Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Lawton, Alexander Robert 1818 - 1896 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 13, 2004, 2:28 pm Author: William Harden p. 570-574 GEN. ALEXANDER ROBERT LAWTON. This celebrated lawyer, statesman and officer of the Civil war was born in St. Peter's Parish, Beaufort District, South Carolina, November 4, 1818, and died at Clifton Springs, New York, July 2, 1896. He was the son of Alexander James Lawton and Martha Mosse, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, respectively. The Lawton family was an old one in South Carolina, and General Lawton was the grandson of Joseph Lawton, a planter of Edisto Island, that state, who later removed to Beaufort District, South Carolina, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was a lieutenant in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and his patriotism and public spirit were transmitted in fullest measure to the subject. At the age of sixteen years, young Alexander Robert entered West Point Military Academy, and was graduated from that institution in 3839. He entered the United States army as second lieutenant in the First Artillery, but resigned his commission December 31, 1840, to enter the law school of Harvard University. After completing the law course there he settled in Savannah and in this city entered upon the career which was to prove so useful and distinguished. In 1855-56 he served as a member of the lower house of the legislature and in 1859-60 represented his constituency in the state senate, with an eye single to the interests of the people, accomplishing much in these years of public service. When the Civil war opened he was colonel of the First Georgia Regiment of Infantry, composed of Savannah citizens, but on the day of the fall of Fort Sumter he was appointed brigadier general in the Confederate army, commanding the Georgia Military District, C. S. army. He served with distinction in the Army of Northern Virginia until severely wounded at the battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland. Upon his recovery, he was (in 1863) made quartermaster general of the Confederate army and held this position until the conclusion of the great conflict. The brigade of which he had command at the beginning of the war was assigned to Ewell's Division, Jackson Corps. General Lawton's military record was a gallant and unblemished one; he was a remarkably efficient officer, successful in inspiring his men with courage and greatly beloved by them. At the close of the war, he accepted the new conditions with manly vigor and frankness, and gladly laying down the sword, betook himself to his law practice. He was again sent to represent Chatham county in the Georgia legislature, this time serving from 1870 to 1875. In 1877 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention; in 1876 was president of the State Electoral College; in 1880 and 1884 chairman of the state delegations to the national Democratic conventions. In April, 1887, he was appointed by President Cleveland to the post of minister to Austria, and his embassadorial duties he performed with distinction during that term. He was for many years general counsel and a director of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, the responsibilities of which office is now successfully vested in his son, Col. A. R. Lawton. His identification with Georgia railway affairs did not end with this for he was also at one time president, of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad. He was a curator of the Georgia Historical Society and served as alderman of the city of Savannah from 1853 to 1855. In all relations, he was a credit to his city and every cause with which he became aligned had reason to be proud of its representative. He was one of the most public-spirited of men, in his breast burning brightly the spirit of civic altruism and keen indeed was his recognition of individual obligation to the public weal. In 1880, General Lawton became candidate for the United States senate in opposition to Gov. Joseph E. Brown. He entered the race entirely against his own will, without the slightest hope of success from the beginning, but as the generally accepted representative of those who desired to enter a strenuous protest against the placing of Governor Brown in the senate in succession to Gen. John B. Gordon. He was a great friend and admirer of General Gordon and one of the griefs and disappointments of his life was the happenings of the year 1880, to which he never referred with anger, nor with resentment, but always with deep sorrow. The tie between the two generals was strong indeed, and Lawton's Brigade, after the injury of its commander at Sharpsburg, became Gordon's Brigade. General Lawton's marriage on November 5, 1845, proved in fullest degree the fruition of his early hopes. The young woman to become his wife was Sarah Hillhouse Alexander, daughter of Adam Leopold Alexander, of Washington, Georgia and of Sarah Hillhouse Gilbert, his wife. Mrs. Lawton was the second of the ten Alexander children, of whom the sixth was the late Gen. Edward Porter Alexander, chief of artillery, Longstreet's Corps, C. S. A., president of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, etc.; the seventh member of the family was James Hillhouse Alexander, for many years a merchant in Augusta and for some time mayor of that city. The Alexanders were in truth an unusual family. The father was the same Adam Leopold Alexander, to whom is addressed the very beautiful dedication of Mr. Alexander II. Stephens' "Reviewers Reviewed," the same being the answer to the critics of his "War Between the States." The six daughters of Mr. Alexander were all remarkable women, and the very flower of the family was Mrs. Lawton, to whom was undoubtedly due a very large part of the successful career of her husband. She was a woman of the highest intellect and most extensive cultivation, with an unequaled will power and self control, truly, "A noble woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort and command." Their domestic life was flawless; it was an ideal of Christian marriage ; he a true and tender knight to his chosen lady; she the wise and charming counselor in all his undertakings. General and Mrs. Lawton celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, November 5, 1895, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. The eldest daughter, Corinne Elliott, born September 21, 1846, died January 24, 1877. Louisa Frederika, born June 9, 1849, married in 1878 Leonard C. Mackall, of Baltimore, Maryland, and to their union three children were born, all of whom are living. Nora married in 1886 Henry C. Cunningham, of Savannah, Georgia, and they have one daughter living. Alexander Rudolf Lawton married April 27, 1882, Ella Beckwith, daughter of Rt. Rev. John W. Beckwith, Episcopal bishop of Georgia, and the two sons of this union both are living. Less than a year later General Lawton passed away and this beautiful companionship of half a century was terminated. Mrs. Lawton survived her husband but a year, dying in New York City, November 1, 1897. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Lawton, Adam Alexander, was a citizen of the old town of Sunbury, Liberty county, Georgia, and a surgeon-major in the Revolutionary war. Concerning her sisters the following data is herewith entered. The eldest, Louisa, married Maj. Gen. J. P. Gilmer, chief of engineers, C. S. A.; Harriet married Wallace Gumming, cashier of the old Bank of the State of Georgia, and afterward a private banker in Savannah; Mary Clifford married George Gilmer Hull, prominent in railroad operations and construction in Georgia, before, during and after the war; Marion married the .Rev. William Ellison Boggs, a distinguished Presbyterian minister and some time chancellor of the University of Georgia; and Alice married Col. Alexander C. Haskell of South Carolina, a distinguished Confederate soldier, who as chairman of the Democratic executive committee, was in charge of the celebrated South Carolina campaign of 1876, when Hampton was elected governor, and was afterward judge of the supreme court of South Carolina. The following memorial of General Lawton, presented February 17, 1897, to the Supreme Court of Georgia by Judge Samuel B. Adams in behalf of the bar of Savannah, and ordered to be filed in the archives of the court and published, is an eloquent tribute to the subject both as a lawyer and as a man. "Gentlemen of the Bar: "Your committee appointed to submit a report touching upon the death of our late fellow member, Alexander R. Lawton, Esq., realizes fully their inability to do justice either to the subject or to your esteem for him, in a report as brief as this must be. "Alexander Robert Lawton was born in St. Peter's Parish, Beaufort District, South Carolina, on the 4th day of November, 1818, and departed this life on the 1st day of July, 1896, having nearly completed his seventy-eighth year. He was the son of Alexander James Lawton. and Martha Mosse. He was born upon the plantation purchased by his grandfather, Joseph Lawton, in March, 1776. His lineage was a proud one and he worthily bore his name. "General Lawton became a member of this bar in 1843 and so continued until his death, although for some time before his decease he had retired from active practice. To the last, however, he was a member of our profession, took a lively interest in all that concerned it, and died the president of the Savannah Bar Association. His professional life in this city may, therefore, be said to have continued (the late war excepted) for more than fifty years. While he served his state and country in the legislature, in the field, as the quartermaster-general of the Confederacy, in the Constitutional Convention, and as a foreign minister, yet he was always a lawyer and cheerfully gave his full homage to the calling of his choice and affection, recognized always as a 'jealous mistress.' " It is not in our province to speak of his career in public office, where fidelity to duty, singleness of purpose and intelligent appreciation of responsibility, characterized him; of his career as a soldier, signalized by calm, unflinching courage and devotion to the cause which he had espoused; but rather to call attention to those traits which distinguished him as a lawyer. “The first and most important thought in connection with his career is that he illustrated, as so many others have done, that a man can be an eminently successful lawyer and yet a rigidly honest, candid and truthful man. General Lawton met with conspicuous success in his profession. He enjoyed more than a state reputation. He was in the front rank of the South's lawyers. For many years he did a large and lucrative practice, and, tested by any standard, he enjoyed the full measure of success. And yet the most cynical and uncharitable could never question the absolute rectitude and conduct of his speech. He was always and everywhere the high-minded, dignified, truth-loving gentleman, the soul of honor, despising every form of sham, dishonesty and deceit. No man, we assert, has ever lived in this community who enjoyed, or deserved, more fully than he did, the confidence of our people. No matter how sharp the difference in opinion and judgment, no one who knew him could ever question the honor or jurity of his purpose. With him 'duty' was always the 'sublimest word in the language;' and in every emergency he fully answered its most exacting demands. This was illustrated in his professional life. He was never unmindful of his duty to a client, to the court, or to his fellow lawyers. "We have never had in Georgia any member of our profession who more carefully or consistently observed and enforced its ethics and its best traditions. He scorned the thought now unhappily finding expression in conduct, if not in spoken avowal, that the law was a mere money-making trade. With him it was always a profession, high and honorable, demanding for its proper pursuit, not only attainments of learning and mind, but also a high sense of honor and propriety, the best qualities of a gentleman. "He practiced only in the courthouse; he argued his cases there only. He did not discuss them in the newspapers, or seek their applause. He never sought, directly or indirectly, newspaper advertisement of his professional achievements, or a newspaper reputation. At the same time he fully appreciated kind and pleasant allusions to him in the press, which were unsought and unsolicited, and came like other recognitions of his merit. "General Lawton's mental characteristics were strong, clear common sense; the ability to grasp quickly, even intuitively, the salient points of a case, and to press them home with singular clearness and cogency. His speeches were short, pointed and pithy. He wasted no words, went at once to the heart of his subject, never floundered or wandered, and, when he was through, realized that he was, and sat down. Even in the most important cases, involving large amounts, he never made what may be termed a long speech. He simply could not discuss trifling or immaterial points, and confined his entire thought and effort to the salient and controlling features of his case. He used in his arguments very few law books. This does not mean that he did not consult a great many, if necessary, but that he selected the best and used only them. He loved to argue from reason and principle and was not a slave to mere precedent. He was not a case lawyer, but one well grounded in the fundamental maxims of the law, and he used most those books which dealt in these basic principles. In these days of digests and ready-made briefs, when the merest tyro, without any learning or perhaps the capacity to learn, can make a show of erudition by citing innumerable decisions without having read or understood any of them, this plan, so successfully pursued by General Lawton, is worthy of special mention. "But, gentlemen of the bar, the necessary brevity of this report prevents us from saying much that we would like to say. We think of General Lawton today, not so much as the conspicuous citizen, or the eminent lawyer to whom came honors like that of the presidency of the American Bar Association, and a distinguished career; but rather as a member of our own, the Savannah bar, which is indebted to his stainless life 'in our midst for wholesome and ennobling lessons, for the honor his connection with us has done us, and for the rich legacy of his example. Let us gratefully cherish our proud recollections of him, and let us be stimulated by his career to a truer appreciation of the duties and dignity of our calling and of our obligation to its demands and responsibilities. Let us never disgrace it by conduct or word, and let us, as he did, ' magnify our office.' "We submit the following resolutions: "1. That this bar recognizes that in the death of General Lawton our profession has lost one of its real ornaments whose long and illustrious career has shed honor upon our profession and made it his grateful debtor. "2. That a copy of this report and these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of our Superior Court, and another be sent" by our secretary to the family of General Lawton. "3. That the Superior and City courtrooms be draped in mourning for thirty days and that the judge of the Superior Court be requested to adjourn his,court in honor of General Lawton's memory. SAMUEL B. ADAMS, POPE BARROW, WILLIAM GARRARD, WALTER G. CHARLTON, P. W. MELDRIM, Committee." Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/bios/gbs143lawton.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 16.3 Kb