affability, he soon gained the confidence of the people of Rapides Parish, and became Parish Judge. After serving several terms in that capacity, he returned to the practice of law. In 1865, immediately after the war, Gov. J. Madison Wells appointed Judge Hyman to the Chief-Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the State. He remained on the Supreme Bench until 1869, when the Constitution of the State was changed and
his successor was appointed. Judge Hyman was for several years Parish Judge of Jefferson. He was then appointed Surveyor of the Port of New Orleans, which position he retained until a few years before his death, when ex-Governor Kellogg, of Radical fame, outrageously caused his removal to make a place for Pinchback, a leading negro politician of Louisiana. The Judge then retired to his home in Jefferson Parish, where he remained until his death in 1884.
The Justices were appointed by the executive. Under the provision relative to it, the Court had appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, as the previous one had. The salary of the Chief-Justice was $7,500, and that of the Associates, each $7,000. The term of office was to be eight years. In 1868, another Constitution having been adopted, a new Supreme Court was created, composed of five justices, to be appointed by the Executive, for the term of eight years, with a salary of $7,500 for the Chief-Justice, and $7,000 for each associate. It was clothed with appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases, where the matter in dispute in the first class would exceed $500, and where death or hard labor was the penalty in the second, but on questions of law only.
The justices appointed were JohnT. Ludeling, J. G. Taliaferro, R. K. Howell, W. G. Wyly, and W. W. Howe, who organized and took their seats in New Orleans in November of the same year. In 1872, Justice Howe having resigned, John H. Kennard was appointed in his stead by the Governor, who qualified and took his seat on the bench. In 1873 the Acting Governor appointed P. H. Morgan in the place of Justice Howe. Justice Kennard declined to vacate his seat, and litigation followed, which was settled by the United States Supreme Court, recognizing the validity of Justice Morgan's appointment and his right to the seat occupied by Kennard, 94 U. S. 480. Consequently Mr. Justice Morgan, having qualified, ascended the bench on the first day of February, 1873. The judges' terms expired in November, 1876; but the judges held office subsequently until their successors were appointed and qualified.
Mr. John T. Ludeling was a native of Monroe, Louisiana, where he entered upon the study of law under the Hon. Isaiah Garrett. He was appointed to the Chief-Justiceship by Governor Warmoth, and his decisions are reported from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-ninth Louisiana Annuals. He died last January, at the age of
