The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

so that to cover the subject comprchen- siVely and to deal fully with tha1 splen- did array of brilliant legal minds which made the records and the fame of it's forums, I elect to say Dallas bar. Tradi- tionally the name of Murphy stands pre- eminently as his epitaph in the cemetery speaks.
 A Lost City
 First a word for the sad picture Of old Cahaba, the second capital QS20-S) of this now great state, with it's 2,13s,O93 popula- ton. Some years ago. when I last vis- tied the site of Cahaba, I was impressed with the lines of Tennyson Locksley Hall, for 'dreary seemed the moorland," while the crying blower flew over the waste and
 marshes that now form a part of the lost city. It Is hard to realize that where now only a few scattered bricks remain and one or two houses there once stood a capitol building, many splendid homes, some of them decorated with costly fres- coes done by foreign artists, and carved marbles for stairways and mantles When I the present section of the Southern Rail- way between Selma and Meridian was being surveyed the builders proposed to construct 1t by Cahaba for a consdera- | ton, instead of Selma. Not receiving the proper financial aid the road was built to Selma, and with that day there began i the undoing of the old town. It is fact that many of the buildings in Selma were removed from Cahaba that IS
 much of the material and some of the structures were reproduced there.
 Cahaba sat at the junction of the Ca haba river with the Alabama, for be it
 known in the days of St. Stephens the first and Cahaba the second, and even
 Tuscaloosa the third capital of the state, river navigation and stage coaches fur nshed the means of travel and traffic, The old capitol at Cahaba was built very
 near the river and the Alabama's eroding waters caused the building to crumbie and | fall into the stream. Rivalry and decay | and time with it's changing tide of ar- | fairs has converted this site of govern
 ment, brilliant statesmenship, great cra- tors, able lawyers, grand danes and un- | bounded hospitality, to be known no
 more. In its place the ploughshare marks
 it's furrows and yearly King Cotton spreads his white banners, guarded by
 the tasselated spears of the corn.
 Legal Forum
 l Even after the capital was removed from Cahaba the bar of Dallas was nota- be for men learned in the law and elo- quent in pleading. At this bar appeared Samuel F. Rice, afterwards one of the greatest supreme court judges that adorned the bench in this state. In bis younger manhood, William L. Yancey,
 unquestionably the Demostrenes of seces-
 sion, practiced, and early won laurels, at
 tracting crowds with his eloquence and l learning.
 l In the ante-bellum days it was said tpat
 no man, unless of marked ability, could
 hold "a place at the Dallas bar. Not all | of the able lawyers were rleaders with
 eloquent tongues, for some of the most
 noted had their reputation from a pro- | found knowledge of the law. In those | days nearly all lawyers were students.
 not only of the law, but of the classtcs
 and polite literature, and in some cases of applied science
 ] After the clouds of war lifted; after 1 vultures of reconstruction had fed upon the one-time prosperous but crushed peo- pie of the black belt, when ability, honor
 and character could not save them, the l first hands raised to strike the shackles 1 from them while in the clutches of | United States marshas, the ilrst voices lifted for white manhood and womanhood.
 were the volunteered services of able
 members of the bar of Selma. Many were | tempted but only few fell victims to the spoils of office under the reconstruction regime. One of the ablest and most elo- quent men at the Selma bar, in an evil
 nour forsook his people And even yet it
 is tradition that he uttered one of the
 most finished and eloquent of panegyrcs on southern schivalry before he fell. In
 one of his masterly efforts, addressing an audience, Alexander White made himself near immortal when he uttered the classic | phrases: 'The Bonny Blue Flag no long,
 CT waves! Its silken folds no longer Kiss the genial breezes of our southern cline.
 The hands that raised it alofI have fallen"
 When we come to speak of the Selma
 bar the very first thought is of the
 matchless Morgan, he of the Kohinoor intellect lawyer, orator scholar, soldier, statesman And then we of the black belt remember that great Moses, Edmond w. Pettus, who led his people from out "the pagues of Egypt" through the dark
 waters of reconstruction, with his courage and his counsel.
 | When the assembled wisdom of the
 state met in Montgomery in February, 1S61 to counsel on the most important
 crisis that has affected this country since l1776. one of the members was that able lawyer, William M. Brooks of Perry, a lneighboring county to Dallas. He was made president of the secession conven- ton. ,and was one of the abest presiding officers that ever held the gavel in the state. After the war he took up the practice of law in Selma and became the ranking partner in Brooks, TIaralson & Roy. He probably received more large fees for his profound knowledge of the flaw than any other member of that bar. lJudge Brooks, well advanced In years, came to Birmingham and practlced law. Jonathan Haralson was up to short while ago an able member of the supreme court of Alabama. William Roy good Lawyer, a scholar and an elegant gentle man. a son-in-law of Gen. William J. lHardee. became disgusted with conditions Iprevailing in the black belt and being well fixed in life goods removed to Paris
 and there made his home.
 William C. Ward, who died here in Bir- lmingham a few short months ago, was one of the best chancery lawyers m the lstate and this in days when lawyers had to know the law and encyclopedias of law were comparatively unknown. l want to Impress right here the fact that these men of whom I am writing were students of the law.
 There came from the Cahaba bar to the Selma bar one of the most beloved and
 accomplished men in that galaxy of legal stars which shone there. Pleasant G. | Wood, who was for near a quarter or
 century probate judge of Dallas county,
 was the embodiment of as much Chris I tian. manhood, moral courage. galantry | and legal knowledge as any man in the state He died suddenly in Paris, while a delegate from his church to the Meth
 odist World Conference in England | One of the most eloquent members of l the Selma bar, now the blind lawyer of
 Jefferson. Sumter Lea, won his spurs
 upon the field of battle and his honors in