Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/575

Matthias E. Manly is the last of the judges who ascended the bench in ante bellum days. He was born in Chatham County, N. C, 13 April, 1800, and was a younger brother of Gov. Charles Manly and of the Rev. Dr. Basil Manly. He graduated at the University in 1824, in the same class with Gov. Wm. A. Graham, Judge Augustus Moore, David Outlaw, and Thomas Dews. He was for a while tutor of mathematics in the University. He studied law under Gover nor Maniy, and located in Newbern. He was elected in 1834 and 1835 to the House of Commons from that town, being its last member, as borough representation was abol ished by the Convention of 1835. He was elected in 1840 Judge of the Superior Court, in the place of Judge Edward Hall, who had been appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge R. M. Saunders. The duties of this post he discharged with fidelity for nineteen years, until December, 1859, when he was elected to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the second retirement of Judge Ruffin. He served upon that bench till the offices of the State were declared vacant in 1865, when Judge E. G. Reade was elected to succeed him. Judge Manly was Speaker of the State Senate in 1866, and was elected by that legis lature to the United States Senate jointly with Governor Graham, but they were not allowed to take their seats. He then resumed prac tice at Newbern, where he remained till his death. For a quarter of a century — nineteen years on the Superior Court bench and six years on the Supreme Court — he rendered his State faithful judicial service. His stay on the Supreme Court was mostly during the war, when there was not much litigation. His opinions will be found in five volumes; i. e.

52, 53, 58, 59, & 60 N. C. Among them may be noted State v. Brandon, 53 N. C. 463, in which he discusses insanity as a defence for crime. He also filed an opinion in Melvin v. Easley, 52 N. C. 356, in which the judges differed among themselves as to the validity of a sale upon Sunday. The Habeas Corpus cases during the war have already been cited in the sketch of Chief-Justice Pearson. As a proof of Judge Manly's impartiality, it may be noted that his first four opinions were in appeals in cases tried by himself while on the Superior Court bench. In these he re versed himself in two cases and affirmed two. (52 N. C. 12, 14, 16, 19.) After his retirement from the bench, like Ruffin, Badger, and Devereux, he presided as one of the magistrates over the county court until that court was abolished in 1868. He died at Newbern, 9 July, 1881, in the eighty-second year of his age. His first wife was the daughter of Judge Gaston. After her death he married Miss Simpson. He left one child by his first wife, and several children by his second. Among the latter are Capt. Matt Manly, for years Mayor and Postmaster of Newbern, and Clement Manly, the popular and rising lawyer of Winston, who bids fair to add to the hereditary honors of a family which has already given Gaston and the two Manlys to the State. Judge Manly was a sound and well-read lawyer. He possessed the sincere regard and the entire confidence of the people of North Carolina, and "Bore without abuse the grand old name of gentle man." Like Judge Gaston, he was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. He was suc ceeded, as has been stated, by Judge Edwin G. Reade.