CHAPTER VIII.

THE BAR-EMINENT LAWYERS-1832-1861.

GEORGE S. YERGER-ROGER BARTON-JACOB S. YERGER-ALBERT G. BROWN-PATRICK W. TOMPKINS-HENRY S. FOOTE-JOHN H. MARTIN.

GEORGE S. YERGER.

WHILE Nature, in her partiality, designates here and there an individual as the favored recipient of her special endowments, and ordains him to a particular sphere of eminence, it is rarely that she groups such an array of special talents within the limits of a single family, and fashions the intellectual traits of so many of its members in the mould of greatness, as was vouchsafed to that to which belonged the subject of this sketch. The Yergers seem to have been born lawyers. There were six brothers in this family, who attained to the highest rank at the bar, and the judicial records of both Tennessee and Mississippi bear everlasting testimony to their usefulness and their genius. Their characters glowed with a remarkable similitude, and they moved through their orbits of greatness with the uniformity and unison of a brilliant constellation.

George S. Yerger was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, about the year 1808. His father was of Dutch origin, and belonged to that sturdy yeomanry which gave early and lasting prosperity to the Middle States of the Union. With a large family and limited means, he emigrated, in 1816, to the neighborhood of Lebanon, Tennessee; and it was there that his eldest son, George, found an opportunity to gratify his early aspirations, who, having obtained a tolerable education, turned his attention to the study of law, and was soon admitted to the bar. He then located in the city of Nashville, where he

was for many years reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and became one of the inost eminent members of that bar.

In the prime of a vigorous manhood and glowing reputation, he removed, in 1838-9, to the State of Mississippi, and located at Vicksburg. Here his reputation, which stamped itself upon his advent, soon spread throughout the State, and he took his position among the foremost lawyers of the country-a position which he maintained with a growing tenure and extending recognition to the day of his death.

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Mr. Yerger was, in every sense, a thorough lawyer. He was master of the science of law in all its branches, and his mind was richly stored with all manner of precedents, which he had thoroughly digested, and so stratified in the capacious chambers of his mind that, with the aid of a vivid memory, they furnished him unfailing resources in every emergency. there was any decision which could by parity or analogy be brought to bear upon his view of a question, he was sure to invoke the comparison. But his genius depended not alone upon precedent his penetrating judgment and keen understanding found a ready interpretation of the most marked features, and opened a path for justice through the most untrodden field, of circumstance.

Mr. Yerger was not an orator, so far as that quality depends upon the embellishments of fancy. His mind was too matter-offact in its bent and too exacting in its candor to indulge in the mere visions of imagination, and he disdained all its "flowerdecked plats and blooming parterres." He was eloquent in the depth of his convictions, in the earnestness of his manner, in the logical train of his thoughts, in the force and power of his language, and in the moral mesmerism of the man. He sought only for facts, and these he would render at first transparent, then luminous, and then dazzling, to the most obtuse mind of obstinacy, prejudice, or unbelief. The gentle and sure-footed gradations with which he advanced from the obscure to the apparent, from the dark to the visible, from the murky clouds of doubt to the open glare of conviction, riveted the mind of honest inquiry and kindled perception in the eye of the dullest

comprehension. If this be eloquence, he possessed that quality.

He knew how to avail himself of every consideration that tended to awaken the feelings of sympathy and gain the goodwill of courts, juries, and audiences; not, however, by specious declamation or the cunning arts of suasion, but by an appeal to the nobler passions of men: a true sense of justice, a sound moral rectitude, and to a just and full comprehension which he quickened in the minds of his hearers by his accurate and lucid interpretation and sound reasoning.

He planted himself firmly upon first truths and fundamental principles, and from these his mind, armed with the lance of penetration, clad in the mail of a sound judgment, and disciplined by correct association, sallied forth to meet every combination of circumstances and every challenge of emergency. Fallacy he detested, and to it showed no quarter ; while his plain logic intersected the winding paths of ambiguity with the straight road of truth.

To these traits of mind and professional accomplishments Mr. Yerger added the noblest qualities of the heart, and to which his intellectual powers were subordinated by means of a rare moral regimen which he made the rule of his thoughts and actions. Here, indeed, lay the great power of the man-the source from whence sprung those goodly qualities and kindly manifestations which rendered his life an example of benevolence, neighborly kindness, and rectitude.

In addition to the glare of its ability, his career at the bar was characterized by an uninterrupted glow of professional gentility and ethical urbanity. He never lost his placidness by the ruling of the court; nor was his courtesy ever scorched by the heat of argument. He indulged in no fierce denunciations or coarse invectives, and though fervid and emphatic in maintaining his positions and illustrating his points, he disdained the weapons of depreciation and ridicule; but, always kind, candid, and courteous towards court, counsel, witness, and juror, he wove into his professional character a web of beautiful ethics no less adorning and expedient than its woof of genius or its warp of talent.

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In social and domestic life he was no less conspicuous for the amenity and affection with which he ornamented those circles. While he was a faithful laborer, and complied patiently with the stern requirements of his profession, he reserved ample time for ́acts of neighborly kindness, for the dispensing of an open-handed charity, and for the hallowed enjoyment of a fond, beautiful, and loving domestic association.

About 1844 Mr. Yerger removed to the city of Jackson, and confined his practice mostly to the bar of the high court, where he gained his most brilliant professional trophies, the records of which bear a testimony to his genius and ability far more complete and satisfactory than could be wrought by the most gifted pen of metaphysical delineation. The calm and sedate quality of his mind led him to prefer the discussion of commercial questions and those of an equitable nature rather than those which spring from the ruder jarrings of society or from criminal infractions; yet his learning and tact were admirably adapted to all the duties of an advocate and to the province of criminal practice. His defences, into which he entered with all the zeal of his nature, were stern barriers to the arm of prosecution, and his vindication of the afterwards distinguished General Dan. Adams, who unfortunately slew his antagonist in a personal conflict in the streets of Vicksburg in 1844, is said to have been a masterly specimen of criminal pleading.

In politics Mr. Yerger was a stanch advocate of the principles of the Whig party, and in the campaigns of 1840 and '44 took an active part in support of its Presidential nominees. But he never sought office; he had no relish for the clash and turmoil of public life, and his devotion to his profession was superior to any ambition which he might have entertained for political preferment. Indeed, of all the affairs of life, his nature seemed to have a clear-cut and well-defined shape for the legal profession; to it he devoted his energies, and died only when he had achieved all that it could give of victory and of fame.

His death, which occurred in April, 1860, was attended with 'somewhat remarkable circumstances. He had left Jackson but a few days before, buoyant with hope and the vigor of health, for a visit to Bolivar County. There he joined in a deer hunt,