536 MCALLISTER, MATTHEW n. 



of thirty-five he was one of Jhe most promi- 

 nent and influential members of the Legisla- 

 ture of Georgia, and subsequently, for five suc- 

 cessive years, represented Savannah in the 

 State Senate, during which time, in the face 

 of a vigorous and persistent opposition, he 

 effected a radical and most beneficial change in 

 the judicial system of that State, by the estab- 

 lishment of the Court for the Correction of 

 Errors. In 1845 he became the Democratic 

 candidate for the governorship of Georgia, 

 and, though his party were in a hopeless mi- 

 nority, such was his personal popularity that 

 he was defeated only by a small vote, and, 

 three years afterwards, represented his native 

 State, as one of the delegates at large, in the 

 National Democratic Convention which nomi- 

 nated General Cass for the Presidency. On 

 the discovery of the mineral resources of the 

 Pacific, Mr. McAllister, at the age of fifty, with 

 a family consisting of a wife and six children, 

 some of whom were still dependent upon his 

 personal exertions, courageously abandoned 

 professional and political preferment, to venture 

 his fortunes amid the hardships and unparal- 

 leled energies of that distant coast. 



In 1855 he received from President Franklin 

 Pierce the appointment of United States Cir- 

 cuit Judge for the State of California. Titles 

 and claims were in a chaotic state throughout 

 that wealthy country. Mexican and English 

 law conflicted at many points; the deeds and 

 boundaries of estates were exposed to every 

 variety of trespass and chicanery ; mines of 

 untold wealth, the stoppage of which for a 

 single day involved thousands of dollars, were 

 subject to his injunction and adjudication ; and 

 the industry and fortunes of innumerable fami- 

 nes were dependent upon his firmness and 

 legal ability. His record speaks for itself ; his 

 decisions were reaffirmed and sustained at 

 Washington ; and thus, much of the prosperity 

 and happiness of California is due to the labors 

 and honesty of Judge McAllister, the first 

 United States Circuit Judge of the Pacific 

 Coast. His opinions have been published by 

 one of his sons. During his Judgeship there 

 arose the noted struggle between the citizens 

 of San Francisco and the State Courts; but 

 when an appeal was made to his authority, 

 and the Vigilance Committee had become ex- 

 aggerated beyond the intention of its origina- 

 tors, and continued to exist alone through fear 

 of the consequences from such a usurpation of 

 authority, it was disbanded by the judicious 

 firmness of Judge McAllister, who was cou- 

 rageously supported in his enforcement of re- 

 spect for the United States authority, by Ad- 

 miral Farragut, then Commander Farragut of 

 the Navy Yard at Mare ' Island, California. 

 Law and order were reestablished, and those 

 who were violent against the action of Judge 

 McAllister became his firm admirers. 



Judge McAllister received from Columbia 

 College, New York, the honorary degree of 

 Doctor of Laws at the same tune in which it 



McCARTEE, ROBERT. 



was conferred upon his brother-in-law, the 

 late Dr. John W. Francis, of New York. Dur- 

 ing his residence in California he contributed 

 largely toward the erection of a church edifice 

 in San Francisco, as he had previously cooper- 

 ated in the establishment of several churches 

 in his native State. Failing health compelled 

 him to resign his position as Circuit Judge in 

 1862, and from that time till his death he re- 

 mained in private life. Of Judge McAllister's 

 intellectual and moral qualities, it may be gen- 

 erally observed that he possessed in happy 

 combination the shrewd practical sense, the 

 keen analytical power, and the strong moral 

 feeling which characterized his Scottish ances- 

 try, and the fervid imagination and the chiv- 

 alrous honor which grow out of aristocratic 

 systems and ripen under tropical skies. His 

 learning was both' extensive and varied ; his 

 style, whether in speaking or in writing, clear 

 and rich ; and his language apt and precise. 

 His manners were of the old school, so courtly 

 and so gentle that they won for him affection 

 and commanded for him respect. He was 

 kind and generous to all with whom he came 

 in contact ; and young practitioners especially, 

 who in their early struggles are often checked 

 and wounded by the frosty patronage, the 

 trampling jealousy, or the stem severity of 

 their seniors, ever found in him a discriminat- 

 ing adviser and a sympathizing friend. His 

 published works were few fewer than they 

 should have been, with his high intellectual 

 power and his graceful and elegant style. A 

 " Eulogy on President Jackson," and a volume 

 of his legal opinions published by one of his 

 sons, are the principal monuments which re- 

 main of his intellectual labors and his untiring 

 mental industry. 



McCARTEE, Rev. ROBERT, D. D., an Ameri- 

 can Presbyterian clergyman, born in the city 

 of New York, September 30, 1791, died at 

 Yonkers, N. Y., March 12, 1865. His family 

 were of Scotch origin, and his father was a rul- 

 ing elder in the Scots Presbyterian Church of 

 which Dr. John M. Mason was the distinguished 

 pastor. Young McCartee, after a very thorough 

 course of preparation, entered Columbia Col- 

 lege, and graduated in the class of 1808, and 

 leaving college commenced the study of law, 

 and was in due time admitted to the New York 

 bar, where his intellectual and social qualities, 

 his close application to legal studies, and his 

 graceful eloquence, soon won him reputation, 

 and would in a -few years have given him a 

 leading position among the profession. After 

 two or three years of practice, however, having 

 become a professor of religion, he felt called 

 to give his talents and his life to the work 

 of the ministry, and accordingly entered the 

 Theological Seminary of the Associate Re- 

 formed Church in the city of New York, at the 

 head of which was his pastor, the Rev. John 

 M. Mason, D. D., then in the zenith of his great 

 reputation. He was licensed to preach in 

 April, 1816, and received calls from numerous 



