Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-03-08

September, 1sl5, and died on Sunday, March
ID, 1884, at Clarksville, Tenn. !; hence ne was
in his 69th year, lacking but one whole year
of the God-appointed life of- man, three
score years and ten. From Adairville,
swhere after his Inatured manhood he lived
a short time, he moved to the county town
OF his native county, Springfield. and for
three years he there lived and labored to
earn support, and in the meantime study
his profession, and was these admitted to
the bar. sS
Having to aid in the support of others of
mis- family, ne was thirty four years of age
before he could throw of the burdens of his
early career and Mt himself for successful
competition with the bar of this judicial
circuit. then, as ever, famed for the learn
Ing and ability of its members. At this
period of his life he moved to Dover, Tenn,
and there in partnership with Judge Her.
bert s. Kimball. he began his career as
lawyer, and from that day till disease and
death marked him for their own, his life
was an incline plane of ever rising and
increasing honors.
His cottage home in Dover, we older MEM
beers of the bar know opened wide its porti-
co and its portals Immediately on one of
the main streets, and was typical of the
open-armed, genial and graceful hospitality
of Its owners. for in the meantime he had
won that crown of every mans life, the
love of a good and virtuous woman, and
on the 9TH day OF May, 1874. at the home of
her parents in Montgomery county, he was
married to Miss Julia A. Dawson. Forty
years of married life, full of all the unspeak-
able riches of perfect confidence and love
that casteth out all fear, was the fortunate
IN
wealth to satisfy, but not to satiate, the
wants of life,
"Hand in hand they climbed LIES hill to-
1t was in this home of love and hospital
ity that the now historical surrender of
| Buckner to Grant was made, and here. too,
| the wasting fires ofundisciplined war began
| to follow in the footsteps of the contend1ng
hosts; and again typical of their cause,
| their sweet home was furled in the flaming
banner, to rise no more. Espousing the
cause OF his people he gave his all and fol-
lowed the flag until there was no fl ag to
| follow.
| After the war he returned to Montgomery
| county and became permanently citizen
of Clarksville; pursuing successfully his
professional career, he was first made Attor-
ney-General of this judicial circuit. At the
first general election for State officers, he
was a successful candidate for the circuit
Judgeship, and having been reelected held
| the office for second term. He was sue
| ceeded in the next election by Judge Stark,
| and again became a practitioner at this
| bar, and in this capacity continued till his
death, dying as the good soldier loves to
| die, ain the harness" and with all his ar
NOR on, and
"Never hand waved sword from stain
| more Free"
| During all the time of his busy and hard
worked life, he ever found time to do his
| Masters work. With wonderful industry
and accuracy he garnered every text In the
rich harvest of His Word, until they were
not only of his memory, but imprinted on
his heart, and their light became the lamp
that guided his footsteps even to the dark
and narrow portals of the grave. Such in
brief and in the merest outlines is the life of
our deceased brother. The full picture,
| touched by the aesthetic hand ola master ar
fist, would make picture so perfect in all
its parts that even the rude, untutored saw
age would stand uncovered in the presence
of its chaste and simple beauty.
AS husband, he was a model as ia
ther, loving and beloved; as neighbor,
had he lived in that day there would have
been another good Samaritan as friend,
he was as true as steel and sharper than the
sharpest steel mot to see nor to puncture the
faults of those he loved, but to blind all
eyes, his own with the rest, to their short
comings, and when without pain it could
be done, with gentle hand to cut off every
excressence, until in his own true and loyal
faith it became thing of real beauty and
of life.
With the simple, artless nature of child,
he had the grip and the courage of
lion when injustice met him in his path or
the oppressor placed bis iron heel on the
neck of the poor and the weak, and the day
was never too warm or too cold, the night
never too far spent or too dark for him to
answer the cry of the suffering or the
needy.
Weneed not speak of him to this audience
as lawyer you, who knew him so well,
standing by our sides, the peer of the
greatest, know he never struck an unfair or
unmanly blow, and the assassin's dagger
he knew not how to use.
AS Judge, he was upright and honest
but never had the credit for capacity he de-
served, for with clear perception and an
accurate knowledge of his duty the stronger
forces of his nature were ever interfering,
and made him ever lean to Mercy's side.
His tears bedimming his mental vision,
Mercy sometimes took the scales from JUS
tees hand.
Who is there of us who has not seen him,
when after he had prepared his we'll con-
sidered charge, some skilled advocate, in
the name of some aged father or mother, or
oftener some young life in its very bud
and promise, made appeal to his feelings,
has not seen the warm, rich blood we'll up
from the fountains of his heart, and with
eyes almost too dim to see. catch his pencil
and interline with some high, noble prin-
ciple of mercy so large and so powerful
that it unbarred the prison doors and gave
the poor wretch another chance for life,
hope and Heaven.
God made Judge Rice a nobleman /; all
the kings of the world could not have |
made him more so courtly and dignified
in his manners, yet he knew how to I'M |
bend and be boy again in social and con- |
vivial hours. |
Friends, as he lies there all white and |
shrouded in his coffin, will any find fault |
with US when we say, and say from our |
hearts, of all those we have known and who |
have lived in our time and day, "He was |
the noblest Roman of them ALL Be it,
therefore,
Resolved, That in the death of James E.
Rice society loses an exemplary citizen,
the State righteous and merciful Judge,
the bar one of its pillars and brightest Or
naments, his household a model husband
and father, and Christianity jealous and
an earnest worker.
Resolved, secondly That we extend the
sympathy of our hearts and offer a loving
coincidence to his wife and family.
w. A. QUARLES,
@. w. TYLER,
p. G. JOHNSON,
CHAS. q. SMITH,
WIN. NJ. DANIEL,
Committee.
narho1d0Io Hams |