VOL. XV.
No. 3.
BOSTON.
MARCH, 1903.
ROBERT J. WALKER. BY GEORGE J. LEFTWICH. IN 1824 there came to Natchez, then the largest and wealthiest town in Missis sippi, Judge Jonathan Hoge Walker, and Duncan S. Walker, the father and brother respectively of the subject of this sketch. A large and rich colony of Pennsylvanians was already established there. Robert J. Walker, with his mother and sister, Charlotte Corday Walker, followed in 1826. Judge Jonathan Hoge Walker was a grandson of William Walker, who emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in 1710. Robert J. was born at Northumberland in that State in 1801. Judge Walker was appointed Judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylva nia by President Monroe and removed from Northumberland to Pittsburg, whence, his health failing, he went with his son, Duncan S., to Natchez. Robert J. was educated un der his father's direction till he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he grad uated with highest honors in 1819 and was selected as salutatorian of his class. He was an excellent scholar, a master of Greek and Latin. He spoke and wrote French and was given to writing verses in his early days. A medical career was marked out for him, but he did not practise medicine. His aptitudes were all favorable to the law, and he was ad mitted to the Pittsburg bar in 1821, when twenty years of age. He was a member of the State Democratic Committee of Pennsyl vania at twenty-one, chairman of the same committee at twenty-two, and claimed to have first named Jackson for the Presidency at
twenty-three years of age. He married Mary Blechenden Bache, a great-grand daughter of Benjamin Franklin, and a grand daughter of A. J. Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury under Monroe. His brother, Duncan S. Walker, had be come the partner at Natchez of Edw:ard Turner, a lawyer of distinction, who had been elevated to the bench and had left a vacancy in the firm which Robert J. was invited to fill in 1826. He immediately entered upon a large and lucrative practice, as the Reports of the High Court of Errors and Appeals themselves disclose. He was master of both the common and civil law; in fact, at that time and place a knowledge of both systems was essential, as the Natchez country had been for a great while Spanish territory, Natchez itself being the capital of the pro vince. The State had been admitted to the Union in 1817, and the High Court of Errors and Appeals was established in 1818, but no offi cial reports had been issued until 1828, when Robert J. Walker was elected official re porter, his name doubtless suggested by Judge Turner, then a member of that court. The records of the court had been poorly preserved, but the work was well done ac cording to reportorial standards as then es tablished. He issued but a single volume of reports which covered the proceedings of the court from its establishment in 1818 till 1832, a period of fourteen years. The reports of cases are often exceedingly brief, giving but
