The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 5, May, 1884 | Page 2

Arthur. The firm had numerous clients, and the junior

partner soon became a successful practitioner, uniting to a thorough
knowledge of the law a vigorous understanding and an untiring
industry which gained for him an enviable reputation.
Among other cases on the docket of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, was
one known as the Lemon slave-case. A Virginian named Jonathan
Lemon undertook to take eight slaves to Texas on steamers, by the way
of New York. While in that city a writ of habeas corpus was issued,
and the slaves were brought into the court before Judge Elijah Paine;
Mr. Culver and John Jay appearing for the slaves, while H.D. Lapaugh
and Henry L. Clifton were retained by Lemon. Judge Paine, after
hearing long arguments, declared that the fugitive slave law did not
apply to slaves who were brought by their masters into a free State, and
he ordered their release. The Legislature of Virginia directed the
attorney-general of that State to employ counsel to appeal from Judge
Paine's decision to the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Mr.
Arthur, who was the attorney of record in the case for the people, went
to Albany, and after earnest efforts procured the passage of a joint
resolution, requesting the governor to employ counsel to defend the
interests of the State. Attorney-General Hoffman, E.D. Culver, and
Joseph Blunt were appointed by the governor as counsel, and Mr.
Arthur as the State's attorney. The Supreme Court sustained Judge
Paine's decision. The slave-holder, unwilling to lose his "property,"
then engaged Charles O'Conor to argue the case before the State Court
of Appeals. There the counsel for the State were again successful in
defending the decision of Judge Paine, and from that day no
slave-holder dared to bring his slaves into the city of New York.
Mr. Arthur, who had naturally taken a prominent part in this case, was
regarded by the colored people of New York as a champion of their
interests, and it was not long before they sought his aid. At that time,
colored people were not permitted to ride in the street-cars in New
York City, with the exception of a few old and shabby cars set aside for
their occupation. The Fourth-avenue line permitted them to ride when
no other passenger made objection.
One Sunday, in 1855, Lizzie Jennings, a colored woman, returning

from having fulfilled her duties as superintendent of a colored
Sunday-school, entered a Fourth-avenue car, and the conductor took
her fare. Soon after, a drunken white man objected to her presence, and
insisted that she be made to leave the car. The conductor pulled the bell,
and when the car stopped, told her that she must get out, offering to
return her fare. She refused, and the conductor then offered to put her
off by force. She made vigorous resistance, exclaiming: "I have paid
my fare, and I have a right to ride." Finally, the conductor called in
several policemen, and, by their joint efforts, she was removed from the
car, her clothing having nearly all been torn from her in the struggle.
When the leading colored people of the city heard of this, they sent a
committee to the office of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, and requested
them to make it a test case.
Mr. Arthur brought suit against the railroad company for Miss Jennings,
in the Supreme Court, at Brooklyn. The case came on for trial before
Judge Rockwell, who then sat upon the bench there. He had just
decided, in a previous case, that a corporation was not liable for the
wrongful acts of its agent or servant, and when Mr. Arthur handed him
the pleadings, he said that the railroad company was not liable, and was
about to order a nonsuit. Mr. Arthur called his attention, however, to a
recently revised section of the Revised Statutes, making certain railroad
corporations which carried passengers liable for the acts of their
conductors and drivers, whether wilful or negligent, under which the
action had been brought. The judge was silenced, the case was tried,
and the jury rendered a verdict of five hundred dollars damages in favor
of the colored woman. The railroad company paid the money without
further contest, and issued orders to its conductors to permit colored
people to ride in its cars, an example that was followed by all the other
street railroads in New York. The colored people, especially "The
Colored People's Legal Rights Association," were very grateful to Mr.
Arthur, and for years afterward they celebrated the anniversary of the
day on which he won the case that asserted their rights in public
conveyances.
When a lad, young Arthur had always taken a great interest in politics,
and it is related of him that during the Clay-Polk campaign of 1844,

while he and