Soute Kentucky Lawyers of the Past and Present. was there a candidate for county attorney. He subsequently removed to Iowa and was appointed to the Supreme bench by President Lincoln. Judge Burnam, who knew him well, says, " He was one of the first legal minds of the world, and his opinions will be handed down to posterity for ages to come."
An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/344}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
LEXINGTON.
Lexington is in the famous Bluegrass country, "the garden spot of the world," as it is proudly called. It was there Henry Clay, Kentucky's greatest statesman and lawyer, lived. "The Old Prince," as he was called, was the idol and the pride of all Ken tucky. I have writ ten of him in an other article for THE GREEN BAG. Judge Little calls him a political lawyer and tells as an evidence of his great tact thatonce, JAS. B. when called to the president's chair in the Senate, a debate was progressing, in which both senators from Arkansas were taking part. One pronounced it Arkansaw and the other as it is spelled. Mr. Clay varied the pronunciation in deference to each. John Breckinridge, the first of that illus trious family in Kentucky, died when only forty-five, yet no man of his day excelled him as a lawyer and statesman. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses when only nineteen. His son, the gallant Confederate general, John C. Breckinridge,
311
also achieved distinction at an early age. He was vice-president at thirty-two, and it is mentioned as a curious fact that if President Buchanan had died during the first three years of his term, the vice-president would have been ineligible as his successor, as the law requires the president of the United States to be thirty-five. Robert Wickliffe was one of the pioneer lawyers of Fayette County. He bore an active and con spicuous part in all the leading ques tions which agitated the State for half a century." When the state was rocked, as with an earth quake," by the dis cussions on the re lief and new court question, he was among the most active and efficient champions of the constitutional judi ciary. He was ac knowledged to be one of the ablest land lawyers in the State. BECK. Judge David R. Atchison, Judge A. C.Wooley, Judge Goodloe and General Roger Hanson were all wise and able men. Madi son C. Johnson was a man of profound learning and an illustrious lawyer. He was such an authority in Fayette County that his opinion on any subject was rarely dis puted. It was enough to close a discussion for one side or the other to say, " Mat Johnson says so." An illustration of this is the following, which was told by a wellknown humorist : A man went to Lexington to live. The morning after his arrival he told the hotel clerk he had been almost de
