William Lewis Sharkey Biography - Mississippi Genealogy Trails

William Lewis Sharkey

Governors - Sharkey County - High Court of Errors & Appeals - Warren County

Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, by Dunbar Rowland, BS, LL.B, LL.D, Printed by Press of Hederman Bros., Jackson, Miss., 1935, pgs 87-92

William Lewis Sharkey, chief justice of Mississippi from 1832 to 1850, was born near the Mussell Shoals of the Holston River on the East Tennessee path from the Atlantic coast to the Natchez in the year 1797, at a period when the demand was being made upon the Spanish government for the surrender of Mississippi to the United States. He was of Irish ancestry, from which he inherited the characteristic wit and fortitude. His father, Patrick Sharkey, a native of Ireland immigrated to America with his brother Michael, who afterwards held the rank of captain under Washington. After the Revolution, Patrick Sharkey sought the Indian border along the Holston. He married the daughter of a German frontiersman, who bore him three sons: William Lewis, Jacob Rhodes, and James Elliott. William early developed great strength of character. Born amid the wild splendor of nature his life partook of the environments of his birth, commingling the quiet majesty of the river with the loftiness of the rugged mountains. In 1803 the Sharkey family migrated to the famed Natchez country and settled on a little farm, in what is at present Warren County, near the now extinct town of Warrenton, the first county seat. While yet a lad, William offered his services to the army, and participated in the battle of New Orleans. His parents, unable to stand the conditions of a new country, having died, quite early the boy was forced to provide for himself and orphaned brothers. By his own exertions he was enabled to attend college at Greenville, Tennessee, and later to read law at Lebanon. Having a decided taste for the profession of law he continued its study under Judge Edward Turner at Natchez. In 1822 he was admitted to the bar and opened an office at Warrenton in 1825. When the county seat was moved from that place to Vicksburg he located there and formed a partnership with John I. Guion. His education was not scholastic in the full meaning of the term, but possessing great native intellect and being an unwearying (sic) student his progress to fame was rapid, and he was soon recognized as the ablest lawyer at the Vicksburg bar.

His first public office was that of a member of the legislature, 1822-1829, when he was an influential member of the judiciary committee; he was afterwards elected circuit judge. In 1832 the second constitutional convention was held in Mississippi; the constitution adopted in 1817, in many respects, needed revision. One of the provisions of the new constitution was the establishment of a High Court of Errors and Appeals, the three judges to be elected by the people for a term of six years each, one of whom was to be chief justice. Judge Sharkey, though strongly opposed to an elective judiciary, claiming that the supreme judgeship should be above the whims and caprices of the people, was chosen on the three members of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. In that position he sternly opposed the poplar policy of repudiation of the Union Bank bonds. At the convention of the anti-repudiation party at Jackson, June, 1843, he would have been nominated for governor had it not been for an appeal from S. S. Prentiss, who declared that Judge Sharkey could not be spared from the bench at such time. He was associated during his first term on the supreme bench with Judge D. W. Wright and Cotesworth Pinckney Smith. These three being the first judges elected to this position by the sovereign vote of the people. Judge Sharkey’s associates chose him for chief justice, which high office he filled for four successful terms.

In 1849 a discussion of slavery agitated the minds of the people. Should slavery be allowed in the newly acquired territory on the Pacific, was the question of the hour. At a convention held in Jackson, Miss., in October, 1849, a call was issued for a convention of the Southern States to meet at Nashville, Tenn., in June of the following year. Judge Sharkey was chosen president of this convention. The distinguished jurist believed that he saw in the situation a question of equity between the states of the Union and stood by his convictions with a fine courage and commendable zeal. Referring to his attitude upon this occasion Foote says: “He evinced a mingled courage and wisdom that tended much to calm the excitement of that body and commanded the respect of all true lovers of their country.”

The political career of Judge Sharkey is a subject of great interest, and one which has in the past elicited much comment, favorable and adverse. Some have luded (sic) him highly as jurist and excoriated him as a politician. In political faith he was an old Line Whig, strictly adhering to its doctrine. As an accepted adherent of this party he was proferred (sic) a position in the cabinet of President Taylor in 1848, but declined the honor, preferring to remain on the supreme bench of Mississippi. He was a close personal friend of Henry Clay and warm advocated the political principles of the Great Pacificator. He was one of the distinguished coterie of Whig in Mississippi, William Yerger, and Alexander K. McClung were prominent leaders.

October 1, 1850, Judge Sharkey resigned from his office as chief justice and returned to the practice of law, locating for that purpose at Jackson. It has been said that he was moved to this step by pecuniary embarrassment growing out of the insufficient salaries at that time allowed the judiciary of the State. After retiring from the bench, he built a home on the plot of ground, now known as Poindexter Park, in the western portion of Jackson; and there in the society of his amiable wife, and cultured and brilliant adopted daughter, Fannie (later wife of Col. Charles E. Hooker), he spent the leisure and restful moments of his long and eventful career. He was not, however, permitted to remain in the seclusion of home enjoyments more than a few brief days at a time, but constantly called to the public service. It was about this time that he was invited by President Fillmore to serve as consul to Havana and adjust complications which had grown out of filibustering expeditions; but, finding that the emoluments of the position had been exaggerated he resigned and resumed his practice. “In the critical year of 1850, “says Foote, “he visited Washington City and was able to make many valuable suggestions to individual congressmen that tended tp pacify the rising storm of sectional strife.” He was at this time tendered by President Fillmore the office of secretary of war which he promptly declined, alleging his inexperience in such a public function, and leaving the capital hurriedly to avoid solicitation. In 1858 he exerted his powerful influence to prevent the adoption by the State of the policy of the Vicksburg Convention in favor of the re-opening of the African slave trade. He had long before construed the constitution of 1832 as absolutely prohibiting the importation of negro slaves into Mississippi as merchandise.

Thus, though not aggressive in an obnoxious sense of the term, we find him always a fearless thinker, who refused to enslave himself to public opinion. He was a man of decided personality and so attracted men and inspired them with confidence, that, in hours of necessity when a string man was wanted they chose him without thought of his private opinion or political bias. In personal appearance Judge Sharkey was a man of commanding and distinguished presence, with great personal dignity and sincerity of manner, and with the look of conscious power upon him. His career as a judge was marked by great common sense, sound judgment and a profound sense of justice. Though now what we call learned in the science of the law, his knowledge of it was extensive; his mental equipment was intensely legal, and he was quick to grasp the facts and apply the law. On the bench he was patient, kind, and attentive, and in the discharge

In 1854, under an act of the legislature, William L. Sharkey, William L. Harris, The work was completed and presented to the legislature in 1856; was adopted by that and a succeeding session and printed in 1857. In the matter of secession Judge Sharkey was a Unionist, though his loyalty and devotion to his State and section were never questioned. When Mississippi had returned to the Union it was under the counsel and leadership of the venerable and trusted personage that the people immediately reorganized their former government which was later summarily dethroned by military rule ordered by the Republican Party.

In 1865 Governor Clark appointed William L. Sharkey and William Yerger commissioners of the State to go to Washington to propose a method of reconstruction. After they had accepted the North Carolina plan, Judge Sharkey was appointed by President Johnson Provisional Governor of the State. Johnson and Sharkey were both the State of Tennessee, a circumstance which worked greatly in the latter’s favor. Governor Sharkey’s commission, however, was complicated and his position perplexing. His office was partly civic and partly military. General Osterhaus, commander of the Department of Mississippi was to cooperate with him in restoring and maintaining order in the State. Governor Sharkey was to receive a salary of $3,000 to be paid by the United States government, which he refused, saying that he would look to his people for compensation for his services. He came in conflict with the military authorities the first week of his incumbency, and the Jackson papers wished to know who was the governor, Sharkey, Slocum, or Osterhaus. The people of the State stood solidly with Governor Sharkey, and aided him in the performance of his duties to the extent of their ability. He issued a call for a constitutional convention to make the constitution of Mississippi accord with the existing constitution of the United States as the president had outlined. The convention was held, and was harmonious and orderly. Governor Sharkey and James L. Alcorn were chosen United States senators; but congress repudiated President Johnson’s plan of reconstruction and the senators-elect from Mississippi, along with those of the other Southern States, were refused seats in the Senate. Governor Sharkey accepted the defeat of his patriotic efforts in behalf of a restored Union with dignity, and resumed his practice at Jackson. He died in Washington City March 30, 1873. His remains were brought to Jackson and allowed to rest in state in the rotunda of the old capitol for the last honors of a sorrowing people. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery of Jackson and there was present at his funeral many distinguished men from all parts of the State. The resolutions of the supreme court, adopted May 19, 1873, referred to his life as one “made honorable and distinguished by great public service, which conferred enduring public benefit,” and recalled his integrity, firmness and independence; the mingled dignity and courtesy of his bearing on the bench; the simplicity, decorum and purity of his private life; his steadfast devotion to constitutional liberty and his pure and elevated patriotism.

The memorial in Morris’s State Cases classes Sharkey among the great lawyers who have been authors of the best precedents and continues, “Their acts are the precedents themselves, which grows brighter with receding years; and to them the advocate of the oppressed shall turn in ages to come and find encouragement and strength in the struggle for the right. It is upon such foundation that must forever rest the fame of a Hardwicke and a Mansfield. And upon it, with still more commanding consequence to those respectively concerned, must rest the claims of such men as John Marshall and William L. Sharkey.”