Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, with Illustrations and Speeches

by Unknown

Thomas Bragg was the son of Thomas and Margaret Crossland Bragg, and was born in the town of Warrenton, in Warren county, on the 9th day of November, 1810. His father was a carpenter and contractor, a man of strong will, good judgment, and hard common sense, who devoted the fruits of his labor to the education of a large family of children. John, an older brother of Thomas, was a distinguished judge of Alabama, and a member of Congress from the Mobile District, in 1852, but declined a renomination. General Braxton Bragg, whose military reputation is familiar to the country, was a younger brother. Alexander J. was an architect of high standing in Alabama. Dunbar was a leading merchant in Texas; and William, the youngest brother, died near Chattanooga, July 25, 1863, from wounds received in battle. Mrs. Mary L. Cuthbert, widow of the late James E. Cuthbert, a sister, and the last of the children, died recently in Petersburg, Va.

Thomas Bragg received his preliminary schooling at the Academy in Warrenton and his education was completed at Captain Partridge's Military School, in Middletown, Connecticut, where he remained about two and a half years. Soon after returning from Middletown he commenced the study of law under the late Judge Hall, of Warrenton, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and, on obtaining his license to practice in the courts of the State, he started out, with a horse and stick gig and fifty dollars, for Jackson, the county-seat of Northampton county, N. C., which place he made his home in the spring of 1833. This was all the assistance he had, but his paying practice was immediate, and he never needed aid from any other quarter.

Shortly after settling in Jackson, Benjamin B. Blume, who was County Attorney, resigned the office and removed to Petersburg, Va., selling his library to the subject of our sketch, who was elected County Attorney, beating his opponent, Colonel Samuel B. Spruill, the office then being worth about five hundred dollars. He was a strong and vigorous prosecuting officer, discharging the duties in strict conformity to his oath, and showing neither favor to a friend nor resentment to an enemy. His execution of the office was so rigid that it affected his popularity; evidence of which was visible, in some quarters, even up to the time he assumed the office of Governor. Upon one occasion, after he had spoken in the prosecution of a citizen of considerable prominence, Mr. B. F. Moore, who was counsel for the defendant, made strictures upon his course, and charged that his zeal was the result more of feeling and spite than of his conceived duties under his oath. He was seen to bow gracefully, but determinedly, to Mr. Moore, as he proceeded with his speech. Immediately after the adjournment of court, a note was borne from him to Mr. Moore by Colonel Spier Whitaker. It was with some difficulty that the matter was settled, but friends interposed, and it was satisfactorily adjusted to both parties; and these men were not formal in their subsequent intercourse, but, on the contrary, their relations were always cordial and friendly. Mr. Moore's strong and feeling speech in the Supreme Court-room, the day after Governor Bragg's funeral, clearly shows this.

It was not long after he had been at the bar when an important case was begun in Hertford county, Beale vs. Askew. It was a suit for damages for libel. A. J. Askew was charged with sending to the Norfolk (Va.) Herald, then edited by Thomas G. Broughton, Esq., a notice of Beale's marriage to a woman in Winton of infamous character. The case was moved to Chowan and tried in Edenton. Bragg and William W. Cherry, then very young men, appeared for Askew, and Judge Augustus Moore and Mr. Kinney, at that time the leading Eastern lawyers, were the opposing counsel. Governor Bragg alluded in his speech to his youth and to his being a stranger as working to his disadvantage before the jury. Mr. Kinney, in his kindest manner, complimented in his speech these young men for their able conduct and management of their case, and predicted their future usefulness and distinction. Mr. Cherry died when quite a young man. He possessed a powerful intellect, and was unquestionably, the most brilliant speaker the East ever had.

On the 4th day of October, 1837, Bragg was united in marriage to Miss Isabella M. Cuthbert, of Petersburg, Va. He first met her in Jackson while on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Starke, whose husband was at that time engaged in business in Jackson. Their associated lives were long and happy, and marked by the most devoted attention on his part, and cemented by a mutual affection and tenderness. She only survived him a few years.

Bragg was a close and hard student. Except when called away on business, he was rarely out of his office; and he left his house at night only when urgent engagements compelled it, which was infrequent. So closely did he confine himself to study and to the full preparation of his cases, and so fully was his time occupied, that he seemed estranged from the community. These seclusive habits, together with strongly drawn party lines, destroyed to a degree that social interchange which a more general intercourse would naturally have engendered. He was not what might be considered a popular man of the town, but his high moral worth and his honorable and commendable course of life accorded him the highest consideration and respect.

His daily course was to smoke his pipe and read his newspapers for about half an hour after breakfast, then repair to his office, which was near to his house and on his lot, read law, and prepare his cases, smoking a good deal of the time, until dinner. After dinner he would devote another half-hour to newspaper-reading and his pipe, and then go to his office, resuming his law studies and duties until late in the evening, when he would either take a ride or a walk with his wife. After supper he would take his smoke and read newspapers, magazines or other literary works until about ten o'clock, his usual bedtime. He rarely read law at night, except sometimes shortly before attending the Supreme Court, when it might be necessary for him to do so to prepare cases for argument there. Such was his regular course of life at Jackson, and he was as regular in it as clockwork. He was not an early riser, usually rising just before breakfast, which was about nine o'clock in winter and about seven in summer. He never slept in the afternoons, and during the warm summer evenings he would occasionally lie down on a lounge, or sofa, which he kept in his office, and read his law books, but he would never take an evening nap. During his two terms as Governor he would, when he had taken his after-dinner smoke, go direct to the executive office, and remain there until late in the evening, and if alone, it was rare for one to enter and find him not engaged in either reading or writing. He was an inveterate smoker, and followed the habit so persistently that he could not relinquish it, and he carried his pipe to his courts as regularly as he did his law books. His constitution was, no doubt, though not perceptibly, affected by it, and the late gifted Dr. Charles E. Johnson, his family physician, was fully impressed that it shortened his life and precipitated the disease of which he died.

Bragg practiced law, regularly, in the Courts of Northampton, Halifax, Hertford, and Gates counties up to the time he became Governor. When employed in special cases, he would attend the courts of Chowan and Washington counties. He had a large and controlling practice, appearing in nearly every important case, yet but twice did his practice amount to four thousand dollars a year, and it was brought to that figure by these special courts, the highest fee being three hundred dollars, which was the largest single fee he ever received before the war. He was a diligent and faithful worker, and a moderate charger. One of his greatest efforts at the bar, before the war, probably, was made in the case of the State vs. Garrett. Garrett was tried for murder in Northampton county, before Judge Bailey, about 1853. He was defended by Bragg and Mr. B. F. Moore, and the case occupied two days in taking the testimony. Both of these gentlemen made strong speeches, but Bragg's speech was particularly strong. He was deeply interested in the case and bestowed much labor upon it. He believed his client not guilty. The State was represented by M. W. Ransom, it being his first appearance as Attorney-General at Northampton court. He was a young man, and, having such able lawyers to confront, much sympathy was felt by the audience in the court room for him. He, however, did not need it. He saw the necessity for the full development of all the tact, brain power, and legal knowledge at his command. During the whole trial he took not a note, and he concluded the argument alike to the astonishment and admiration of the court, jury, and spectators, the very culmination, beyond doubt, of the greatest legal effort of his life. Garrett was convicted of murder, but before the day appointed for his execution he broke jail and was never afterwards captured or heard from.

It is by some supposed, and has been by some remarked, that Bragg developed as a lawyer after the war, and that up to that time he was merely a fair lawyer, with a good local reputation. This is a very great mistake. Though he may not have achieved an extended State reputation, yet he was recognized by the bar of the State as a strong lawyer, and he was accepted before the war by the people of the East as one of the leading, if not the leading, lawyer of that section.

In 1842 he was elected to the Legislature—House of Commons—defeating Thomas J. Gatling, a brother of the inventor of the Gatling gun. In 1844 he was defeated for the Legislature by Judge David A. Barnes, who had just before this come to the Northampton bar and had settled in Jackson. After this he sought no office, but was an active worker in the county political campaigns. In 1844 he was Presidential Elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket for the First District, his opponent being William W. Cherry, Esq., of Bertie county. In 1848 he was again elector for the First District on the Cass and Butler ticket, his opponent being the Hon. Kenneth Rayner, of Hertford county, one of the strongest political speakers of his day, and a man much to be dreaded in debate. At this time Bragg was not widely known in politics, and it was considered by the Whigs that Mr. Rayner would have a "walk-over." Their first meeting was at Rich Square, in Northampton, twelve miles from Jackson. Mr. Rayner's friends in Jackson (and the town was about all Whig) said they were "going out to see Rayner eat Bragg up," but the "eating up" was not done at that time, and they came back not so exhilarated as they went. Mr. Rayner had met his match, and Bragg had fully satisfied his Democratic hearers on that occasion. This campaign was exciting and ably conducted; and after it was ended Mr. Rayner was frequently heard to say that Thomas Bragg was the ablest debater and the strongest opponent he had ever met on the stump.