Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/464

Rh script, but which would be a great boon to scholars if published.

He was also an accomplished poet. Many of his verses are of great merit. He had a number of them printed, but only for private distribution among his friends. He devoted a great deal of attention to Masonry, and at the time of his death he had attained the highest rank possible in that order.

During the war the loyal people of the State adopted the Constitution of 1864; and under it T. D. W. Yonley, Elisha Baxter, and C. A. Harper were the first judges. They were in office but a short time, and produced no great impression.

In August, 1866, David Walker, F. W. Compton, and John J. Clenclenin were elected judges, but were soon displaced by the reconstruction Constitution of 1868.

For six years, from 1868 to 1874, the carpet-baggers were in office. Of the disgraces of that time it is needless to speak; they have passed into history. Upon the supreme bench there were many judges, — a few of them conscientious and upright men, the majority political adventurers. And yet even this evil time had its advantage, — it introduced the Code of Civil Procedure. The leaders of the Arkansas Bar were all opposed to its introduction; the common-law system of pleading, which they had mastered by years of study, was a tremendous weapon in their hands. Those who had not attained proficiency in it found themselves involved in a hopeless labyrinth, and were soon caught in the toils of their wily adversaries. They were loath to give up an accomplishment which it had taken years to acquire, and which left them the undisputed masters of the field; and had it not been for the reconstructionists, who in their invasion brought with them the Civil Code, it is probable that we should still be struggling with the intricacies of special pleading, carried to an excess of technicality unknown even to Chitty.

Of the reconstruction judges, two of the best, W. W. Wilshire and Lafayette Gregg, are now dead; and of them we can speak.

Judge Wilshire was born in Gallatin County, Illinois, on the 8th of September, 1830.

In 1852 he went to California with the gold-hunters, but returned in 1855 with more experience than gold. He began studying law in 1859. In 1862 he entered the Union army, and was made a major. After the war he set tled at Little Rock, and formed a partnership with Judge English. In July, 1867, he was made Solicitor-General of the State, and in 1868 he was made Chief-Justice. He resigned on Feb. 16, 1871, and returned to the practice. In 1872 he ran for Congress, and was admitted, but unseated in favor of T. M. Gunter, the Democratic candidate, when his official term was about to expire.

In 1874, when the people entered upon the death-struggle with the carpet-bag regime, Judge Wilshire, and Judge Caldwell of the Federal court, though ardent Republicans,