State

Volume VIII Number 34 THE STATE A Weekly Survey of North Carolina January 18 1941 EaMrod M Mwed'ClM* Jen» 1. >0*3, *1 Л, PorteSc* M lUteifb. Kortb C4»*llf>.. oed.r lb. AM of M.rch 8, 1*70. Justice Willi л B. Rodman He had a number of distinctions . . . eminent jurist, active soldier, successful merchant and at one time the largest landowner in North Carolina. Til К пн mo of Rodman has boon homo by generations of North Carolina lawyers for more than a hundred years; and three genera¬ tions of that name have been eminent, at the North Carolina Bar. .Judge Rodman's parents having died during his boyhood, he was raised under the tutelage of his grandfather. John Gray Blount. This grandfather was one of the outstanding men of his generation. As a soldier, he partici¬ pated in the battle fought against the Regulators on Great Alamance Creek; in limes of penre lie several times represented Beaufort in the General Assembly, lie was the largest merchant in Eastern Carolina, and by far the largest landowner in the state, holding large tracts of land in prac¬ tically every county, not only in North Carolina, but also in Tennes¬ see; so that it was said of him that he owned land from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. He was a brother of the better known William Blount, who was one of the North Carolina signers of the Federal Constitution ; and later Territorial Governor of Tennessee; and United States Senator from that Slate after it was admitted to the Union. Entered the University Judge Rodman entered the Univer¬ sity in 1832 at the early age of fifteen, and «u graduated in 1S36 with the highest honors of his class. He then studied law under the famous Judge By R. C. LAWRENCE William Gaston, and came to the Bar in 1838. Ho immediately entered upon the practice in his native town of Washington, where the calibre of his mental endowment was such that he rapidly rose to distinction in his pro¬ fession. appearing in practically every case of any importance tried in that section of the state. It was one of his peculiarities that he would not appear for the prosecution in a crim¬ inal ease, which I tliink shows his humanity rather than a peculiarity. По not only enjoyed an extensive practice throughout the eastern sec¬ tion of the state; but he wee one of Beaufort's largest landowners. His reputation as a lawyer was ‘Ueh that in 1853 he was named by the General Assembly as a member of a Commission to revise and codify the statute law of the state, his associates being Bartholomew F. Moore, then recognized ns the head of the legal profession of the state, and Judge Asa Biggs of Martin, who perhaps ranked next to Moore. The choice of Judge Rodman upon this Commission tes¬ tifies to his rank at the North Caro¬ lina Bar. He was never a politician in the ac¬ cept*^ sense of that term, but in I860 he did serve as a presidential elector upon the Breckenridge ticket ; and he also served as elector for the state at large when Jefferson Davie was elected as President of the Confed¬ eracy. Judge Rodman was an ardent advocate of the right of secession, and in the Fall of 1861 when his name was put forward as a candidate for Congress, he declined to permit his name to be used, saying: “But now. when a public enemy is at the thresh¬ old of the country in which I lire, T think it my duly to discard all other thoughts than that of joining my countrymen in taking tip arms to re¬ pel the invasion.” Raises Own Company The invasion to which he referred waa the expedition under General Burnside against Newborn. True to his convictions. Judge Rodman promptly raised a company of artil¬ lery in Beaufort of which he became Captain. This company took part in the defense of Newborn, and when that city was taken bv the enemy, the company took up a position at Kin¬ ston. At this point Judge Rodman was promoted to Major, and attached to the brigade of General I,. O’B. Branch as quartermaster. Am a mem¬ ber of the Branch brigade Rodman was now attached to the army of Northern Virginia, where he par¬ ticipated in the heavy battles fought at Mcchanicsville and other points in the vicinity of Richmond. In 1863, Judge Rodinnn was ap- (Conlinued on page twenty-two)