SC1896_FF1_130

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and the celebrated James G. Mitchell, Alias
Bladder-[shite?], was elected Judge. doubtless thro
the influence of Campbell & Turney. He was just
the man, they wanted on the bench, to try
Anderson. He was perhaps the strangest compound
of sense & nonsense, ever placed on a
bench. I have been told, he was pretty much self
taught, & had acquired a smattering of almost
every thing taught in the Common Schools of
the Country - was himself for some years a most
domineering pedagogue in the Mountains of
East Tenn, & his manners had been formed, while
thus engaged in the use of the rod & [prule?]
Being a most inveterate coward in the
presence of man, he was an intolerable tyrant,
where he had power; His person
was large being considerably upwords of six
feet in height, & he had persuaded himself
that he was not only a very great man, but
a very handsome one - his vanity & egotism
knew no bounds; He was fluent in conversation
& at times a good speaker at the bar
But he never failed to digress from
his subject to himself - & he was always the
hero of his own stories & speeches - I will not
do him the injustice to say that I have every reason
to believe, that he could have been bribed
with "silver" but such men, as Felix Grandy,
Thos. H. Fletcher, Wm. E. Anderson, & others who
defunded R. K. A. could bend him at will
by flattering his vanity. He could not stand
it - others governed him, thro' his fears - He
knew, for what purpose he was elected
a Circuit Judge & he to came to Winchester
to perform his part ,of which was doubtless
the clear & distinct understanding