Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1915 — Tribute to Edwin P. Hammond [ARTICLE]

Tribute to Edwin P. Hammond

By John P.

Carr in the Fowler Tribune

The press does not respect .time, nor thing nor person. And Is endured for that reason. Col. Hammond Monday noon was reading on his 'book, his finger marking the place, a stenographer had just left him. Inquiry was made concerning a newspaper antide. “Yes. It is in Friday’s issue of Indianapolis News. Friday was the 12th. On page nineteen and the third column, about the middle of the column.” Incidentally the colonel was elected judge in Benton county some forty years ago. At the time the county clerk, sheriff, auditor, the big shippers, the country editor and his wife and sweehearts had railroad passes. The proletariat paid three cents a mile. Passes from several railroads were sent to the newly elected judge. Everyone was returned. He presided in the McCulloch case, and that was some forty years ago. At that time Col. DeHart was in the full knighthood of his ability. A person could not be found guilty of murder unless it had been shown that there was a murder. And there v had been learned men who had written books who believed what DeHart said. The bones found in York township with the cleft skull were exhibited. With that « fine lady’s voice, Col. Hammond replied, “It looks to me from these bones that there was somebody in life who is now dead. I will hear evidence concerning whose skull was this.” "A new law had been made. In the Avoline case of Jasper county a new precedent in habeas corpus proceedings was established. These decisions made two score years ago were enough to make him famous, but his f entire life has been a life of big things. He wears a little bronze button in his coat. For four years he had some duties outside of the court. At Chickamauga more than half of his command was lost. Twelve of the twenty officers were left on the battle field. He was reorganizing the remnants for another charge. Some remonstrated. “What, do you expect to live alwAys.” And it is said that the badge of the French Legion of Honor was presented to him, but is never known to display it. On account “of the disturbance outside of court” in which there was considerable noice, he does not hear well out of his right ear and one of his legs draws some on account of the long marches to the sea. But he does not care for that. He is a member of the G. O. P. When charges are printed in the newspaper concerning his party, he wears the colors of the Loyal League. A friend was telling of how the leaders of the republican party were using it for their personal gain. That they were robbers and. all of that. He replied in that fine voice that can be heard across a block, “Well, what uv it? They always did. When

in the army it was charged that the blankets the boys drew would not hold baled hay. Was that any reasons why they should desert?" When there is a republican victory, arid a line of rejoicing men is formed, the old colonel, now near four score years, is out near the head of the procession of red fire and dropping grease, ihappier than a king and dives over in one brief hour the great victories of fifty years ago, of which he was a part. On account of the “disturbance out of court,” 001. Hammond’s musical educations was neglected. He knows two tunes, however—Yankee Doodle—and all of the other tunes that are not Yankee Doodle he is unable to distinguish any difference between them. Since Judge Hammond commenced practice of law for the third or four time—in his present firm—his fame has vastly increased until he stands among the foremost of the great jurists and advocates of the nation. A few of his great cases are familiar to us, say the Turpie and Lowe case, the Grey case, the case of Ryan against Jasper county, the Newton County Court House case, the Moses Fowler Chase case, the Tom Marshall constitution case, the settlement of the Jane Hawkins’ estate, and the present Caldwell will case—all show such marked abiity and genius as that any one of them would make fame for an ordinary lawyer. A few years ago he was the senior counsel for the plaintiff in the Moses Fowler Chase case, which was tried in this place. It was among the great trials of the nation, the tragic story of the afflicted son, the worn out, disappointed father; the whereabouts of the son unknown. All seem to be lost. Yet the property was restored and the boy brought back to this county and placed in charge of his father. The victory in the Caldwell will case is largey a victory for Col. Hammond.. He wrote the interrogatories. He did not even consult the orators of the legal firms employed concerning them. He, with the assistance of Judge Isham, briefed the case. And the case was reversed on the showing of the evidence. It is a master piece in the law of the nation. Monday the colonel was sitting in his corner in the Earl & Hatchler block near the north light. His deep set gray eye was as full of life as ever, and his voice had the distinctness of old; his body, he ever had the crooked body of a student; but his hair was snow white like the Inside wood of spoke hickory. It is something to stand among the first in a nation as scholar, soldier, lawyer, jurist and cultured gentleman. All these honors Judge Hammond has won in schools and courts and camps and battle fields and held against all comers. Long may he live to. wear them modestly among us every day.