The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-15
TALKS ABOUT LAWYERS.
Governor Porter's Recollections Of Prominent
BarristerS-The Late Sims Colley.

porter to Ex-Governor Porter.
81 do wildly. His speeches were remark
able for their brevity. They were the shortest
speeches made at our bar. Mr.. ONeal was re-
markable for his clearness and quickness Of per-
ception, and for generally stalking his case upon
a single point, and for the wonderful force and
energy with which he would present the
point upon which he thus rested all his
case. He was of medium height, thin and
wiry. He was not a witty man, was
exceedingly irritable and irascib,e, but a man of
the ~strictest honor. He was relased, a cousin, l
believe. to George Houston, Governor of
Alabama Houston was a member of
Congress during my service there, and had the
faculty Of keeping Speaker Pennington in a
continual state of evaporation. There was no
similarity in appearance between Houston and
ONeal, however, for Houston was fat, with q
round, moonlike face, and probably the baldest
head that ever appearedin the House of Repre-
sentatives. Mr.. O'Neal died young; near the
age of forty-iye years"
THE late Judge James Morrison was promi-
nent in his day, was he notf'
"We never had an ADLER counsellor at our bar
than Judge Morrison. He seemed to have an
lnJultlV0 peECcptlOQ VI Gu0 law IL u CASE, dhA hO
was, beside, a most severe student. He was,
when not trying a case, a man of the most cor
dial manners, but when engaged in a trial he
was apt to look upon his opponent and the coun
sci on the other side. for the time, as enemies
who were not to be spared, and he never asked
or gave quarter. Everybody respected him and
admired his ability and pluck. He was once
Secretary of State, and at one time
President of the State Bank of Indiana.
The three Morrison brothers, James,
Alexander and William, were all remarkable
men. The Judge was, / believe, a born Scotch
man. and he had a high Scotch temper. The two
other brothers were born in this country. The
Judge was fond of attending the Burns festivals,
and delivered fine speeches on those occasions.
He was critical and scholarly, and a man of
highly cultivated literary taste. / think him as
thoroughly trained a lawyer as we ever had in
Indiana. Judge David Davis, Of Illinois, had a
great admiration for him. Alexander Morrison
was a great Democratic politician. In 1856, in
the Fremont canvass, there was a man here
named Okey. He was a graduate OF Princeton,
and had been a Presbyterian minister, but had
run down. He vas a cranky man, and got to be
the keeper of a peanut stand at Hubbards cor
ner, at the southwest side of Washington and
MERIDIAN streets. OQ0 night The democrats HAQ
a meeting in which they defended the institution
OF slavery. A number Of speeches had been
made, and Okey became very much excited.
When the last speaker concluded, Okey leaped
upon q store box ard made an eloquent speech
against slavery to the crowd, which had not had
time to dispense. The Democrats were stunned.
They looked at each other in dismay, wondering
if there could be no reply. Finally Alexander
Morrison Kissed out, And what in the devil has
this got to do with peanutsq Then the van
pushed Okey disappeared, and the crowd, in
somewhat better humor, retired"
In speaking of another distinguished member
of the bar, who has been dead for many years,
the Governor said he was the wit of the bar. 1t
was peculiar in that it would blaze forth in the
middle of a sentence, in parenthesis and discon-
nected from the argument, SO thatit was difficult
for an opponent to reply to it. And these unex-
pected sallies would have more weight than the
argument. 1t was as George Fl. Dunn said of
General Drake. when he had been defeated, some
thing that could be left out without affecting the
sense.
Sims Colley, as the reporter remembers, was
one of the oldest characters that ever prac-
ticcd at the indianapolis bar. The writer says
this advisedly, though with his eyes on three or
four odd legal luminaries who still make the
Justices courts and the courthouse resound
with their eloquence. Colley was brought up on
a farm, and was the son of a renter down about
Greenwood. He came to this city, then a small
town, when he was about eighteen years old, and
was employed to drive a wagon. In later
years he was very proud Of narrating
how he used to make bricks for "Uncle Jimmy
Turner" In his young manhood and along
toward middle life he was a shouting Methodist,
fervent and ready in prayer. During a class
meeting a brother was called upon who ex-
pressed the fear that he could not make the re-
quired supplieation. Sims was on his feet in a
moment with ''Heres who as can"-and pray he
did.
He was so social and easy of acquaintance, and
so pronounced in all his ways, that he speedily
became one of the best known men of the town.
With a desire to be conspicuous he soon APP
peared as a candidate for Office. He was elected
town marshal when the late Judge Newcomb
was mayor, and served in that Office a term or
so. While he was marshal, Judge Newcomb
said he used to take a great interest in all the
cases brought before the mayor and was apt to
espouse one side or the other of every cause.
After leaving the position of marshal he took
a fancy to practice law, although he had never
read a word of law, except what he had read in
the statutes as marshal. His force as a lawyer
consisted in bis general acquaintance, which en-
abled him to make up juries sagaciously and to
pick up witnesses readily. He was a very large
man, with a girth like Falstaff, and was like the
fat knight in that he had a keen and ready wit.
He was as bluff and hearty as Shakspeare's ia
nous old s~ack-swigger, though Sims's consti.u-
ton required the more potent beverage, whisky.
He was not at all scrupulous in his legal meth
DDS. He never knew the meaning of words, but
had a warm, uncultivated imagination and a
good deal of natural sagacity and horse sense,
and made considerable impression upon juries.
He liked words that were long, rotund and
sonorous, and used them, as the colored preacher
said, 'irregardless." and without clearly compre-
hending their meaning. When the late Judge
Samuel e. Perkins delivered his famous opinion
of the Supreme Court declaring the prohibitory
temperance law to be unconstitutional, the Judge
had stated that a certain section of the law might
be paraphrased in a certain way. of which he
gave an example. Afterwards the Judge was
witness in a case against Colley, and Sims, in
referring to the Judges evidence. convulsed his
auditors by the declaration: And here comes
Perkins-the venerable Perkins-who has
moaned. and ~groaned, and wept, and para
phrasedln
Colley's ignorance of law, coupled with his
a,oauinn ;.nn..Aonao La nnonahonn ~ Aha hnna4