Alexander Beaufort Meek: Pioneer Alabama Lawyer and Literary Figure by Robert H

Alexander Beaufort Meek: Pioneer Alabama Lawyer and Literary Figure By Robert H. McKenzie* Writing in his comprehensive study, A Literary History of Al- abama: The Nineteenth Century, Benjamin B. Williams observed: Taken as a whole, the authors of Alabama's antebellum period were writers by avocation only. The familiar pattern of lawyer- politician, and its variations of lawyer-editor, lawyer-historian, and editor-politician, is found in the biography of nearly every pre-Civil War writer in Alabama. It was not until the fifties that writing became, in any sense, the sole pursuit of the author.' Indeed, one of Alabama's most distinguished historians, Thomas McAdory Owen, explained the lack of writers of consequence during Alabama's early years as due to its people's preoccupation with "material affairs," the settlement of a frontier. Alabama had been a state only forty-three years when the Civil War began; obviously its maturest citizens had then enjoyed little "leisure for purely literary work."a However, a lawyer who merits a more vibrant place in our historical consciousness for his pioneering literary efforts in the midst of a public career was Alexander Beaufort Meek (1814- 65).8His career is instructive both as to the potential contributions and probably limitations of combining public aspirations in the law and related fields with literary and cultural pursuits. Meek was graduated from the University of Alabama in 1833,

* Ph. D.; Research Fellow, Center for Public Law and Service; Associate Pro- fessor, New College, The University of Alabama. 1. B. WILLIAMS,A LITERARY HISTORY OF ALABAMA:THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 27 (1979). 2. T. OWEN,HISTORY OF ALABAMAAND DICTIONARYOF ALABAMA BIOGRAPHY 888 (1921). 3. Biographical sources for Meek are: H. NIXON,ALEXANDER BEAUPORT MEEK: POET,ORATOR, JOURNALIST, STATESMAN (1910); Ross, Alexander Beaufort Meek, 4 SEWANEEREV. 411-427 (1896); Figh, Alexander Beaufort Meek: Pioneer Man of Letters 2 ALA. HIST. Q. 127-151 (1940); and 12 A. MOORE,DICTIONARY OF AMERI- CAN BIOGRAPHY493 (1933). Unless otherwise noted, biographical information in this article is taken from these sources and from WILLIAMS,supra note 1. 162 The Journal of the Legal Profession

and read law in the office of Peter Martin of Tuscaloosa. Admitted to the bar in 1835, he also in that year became editor of Tusca- loosa's Democratic newspaper, The Flag of the Union. The next year, he volunteered for service as a noncommissioned officer in the Seminole War in Florida. Returning to Tuscaloosa, Meek was appointed by Governor Clement Comer Clay to be (at the age of twenty-three) attorney general of Alabama. In 1841, he published A Supplement to Aiken's Digest of Laws of Alabama. In 1842, he was appointed to fill out a term as probate judge of Tuscaloosa, but failed to secure election to succeed himself. After supporting James K. Polk for the presidency in 1844, Meek was designated to convey Alabama's electoral vote to Washington. He secured an appointment in the Federal Treasury Department for one year and then an appointment as federal attorney for the southern district of Alabama. This latter appointment carried him to Mobile, where he lived until 1863. After his appointment as federal attorney ex- pired in 1848, he became editor of the Mobile Register until 1853, when he won a seat in the state legislature. While in the legislature, he prepared the law establishing the state's public school system, a signal service to the future of Alabama. In 1854, he was appointed probate judge of Mobile County, but failed to win election to succeed himself. He devoted the next several years to literary endeavor and to a late marriage. In 1859, he was again elected to the state legislature, where he served as speaker of the house in both the regular session and the special session of 1861. As a con- servative Democrat, he was pro-Union and anti-abolitionist. He approached the secession crisis with gloomy reluctance and was a delegate to the pivotal 1860 Democratic Convention in Charleston. His wartime activities were limited. In 1862-63, he was a trustee of the University of Alabama. After the death of his first wife in 1863, he moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where he remarried. He died prematurely of heart trouble. Meek first established his reputation as an orator and literary correspondent in Tuscaloosa. On July 4, 1838, he delivered a blank verse oration at Tuscaloosa entitled The Day of Freedom, which was well received. The next year, he followed with his own literary journal, The Southron. For a brief period, this publication became the centerpiece of cultural activity in the young state capital. At the time of its founding, The Southron was one of but three literary magazines in the entire South. Like so many other publications that soon came into existence in the late 1830s and early 1840s as a Alexander Beaufort Meek 163 reflection of rising sectional consciousness, The Southron survived but a brief while-less than a year. The rapid failure of such literary endeavors was due to several causes-lack of contributors, general interest, and subscribers who paid in advance being most important. During the.period 1838 to 1844, Meek not only launched The Southron, but delivered five major orations (four of which were published), compiled a legal digest (previously mentioned), carried on a wide-ranging correspondence with literary figures elsewhere (especially William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina, the antebellum South's most renowned literary personage), kept his own extensive journals, and probably wrote his major poetic work, which was not published until 1855. The 1844 election of James K. Polk carried Meek, a Democrat, to Washington. Meek's literary efforts, apart from his correspondence, slowed. He did publish poems in the Washington, D.C., United States Journal and appeared as a banquet speaker on occasion. With the election of the military hero, Zachary Taylor, a Whig, Meek retired from public office to edit the Mobile Register and to polish a number of literary projects which had stagnated under the press of public life and his own self-admitted affinity for polite social amusements in Mobile society. In 1851, Meek delivered an oration at a reception for the Hun- garian revolutionist, Louis Kossuth, in Mobile. Earlier, Meek had welcomed American soldiers returning from the Mexican War to Mobile. He was oft in demand as an occasional speaker for such public events, his reputation as an orator often outshining his rank as an author among his contemporaries. The early years of the 1850s prompted Meek's most produc- tive literary period, resulting in the publication of his major works in the middle of the decade. In 1855, he published in New York and Mobile a long poem entitled Red Eagle, a romance of William Weatherford, the half-breed leader of the Creeks in the Indian War of 1813-14. Meek had long labored on this ambitious composi- tion of three cantos, mostly in tetrameter. He mentioned it fre- quently in his correspondence with William Gilmore Simms, the noted South Carolinian. The poem ran through six editions, and excerpts of it were published in various anthologies of southern literature into the early twentieth century. In 1857, Meek published Romantic Passages in Southwestern History and Songs and 164 The Journal of the Legal Profession

Poems of the South. Both were collections of previous orations and compositions, some of which would have no doubt been lost from public view had not Meek collected them in convenient one-vol- ume offerings. Romantic Passages also included a number of historical sketches. These resulted from Meek's intention to publish a history of Alabama. Meek worked on the project intermittently for many years, but was preempted in 1851 by Albert J. Pickett's His- tory of Alabama. By the time of the Civil War, Meek's literary career was ended, save for its reputation. Meek's literary efforts are well regarded but are not deemed of more than regional and historical significance. The noted literary scholar, Jay B. Hubbell, believed Red Eagle was "one of the best long narrative poems written in the South in the period" (but qualified even this judgment as "not high praise"). The poem con- tains noteworthy descriptions of nature (Meek's forte) and con- tains lyrics later set to music. One such segment is the song of the heroine to her warrior-lover prior to the historic attack on Fort Mims that began the Creek uprising: The Blue-bird is whistling in Hillibee grove,- Terra-re! Terra-re! His mate is repeating the tale of his love,- Terra-re! But never that song, As its notes fleet along, So sweet and so soft in its raptures can be, As thy low whispered words, young chieftain to me. Another of Meek's nature poems that has received favorable comment is "To a Mocking Bird," which begins: From the vale, what music ringing, Fills the bosom of the night; On the sense, entrances, flinging Spells of witchery and delight! O'er magnolia, lime and cedar, From yon locust-top, it swells, Like the chant of serenader, Or the rhymes of silver bells! Listen! dearest, listen to it! Sweeter sounds were never heard! 'Tis the song of that wild poet- Alexander Beaufort Meek

Mime and minstrel-Mocking-Bird4 The largest number of Meek's verses are addressed to women, with whom he was quite popular. The characteristics that made him an engaging orator-six feet four inches in height, a well-pro- portioned 240 pounds, pleasant disposition, and absolutely no lack of words and phrases for any occasion-also endeared him to the ladies. Many of these poems were set to music and enjoyed popu- larity. "The Rose of Alabama" was often sung by the youth of Mo- bile and later by Confederate troops in modified form. The opening lines are: I loved, in boyhood's happy time, When life was like a minstrel's rhyme, And cloudless as my native clime The Rose of Alabama Oh, lovely rose! The sweetest flower earth knows, Is the Rose of Alabama! Meek did not neglect his profession of law in his verses. "At the Bar Dinner" begins: Ye sons of Blackstone, Chitty, Coke, Of Marshall, Kent, and Story, Come join awhile in song and joke, In mirth and festive glory, Put by your summons, writs, and pleas, Your briefs and declarations, And for a season, take your ease In feastings and libations! One of Meek's most interesting poems is "Balaklava," unique for him in that the subject matter is not southern, not even Ameri- can. The opening lines provide a tone similar to Alfred Lord Ten- nyson's much more famous poem on the same subject: Oh, the charge at Balaklava! Oh, that rash and fatal charge! Never was a fiercer, braver, Than that charge at Balaklava, On the battle's bloody marge! All the day, the Russian Columns,- Fortress huge, and blazing banks,- 166 The Journal of the Legal Profession

Poured their dread destructive volumes On the French and English ranks- ...... On the gallant allied ranks Scarce six hundred men and horses Of those vast contending forces,- "England's lost! Oh, charge and save her- Charge the pass of Balaklava! Oh, that rash and fatal charge, On the battle's bloody marge!"

According to a newspaper article written in 1884 by Thomas C. McCorvey, long-time faculty member at the University of Ala- bama, the poem came about in the following fashion. Shortly after Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" appeared, Meek and a friend associated with the New Orleans Sunday Delta were in conversation about lack of appreciation for native Ameri- can literary talent. (This complaint was a recurring theme for Meek in his letters and orations.) The two agreed that Meek should write a poem concerning the Crimean War incident and that his friend would publish it in New Orleans under the name of a then popular Scotch poet, Alexander Smith, as a test of the pop- ularity it might gain. Whether this incident is true in all its hearsay details or whether the romantic Meek was motivated to write the poem by fascination with the dauntless action, as Tennyson had been, is hard to say. In any case, Meek's poem did appear under Smith's name for a time and endured as a schoolboy recitation piece for many years. The lightheartedness of such a caper would have been typical of Meek. Both his contemporaries and subsequent critics have faulted Meek not for his work but for his failure to achieve the potential, either in law or in literature, of which he appeared capa- ble. In 1858, Russell's Magazine complained that Meek had given too much to society and politics and not enough to literature, his real vocation. After extensive research, Alabama's most notable literary historian, Benjamin B. Williams concluded: Nowhere have I read words of opprobrium or even mild criticism of the personal and public life of Alexander Beaufort Meek. His severest critics have merely pointed out his indolence, while his friends and biographers have deplored his failure to apply his natural gifts for a greater and more enduring Alexander Beaufort Meek

fame.' These assertions may be a bit unfair. Meek to his own self was true, and few depart this life with such an almost unanimous judgment as that of his friend and minister, shared by most of Meek's acquaintances, that he was "the most lovable man I ever kne~."~ Hubbell, moreover, opines that Meek's slowness in polishing and publishing his major pieces may have been due less to indolence than to his own mature judgment that they were less worthy than his effusive friends believed. As his minister observed, "Literature to him was a recreation." Meek's true prowess, which his wide reading and literary amusements fueled, was that of orator. In his orations, Meek developed not only his literary theory but his opinions on such matters as the value of education. Over a period of twenty years, Meek presented addresses intended to pro- voke action in improving educational facilities, creating a native southern literature, preserving and recording the history of his state and region, and developing appreciation for the fine arts. He appealed to the pride of his listeners, not their intellect, which re- flected his grasp of the doable rather than the merely preferred. These efforts had at least two very tangible outcomes. In the literary arena, he developed insightful contributions to poetic theory in urging attention to native materials. In the public policy arena, his long acquaintance with the need for educational development came to fruition in establishing the public school system of the state. This tangible connection between literary interest and public policy is perhaps the best illustration of the importance of juxta- posing the two. The limitations are all too quickly noted by profes- sionals at either end of the pole. Hubbell, the literary scholar, for example, levys this final judgment on Meek: He was an amateur, as he was in everything he undertook. The amateur spirit is a fine thing in its place, but the great draw- back in ante-bellum Southern literature is that it is the work of talented amateurs who seldom gave to it the full devotion and tireless industry that characterize a writer like Edgar Allan Poe.'

5. WILLIAMS,supra note 1, at 54-55. 6. Address delivered at the funeral of Hon. Alexander B. Meek by the Rev. Phillip P. Neely, D.D., and Obituary Notices 3 (1866). 7. HUBBELL,supra note 4, at 268. 168 The Journal of the Legal Profession

Meek himself well stated the opposite opporbrium, asserting that society "held the man who cultivates literature and the fine arts, even to the slightest extent . . . unqualified for anything else." Clearly, neither Hubbell's judgment nor the attitude Meek criticized will do for effective advancement of society. A lesson the life of Meek has for us today is the admonition that supposed failure to reach the highest of either literary or political attainment should be no indictment against the combining of the two interests. The juxtaposition of the humanities and public policy are necessary for the well-being of society. Those individuals who can manage that alliance with merit to both interests deserve praise for a socially useful endeavor, not criticism for failure to scale the heights in either field. Clearly also, dilettantism is of little service; results do count-in both notable poetry and effective policy. If Meek's career illustrates the potential of combining law and literature for the benefit of policy, it also reflects some of the limitations. Meek undeniably supported the institution of human slavery. Society asks a great deal of any individual to step outside the bounds of one's own time and culture to inspect objectively the values one's legal structure protects, and Meek in this regard shared a widespread point of view in his time. Who knows what sins future generations will ascribe to us? Still, Ralph Waldo Emerson called the poet a "liberating God." In his essay on "American Law and the Literary Mind," written for the Commis- sion on Undergraduate Education in Law and the Humanities of the American Bar Association, Carl S. Smith noted that the persis- tence of such an outlook of Emerson-and of Thoreau and Whit- man--cannot be overestimated in the work of America's major literary figures. Whether or not they have used Emerson's appeal to "a higher law" on an issue such as slavery, the nation's most respected authors have always been penetrating critics of the le- gally constituted order and its maintainers and defenders? Meek, of course, fails on this high standard for literary stature, in a more basic way than for any misuses or weaknesses of form and technique. As a romantic-heavily influenced by Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, and the lesser-known Thomas Moore-Meek was more interested in the emotions his works elicited and as a

8. C. SMITH,American Law and the Literary Mind: An Essay in Law and American Literature, LAWAND AMERICANLITERATURE: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS 24 (1980). Alexander Beaufort Meek 169 classicist in the forms and images he could master than in substan- tive questions of human value. The subjects of many of his works are objects to be described, not meanings to be devined. When he did focus on value questions, he addressed personal values of a character ethic, not broader values for society as a whole. The tradition of combining law and literature has been rela- tively dormant in the United States for well over a hundred years, to the detriment of both a keen awareness of human values and the public policy that flows from that awareness. Carl Smith's analysis of the relationship of law and literature reveals nationally what the career of Meek says for Alabama: that lawyers greatly exceeded all other contributors to the literary efforts of the early republic. John Trumbell, Joel Barlow, Washington Irving, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Richard Henry Dana, Jr., all were practicing lawyers or had some kind of legal background. Many leading American legal figures of this time were avid students of Pope, Addison, Swift, and Johnson, and as eminent a jurist as Su- preme Court Justice Story of Massachusetts composed poetry. There was apparently no conflict between literature and law as callings. Dana authored Two Years Before the Mast a year before he published a manual on the law of the sea, The Seamen's Friend, in 1841.8 Smith further points out that the critical opportunities of nation- building drew many literary minds into the practical affairs of law. Literary pursuits could still be entertained as secondary interests. Indeed, the absence of strong copyright laws and an established literary public usually required a nonliterary vocation for economic reasons. By the late nineteenth century, different social, political, and economic conditions prevailed, and law and literature diverged to go their specialized ways, with only a few exceptions. Meek was of an earlier age and shared the limits of his culture, but he provides a model of the excitement of combining law and literature. He contributed positively to both fields, especially in his role of orator for the cause of education. His arguments for an education cultivating the capacity to. understand both the humanities

9. Id. at 30. 170 The Journal of the Legal Profession and public affairs was brought to fruition in founding Alabama's public school system, a prerequisite for democracy.