The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-06
SOME SIAUNCH AND
GIFTED zen
BY DIR. I. b. KINGssIRY.
By DIR. T. b. KINGSRIRY.

shy OF North Carolina the President
came into my room in the South
Building almost every school day. 1t
was the one under the ante-chamber
to the Dialectic Society, and next door
to President SWANS lecture room. He
visited nae q little While before his
hour Of beginning to teach had ar
rived, n would glance over my liter
airy journal. Once he told me of the
great Congressional contest between
Hon. Wiley p. Mangum and Rev.
Josiah Crudup for Congress in the
Orange District. 1t was a most extra
ordinary contest. The speakers were
able n impressive. At the election
which was very hotly contested, Mr..
Crudup was defeated in Orange coun-
ty, Mr.. Mangum's own county, by a
few votes only. Governor Swain old
me that but for a tremendous rain
Mr.. Cdudup would have carried
Orange. He had the best speech that
day. and Just before his time came
Tor reply q great rain came and drove
the large crowd under cover. Cover
nor Swain said that Mr.. Mangum,
telling him. Of the discussion. at
Dawes I think it was in Orange,
SAID that 50 strong and potential was
Crudup in debate thai if he
had been permitted to make the
last speech he believed he would
have carried the county. My dear
friend, Mr.. Justice Joseph L. Davis,
Supreme Court, told me that his own
home was but a few miles rom Mr..
Crudup's, and he knew him very init
mately. He told me that he was really
{ a very able man. the most logical
preacher he had ever heard, and they
/ were not of the same church. He
told me of 2 two days discussion hat
was appointed between Mr.. Crudup
and Hon. Eolnulus N. Saunders, of
Raleigh, probably then the ablost
Democratic speaker in the State.
Judge Davis said that Saunders open
ed the discussion and spoke until the
Raleigh and CASTOR railroad train
fcame along, when he concluded, an
! nOuncing that business required him
TO return to Raleigh that day, but he
Wouid return on the mornings train,
and resume the discussion. But Gen.
Romulus never returned. That first
day was enough TO satisfy him. 1t
was 1T Franklinton some twenty-five
miles from Raleigh. was
really q very vigorous, resourcefuI
and able debater. l heard him prove
too much for Judge Kerr at Williams
boro, in Granville, but that was. /
think, in 1874. Later on Kerr must
have held his own.
Judge Kerr was not only q very elo-
quent speaker at the bar when at his
| best, but he was a clear, logical and
thoroughly we'll equipped advocate.
I have heard him often at that great
old Granville Bar prior to the Civil
War-a Bar SO superior that the late
very accomplished and gifted Hon.
Abram w. Nenabl said to me that in
1925, when he first Joined it, Che was
q Virginian1, the Supreme Court OF
the United States might have been
| IN Epn. from II One of the most MEM
orable Of Judge kerr'S speeches was
to me very remarkable, as l know he
circumstances concerning it. 1t was
at Person Superior Court. and not
long after the war. \ case OF interest
was to be tried. As Judge Kerr and
[ were going to the court room one
| OF the parties to the suit came to
| Judge Kerr and said to him. | wish to
/ engage your services in my case. Kerr
entered the court room and took the
case in hand at once. His speech
that day was really q masterpiece 1t
was calm, logical and forceful, some
times eloquent. and as l told him
later it was the bes. legal argument
ever heard from him. He told me q
brother lawyer had said the same
thing to him. 1t was a most remark
able speech. and especially when the
circumstances are properly consld-
cred. 1t was quite superior to the
! speech of Governor VINO
had charge of his own clients case,
and was q good lawyer. / have writ
ten of my friend who passed away
long ago, because l cherisd his mem
ory, and know him as intimately as 1t
mach younger man, and not a lawyer,
than himself could possibly know
him. When he attended Granville
court I always spent an evening or
two with him in his room at the hotel
:. 1~.o - ion thot x-ac nftpll
to me educatiVe and memorable.
Permit me to engage your attention
briefly While ] write Of another old
and able personal friend, Judge Rob
ert &. Gillian, the leader of the home
bar Of Granville in it's time OF great