whose spirit presides over and hallows its sacred precincts; where they may learn the most ancient and least understood of all the arts-that of tilling the soil upon scientific principles."

Judge Tarpley was the originator of the scheme for the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad, drafted and procured its charters, devoted his time and talents towards the organization of the company, and was at the time of his death one of its board of directors. He lived to see the project which he was the first to contemplate, and which was scouted as the dream of a visionary, grow into a great thoroughfare, and extend from New Orleans to the Ohio.

In politics Judge Tarpley was an ardent Democrat. He was a member of the Baltimore Convention of 1852, and was enthusiastic in support of the principles of his party. While he was devoted to the Union as it was made by our forefathers, he was far from counselling submission to wrong in order to preserve it. "Better," said he, "to shiver the Union into a thousand fragments, and trust to Providence, and the intelligence and patriotism of the people for the formation of a better one, than to become the slaves of the stronger section, and to feel ourselves to be inferiors when we have heretofore stood as equals. I counsel no such craven spirit of submission as this."

But, happily, Judge Tarpley did not live to see the ruin which was then pending over his country. He died in the spring of 1860, ere the dismal clouds had heaved in view. And if it be, as Lord Mansfield says, "that death never comes too soon to him who falls in defence of the liberties of his country," surely it comes not too soon to the patriot when it closes his eyes to the vision of their overthrow.

Judge Tarpley possessed a keen taste for literature. Some of his contributions to periodicals upon the subjects of agriculture and railroads were republished in pamphlet form and largely circulated; and in 1851 he wrote and published in pamphlet the life of Colonel Jefferson Davis, whom he at that time strenuously advocated for Governor of Mississippi.

He took a deep and active interest in the affairs of the Church, was a warm Methodist, and steadfast in his faith. His Christian and moral virtues were in full counterpoise with his intellectual

traits, and while the latter gave him eminence as a lawyer, the former shaped the character of the man. The following resolutions were adopted by the bar of the High Court on the occasion of his death:

"The members of the bar of the High Court of Errors and Appeals have received with profound regret the sad intelligence that another of their number has been taken away.

"Before reaching the period fixed by the Psalmist as the limits of human life, Collin S. Tarpley was cut down, in the full strength of his intellect and the vigor of mature manhood. For nearly a quarter of a century he was a member of this bar, enjoying the respect of all for the high order of his talents, his varied legal attainments, and his kindly courtesy towards his associates.

"Beginning life without the adventitious aids of fortune or family influence, Collin S. Tarpley, by his intellectual acquirements, persevering energy, and courteous manners, attained a prominent position in Mississippi as a lawyer, a politician, and a citizen; and now that the grave has closed over him, his associates at the bar desire to pay the last tribute of respect to the memory of a deceased brother, who, during his whole career, bore himself towards them with the kindly courtesy of a Christian gentleman; and, to that end, they

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Resolved, That in the decease of Collin S. Tarpley the State of Mississippi has lost one of her worthiest and most valuable citizens, and this bar one of its most eminent and able members.

"Resolved further, That the members of the High Court of Errors and Appeals be requested to accompany the members of the bar to the funeral of their deceased brother as a mark of respect to his memory.

"Further resolved, That they sympathize with the family of the deceased in their great affliction, and tender to them heartfelt condolence of friends who know and feel their loss.

"Further resolved, That these proceedings be presented to the High Court of Errors and Appeals, in open court, with a request that they be spread upon the minutes, and that they be published in the city papers, and a copy be furnished the family of the deceased."

CHAPTER XI.

THE BAR--EMINENT LAWYERS-1832-1880.

AMOS R. JOHNSTON-JAMES T HARRISON-JOHN B. SALE-WILLIAM F.

DOWD.

AMOS R. JOHNSTON.

ONE of the noblest commentaries upon American institutions is the facility which they afford to genius and rectitude for rending the clouds of obscurity, for bursting from the most adamantine gyves of condition into the glare of honor and the full round orb of fame. Fate has here no iron bed upon which its victims, like those of Procrustes, are bound and fitted by the fiat of unalterable decree. Here genius, once fledged in the nest of morality, leaps forth like a young eagle from its eyrie, and spreading the wings of resolution, soars away to the heights of its ambition and capability. Here honor demands no glittering armorial, wealth no splendid heirlooms of inheritance, and eminence no pride of pomp or lictorial badge. Here fame requires no arbitrary circumstances, depends upon no golden opportunities, and exacts no impersonal qualifications; but only that he who would reach its realms shall be guided by the beacons which it has established along the sacra via of its glory.

Many of our most distinguished citizens began life under the most unfavorable circumstances, and it is with the superlative pride of patriotism that we point to our Franklins, our Clays, and our Stephenses as the peculiar and legitimate fruit of our state of society, which none but the tree of liberty could have blossomed and matured in spite of the blasts that beat upon the opening buds, and of whose fame the compass of space,

like the terminal god of the Romans, has no arms to mark the bounding thule.

There were also many eminent gentlemen of the Mississippi bar who, as we have seen, could trace their beginning to a period when they stepped upon the stage of life the apprenticed architects of their own fortune, and with no tool but their talents and no whet-rock but their integrity, constructed the ladder of their own eminence. Among these was the subject of this sketch.

Amos R. Johnston was born in the State of Tennessee. His scholastic advantages were scanty, and his early education was obtained principally in the office of a country newspaper; but so vivid was his aptitude, and so strenuous were his diligence and application, that he was soon enabled to ascend the tripod ; and having established a paper in a small village in Henry County, in connection with the afterwards famous General Zollicoffer as a partner, he became at an early age a political writer of repute in the Western District.

About the year 1830, Mr. Johnston emigrated to Mississippi and took up his residence in the town of Clinton, where he resumed his editorial pursuit, and at once achieved a prominent position. Clinton was at that time the centre of wealth and influence, and from this point he effectively promulgated the staid and conservative doctrines which characterized through life his public conduct and political creed. Though originally a friend and supporter of General Jackson, he soon abandoned the Democratic party and became an energetic, determined, and uncompromising leader of the old Whig party.

In 1836 he represented Hinds County in the Legislature, in which he colleagued with Messrs. Prentiss, Guion, Tompkins, and other leaders of that party, and was one of the most efficient and influential advocates of its measures.

He served but one term in the Legislature, and about this time removed to Jackson, where he continued his editorial labors until the year 1839, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Hinds County, and from that time his connection with the press ceased. He then established his residence at Raymond, the seat of justice of the county, where he resided