Biography of Thomas Lacy, Arkansas

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        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.]


GOVERNOR ARCHIBALD YELL.

  In the suburbs of Fayetteville, on the undulating slope of a beautiful landscape not
far from the university grounds, lies the silent city of the dead, with marble shafts and
monumental inscriptions telling the living of those who sleep in its consecrated urns
awaiting the judgment day.

  One beautiful autumn morn when the sun was struggling through a rift of clouds in a
golden haze, and the winds were lifting and sporting with the yellow and sear leaf so sad
and mournfully typical of man's advent and departure from the world, the author alone
entered these sacred and consecrated grounds on a pilgrimage to a tomb bearing the
following inscription:

"ARCHIBALD YELL.

  Born in North Carolina August, 1797. Volunteer in the battle of New Orleans. District
Judge of Arkansas Territory, 1832. First member of congress from the State. Governor,
1840. Elected to congress again 1844. Resigned and accepted the colonelcy of Arkansas
volunteers for Mexican war 1846. Killed at Buena Vista, February 22, 1847. A gallant
soldier, an upright judge, a fearless champion of popular rights, a sincere friend - an
honest man."

  Governor Yell had three wives - the first died in Tennessee, quite young. Two died in
Fayetteville, and they share the heraldry proclaimed by the marble shaft.

  The noble fraternity of Masons erected this monument in 1847, to their departed
brother.

  He emigrated to Tennessee in early youth, and settled first in Bedford county. Here he
first met General Jackson, as the boy captain of the Jackson Guards at the volunteer
rendezvous, preparatory to entering on the Creek campaign. He gallantly led his men in
battle at Talladega and Emucfau and Horseshoe Bend, under the eye of his general, and by
soldierly bearing and dauntless courage won the lasting friendship of the old hero.

  "When General Jackson issued his proclamation calling for volunteers to defend New
Orleans in the war of 1812, he was among the first to respond; and he gallantly
participated in the battle of New Orleans.

  After the army was disbanded he read law and was admitted to the bar in Tennessee.
Again in 1S18, when Major-General Jackson called for volunteers in the Seminole war, he
responded and was with his old commander throughout that campaign. After the Seminole
campaign he located at Fayetteville, in Lincoln county, Tennessee, and there practiced
law until 1832. He was not an educated man in the university sense, but no man ever
enjoyed a better knowledge of human nature, nor could any man play with more skill on the
complicated keys which answer to every phase of human life.

  In reference to an education, he once said in addressing an audience: "An education to
a smart man is a great advantage, but to a fool, a great incumbrance."

  In physical proportion and beauty of symmetry he appeared the perfection of man. He was
five feet ten inches high, weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, had auburn hair and
piercing blue eyes, sharper than an eagle's. He was full of pleasant humor and sunshine,
and magnetic in every presence. These popular traits marked him for fame and made him a
popular idol - a leader among men. He achieved local fame as a lawyer in Tennessee before
Jackson became president. When that event crowned an era in our history, the old hero
placed the judicial seal in the hands of two young natives of North Carolina, in whom he
had unqualified confidence - Archibald Yell and Thomas J. Lacy, names lustrous and
inseparable from the history of Arkansas.

  Yell was offered choice of two vacancies: governor of Florida or territorial judge in
Arkansas, and chose the latter.

  The two young men were commissioned in 1832, and proceeded soon thereafter to their
respective stations. Judge Lacy located in his district at Clarendon in Monroe county.
Judge Yell at Fayetteville.

  President Jackson did not stand on ceremony in removing appointees under John Quincy
Adams, who, he believed, had, by "bargain and intrigue," defeated him for the presidency
before the house of representatives in 1825.

  The indulgent reader will pardon the author for stating the great difficulties he has
encountered all along the line in arriving at correct data, facts and incidents in the
absence of recorded history - so fast does history fade and perish when left to the
vicissitudes of memory and tradition.

  I am told the archives of our State contain no record of the fact that Archibald Yell
and Thomas J. Lacy were judges commissioned by President Jackson to preside over our
territorial courts. This careless, unpardonable omission to preserve the most important
transactions in early times has invited the ravages of oblivion in high places, and it
extends over a great part of that important period of our history embraced in the span
between 1819 and 1840. These obstacles are cited to illustrate the inherent difficulty
which arises in a great number of instances. Let the inspired critic, when he flaps his
wings to crow over a minor mistake here and there, tell me without reference to a record
the maiden name of his grandmother, the date of her birth and marriage, and the name of
the official solemnizing the bans.

  The author, in the midst of so many difficulties blocking the way to absolute
certitude, does not beg nor expect exemption from either the large critics or the loud,
small croakers who perchance may have hidden away in the remote recesses of an obscure
and retired individuality some minor fact which has escaped attention.

  Governor Yell's great popularity with the masses was often the innocent cause of much
embarrassment to him when on the bench. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the happy
faculty of making everybody believe he was the best friend he had on earth. Many good,
honest farmers not accustomed to the etiquette of courts, thought nothing of taking
liberties with their best friend scarcely compatible with the grave dignity of a court,
and when the sheriff admonished them would often retaliate by threatening him with Arch.
Yell. Once at Fayetteville the sheriff was ordered to bring out a prisoner who had been
indicted and convicted for "cow stealing," that he might be present at the argument on a
motion for a new trial. The defendant having but little confidence in that formal
proceeding took "leg bail" and made rapid flight for freedom, with the sheriff in hot
pursuit. Judge Yell, looking from the bench through the window, saw the exciting race,
and in aloud tone of voice said to the attorneys in attendance, "boys, by God, he has
gone," and when the sheriff began to gain on the contestant the judge involuntarily said,
"run, damn it, run like hell."

  This was but the expression of sympathy for the distressed, inspired by a desire in his
heart to see the object escape. If it was official weakness it came from the better side
of human nature, warm and vigorous from the fountains of a heart rich in the milk of
human kindness. 

  Whilst he was on the bench the constitutional convention was called which convened in
January, 1836, to formulate and adopt a State government.

  He refused to become a candidate for that convention because he deemed it incompatible
with the discharge of judicial duties- little dreaming of the "job" the wire-working
politicians sent to that convention would "put up" on him to close the gate against the
advance of his ambition. It was then an open secret that he desired to be the first
governor under the State government; and it was an equally open secret that no man in
Arkansas could beat him for the office before the people. So says tradition.

  Before the people he was a Hercules in the pathway of aspiring giants.

  To clip his wings and cut off his flight to the goal of his ambition through the hearts
and suffrages of the people who idolized him as a popular leader, a provision was
incorporated in the constitution of 1836, making a four years' residence in Arkansas
necessary to be eligible to the office of governor. This, by a few months, cut him off.

  Governor Yell always denounced this constitutional bar to his ambition.

  He established the first masonic lodge in Arkansas in November, 1835, at
Fayetteville-Washington Lodge, No. 1. It was first chartered by the grand lodge of
Tennessee, when the Hon. Hugh L. White was warden. Governor Yell was once grand master of
the grand lodge of Tennessee, and with the exception of General Jackson was the only
grand master ever elected from the floor without filling intermediate stations.

  The circumstances leading to this elevation are remarkable, and they furnish an index
to the character of the man.

  When occasion demanded it, he was always fortified with will and nerves of iron. A
bold, bad man, whom most people feared, was once expelled by the Masons for a crime
against the domestic relations of a brother. He was ambitions and took advantage of the
anti-masonic excitement of the day and run on it as a hobby and was elected to the
legislature of Tennessee from Yell's district. He was a candidate for a second term, and
the fraternity naturally wanted an opponent in the field, who would fearlessly defend the
right. Yell was a young man then, just rising into prominence as a lawyer, and up to that
day had no inclination to engage in politics.

  His brothers waited on him and opened up the situation; he yielded against his private
interests and at once announced himself as a candidate for the legislature.

  To his opponent's tirade against masonry, he replied by saying, that if masonry was the
bad institution it was represented, how much worse must the damnable wretch be who was
too vile for fellowship in such an organization. This fearless advocacy of right, and
bold, defiant denunciation of crime won the hearts of the people, and Yell was
triumphantly elected.

  Shortly after this the grand lodge convened and he was rewarded as his noble friend
General Jackson had previously been, by election from the floor to the office of grand
master.

  Tradition says that once on the rounds of his large circuit, when sounding the criminal
docket, he was informed by the sheriff that the defendant just called (against whom
several indictments were pending) had not been arrested because he was a desperado, and a
posse could not be found to help arrest him because all men were afraid of him. "Where is
he?" asked the resolute judge. "At a saloon here in town," replied the sheriff. "Then
summon me and show him to me." The sheriff obeyed the command, and led the way to the
saloon where the culprit was holding high carnival. Judge Yell seized him by the throat
and shouted with stentorian voice, "God damn you, come into court and answer to your name
and to the indictments against you." The culprit, to the astonishment of everybody,
cowered into abject submission, and without the slighest resistance followed the judge
into court, and in default of bail was immediately sent to jail. The culprit trembled and
lost all his valor under the piercing gaze of that resolute eye. The moral effect of that
one act in the wilds of Arkansas with the rude frontier population was worth more than
the commissions of fifty sheriffs.

  Political had much greater charms for him than judicial or professional life. The arts
of the designing politician, as stated, cut him off from the opportunity to run for
governor in 1836, when the State was admitted into the Union. Hence he entered the race
for congress as a Jackson democrat in 1837, against John Ringgold, the father-in-law of
"Fent Noland," and, after an active and exciting canvass, was elected by a majority of
one thousand two hundred and seventeen. He declined a re-election, and the democrats
nominated and elected that sterling democrat Judge Edward Cross three consecutive terms.

  In 1840 the constitutional inhibition being removed, he was easily elected governor.

  In 1844 political excitement was at flood tide throughout the United States. The whig
convention of that year assembled at Little Rock, and with great unanimity and wisdom
nominated one of the ablest and most brilliant men in their ranks for congress in the
person of Hon. David Walker - a man of fine talent, great tenacity of purpose and
untiring energy in every thing he undertook. Judge Walker was a great, popular leader,
and was all the more dangerous because he possessed the entire confidence of all who knew
him - whigs and democrats alike.

  The democrats afterward elevated him to the supreme bench. This nomination fell like a
thunderbolt, and created dismay in democratic ranks.

  Soon after the whig convention adjourned the democrats, represented by their ablest
leaders, assembled in convention, and after mature deliberation resorted to the
extraordinary extremity of asking Governor Yell to resign that he might accept the
nomination for congress, on the ground that there was no other man in the party with whom
they could reasonably hope to beat the great whig champion.

  A great compliment to great men and great leaders, worth infinitely more to their fame
than an ordinary election to a seat in congress.

  Governor Yell, ever at the service of his party, handed in his resignation and took the
field against Judge Walker.

  The champions both lived in Fayetteville, justly called " the Athens of Arkansas," they
were neighbors and warm personal friends, politically great rivals, but nothing mean,
sordid, selfish or little animated either.

  The canvass conducted by these leaders is said to have been one of the ablest and most
exciting ever conducted in the State.

  Judge Walker was dignified, sedate, taciturn, religious and not much given to
promiscuous intercourse with his fellow-men. On the frontier, among backwoodsmen, where
each felt as large as lord or king, dignity and reserve don't carry elections.

  Judge Yell never lost an opportunity to draw the striking contrast between himself and
his opponent in this respect.

  When on the way to Yellville to fill an appointment they stopped on the wayside at a
shooting-match in progress for beef. Judge Walker's conscientious convictions cut him off
from either shooting for beef or indulging in a drink.

  Yell, after shaking the hand of every man and boy on the ground, bought a chance in the
match for beef, and fortuitously made the best shot and won first choice. The crowd
yelled and huzzaed for Yell, whilst Judge Walker looked on in calm and cold stoicism and
some degree of disgust.

  Governor Yell then inquired for the most necessitous widow in the vicinity, and sent
his beef to her. Next he sent for a jug of whisky and tipped glasses with the voters.
These attainments and achievements filled the estimate of congressional qualifications in
the opinion of the sovereign electors.

  On another occasion they took in a camp-meeting on Kings river, where Judge Walker
thought his superior moral qualifications would come in play greatly to the disadvantage
of his adversary, who he thought had no pretensions to qualification in that direction. A
man who would shoot for beef (a species of gambling), and take a drink out of a jug on
the roadside must necessarily be at great disadvantage on a camp-ground, where religion
was altogether in the ascendancy.

  But to his great disgust, he soon found Governor Yell leading the old class-leaders in
the "amen corner," and singing with musical voice on a key above all others that old hymn
"How happy are they who their Savior obey." He was as great a favorite on the camp-ground
as at the shooting-match. His consummate knowledge of human nature enabled him to shine
with equal splendor in camp or court. He was born to lead men, and it may be truthfully
said that he never misled or deceived them. This statement is necessary, lest a wrong
presumption might be indulged from the anecdotes herein related.

  Judge Walker, in a fit of despair, was heard to say to one of his political friends:
"You can't beat such a man as that; he is all things to all men, and all men believe in
him; he is as popular with psalm-singers as with those who take their dram and shoot for
beef."

  Governor Yell was elected, but the defeat of his rival did not dim the lustre which
clusters around the name of David Walker.

  Judge Walker wrote the inscription on the monument of his successful rival, copied in
this sketch.

  In 1846 the martial spirit of the nation was fired, resulting in war with Mexico, and
Governor Yell resigned his seat in congress to accept the command of the Arkansas troops,
consisting of a regiment of cavalry. Captain Albert Pike commanded one squadron of this
regiment. Yell was chivalrous to a fault, and utterly fearless.

  On the 22d of February, 1847, he gallantly led a squadron of cavalry in a desperate
charge at Buena Vista on a body of Mexican lancers numbering five to one. He recklessly
spurred his horse and rushed in advance of his command on the serried phalanx of lancers.
When he reached the enemy's line he straightened himself up in his saddle and cut right
and left with his sword as though he could rout and whip the field himself. But, thus
alone, he was cut down before his command reached the enemy's line -was impaled on the
enemy's lances.

  Some say his bridle rein broke after he gave the command to charge, and that in
consequence his horse became unmanageable; others say it was cut after he reached the
enemy's lines. The author is inclined to believe the latter version the correct one.

  He did not know what fear was; he undertook the accomplishment of every object with
unfaltering resolution. When he went to battle he expected to do as much hard fighting as
any soldier under his command. In the excitement of the charge the commander was lost in
the soldier.

  William A. L. Throckmorton, brother to Governor Throckmorton, of Texas, was in the
charge, and always claimed to be nearest his commander when he was cut down, and that he
avenged the death of his commander by killing the lancer who had run him through.

  Mr. Throckmorton returned to Fayetteville, and lived there many years after the war. He
was as brave as any knight who ever met an enemy on the field.

  After the war was over the government brought his remains and delivered them to his
friends at Fayetteville, who deposited them beneath the commemorating shaft which speaks
his fame, civic and heroic, from the pen of his noble and generous rival.

  His remains were deposited in Evergreen cemetery on the 3d day of August, 1847, with
masonic and military honors. A vast concourse of people from the hills and valleys of
Arkansas swelled the mournful throng to pay the last tribute of respect to their friend
and neighbor, the just judge, the soldier and the statesman, who gave his services and
his life to his country.

  The author is indebted to Hon. Alfred M. Wilson, and to James H. Van Hoose, grand high
priest - honored and old citizens of Fayetteville, for much of the information embodied
in this biographical sketch.