Biography of Daniel Ringo, Arkansas

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        Date: 18 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.


DANIEL RINGO. 
FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF ARKANSAS, 1836-1844.

  Judge Ringo never felt an inspiration prompting him otherwise than to the full
discharge of what he conscientiously regarded as a duty. He was slow, plodding, and as
methodical as clock-work, and was never in his life known to be in a hurry. Fortunately
he was elevated to the bench at a time when the docket in that court was not large and
the business admitted of abundant time for research and deliberation.

  Hon. Alfred M. Wilson, who was United States district attorney under him eight years
after he was elevated to the Federal bench, says he would critically scrutinize every
account against the government, and if it happened to vary the fraction of. a cent from
accuracy it had to be recast before he would certify to its being correct. He was
eminently a self-educated man, born in the frontier settlements of Kentucky about 1800,
where facilities for acquiring an education were of the most primitive and meager
character, and often beyond the reach of the poor. He joined the Kentucky colony at
Batesville in 1820, but did not remain there long before moving to Clark county, where
the first employment in which we know him to be engaged was that of deputy clerk of the
district court under Colbert Baker first, and next under Thomas S. Drew, who was
subsequently governor of the State. He succeeded Governor Drew as clerk of the district
court, in 1825, and was elected three times to the office, but resigned in 1830, before
the expiration of his third term. His subsequent career is admirably told by Brother
Clark.

  Whilst acting in the capacity of deputy, and subsequently as principal clerk, he
conceived the idea to master the legal profession, and went about it in that quiet,
methodical way peculiar to the German race, and accomplished the arduous task without aid
from extraneous sources.

  From the best information obtainable he came to the bar in 1830, about the time he
resigned the office of clerk. As Brother Clark well says, he had no opinion until after
patient and laborious research. He sounded the channel, discovered the current of
authority, and then cast anchor. Such a jurist is always conservative and safe, if he
does not magnify the importance of some special branch of the law until it dwarfs the
relation that other branches sustain to the due administration of justice. Technical
pleading at common law, often the reverse, instead of the perfection of human reason,
grew to be a Upas tree in the way of that broad and liberal expansion demanded by the
necessities of an enlightened age.

  The suit for emancipation from this evil and divorce from the now antiquated jargon
which we inherited from our feudal ancestors was long pressed in both hemispheres before
relief came.

  Judge Ringo has been charged, not without much force, with following too tenaciously
the senseless technicalities of the common law, but he should not be saddled with too
much responsibility in that direction. His genius was not creative, his mind was moulded
to follow, not to blaze out the bearings of an intricate science, and in his effort to
keep within the sphere of trodden paths, he sometimes mistook the application to the
prejudice of reason and justice.

  Arkansas, though originally not a common-law country, had, to a great extent, lost her
once splendid opportunity to become emancipated from the objectionable features of that
immense body of civil polity, before Judge Ringo ever read a law book. When we acquired
the territory of Louisiana, the Code Napoleon founded on the Roman civil polity furnished
the rule of action and measure of right.

  The territorial government of Missouri, in 1816, abolished that system and introduced
the common law, Arkansas then being a county belonging to that jurisdiction. The best
opportunity that ever presented itself to break away from the evils of both systems then
occurred, but the average legislator does not enjoy the ken necessary for such
achievement.

  The same criticism applied to Judge Ringo, for adhesion to technical obstruction may,
with greater or less force, be applied to all the judges who administered the common-law
system of pleading in Arkansas. The fault was not so much in the judge as in the system.

  Judge Ringo pursued the even tenor of his way with as little jar and friction as
possible; lived and acted to the end a conservative and philosophic life, with stoic and
heroic resignation to the inevitable. When his troubles came in the declining years of a
well-spent life, to the outer world he appeared the embodiment of that Socratic
philosophy which admonishes man to do the best he can under all conditions, and then let
consequences take care of themselves. The most beautiful and touching part of the grand
old man's life shone forth in Christian splendor in his declining years, when confronted
by poverty and other misfortunes. After passing the patriarchal age of three score and
ten he faced the accumulated storms of life with moral and sublime heroism, indicating a
splendor and wealth of heart and mind belonging only to the highest type of man, which
outshine all the idols of ambition. He died on the 3d of September, 1873.

Eulogy on the life of the late ex-Chief Justice Daniel Ringo, delivered at the Bar of the
Supreme Court, at the May Term, 1878.-By SOL. F. CLARK.

May it please the court:

  At a meeting of the bar of this court, held upon the death of Hon. Judge Ringo, Brother
Gallagher was appointed to the sad and melancholy office I am now performing, but death
claimed him before the discharge of that duty, and my brothers have kindly appointed me
to present their resolutions to this court.

  I have felt that I should come short of the exigencies of the occasion if I fail to
give suitable expression of the deep feelings and sentiments his death has awakened in
the profession.

  Among the men of note in the early history of our State there are few whose names stand
out in bolder and more familiar characters than that of Daniel Ringo. Though a native of
Kentucky, he was of German extraction, and the characteristics of his mind attested his
German origin. He came to this State in the year 1820, and after sojourning in Little
Rock for a time, he settled in Arkadelphia, in Clark county. There he commenced the study
of his profession.

  Judge Ringo was emphatically the architect of his own fortune. Poor and friendless he
had to make his way alone. His own ingenuity and industry were his only resources for
means of support during his legal pupilage. We find him serving as justice of the peace,
then as deputy clerk, and finally he was elected clerk of the circuit court of that
county, and served nearly three terms as such.

  Tradition in that locality reports him as a young man of commanding personal appearance
and highly agreeable manners. At what particular time he came to the bar is not known,
but about the year 1830 he removed to Washington, Hempstead county, with the view of
establishing himself there in the practice of law. The profession of law has never been
noted as a very lucrative one, and the tides which lead to sudden fortune seldom flow in
the direction of young beginners. But in his commencement at Washington, he manifestly
exhibited qualities which inspired confidence, for we soon find him a partner of the
venerable Edward Cross, now a prominent and honorable citizen of this State, and in the
midst of an extensive business. From this date Judge Ringo rose rapidly to distinction
and to as high honors as the State could bestow.

  About the year 1833, breaking up his connections in Hempstead, he formed a
copartnership with the Hon. Chester Ashley and removed to Little Rock. He soon took rank
here among the ablest men in the State. We find his name constantly associated with such
names as Ashley, Fowler, Trapnall, Pike and Crittenden, men who would have done honor to
the profession in any State, and who have never been excelled in the history of the
Arkansas bar. A lucrative practice rewarded his exertions here, and he continued in the
same until in 1836, when, upon the admission of the State into the Union, the legislature
elected him the first chief justice, and as such he presided over this honorable court
the first eight years of its existence.

  Politically, under the old regime, Judge Ringo was always a whig, and in November,
1844, the majority of the legislature being democratic, in a contest for re-election he
was beaten on the score of his political opinions by Hon. Thomas Johnson.

  The opinions of Judge Ringo, while presiding over this court, are familiar to us all,
and need no comment. They are a monument to his memory, of which the ablest of us might
feel proud. That noble structure which constitutes our judicial system had its
foundations laid by that court, and its decisions during his term comprise no
insignificant part of that structure. In a State which was highly democratic, the
political opinions of Judge Ringo were continually adverse to his promotion to office or
station, and from the time he ceased to be chief justice he lived a private life, quietly
pursuing his profession in connection with his brother-in-law, the Hon. Frederick W.
Trapnall, until after the presidential election of 1848, when upon the death of the Hon.
Ben Johnson, judge of the United States district court for the district of Arkansas, his
name and influence pointed him out as the suitable man to fill that vacancy, and he
received the appointment of President Taylor to that position. The duties of that office
he continued to perform until the State seceded from the Union, and the war between the
States made it necessary for him to resign. The district was divided at the time of his
appointment, and the new western district was organized by congress, and he was assigned
to the duty of holding the courts of both. This largely increased his labors, as well as
his usefulness, for not only did the administration of the intercourse law with the
Indian tribes west come within his jurisdiction, but it became necessary for him to
organize the judicial system of the western district. It is no fulsome praise to say that
Judge Bingo's judicial labors, while conducting those courts, were highly creditable to
himself, and conferred honor upon the district and the country. After the war, being
somewhat enfeebled with age and shattered in fortune, he did not seek again public
station, nor take any part in the political strifes which followed, but pursued a quiet
life until called to his final rest, which sad event took place on the 3d day of
September, 1873. Many of us were familiar with his last and declining years. Undoubtedly
Judge Ringo was one of our ablest judges. It may be said of him, that in his time he was
the organizer of two systems of jurisprudence which are now the prevailing systems of
Arkansas and familiar to i*s all. He was not a bold, nor a speculative, nor a rapid
thinker, but he was an able and a logical one. As a reasoner, his conclusions were always
founded upon facts. Above all his contemporaries his style and method was inductive. His
generalizations were always the result of observation and experience. From facts he
always reasoned up to principles - from effects to causes, and seldom ever assumed
hypothetically positions from which to speculate or theorize. Indeed his imagination was
not strong enough to betray him into hasty generalizations. No person ever charged him
with jumping at conclusions. With that class whose opinions are, like hand-grenades,
ready-made to throw in all directions, he had no sympathy. With him, until investigation
and inquiry had done their utmost, he had no conclusions to make or opinions to give. In
his moral and social relations the character of Judge Ringo was one altogether to be
admired and emulated. As remarked by one of his early associates, now living, the
venerable Mr. Woodruff: "As a man and citizen he had few equals, and no superiors."
Honesty and humanity, tempered with prudence, were his most prominent characteristics. In
his demeanor toward others no man ever manifested a more refined sensibility.
Unostentatiously polite, he was everywhere the same genial gentleman, the same agreeable
companion, and the same steady friend. And no man was ever a more complete master of that
philosophy which teaches submission to all the conditions of our social life. He never
rebelled against the inevitable, nor murmured against the decrees of fate. Always alive
to the sufferings of others, his own he was ever prone to bear in silence. Even in his
last days - when bowed with age, so well was he master - to use a homely phrase - of not
being disagreeable, that everywhere and in all circles he was a welcome guest. But
notwithstanding his proverbial caution, he was not exempt from sorrows and afflictions
which embittered his declining years. Misfortunes, domestic and otherwise, gathered
around him. The friends and kindred of his earlier days had mostly departed, and he
seemed alone, like some tall tree bereft of the sheltering forest, and left alone to
battle with the winds of winter. "Without a murmur or a sigh he bore these in secret, and
never paraded his misfortunes in public or to the annoyance of his friends.

  But, brothers, what is death but a friend come to rescue us from our sorrows and
calamities. Our departed brother had passed into the sere and yellow leaf - had almost
reached the bounds which nature had allotted to mortality. He had accomplished his work
and has gone to lie down - to rest in the fold where sleep the myriads who have gone
before him. And we are admonished that we too, one by one, must pass over the stage and
go down into the shadowy mists, we know not whither. Death, my brothers, conquers life,
but when he has done his work there is nothing more to conquer. Over the good name and
works of our departed brother he can have no power, but even while we gather up the
trophies of departed friends, and would fain inscribe their virtues upon ever-enduring
monuments, we cannot close our minds to the sad reflection that we are in the presence of
a mightier conqueror than death. Although time perpetuates all things he obliterates all
things. The brightest names inscribed on the temple of fame, as well as the most enduring
monuments which man erects to perpetuate the glory of his race, crumble before our eyes
and fade into the ocean of eternity.

    Even as we gaze upon the morn,
    Her face is paled o'er with age.
    We worship at the shrine of youth,
    And lo? she turns to wrinkled age,