102
77/6' Green Bag.
a memorandum of the court's opinion. The principles decided, however, are accurately stated in the syllabi. These reports are dis tinguished by one marked peculiarity. Mr. Walker frequently appends notes to the opinions, and he does not hesitate to assail and criticise the views of the judges when he deems their opinions wrong. These scanty reports of Mr. Walker when a young lawyer would hardly challenge the attention of the historian but for the great distinction afterward achieved by him as a senator and statesman. The volume would not come up to the reportorial standard of to-day in its arrangement for complete and easy reference. It must not be left out of view that the South was crowded at that time with brilliant and aspiring young lawyers from almost every part of the Union, of many of whom •the world at large knows nothing, but num bers of whom, like Prentiss, Sharkey, Foote, Poindexter, McNutt, Holt and others, be came famous. The wealth and fertility of the country, its accessibility by water naviga tion, the exciting episodes and romantic at mosphere made it attractive to the daring in all walks of life. The term of George Poindexter, a senator from Mississippi, had expired March 4th, 1835. Poindexter was a Virginian by birth and has been characterized by Claiborne, the historian, as the ablest man who ever lived in the State. He had been a judge on the bench, he had codified her laws and was an autocrat in politics. He had killed his antagonist in a duel. He was a great orator, and held a prominent place in the national senate. But in the parlance of that day "he had gone over to Biddle and the bank." He was a candidate for re-election, and the problem at ' •home among his enemies was who could de feat him? Xatchcz in that day was the po litical, social and financial headquarters of the State. To Judge George Adams, a prom inent lawyer and United States District judge, and William M. Gwin, Jackson's pro
tege, and afterwards United States senator from California, was ascribed the political parentage of R. J. Walker, then but thirtyfour years of age and but nine years a resi dent of the State. These astute politicians concluded that Walker was the only man in the State, unknown as he was in any ex tended way, who possessed the ability to cope with Poindexter in debate. Walker in comparison with the great senator in some sense provoked laughter. It was charged that Poindexter had come back to the State with his purse full of Biddle's gold as the price of his apostacy. At any rate, true to his instincts and character he was as defiant as a Roman gladiator. Walker was exceed ingly deminutive and stooping in person, weighing ninety, to one hundred pounds. His voice was wheezy and vibrated from high •to low in rapid succession. But he was bril liant in diction and poured forth a train of original ideas. He was invincible in argu ment, pugnacious and resentful. He could write or dictate a speech and without again referring to it get up on the stump and re peat it word for word. He had come to Mississippi without a cent, but now stood in a brief period of nine years at the head of the bar among a host of brilliant competitors from all parts of the Union, reputedly a wealthy man. A colony of rich Pennsyivanians had patronized him. He was not widely known, but confident, brilliant, learned. He was seconded by Henry S. Foote, who resolutely stood by him when too severely pressed by Poindexter who had become somewhat disabled by ill health. The race was very close, but Walker won. He at once took a high stand in the Senate, where he soon became chairman of the com mittee on public lands. In his canvass preceding his election to a second term in the Senate, Sergeant S. Pren tiss, the brilliant lawyer and orator, was his adversary. When Prentiss, seven years his junior, first came to Mississippi, Walker had
