lawyer in the State, and he had most able competitors and contemporaries at the bar, — the two Hendersons, Cameron, Norwood, Nash, Seawell, Yancey, Ruffin, Badger, Hawks, Mangum, Morehead, Graham, and many others. Governor Graham says of him : " He had a Quaker-like plainness of aspect, a scrupulous neatness in an equally plain attire, an habitual politeness, and a subdued simplicity of manner which at once won his way to the hearts of juries, while no Greek dialectician had a more ready and refined ingenuity, or was more fertile in every resource of forensic gladiatorship." Though a charming and successful advocate, he more especially delighted in the equity practice, which he deemed " the application of the rules of Moral Philosophy to the practical affairs of men." He was a skilful pleader; and his chirography, neat and peculiar, was almost as legible as print, — an unusual thing with lawyers. From 1812 to 1818, he was continuously, by annual election, a Senator from Orange, and on this new theatre shone even more conspicuously than in his profession. He inaugurated a new era in the public policy of the State, and exerted for years prob ably a greater influence than any other citi zen of the State. He was the foremost and ablest advocate, indeed the originator, of a system of internal improvements and of common schools in North Carolina. His papers and addresses on these subjects would do credit to DeWitt Clinton or John C. Cal houn. One of these memoirs was published in 1822, with high commendation in the "North American Review," then edited by Hon. Edward Everett. He was a firm friend to the State University. In 1822, by appointment of North Carolina, he was heard before the Tennessee legislature, and adjusted the disputed claims of the Univer sity to lands in that State. He also was the first who aroused an interest in our State history. He proposed, indeed, to write a history of North Carolina (though never able to accomplish it), and procured from the
Revolutionary survivors, then rapidly passing away, much valuable material and informa tion, which but for him would have been irre trievably lost. In one of his letters he says : "We know nothing of our State, and care nothing about it. We want some great stimulus to put us all in motion, and to in duce us to waive little jealousies and combine in one general march to one great purpose." In 1818 he came near being elected to the bench of the new Supreme Court, though he had never presided — as the successful can didates all had — on the Superior Court bench. He was elected to fill one of the vacancies on the Superior Court bench, and held the office for two years, during which time he sat, as we have seen, by special commission, part of three terms upon the Supreme Court. He resigned in the fall of 1820. In 1819 he published three vol umes of reports, the 5, 6, and 7 N. C. (for merly 1, 2, and 3 Murphey). Of these, the first two covered the decisions of the old Supreme Court (from 1804 to 18 18), and the last contained the decisions of the new Supreme Court for 18 19, — the first year of its existence. We are so accustomed now to official reporters and a prompt publication of the decisions of the court of last resort, that we cannot understand the full extent of the benefit conferred on the profession then by the editing and publishing of the deci sions, the larger part of which had remained in manuscript for so many years. As a literary character, Judge Murphey should be classed as one of the first men in the nation. His style had all the charm of Goldsmith or Irving. In Latin, Greek, and French his proficiency was such that he read the standard authors with pleasure and for amusement. He was thoroughly familiar with the English classics; and, though in this self-taught, he had no small attainments in the sciences. His oration before the two literary societies of the Uni versity in 1827 was the first of a long series of like addresses by distinguished men at the annual Commencements, but has never
