1845 was compelled by failing health to resign. In search of a more congenial climate, he went to New Orleans, where he died of cholera before he had an opportunity to establish for himself the position to which he was entitled by his character and abilities.
In 1842 one of the famous cases in our State came before the court. On April 2 of that year, the Real Estate Bank, a corporation under the patronage of the State, and one of the numerous fiascos of that age of wildcat banking, was compelled to make an assignment. The consternation throughout the State was unbounded. The assignment was attacked, but was sustained by Judge Lacy in an extended and able opinion, concurred in by Judge Dickinson. (Conway, ex parte, 4 Ark. 361.) The Chief Justice dissented. From every quarter there went up a cry of indignation, and a demand for the impeachment of the two judges. When the legislature met, many of the members were bent upon impeachment; but Mr. Pike, who had drawn the assignment, thwarted them in an adroit way. He had sent copies of the assignment to Judge Story and to Chancellor Kent, and both had replied that the instrument was entirely valid. Copies of their opinions were laid upon the desk of each legislator, and nothing more was heard of the impeachment. The opinion in this case is a very able one, and has had great weight in establishing the doctrine that an insolvent corporation may make an assignment with preferences.
The successor to Judge Dickinson was George W. Paschal, who came to the State from Georgia about 1837, and settled at Van Buren. He brought with him his wife, a full-blooded Cherokee, but a lady of beauty, refinement, and cultivation. In 1842 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court, but resigned on Aug. 1, 1843, and removed to Texas. There he prepared Paschal's Digest of the Texas Reports, —-a meritorious work, which he rendered somewhat ridiculous by saying in the preface that it was more exhaustive than Lord Bacon's Abridgment. From Texas he went to Washington City, where he died a few years ago in the enjoyment of a large practice. He was a small, dark man, who looked as if he had some Indian blood in his veins, — nervous, energetic, and laborious, of a rather vain disposition, and a good lawyer; but he did not remain upon the bench long enough to make any great impression upon our judicial history.
William K. Sebastian was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Paschal. He was born in Hickman County, Tennessee, and came to Arkansas in 1835 and settled permanently at Helena. He was prosecuting attorney and circuit judge before his elevation to the supreme bench. He was a rather stout man, of florid complexion, sandy hair and beard, quiet but affable in his manners, of stainless honor and kindly disposition. In 1848, upon the death of Chester Ashley, he was sent to the Senate of the United States, where he remained until the war. His end was sad. He was a sincere Union man. He believed that his highest allegiance was due to the National Government, and yet he could not bring himself to take an active part against his erring friends. When the war began he did not resign, as did all the other Southern senators save Andrew Johnson, but remained a melancholy and helpless spectator of events. Incensed at his passive attitude, the Senate expelled him from the Chamber, — an act of injustice which was solemnly rescinded in 1878. He returned to Helena, and mournfully watched the progress of the war. While his friends were in rebellion against the Government which he loved so well, and while that Government was crushing the State which was equally dear to his soul, his wife and daughter died, and the advancing hostilities drove him from his home. With a broken heart he sought refuge in Memphis, and in the dark hours preceding the close of the war he passed away. He was a good lawyer and a sub-
