| Notes |
- Haskell Journal
Issue 24
Fall 1989
Some descendants of James and Joshua Haskell of Tennessee and Kentucky
Contributed by William Earl Haskell
Joshua migrated to Tennesse shortly before the War of 1812 in which he served as a lieutenant and forage master in Coffee's Regiment of Cavalry and Mounted Gunmen. He was living in Murphreesboro, TN in 1820. The following year when the Circuit Court of Madison County was established, his commission was issued 14 November 1821 and held his first court session 14 April 1822. He lived on Haskell Hill in the town of Jackson and was by all accounts, an interesting character.
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Newsletter of the Haskell Family Society
Volume 8, No. 1, March 1999
FRONTIER JUSTICE AND THE IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE JOSHUA HASKELL
The eighth impeachment in the history of the State of Tennessee was against Judge Joshua Haskell. It began in the year 1829 and ended in 1831.
Joshua Haskell was born 9 April 1786 in faraway Providence, Rhode Island, son of Samuel and Mary "Polly" (Turner) Haskell of Gloucester and Wrentham, Massachusetts, later of Rhode Island. Joshua studied law and migrated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1811. At the outbreak of the Creek Indian War in 1813, at age 27, he volunteered for the army and served with honour in General Coffee's Brigade of Cavalry and Mounted Gunmen.
In 1811 Indian Chief Tecumseh had sought the support of the Creek Indians for his confederacy, leading to uprisings against white settlements in Alabama. War began when the Indians attacked Fort Mims on the banks of the Alabama River, about 35 miles north of Mobile. They massacred 250 of the 550 persons in the fort and many others were burned to death. When the news reached Nashville, Major General Andrew Jackson of the Tennessee Militia issued a call for 2000 volunteers. Although units formed in Georgia and Mississippi as well, the Tennesseans fought all major engagements and Tennessee became, and is still, known as the "Volunteer State."
Both sides suffered heavy losses until the spring of 1814 when an attack by the combined forces of Generals Jackson and Coffee brought the Indians to defeat. On 9 August 1814 the Treaty of Fort Jackson, signed by both parties, ceded two-thirds of the Creeks’ land to the U. S.
After Joshua Haskell was mustered out of service, he returned to Murfreesboro and his law practice. He became a well-respected lawyer and a popular man in the community, numbering such influential frontiersmen as Daniel Boone (1734-1820) and Davey Crockett (1786-1836) among his friends. In 1821 Lawyer Haskell was appointed judge of the newly created Eighth Circuit Court in Madison County and moved to Jackson to assume this new responsibility. He very soon earned a reputation as the "judge who got things done", trying on one occasion forty cases in seven days before taking a half day's respite. Indeed, on 10 December 1821 the Jackson newspaper, Southern Statesman, described him as one who dispatched much business, in a manner reflecting the highest degree of credit to "his honour, Judge Haskell, in his promptitude and the ability with which he discharges the duties of the bench."
In 1829 all friends of the judge, in legal circles as well as in other walks of life, were shocked to learn that Judge Joshua Haskell faced impeachment by the lower house of the Tennessee State Legislature. Due to persistent rumours that Judge Haskell had been particularly neglectful, careless and undignified in the performance of his official duties, on 2 December 1829 a Mr. Overton introduced a resolution calling for an inquiry into his official conduct.
The resolution was adopted without the formality of a roll call, and eleven members, an unusually large number from a legislative body of only forty, were appointed to conduct the investigation. On 9 December 1829 the committee reported that, in its opinion, derived from testimony taken by the committee, "Joshua Haskell has so acted in his judicial capacity as to require the interposition of the constitutional powers of this House." The full House agreed with the committee's recommendation and on the following day notified the Senate of its decision.
On 24 December 1829 the Senate resolved itself into a court for impeachment, as was the Tennessee practice. Two articles were exhibited, in brief alleging:
I. That Haskell has been negligent in his official duties in that he has failed faithfully to hear, superintend and attend to the taking of testimony in judicial trials, and that he has habitually deserted the bench, leaving the trial to proceed without the directing aid of a judge, to the great damage of justice within his district; and specific allegations of this charge are set forth in the· following eleven separate specification
(There followed eleven instances of alleged neglect and negligence between 16 April 1828 and 15 May 1829 in trials for four murders, horse stealing, perjury, theft, slave stealing, and counterfeiting.)
II, That he negligently and illegally omitted, failed and refused to have and to hear read in open court the minutes of courts in which he has presided as judge, signed them as records of said courts, without having and hearing them read, and without knowing whether they were true or false.
(Two instances, one each in 1828 and 1829, were cited to support Article II.)
Attorney Pleasant M. Miller ably defended Judge Haskell, and numerous prominent men from his home town of Jackson, Tennessee, as well as elsewhere, concurred in finding him in all his social relations humane, kind, generous, hospitable and, in the language of Governor Carroll, "possessing some of the finest feelings of the human heart."
It was not a question of honour and character, however, but of whether the judge had the right to leave the courtroom for various reasons during a term of court, according to some witnesses for up to two hours. Most witnesses agreed the judge left the bench when perhaps he should not have done so, but could not agree on how long or how far away he was, nor for what purpose. One testified the judge once went to look at a horse, another that he had been seen at a stall selling cakes and cider. One said he had gone to eat a watermelon in the yard, adding that the house where court was held was very uncomfortable, as when court was not in session, it was occupied by hogs and therefore infested with fleas!
In one of the shortest answers to an impeachment on record Judge Haskell declared himself innocent of any impeachable offence. In just 200 words he denied generally and specifically the accuracy of all allegations against him.
The Senate acquitted Judge Haskell by a very close margin, with nearly tied votes on three specifications. However, the judge was embarrassed and afterwards paid very close attention- to the dignity and proprieties of his office. That he served justice efficiently in his later years was shown by the great respect and goodwill the people of his district demonstrated when he retired in 1835. The Nashville Union saw fit to quote from the Jackson Truth Teller that "his friends considered Judge Joshua Haskell had through his ability, philanthropy, hospitality and other admirable qualities rendered himself worthy of their highest confidence and warmest affections."
Joshua Haskell married Nancy Ready in 1813 and they had eight children.
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1786 - 1839 (53 years)
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