XXX.

WILLIAM H. TORRANCE.

THE gentleman now introduced, historically was one of the ablest lawyers who ever appeared at the Georgia bar. His mind was eminently judicial, luminous in argument, and inexhaustible in authorities. He was entirely self-made. Without patronage in early life, he made the most of his opportunities; and in ten years from the date of his admission to the bar he stood among the foremost.

WILLIAM H. TORRANCE was born in Union district, South Carolina, on the 5th day of March, 1792. His father, Andrew Torrance, was a native of Scotland, whence he emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in 1766. He was a man of liberal education, and was the intimate friend of Judge Roan. Soon after the Revolution broke out, he entered the Continental army, and was appointed quartermaster, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He then removed to South Carolina, and settled at a place well known as the Cross-Keys, in Union district. In the year 1789, he married Esther Howard, sister of the late Maj. John Howard, of Milledgeville. Mr. Torrance the father removed with his family from South Carolina to Baldwin county, Georgia, in the spring of 1811, where he died the 1st of July the following year.

Until his fifteenth year, WILLIAM was in feeble health. At the age of five years he was sent to a country school, and continued there three years, during which time he had made fair progress in learning. Soon as his age permitted, he was placed in the store of Mr. George Gordon, a Scotch merchant at Cross-Keys. Thence he was transferred to Laurens district, in the mercantile house of John & William Black, also Scotchmen, with whom he remained until the embargo of 1809 caused them to discontinue business. He then returned to the paternal home, where he engaged in the labors of the farm. From this situation he entered the service of his country, at an age when youth is generally fired with the military passion.

In 1813, he volunteered as a private soldier in the company of

Captain Joseph Howard, and was stationed at Fort Hawkins. Here he received the appointment of private secretary to Gen. John Floyd, and was afterward present with that distinguished officer in the hard-fought battles with the Indians at Autossee and Calibbee, in the then territory of Alabama. Mr. Torrance was well qualified for the duties to which he had been selected. His neat and ready penmanship, his courteous disposition and unwearied industry, greatly facilitated the labors of his patron in making out orders and reports and in keeping a journal of the campaign. The valuable manuscript history of several Indian tribes, by Col. Benjamin Hawkins, the Agent of the United States Government, was committed to the care of Gen. Floyd, in order to acquaint him with the localities of the enemy, and to furnish other useful information which he could obtain from no other source respecting the number and habits of the Indians. This history was deposited with Mr. Torrance, who occupied much of his leisure in glancing over its pages. Fragments of this work by Col. Hawkins (who received the Agency from President Jefferson, and was requested by him to collect all the information he could relative to the tribes within his jurisdiction) have been published, and the whole of it may perhaps be in the Executive Office at Milledgeville.

At the close of the campaign under Gen. Floyd, Mr. Torrance again volunteered, in Captain Horton's company, which was organized at Sparta, where he was appointed quartermaster's sergeant; and, on the arrival of the company at Fort Jackson, the post of forage-master was given him until the army was disbanded, on the reception of peace.

In the same year-1815-he entered as clerk in the store of Stewart & Hargrave, in the city of Augusta, where he continued three years, at the end of which time he engaged in a cottonspeculation in partnership with Mr. John W. Wilde, which proved disastrous and drove them both to the practice of the law. What seemed a misfortune then opened the way to prosperity and reputation in another pursuit.

For the particulars respecting the parentage and early employments of Mr. Torrance the author is indebted to the late Amelius Torrance, Esquire, of Baldwin county, a brother. At the request of the author, a gentleman who for more than twenty years was the intimate friend of Mr. Torrance has furnished a sketch so admirable that it is here given without abridgment:

Hon. Joel Crawford.

To the number of professional men who, without the advantages of early education, have attained eminence, no State, it is believed, has made larger contributions than Georgia. Until within the last thirty years, respectable schools were to be found in very few counties, and were, of course, accessible to none but the children of wealthy parents. That so many of those who have given proofs of great intellectual power at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the practice of medicine, have been reared up without these advantages, however encouraging to future aspirants, by no means justifies the conclusion that academies and colleges may be dispensed with. Such gifted men as Watkins, Walker, Flournoy, and Torrance, under the circumstances which favored their individual success, found resources in their own genius, industry, and ambition which were more than equivalent to the best scholastic training in humbler minds. That each of these men, with early and thorough learning and like impulses to effort, would have mounted far higher in the scale of professional distinction, can hardly admit of doubt.

WILLIAM H. TORRANCE was born in South Carolina, of poor parentage, about the year 1792, and, at the first settlement of Baldwin county, removed with his father's family to a small farm in the vicinity of Milledgeville. He with his brothers were chiefly occupied with the business of agriculture until he had nearly or quite reached the age of manhood; but, with his scanty opportunities, he made attainments which qualified him for the duties of a clerkship in a retail store and for reading good works in the English language. His love of books had been often remarked by his acquaintances, but was never so fully gratified as during a residence as merchant's clerk in the city of Augusta. Here he made the acquaintance and engaged the friendly aid of that gifted and generous man, Richard Henry Wilde. Under his direction, young Torrance gave all his spare hours to miscellaneous reading and the sedulous study of the law. In due time, but after he had attained ripe manhood, he passed an approved examination, obtained a licence to practise, and opened a lawoffice in Milledgeville. His prospects were by no means bright; but he was not the man to sink under discouragements, one of the greatest of which was that nervous sensibility under the morbid influence of which men of dauntless courage are sometimes subdued by the presence of a court or popular assembly. This defect, in his case, is to be ascribed, in a great measure, to the total lack of early practice in the art of declamation. For nearly three years after coming to the bar, it is believed, he seldom or never attempted to address an argument to a jury; but in discussing law-questions before the court he felt himself more at home, and he here gave to the public the first evidence of his professional learning. Before he shed the restraints of early diffidence, his moral rectitude of deportment, industry, and attention to the business of clients had gradually increased his practice; but it was not until about the fifth year that public opinion conceded to him that high reputation which he maintained through life. His services in great cases were eagerly sought, the fruits of which were seen in the rapid acquisition of fortune, which few men knew better how to use and enjoy than William H. Torrance.

Mr. Torrance was never master of a graceful and flowing elocution. His rank arose from profound knowledge of law, quick and accurate discernment of the essential elements of his case, and the imposing manner in which he drew his logical inferences. These qualifications, combined with untiring industry, unsullied probity, and great ability at the bar, con

ferred upon nim an enviable popularity. He seemed, however, ambitious only of professional fame, having never sought or accepted office.

Mr. Torrance married the third daughter of Peter Crawford, Esq., of Columbia county, whose untimely death probably contributed to shorten his own life. He survived her but a few days, or weeks, leaving three children-two daughters and a son-to the testamentary guardianship of their maternal grandmother, by whom they have been carefully nurtured and educated. His son-a robust and promising youth, who is still at school-will live, it is hoped, to appreciate the worthy example of his father's life and to emulate his high reputation.

Knowing that Mr. Torrance kept up a large correspondence with professional and public men, and believing that letters existed among his papers of great value, the author applied to the late Mansfield Torrance, Esquire, of Columbus, on the subject of an examination, from whom he received a letter, of which an extract is given :—

I have just written the sketch, (at the instance of Major Crawford,) and only want a few dates, which I must get from Colonel Jones; and, if not too late, I will furnish it as soon as I can hear from you. I hope it will not be too late. The sketch is brief, and will not cover more than five or six manuscript pages. As his executor, I have all his papers, and might possibly, with much labor, find a letter or two worth publishing; but most of his letters were private. I know no anecdotes worth publishing; and he never pretended to be a wit. Of course we were much together, but seldom together on the circuit, as I practised in Western Georgia.

If access could be freely had to old letters, to which no great importance was attached at the time, many facts would appear in politics, in law, in literature, and in the current history of the times, far beyond what may be generally supposed in point of public interest. The author has seen in possession of Mr. Torrance original letters. to him from Mr. Jefferson and Chief-Justice Marshall; and, as these eminent men never wrote carelessly or on trifling matters, it is certain something worthy was in the correspondence. All the parties being dead, there was no longer any seal of privacy. It was the remark of the late Hon. William H. Crawford, that he never wrote a letter in his life which he would object to being published if all the circumstances were known. Such ought to be the frankness of every man. Although the author replied immediately to Mr. M. Torrance, desiring the sketch of his brother which he had prepared, yet he never had the good fortune to receive it. Death has since closed up all possibilities.

An event of peculiar interest in this history of Georgia was the treaty at the Indian Springs, concluded on the 12th day of February, 1825, between Messrs. Campbell and Meriwether, Com

missioners on the part of the United States, and General William McIntosh, head of the Cowetas, and fifty other principal chiefs on the part of the Creek Nation. The Indians ceded to the United States all the lands claimed by them within the limits of Georgia, and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi previous to the 1st day of September, 1826. For this surrender of their right of occupancy, the United States gave in exchange, acre for acre, lands westward of the Mississippi, on the Arkansas River; and, to pay for loss incurred by the Indians in leaving their homes in Georgia, and to support them in their new settlement, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars was to be given to those who might emigrate.

On the day after the treaty was made, the United States Agent for Indian Affairs addressed to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, a letter, of which the following is an extract:

Yesterday a treaty was signed by McIntosh and his adherents alone. Being fully convinced that this treaty is in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the instructions which I have a copy of, I feel it my bounden duty, as the agent of the Government, to apprize you of it, that you may adopt such measures as you may deem expedient as to the ratification; for, if ratified, it may produce a horrible state of things among these unfortunate Indians. It is proper to remark that, with the exception of McIntosh and perhaps two others, the signatures to this treaty are either chiefs of low grade or not chiefs at all, which you can perceive by comparing them to those to other treaties and to the receipts for the annuity; and these signers are from eight towns only, when there are fifty-six in the Nation.

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This letter plainly showed the opposition of the Agent to the treaty. His conduct became the fruitful topic of investigation, and of bitter controversy between the Executive of Georgia and the Federal Executive,-Governor Troup and President Adams. Mr. Torrance was selected by the Governor, in a commission authorized by the Legislature, to inquire into and report the facts touching the Agent, a few passages will be here introduced from public documents.

In transmitting the treaty to the War Department, Colonel Campbell, under date of February 16, 1825, says:

The attendance of chiefs was a full one,-much more so than is usual when chiefs only are invited. The opposition was feeble, and seems to have been dictated by the Big Warrior. The death of this chief, I conceive, puts the question at rest. That all opposition will now cease, and that the dissenting party will now treat and reunite themselves with the majority, I have no doubt.

By proclamation of March 21, 1825, Governor Troup announced