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Rh also appointed five justices, who were confirmed by a senate recognizing him. The appointees of Packard held the sitting on the morning of Jan. 9, 1877. A few moments after the opening of the court, it adjourned, and the justices dispersed by reason of the capture of the court-house by the militia, under orders of Governor Nicholls. The justices appointed by this Governor were Thomas Courtland Manning, Chief Justice; and Robert H. Marr, Alcibiades DeBlanc, William B. Spencer, and William B. Egan, Associate Justices. They took possession of the building, court-room and archives, and held court. The final recognition by the Federal authority of the Nicholls government left the legality of the court indubitable. In the case of State ex rel. Mercier v. Judge, 29 A. 225, the Court referred to the condition of affairs at that time, and declared the illegality of the Packard Legislature.



Chief-Justice Thomas Courtland Manning was born at Edenton, North Carolina. He was admitted to the bar at Raleigh by the Supreme Court, and practised at his native town until 1855, when he came to Alexandria, Louisiana. When the war opened he volunteered in the first company that went from Rapides Parish, and rose to the rank of adjutant-general. In 1864 General Manning was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court; and when the State government collapsed with the Confederacy, he returned to his home at Alexandria. In 1877 he was appointed Chief-Justice, — a position which he filled until 1880, when a new Constitution went into effect. In 1882 he was appointed to the Supreme Bench for the third time. He was also Minister to Mexico under President Cleveland's administration. Few men in Louisiana had so fine a command of the English language; and as a literary scholar and analytical physician, he had no superior in the State. He was in all respects socially, politically, and legally, the highest type of the lordly Anglo Saxon. In 1878, Mr. Justice Egan having died, the Hon. Edward Douglas White was appointed to replace him. He qualified and took his seat in January following.

Associate Justice Alcibiades De Blanc, a native of St. Martin's Parish, was a splendid type of the Creole gentleman of this State. His career in the war, and the high military rank he obtained afford the best evidences of his fidelity as a soldier. His opinions as a member of the Supreme Court attest the consciousness, zeal, and earnestness with which he discharged his duties. While he prepared those opinions with no other view than the correct administration of justice, he has with them erected a monument for himself to which those who live after him may point as a monument more "lasting than brass."

In 1879, a new Constitution having been adopted which went into effect in January, 1880, a new Supreme Court was created, having appellate jurisdiction in all civil cases