Biography of Thomas Lacy, Arkansas

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Submitted by: Joy Fisher < >
        Date: 16 Dec 2007
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

NOTE.

  [Before receiving the last twelve sketches by General Albert Pike, the author had
prepared short biographies of some of the same men, to-wit, John Taylor, Thomas J. Lacy,
Edward Cross, David Walker, William Cummins, Archibald Yell and Terrence Farrelly, hence
these characters appear in duplicate; not, however, with the unwarranted assumption that
they will lend any thing to what the greatest of American scholars has written, any
further than to fill in the details omitted by that great man.]


THOMAS J. LACY.

  The following letter explains itself. It is from the cultured nephew of Judge Lacy, who
has been a paralytic fourteen years, wholly unable to walk, and only at intervals able to
speak or dictate to an amanuensis. He is a gentleman of great worth and high attainments,
and wrote the letter to the author without any idea of its ever being published, but it
will be appreciated all the more for that. This letter leaves nothing for the author
except to supply the missing links as far as possible.

                          GLENDALE, KY., September 28, 1886. 
JOHN HALLUM, Esq.:
  DEAR SIR - I fear you will be disappointed. Colonel and Mrs. Doak are mistaken in
thinking that I know much about the life and family of Judge Lacy. The principal part of
what I know was gathered from time to time in family conversations and rests entirely in
memory. Having no records I can furnish no data; this I regret.

  Thomas J. Lacy was born in Rockingham county. North Carolina, the family having removed
thither from about Fredericksburgh, Virginia. He was the son of Batie Cocke Lacy and
Elizabeth Overton. Batie C. Lacy's father was William Lacy, and his mother, Martha Cocke.
William Lacy, family tradition says, was high sheriff of Spotsylvania county under George
III, Rex, etc. Judge Lacy's mother was the daughter of Colonel John Overton, of Virginia,
and Ann Booker Claugh. I suppose this is far enough to trace the ancestral line in this
democratic country. Here we run back to the hundredth generation of horses and bulls,
when we don't know who our grandmothers were.

  Judge Lacy's father had, however, a family record which carried him back seven hundred
years to Hugh De Lacy, first viceroy of Ireland.

  As the whole Clan Campbell are cousins of the Duke of Argyle, having sprung from the
founder of the clan, so every Lacy, I suppose, traces his line back to the old Norman
baron.

  Judge Lacy was educated at Chapel Hill College, North Carolina. After completing his
education he read law in the office of the celebrated John Pope, one of your territorial
governors under the administration of General Jackson, his father having in the meantime
removed to Nelson county, Kentucky. After studying law he settled in Springfield,
Washington county, Kentucky, where his sister (my mother) lived. I was then too young to
remember him.

  His mother was cousin to Judge John Overton of Nashville, Tennessee, who as you know
was the second of General Jackson in his celebrated duel with Dickinson.

  Whilst in this State, Judge Lacy became the junior counsel for the defense in the
celebrated case of The Commonwealth v. Beauchamp, charged with the murder of Sol. P.
Sharpe. Governor Pope, who was senior counsel, told me that Lacy's was a masterly defense
for so young a man. Beauchamp also in his confession spoke very complimentary of young
Lacy's speech. How long Judge Lacy remained in Kentucky I don't know, not many years,
however, before he located in Nashville, Tennessee, from whence he went to Arkansas as
territorial judge. Of his career in that State I know nothing to write. I presume General
Pike is better acquainted with his career in Arkansas than any man living. I know he
esteemed General Pike very highly as a friend, and as a man of learning, eloquence and
ability. In about 1845 he went to New Orleans. Soon he was employed in a good many large
and important cases notably in the Pulteney case, involving several millions of dollars;
Sergeant S. Prentiss was co-counsel with him. His course was too short, however, to leave
a permanent mark at the bar of that civil law State. He died of cholera in New Orleans in
January, 1849, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery, in that city. I don't know that
you care about the collateral connections of the judge's family; I will state, however,
at a venture, that Judge Lacy's maternal grandfather, John Overton, was the uncle of
Dobney Carr, who married Patsey Jefferson, sister of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Carr it was
who introduced the resolutions in the general assembly of Virginia, to invite the other
colonies to send delegates to a general congress representing all the colonies, to take
into consideration their common grievances and make common cause against the mother
country. This resolution was the initial of the continental congress. Wirt says he was
the rival of Patrick Henry in eloquence, as you know. But his useful and brilliant life
was cut short at the early age of thirty-six. I regret that my information is so scant.
If I can, by correspondence with other branches of the family, furnish any other facts, I
will do so. I do not know where a likeness of Judge Lacy of any kind is to be had.

                                Very respectfully, etc.,
                                        JAMES A. GAITHER.


  In the autumn of 1886 the author paid a special visit to that venerable jurist and
statesman, the Hon. Alfred B. Greenwood of Bentonville, who comes to us from a past
generation rich in the wisdom and experience of the jurist and the sage, with unimpaired
memory and mental faculties. He manifested much interest in the efforts of the author to
stay the remorseless vandalism of oblivion in high places, and his face lighted up with
pleasant anticipation as he said: "Hallum, are you in possession of the history of Judge
Lacy's life? if not, spare no exertion to get it; he was one of the purest and best men I
ever knew. I have been in public life and in contact with the educated and refined of
this country and Europe, and have never met a man more gentle and pleasing, or possessed
of more engaging conversational powers."

  Judge Lacy graduated at Chapel Hill with the highest honors in the class of 1825, when
only nineteen years old. His father was the warm personal friend and political adherent
of General Jackson. His mother was an Overton, one of the best families of Virginia;
through her he was a blood relation of Judge Overton of Tennessee, who was ever the
friend of General Jackson, and was his partner in the purchase of the Chickasaw Bluffs,
on which the city of Memphis is located. These facts, added to young Lacy's solid,
independent merit, gave him access to the old hero's heart and confidence, and laid the
foundation of his commission as judge.

  Here the author may be pardoned for relating an episode illustrating the character of
General Jackson in forming his opinion of men. The Arkansas delegation in congress during
his second administration united in an earnest effort to have Mr. B_____ appointed
receiver of the land office at Little Rock. The president gave this characteristic reply:
"I have seen that fellow around here and don't like his looks; he won't do; I don't
intend to appoint him - recommend somebody else, gentlemen." The name is withheld for
obvious reasons; he was in every sense a worthy man, but his face ruined him in the
opinion of the president.

  In 1832, there were two vacancies on the territorial bench of Arkansas which were
filled without solicitation or intervention from extraneous sources.

  Thomas J. Lacy, then of Nashville, and Archibald Yell of Fayetteville, Tennessee, were
first in the heart of the appointing power for these positions, and each received the
judicial seal.

  Territorial law then required the judges to reside in their respective districts, and
Judge Lacy selected Monroe as the most eligible county for his residence. He soon became
known as an upright and able jurist, and all who came in contact with him were impressed
with the great moral worth and magnetism of the man. In the fall of 1835 he was elected
delegate from Monroe county to the constitutional convention which convened early in
January, 1836, to formulate a State government, and was conspicuous in moulding the
convictions of that learned body of men.

  The first legislature under the new government assembled in the fall of 1836, and among
its first acts was the election of three judges of the supreme court; the honor was
conferred on Judges Lacy, Dickinson and Ringo. Under this constitution the president of
the senate and speaker of the house were required to apportion the judges by lot into
three classes, so that one thereafter should be elected every four, six and eight years.
In this apportionment the six-year term fell to Judge Lacy.

  His popularity as a jurist grew and increased with his years and experience, and he was
re-elected, without opposition, in 1842, for the full period of eight years.

  In 1845 his health was impaired to an extent necessitating resort to New Orleans for
surgical treatment. Shortly after his return his devoted wife died without having borne
him any children. These combined misfortunes influenced him to resign his commission as
judge on the 7th of June, 1845, much to the regret of the people he had so long and so
well served.

  He moved to New Orleans where he entered upon a large and lucrative field of practice,
but died of cholera in January, 1849, in the forty-third year of his age.

  He was six feet high, slender in form, weighed one hundred and thirty-five pounds; had
black hair, dark skin and black eyes. He was an orator possessed of the most graceful and
pleasing diction. His published opinions embrace the era extending from 1836 to 1845, and
show him to have been a learned, painstaking, upright jurist, satisfied to follow the
great current of authority, without embarking on the hazardous field of leading and
exceptional cases on which to found personal fame.