MAJOR SQUIRE TURNER From a Portrait " - The Filson Historical ...

36 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 25tent in drafting laws, a qualification lacking in most law-makers.One such measure relieved litigants from the necessity of takingtheir witnesses from remote parts of the state to the Court ofAppeals at Frankfort. This had been an inconvenience towitnesses and a considerable expense to suitors. The new lawpermitted evidence to be placed on record in the inferior courtsand later certified to the Court of Appeals. sAnother undesirable law- made a_deed-or-mortgage-inCalidunless-a-seal o¥ fcroll-had been affixed to it. Turner had thisprovocative requirement removed from the statute. He alsodrafted and secured the enactment of a law affecting the inheritanceof property where the deceased had not made a will. Theold law permitted a child who had already received a full shareof his parent's estate to share equally with the other children, ifthe parent died intestate. The new law stopped this injustice.These three examples indicate the high quality of service thatSquire Turner rendered Kentucky as a legislator.During the twenties, thirties, and forties Turner practiced lawwith great success. Indeed his knowledge of jurisprudence andhis astute ability in pressing his cases to the advantage of hisclients won him an enviable position among the best barristers ofthe state. John Livingston's Biographical Sketches of EminentAmerican Lawyers, published in 1852, devotes much space to him.Since this work is contemporaneous, a few sentences might wellbe quoted from the forty-five-hundred-word eulogy:"During the long period that Mr. Turner had practiced hisprofession," says Livingston, "he has at one time or another comeinto competition with a large portion of the most distinguishedlawyers of the state. The bar of the county in which he resideshas, during all that period, been distinguished for ability andlearning.... There are William H. Caperton, Daniel Breck, JohnSpeed Smith, and other resident lawyers, besides a host who attendfrom other counties.... In every court in which he has practiced,he is distinguished by a thorough knowledge of the facts and lawof his cases, and an untiring vigilance in preparation for trial. ''•Livingston then compares Kentucky court scenes of that dayto the strategy and movements of opposing generals and armies."The practice in heavy jury trials," says he, "may be aptly comparedto the movements, marches and counter marches of twoopposing armies, where the commanding generals are each onthe lookout for the safety of his own men, and an opportunityto avail himself of a false movement or error of his adversary. Ineither position of general or advocate, knowledge, firmness, judg-