Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/462

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The Supreme Court of Arkansas. find one of his opinions, that they have found the law. Judge Walker resigned on Dec. 31, 1855, just one year after Judge Watkins; and Thomas B. Hanley was appointed in his place, and served until 1859. Judge Hanley was born at Nicholasville, Ky., on June 9, 1812, and removed to Arkansas in 1833, settling at Helena, where

he resided until his death. Always active in politics, and a strong Democrat, few men in the State have filled more official positions. He was a member of both branches of the legislature, and was a county and probate, a circuit, and a supreme judge. At the out break of the war he sided with the South, and was a member of the Confederate Con gress. After the war he returned to the practice, and con tinued it until his death on the 8th of June, 1880. In person he was of medium height, of ALBERT dark complexion, with black hair and closely cropped beard. His character was vigorous and aggressive, so that he had devoted friends and bitter enemies. He was a good lawyer, and a student not only of law but of gen eral literature. At the bar he was suc cessful, and he was a forcible speaker; but the numerous public positions which he held necessarily interfered with the growth of his practice. During the war Albert Pike was for a while upon our bench; but as the doings of the court during the Rebellion were not recognized, only such of his opinions as

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were afterward adopted by the court have been published. And yet he is so impor tant a figure in our State's history, and by his labors at the bar has had so great an influence upon the development of our juris prudence that it would not be proper to pass him by. He was born in Boston, Mass., on Dec. 29, 1809. His parents were poor, and although he was examined for admission to Harvard, he was not able to enter because the tui tion of two years was demanded in advance. From 1825 to 183 1 he taught school at various places in Mas sachusetts, when he wandered out West, and went with a trad ing-party from St. Louis to Santa Fe, — at that time a most hazardous journey through a wilderness peopled by Indians. He came back across the Staked Plains and through the Indian Territory to Fort Smith, Ark. In 1833 he opened a school a PIKE short way below Van Buren. At that time party politics in Arkansas were intensely bitter. The Territory was divided between the Conway party, or Demo crats, and the Crittenden party, or Whigs; and the excitement was so high that blood shed was frequent, — particularly after Mr. Crittenden in 1827 had killed Henry W. Conway, a brilliant young man and then the leader of the Conway party, in a duel on an island in the Mississippi, near the mouth of White River. Pike was a Whig, and published in the Whig organ at Little Rock — the "Advocate" — some articles of such