They did so with good reason, for he had quick and accurate judgment and a powerful will. Mr. Ricks, now of Massilon, Ohio, in his address at a meeting of the bar of northern Ohio, held at Cleveland, Ohio, April 6, 1886, concerning the recent death of the Hon. John Baxter, of the U. S. Circuit Court, related some interesting incidents in the Judge’s personal history during the civil war. “No one of all the famous Union men of that conspicuously loyal section, (East Tennessee,) was more fearless, consistent or aggressive in the struggle against secession than our departed friend. He was a leader in the historic Union Convention of 1861, which held its session, planning open opposition to the Confederacy, while rebel regiments by the train load, destined for Virginia, were passing by within hailing distance. Johnson, Maynard, Brownlow, Nelson and Baxter were the leading spirits in its deliberations. “Although the disposition of many members of that convention to make organized armed resistance at once, and to put Baxter in command of the forces was not approved by his knowledge of the environment, he was recommended from Greeneville to President Lincoln for a Brigadier General’s commission in the army. This honor was tendered, but for satisfactory reasons was declined. “In 1862, while on professional business at Memphis, he was arrested by the Confederate military authorities and confined to prison sixteen days, refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, but finally, he was unconditionally released. “In 1861, he defended three Union men[66] before a Confederate Military Commission. They were charged with having burned railroad bridges in aid of the Union cause. He argued against the jurisdiction of the tribunal, contending that so long as the civil courts were open and the due course of legal proceedings was uninterrupted, the citizens arraigned were entitled to a trial by jury, after indictment by a grand jury, a doctrine long afterwards affirmed by the Supreme Court, in the Milligan case. “In 1862, a gallant band of Ohio soldiers, known as the Mitchell raiders, who, in a lawful military expedition, had seized some engines and cars and run them towards the Federal lines, were captured and tried before a court-martial as spies. Baxter volunteered to defend them and made a fearless argument for them before the court-martial at Knoxville, urging that they were not spies engaged in a sneaking expedition, but that taking the risks of war, they had made an open venture as soldiers under legitimate military orders, and were entitled to be treated as prisoners of war, subject to exchange, &c. But the spirit of animosity was then so great, that the argument of the Union lawyer was of no avail, and seven of the brave men were shot as spies, while five others escaped during the excitement of a retreat. One of them is now a prominent Methodist clergyman of this State.