Knowing the deceased, as I have done, for now near seventeen years, and associating with him on the most intimate terms, at home and upon the circuit, the memory of those by-gone years, and of the friend who made so many days in them happy, almost unfits me to discharge the duty my brothers have assigned me. At their request, I submit to your Honors the resolutions passed on yesterday by the members of the Bar in attendance on this Court, and ask that they may be entered on the records of the Court, and printed in the next volume of Reports."

At a meeting of the members of the Bar, now in attendance upon the Supreme Court, held in the Supreme Court room, July 7, 1853, to express their regret at the death of their deceased brother, Frederic W. Trapnall, the following proceedings were had:

On motion of J. J. Clendenin, Esq., Colonel ABSALOM FOWLER was called to the Chair, and E. CUMMINS, Esq., was chosen secretary.

Whereupon, Albert Pike, Esq., reported the following resolutions, which were adopted by the meeting:

Resolved, The members of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Arkansas have learned with deep regret the death of their brother, Frederic W. Trapnall, for nearly seventeen years an honored and honorable member of the Bar of that Court; that we lament the great loss which we have sustained in this sudden severance of those ties of friendship and pleasant intercourse which for so many years connected us with him whose unexpected death we deplore.

Resolved, That, in the death of Frederic W. Trapnall, not his family alone, nor his friends, nor the Bar, but his State also, has sustained a great loss: His family, for his domestic virtues, his warm affections, and his generous temper; his friends, for these and for his affable manners, and unostentatious habits, his ease of intercourse, and the charm of an unaffected and cheerful vivacity, his firm fidelity to those who had won his regard, and his readiness to respond to the appeals of the distressed and destitute; the bar, for his copious learning, and his tact and quickness as an advocate, made more effective by a vigorous and persuasive eloquence, his regard for the honor of the profession, and

entire freedom from jealousy and illiberality, his frank and manly bearing, and the cordial amenity and uniform courtesy of his deportment and conversation; but his country, for his high sense of honor, his fidelity to his political faith under whatever reverses, and his zeal for the welfare and interest of the State, the ardent patriotism which ever impelled him as a public man, and that genius and large measure of knowledge, which made him as able as he was willing to be of service to his State or nation.

Resolved, That the death of such men are the losses which make a country poor, and leave chasms in the community which time is powerless to fill.

Resolved, That the Bar respectfully tender their heartfelt sympathy to the family of the deceased; and from respect to the memory of one so greatly endeared to them, will wear the usual badge of mourning during the present term of the Supreme Court.

Resolved, That these resolutions be communicated to the Court by the Attorney General, with a request that they be entered upon the records; and, further, that they be communicated to the family of the deceased, by the Chairman of this meeting.

Mr. Pike then arose, and said:

May it please your Honors: Frederic W. Trapnall, for nearly seventeen years a leading and eminent member of the bar of this Court, died at Monticello, in Drew county, in this State, on Monday last, at 5 o'clock in the morning, after a painful illness of a very few days.

After we had been distressed with the information of his dangerous illness, we were encouraged, from favorable accounts sent to us, to hope that he had commenced to improve, was not in danger of death, and would soon be among us to gladden us with his genial presence; and I am sure that when that cheering news arrived here, there was no one among us who did not feel that he had not until then been conscious how much he regarded, admired and loved the friend, the sudden news of whose loss soon after struck so sharp a blow upon the hearts of this community. It is due to ourselves, many of whom have been long and intimately acquainted with the deceased, and had abundant oppor

tunity of knowing him thoroughly, and appreciating and admi ring him in proportion to the extent of our knowledge, that we should express in fit and proper terms the sorrow we feel for his death, and our sense of the great loss which has befallen us and the whole community.

There are none of us who have not felt the genial influences of his cheerful, frank and manly temper and disposition; who have not admired the grace and eminent courtesy of his manners, and the vigor and quickness of his intellect. Amply armed with all the resources of the advocate, he was seldom found unprepared, or taken by surprise. Zealous in behalf of his clients, skilful and forcible in attack, and prompt and efficient in defence, he brought to the aid of his large supply of legal learning, a profound and instinctive sense of right, and a forcible, sparkling and pursuasive eloquence. Nature had been eminently libe ral to him, and he had not been ungrateful to her for her bounty, but had cultivated well his ripened intellect by an extensive and judicious course of reading. In the social circle, he charmed every one. Few men excelled him in conversational power; none in the grace and elegance of his deportment. He was formed to charm men and women alike; and in any forum, in any legislative body, in any assembly of rank and fashion, he would have been a noted and distinguished man.

His memory will not die for many years among us. We shall long, very long, miss him in our daily walks, fancy we hear the cheerful tones of his voice, and look in vain for his pleasant and manly countenance. It is hard, indeed, that one so brilliant, of so happy and genial a temperament, in the prime and pith of his manhood, and the full vigor of an ample intellect, so well fitted to enjoy life himself and increase its enjoyment to others, to dispense happiness to his family, to serve his country, and do good in his day and generation, should be so suddenly, in the inscrutable dispensations of Divine Providence, struck with the sharp arrows of Death, and committed to his narrow and lonely chamber in the graveyard, to be seen no more by his friends, in this world, forever!

It is peculiarly proper for me to pay this tribute of respect to

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his memory. I knew him at his first entrance into the State have known him intimately and well from that day to this. There have been, at times, shadows cast between us, and sometimes, no doubt, in my thoughts, I have failed to do him justice, as perhaps he may have failed to do the same to me. But there was no time when I did not admire and love him. I bitterly regret his death; I condole with his bereaved family, and respectfully offer them my profoundest sympathy. And I declare that, in all my intercourse with him during so many years, I never knew the slightest approach on his part towards any thing not perfectly frank, manly, and honorably.

May it please your Honors, brief as I desire to be, I cannot refrain from adverting to one trait of his character as a lawyer, worthy of imitation by all; and without which, it seems to me, no one is truly entitled to the name, in its largest and truest sense. And that was, that in every case he looked first to what was right and just in the matter, and sought for arguments and authority to vindicate the justice of his client's claim or defence, and not merely to prove that the law was upon his side. He looked to the reason of the law, as its best interpreter. The consequence was, as the consequence will always be, that his practice was marked with an unusual degree of success. He seemed to recoil instinctively from doing wrong in the name of the law, and with the aid of logic, and to be penetrated with a profound conviction that what was not right could not be law. He was fond of basing his arguments upon great principles and truths, and from them deducing, as corollaries, the law of his case.

May it please your Honors, our deceased brother was fortunate in his domestic relations, fortunate in the large number of admiring friends that encircled him, prosperous in his worldly fortunes, rich with a lofty and well deserved reputation. The will of the Supreme Being has cut him off in the midst of a career of distinguished usefulness. To that irrevocable mandate all of us who regret him must bow in humble submission, and a complete trust in the wisdom of God, who deals with our destinies as he judges best. It may be that we and the country are greater losers by this dispensation than the friend whose face we shall

look upon no more: for, in the Grave's narrow chamber, we rest from our labors and are at peace.

May it please you Honors, I desired to say something on behalf of myself and my brethren, in addition to the customary resolutions; something which, as less formal, if more unusual, might seem an ampler testimonial to the worth of the deceased, and a more earnest expression of our regret for his death than any resolutions whatever; these being so much the act of many, as to seem in some manner to express more than the feelings of any one individual. For myself, I adopt them in full; and so, I am sure, does every one who hears me; and having done this last office of friendship to the memory of the deceased, nothing is left us but to continue counting, as the years glide away from us, the ever increasing number of the friends that we have lost and mourned for the saddest occupation of humanity!"

Mr. Chief Justice WATKINS responded:

"The Court hears with sensibility the announcement of the death of Mr. Trapnall. We have to regret the loss of one who, though a member of the Bar of this Court from its organization, was yet in the prime of life; in the full practice of his profession, and with enlarged capacities promising a long career of useful

ness.

The deceased was intimately known to those who now unite in paying a tribute to his memory. That he had faults, is to say he was a man and liable to err; that he had enemies, is to say he was one of the few who achieved enviable distinction. Such a man could not fail to attach to himself many ardent friends. Eminent for his talents, but not exalted by official station, he was, in a republic, one of its great commoners.

The court cordially concur in the resolutions adopted by his brethren of the Bar, in honor of the deceased; and will direct that they be entered upon the record of its proceedings."