as Judge, in another Journal, published in
another state. One whose friendship Is life
long, and whose motives I do not question,
balks my plan Of testing this ~high-handed
usurpation Of power in the Supreme Court, by
a compromise which I did not authorize, and
one which l cannot ratlfy. This compromise
is, in common with all who have written
against this tyrant in ermine, agree to with
draw, simultaneously with his restoration Of
license everything that has been written
against him. I withdraw nothing. Others can
make their own terms. j prefer the course 1
here adopt-tol leave the State rather, and thus
W1Jhdra myself from the clutches of this
bold, bad judge. I have written about him
because 1t was actually necessary 70 the well
fare Of the community Of which I was a mem
Der that his doings should be exposed. i
meant TO resist his retort upon me by pursu-
ing my legal remedy, and none other.
l left his jurisdiction because be would
not decide the point raised in my an
swer to his rule upon me to show cause
why l should not be stricken from the
rolls, but adopted the course by which I
be most injured, and by which
his grinding despotisrn might be most
severely felt-that is, he said he would
''tdEe the matter under ddViseD9ent, y
and he could advise " 1t till next
November court and then conclude, Of
course, to diShOnor me, and from the
crowded state of the docket I could not
obtain a hearing in the Supreme Court
under a year, at least. Meantime 0thel-
occupation is gone. / sought TO
;heckmate the hardness of his "advis-
lngp dodge by a suit SOr damages, and
accordingly fled my declaration in De
Soto county, demanding of him the
modest SUM OF twenty-five thousand
as punitive Of his having done
his wrong against me, "n1dliciOusLy and
'oTruptly and UithO08 authority Of lar"
which | would have proven, and which,
f proven, would, according To a deci-
'iOn in seventh Wallace, United States
have entitled me to a recovery. /
But this suit was dismissed in the
amnesty at CaahOma, and,
V have said, without nv
knowledge or authority, by my
riend in the kindest interest for me. .
This treaty Of Client gave the irate
Judge the decided advantage. 1t an
lulled the article of your correspondent
asst April, from which sprung the origin
# his famous Polish bulls, which struck
the rolls three attorneys of his
curt, and for which twenty-One out of
he twenty-three members of the bar of
he district petitioned him to resign, al
eging that they had no confidence in
lis ability as a Judge, or his integrity as
man." This hasty peace did more.
members Of the Bolivar bar. in
act all Of them resident there, had peti-
Toned and obtained from is. Morris.
he Attorney General, the use Of his
lame in q 9UO ICdTrGntO," to test the
light of Judge Shaekleford TO hold the
of Judge of this district, while
le was and had ever been a resident of
mother district. 1t being understood as
general peace, its effect was to stop
LIE PAOG6GuluS dIrAg RQt MuEu alaSL ]
leard from, the Bolivar bar was still
out. AS for me, when the mat
er assumed the confusion as related
hove, ] could not, of course, afford to
walt the laws delay, with the bench hos
lie, and the bar virtually n~eutralized by
his compromise, so l withdrew from his
minent domain as an attorney of his
curt, where the yials Of his wrath had
1rned ave ON me as c~opiously as did
hose of "Old Mother Hunter on the
cad of your chief in the days when {
tennessee was in the deplorabie con-
ition that Mississippi now Is,
In conclusion, I VIII say that the peo-
lie of Mississippi in this, the hour of
heir deep damnation, naturally turn to {
our columns as a safety valve through (
vhich may escape the pent up wrath Of
Wondering afes, that viii not be {
uenched as long as such scenes are en-
cted in the name Of justice; and if they {
re to be repeated IN Bolivar you shall 9
ear from them, and the author will 2
and by his eolors though he 90 down
Ike the Cumberland, (" with the PEN
ant flying at her masthead.
Tours truly, c. {. CUMMING.
MEMPHIS, April II, 1872,