) Idixuc. Miinnoy, 



■ •■J. Joliti IM. Angel, 



33 John Gillespif, 



84 Ju!se[tli ChamlxTs, 



35 John Tloward, 



3() Jhi-oh Siler. 



This venire was composed of typ- 

 ical and rcpivseiiUtive men i>f the 

 early population of Macon County. 

 It would he hard to find an abler 

 hody of jiinjrs, even now, in any 

 county in ihe State. It i." inu- they 

 were a style of men different from 

 the present edition. They werv. men 

 of sound minds, of X}]}- strictest in- 

 tegrity, picifoundly impressed with 

 the ohiitrations of l.nv and ju.stice 

 and for old fashioned courtly deport- 

 ment one towards another, and for 

 manly bearing in the dischari,'e of 

 their duties u.s conservniors of pu'dic 

 j>eace and justice, they have no su- 

 periors at the present day. Many 

 of them came to the years of man- 

 hood in and about the close (»f the 

 lievolutionary war which achieved 

 An:erican independence — at a time 

 and under conditions that "tried 

 men's souls'' and when "the survival 

 of the fittest" gave to us a race of 

 men brave, true and thoroughly 

 impregnated with a love for those 

 rights and that justice which cost 

 so greut a price of blood, 'i'hat love 

 was. quickened and intensified by 

 the war ot 1812 when the mother 

 'ountry, for the second time, attemp- 

 ted, to enslave freemen and levy un- 

 just tribute upon this grand and 

 )>roduclivf country of ours-. Is it 



any wonder that men raised in such 

 times and familiar with ih*- heroeM 

 wht) slaked their aU on the struggle 

 against opj»rcs-iiou .ind injustice 

 should be cminf'utly fpjalitifd to try 

 all legal disputes bfiwcm their com- 

 peers and mete out justi 

 vii»latei*8 t>f the code? 



I have a distinct recoliecti«>n o5 

 many of thr members of that jury. 

 They would compare favorably with 

 any similar l)ody of men, then or 

 now. In stature they were al)Ove 

 the ordinary juryman and were de- 

 cidedly maidy in a]>pearance with a 

 bearing expressive of finnnoss and 

 a will to do the ri<rhl. They Mere 

 verv affable gentlemen ;ifid well 

 read for men of their limes. In fact, 

 they constituted a brotherhood of pa- 

 triots who loved and labored for 

 their country's honor and their coun- 

 try's good. Tiiis constitutes the 

 highest type of citizenship for a 

 commonwealth. Such obedience to 

 law and order — such devotion to the 

 public good — such fidelity to public 

 trust and such unity of action and 

 purpose in behalf of the well-being 

 of the whole as characterized those 

 men furnish a guarantee of a pros- 

 perous and happy people. 



At that first court for Macon (^oini 

 ty the court appointed the* following 

 named persons commissioners whose 

 du'iy it shfudd be to draft plans and 

 specifications for a court house and 

 jail for the county of Macon and di- 

 recting them to advertise the letting 

 out the same to the lowest bidder at 



