The Supreme Court of North Carolina. "when I was baptized, my sponsors stood surety for me. I thought I ought to surren der myself in discharge of my bail." He was not an idolator of other men's thought, and did not hesitate to overrule a precedent if he thought it wrong or in the progress of events had become an anachronism. He would say, "You can't make an omelet without smash ing an egg, nor clear a road through a forest without cutting down a tree." He was idol ized by his students and reverenced by the bar. He had his foibles, but " not one that came near his heart." Before the war he was a Whig in politics, and after 1868 a Republi can. He used many original expressions. Among them, for instance, in a burglary case, speaking of a chimney which was low and easy of entrance, he said " a travelling dog or an enterprising old sow " might have easily entered the house, and therefore no one ought to be held guilty of burglary for entering (State v. Willis, 52 N. C. 192). He spoke of the repartee and rejoinder of counsel between themselves as " crossfiring with small shot." His familiar and often quoted expression that a case was " on all fours " with another means that it is in consimili casu. Then there is his ruling (since overruled), that a fraudulent debt embraced in a deed of as signment to secure creditors renders the whole void, " as one rotten egg spoils an omelet" (Palmer v. Giles, 58 N. C. 75.) Nu merous others of his homely and vigorous expressions might be collected, and would be entertaining reading if there was space for them. He was not eloquent in words or im agery, but the clearness and precision with which he expressed himself, backed fre quently by homely but forcible turns of ex pression, gave his opinions a vigor and a charm which are often lacking in more care fully prepared productions. He discharged his duty conscientiously, and every term he went through the entire docket and gave every litigant a hearing. He was a patient, attentive, and understanding listener. He saw through a case quickly on the argument, and as it were by intuition.
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In 1868 a number of leading members of the bar signed a " Protest " which resulted in several of the signers being attached for contempt. The proceedings will be found in Ex p?rte Moore, 63 N. C. 397. It is only referred to here as a part of the history of the times, and as the sole occasion in the history of the State when there has been antagonism between the bench and the bar. Happily the feeling then aroused was of very short duration. Five of the " protestants " have since sat on the Supreme Court bench themselves : two were exGovernors, three have since been Gover nors of the State, and two United States Senators. In 183 1 he located in Mocksville, and in 1832 married the daughter of United States Senator John Williams of Tennessee, and niece of Hugh L.White, also a Senator from that State, and Whig candidate for the Presi dency in 1836. By her he had ten children, three of whom survived him. One of them is Richmond Pearson, Esq., of Asheville, one of the most prominent and wealthiest men of western North Carolina; and one of his daughters was the first wife of the late Governor Fowle. In 1847 he re moved to Richmond Hill in Surry County, where he lived till his death, and maintained the famous law school at which so many of the lawyers of North Carolina were educated; among them three of his future associates, Settle, Bynum, and Faircloth, besides Avery and Ruffin, who afterwards came on the court. He stated that he had taught over a thousand law students in his life. His first wife having been several years dead, in 1859 he married Mrs. Mary Bynum, the widow of Gen. Jno. Gray Bynum, and daughter of Charles Mc Dowell of Morganton. There was no issue of this marriage; but Mrs. Pearson's son by her first marriage, Hon. Jno. Gray Bynum, is one of the present Judges of the Superior Court. Chief-Justice Pearson was succeeded by Hon. W. N. H. Smith, who was appointed Chief-Justice by Governor Vance.
