Mississippi College School of Law

Evans, Jessie L.

English

Commercial Law Priorities under UCC 9-310 Relinquishing and Regaining Possession of Reparied Equipment - Thorp Commercial Corporation v. Mississippi Road Supply

Holmes, H. T.

Mississippi College Law Review 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 9 
6-1-1978 
Defender of the Faith, The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875 
by Meredith Lang 
H. T. Holmes 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.law.mc.edu/lawreview 
 Part of the Law Commons 
Custom Citation 
1 Miss. C. L. Rev. 109 (1978-1980) 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by MC Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Mississippi College Law Review by an authorized editor of MC Law Digital Commons. For more 
information, please contact walter@mc.edu. 
BOOK REVIEW
Defender of the Faith: The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875. By
Meredith Lang. * Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississip-
pi, 1977. Pp. vii, 176. $10.00.
Reviewed by H. T. Holmes**
The role exercised by a state appellate court in shaping and mirror-
ing the growth of social structure and attitude is described in Meredith
Lang's Defender of the Faith: The High Court of Mississippi,
1817-1875. In recounting the history of the High Court of Mississip-
pi, Dr. Lang provides a contemplative account of the manner in which
Mississippi's highest appellate court from 1817 to 1860 played its role
in the developing constitutional crisis that resulted in civil war. For
the general reader of Mississippi History, the role of the Mississippi
judiciary in shaping anti-unionist sentiment in the state prior to 1860
has been ignored for the more dramatic utterances made by the state's
politicians of the time; it is good to be reminded of the significant role
that the High Court of Mississippi played in the development of
Mississippi political philosophy in the nineteenth century.
The makeup of the High Court varied during this time according
to the constitution then in force. Under the Constitution of 1817, the
judicial power of the state was vested in one Supreme Court and such
superior and inferior courts of law and equity as the legislature may
from time to time direct. The Constitution of 1832 changed the
Supreme Court to the High Court of Errors and Appeals, composed
of three judges serving staggered six year terms. The High Court con-
vened twice each year at a place directed by the legislature until 1836,
after which it met at the seat of government. The Constitution of
1861 made no change in the High Court, and the Constitution of 1865
was merely a restoration of the 1832 Constitution with required
amendments. The 1869 Constitution changed the name back to
Supreme Court and directed that it consist of three judges appointed
by the governor for nine year terms.
Lang's review of the history of this court is not a detailed account-
ing, but a selective scholarly review of certain issues the court address-
ed itself to throughout the period. It is Lang's contention that the
tenor of the court's philosophy can be illustrated by judicial action in
these areas: federal-state relations, contracts, criminal justice and
manumission. The study is concluded with a description of the
judicial chaos following the union victory of 1865 and of the court's
ultimate turn-around in philosophy.
*Professor, New York Law School. B.A. Ohio State, 1926; M.A. Radcliffe, 1950;
J.D. Georgetown, 1960; Ph.D. Harvard (under name of Irma M. Lang), 1972.
"Historian, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 1:109
Basic to this study is the contention that the High Court sought at
all times to balance its adjudication between the national creed and the
basic beliefs of Mississippi society. In much of the adjudication,
slavery was the central issue, whether it was a point in litigation or
not. In her study of the High Court's approach to a philosophy of
government, Lang recites the case histories that led to the ultimate
position taken by the court, reflected by the secession of Mississippi
from the Union in 1861, that the people's sovereign will rested in the
state, and the state, therefore, had the power to abolish its compact
with the other states. Evidence of popular and political support for
this position is presented through the statements and positions of con-
temporary political leaders, among them, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson
Davis and John A. Quitman.
In her discussion of the High Court's approach to contract law,
Lang finds an interesting stand-off between the Mississippi High
Court and the United States Supreme Court. Indeed, one of the
fascinating aspects of this study is the unyielding stance the High
Court often took in relation to Supreme Court decisions. Lang
generously illustrates the manner and method by which the High
Court subverted the decrees of the United States Supreme Court.
A positive picture is painted of the High Court prior to the period
of the war in the area of criminal justice, and Lang has fine praise for
the court's rulings in this area:
The High Court of Mississippi maintained in the area of criminal
law such a dignity of stance and nobility of spirit that the ante-bellum
court seems to emerge as a knighted institution in search of the Holy
Grail of justice .... Unaided by any national criteria for measuring the
specific content of justice or the elements of a fair trial, the Mississippi
High Court found its answer after searching its own conscience and ex-
ploring the primary value of individual human dignity upon which the
nation was founded. It was truly a court for all times.
Unfortunately, such a lofty sentiment does not hold true for all
areas into which the court delved, and, Lang asserts, manumission
was the nadir of the court's respectability. The court's attitude
toward slavery and manumission, though somewhat soft in the very
early years, quickly hardened into a stern attitude that remained the
official position for most of its years. This attitude so infected the
thinking of the court that, by 1859, Lang says, "Any emancipation ac-
commodation was anathema, and the explosive character of the High
Court's response merely testified to the loathsomeness of the idea in
the minds of three men who had ceased deporting themselves like
justices."
It is in the discussion of the High Court and manumission that the
relationship between justice and public demand is especially
highlighted. Unfortunately, Lang poses more questions than she
BOOK REVIEW
answers about the shaping role that the judiciary actually played in
developing and strengthening the political philosophy of Mississippi
as it was espoused by political leaders of the time. Without delving
into the personalities of the justices, Lang illustrates well the hair-line
interpretations the court found itself making in its attempt to protect
the Mississippi social structure and yet maintain its dignity as a high
court.
A brief glance is given to the status and function of the court in the
post war era through 1875. Here Lang suggests the principal activities
of the court were determining the status of state laws passed during
the Confederacy and interpreting Mississippi's post war relationship
to the federal union. Gone were the days of the court's magnificence
and high-mindedness; the court focused its attention on the re-
establishment of Mississippi out of its political ruins.
In the concluding chapter of this study, Lang offers some after-
thoughts on the material she has presented, posing some "What if?"
questions and finding that her basic premise still holds, i.e., "the high
court was a legal-political institution functioning in a philosophically
deviant state." It is only in this last chapter that Dr. Lang begins to
mention justices by name and to speculate on the influence of personal
philosophy on the court's decisions. Although Dr. Lang makes a suc-
cessful presentation of her theses based almost entirely on case study,
the question begs to be asked if her work would not have been
stronger had she devoted some of her explication to the persons and
personalities that occupied the seats on the High Court from 1817 to
1875.
Regardless, Dr. Lang is to be commended for her study on the
history of Mississippi appellate court; she has done a fine job in point-
ing out the role of the judiciary in the developing constitutional crisis
of the first half of the nineteenth century. It is to be hoped that the
judicial role in the shaping of the social-political climate of Mississippi
will be further analyzed and delineated using Defender of the Faith as
the starting point.
1978]



Defender of the Faith, The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875 by Meredith Lang

Summer, A. F.

LeSieur, Scherry J.

Attorney General Opinions

LAW, MC

Mississippi College Law Review 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 10 
6-1-1978 
Table of Contents 
MC LAW 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.law.mc.edu/lawreview 
Custom Citation 
1 Miss. C. L. Rev. [iii] (1978-1980) 
This Table of Contents is brought to you for free and open access by MC Law Digital Commons. It has been 
accepted for inclusion in Mississippi College Law Review by an authorized editor of MC Law Digital Commons. For 
more information, please contact walter@mc.edu. 
MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE
LAW REVIEW
VOLUME1 JUNE1978 NuMBER I
@ 1978 by Miss Collee School of Law Miss. College Law Review.
CONTENTS
ARTICLES
United States v. Janis: Demise Of
The Exclusionary Rule And
Reinstatement Of The "Silver
Platter" Doctrine In Federal
Civil Tax Cases . ..... .. Charles P.
Standard Life Insurance Com-
pany of Indiana v. Veal: A Per-
spective Look At Punitive
Damages In Mississippi John Edwd
COMMENT
Mississippi Administrative
Agencies: Should They Be.
Allowed To Fine Rule Viola-
tors, Or Must Administrative
Power Remain "All Or
Nothing?" . .........
NOTES
Title VII - Religious Discrimi-
nation More Than De Minimus
Cost In Accommodating
Employee's Religious Needs Is
An Undue Hardship To
Employer: Trans World Airlines
v. Hardison ......
The Good Faith Purchaser And
The Superior Equities
Doctrine: Allstate JIsurance
Company v. Estes ........
Quarterman
ard Hughes, III 20
. 32
. . . . . . . . 42
. . . . . . . . . . 54
Mississippi College Law Review
Cite As
I Miss. C. L. Rev. 1 (1978).
"Except as otherwise expressly provided, the author of each article in this volume has granted per-
mission for copies of that article to be made for classroom use in any school of law, provided that
I) copies are distributed at or below cost, 2) author and journal are identified and 3) proper notice
of copyright is affixed to each copy."
Commercial Law-Priorities
Under UCC 9-310 Relinquish-
ing And Regaining Posses-
sion Of Repaired Equipment:
Thorp Commercial Corpora-
tion v. Mississippi Road
Supply ........ .................. 66
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINIONS ........ ....... .. 76
BOOK REVIEW
Lang: Defender of the Faith:
The High Court Of Mississippi,
1817-1875 .. ...... H. T. Holmes . . . . 107
JUDGE E. A. TURNAGE

DEDICATION
I think Judge E. A. Turnage is the proper person to be honored by
dedication of the inaugural issue of the Mississippi College Law
Review. He has contributed greatly to the advancement of legal
education at Mississippi College Law School and is also a leader in
other fields in Mississippi, government and defense.
He has served-as County Attorney, Legislator of Lawrence Coun-
ty, as well as being the Mayor of Monticello, the county seat. He is a
former Judge of the Thirteenth Chancery Court District and in addi-
tion has served as Mississippi Adjutant General.
It is my pleasure to salute the Mississippi College Law Review in its
choice of the dedication of its first issue to Honorable E. A. Turnage.
NEVILLE PATTERSON, Chief Justice
Mississippi Supreme Court



Hughes, John Edward, III

Standard Life Insurance Company of Indiana v. Veal: A Perspective Look at Punitive Damages in Mississippi

Mississippi College Law Review 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 18 
6-1-1978 
Defender of the Faith, The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875 
by Meredith Lang 
H. T. Holmes 
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.law.mc.edu/lawreview 
Custom Citation 
1 Miss. C. L. Rev. 109 (1978-1980) 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by MC Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted 
for inclusion in Mississippi College Law Review by an authorized editor of MC Law Digital Commons. For more 
information, please contact walter@mc.edu. 
BOOK REVIEW
Defender of the Faith: The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875. By
Meredith Lang. * Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississip-
pi, 1977. Pp. vii, 176. $10.00.
Reviewed by H. T. Holmes**
The role exercised by a state appellate court in shaping and mirror-
ing the growth of social structure and attitude is described in Meredith
Lang's Defender of the Faith: The High Court of Mississippi,
1817-1875. In recounting the history of the High Court of Mississip-
pi, Dr. Lang provides a contemplative account of the manner in which
Mississippi's highest appellate court from 1817 to 1860 played its role
in the developing constitutional crisis that resulted in civil war. For
the general reader of Mississippi History, the role of the Mississippi
judiciary in shaping anti-unionist sentiment in the state prior to 1860
has been ignored for the more dramatic utterances made by the state's
politicians of the time; it is good to be reminded of the significant role
that the High Court of Mississippi played in the development of
Mississippi political philosophy in the nineteenth century.
The makeup of the High Court varied during this time according
to the constitution then in force. Under the Constitution of 1817, the
judicial power of the state was vested in one Supreme Court and such
superior and inferior courts of law and equity as the legislature may
from time to time direct. The Constitution of 1832 changed the
Supreme Court to the High Court of Errors and Appeals, composed
of three judges serving staggered six year terms. The High Court con-
vened twice each year at a place directed by the legislature until 1836,
after which it met at the seat of government. The Constitution of
1861 made no change in the High Court, and the Constitution of 1865
was merely a restoration of the 1832 Constitution with required
amendments. The 1869 Constitution changed the name back to
Supreme Court and directed that it consist of three judges appointed
by the governor for nine year terms.
Lang's review of the history of this court is not a detailed account-
ing, but a selective scholarly review of certain issues the court address-
ed itself to throughout the period. It is Lang's contention that the
tenor of the court's philosophy can be illustrated by judicial action in
these areas: federal-state relations, contracts, criminal justice and
manumission. The study is concluded with a description of the
judicial chaos following the union victory of 1865 and of the court's
ultimate turn-around in philosophy.
*Professor, New York Law School. B.A. Ohio State, 1926; M.A. Radcliffe, 1950;
J.D. Georgetown, 1960; Ph.D. Harvard (under name of Irma M. Lang), 1972.
"Historian, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 1:109
Basic to this study is the contention that the High Court sought at
all times to balance its adjudication between the national creed and the
basic beliefs of Mississippi society. In much of the adjudication,
slavery was the central issue, whether it was a point in litigation or
not. In her study of the High Court's approach to a philosophy of
government, Lang recites the case histories that led to the ultimate
position taken by the court, reflected by the secession of Mississippi
from the Union in 1861, that the people's sovereign will rested in the
state, and the state, therefore, had the power to abolish its compact
with the other states. Evidence of popular and political support for
this position is presented through the statements and positions of con-
temporary political leaders, among them, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson
Davis and John A. Quitman.
In her discussion of the High Court's approach to contract law,
Lang finds an interesting stand-off between the Mississippi High
Court and the United States Supreme Court. Indeed, one of the
fascinating aspects of this study is the unyielding stance the High
Court often took in relation to Supreme Court decisions. Lang
generously illustrates the manner and method by which the High
Court subverted the decrees of the United States Supreme Court.
A positive picture is painted of the High Court prior to the period
of the war in the area of criminal justice, and Lang has fine praise for
the court's rulings in this area:
The High Court of Mississippi maintained in the area of criminal
law such a dignity of stance and nobility of spirit that the ante-bellum
court seems to emerge as a knighted institution in search of the Holy
Grail of justice .... Unaided by any national criteria for measuring the
specific content of justice or the elements of a fair trial, the Mississippi
High Court found its answer after searching its own conscience and ex-
ploring the primary value of individual human dignity upon which the
nation was founded. It was truly a court for all times.
Unfortunately, such a lofty sentiment does not hold true for all
areas into which the court delved, and, Lang asserts, manumission
was the nadir of the court's respectability. The court's attitude
toward slavery and manumission, though somewhat soft in the very
early years, quickly hardened into a stern attitude that remained the
official position for most of its years. This attitude so infected the
thinking of the court that, by 1859, Lang says, "Any emancipation ac-
commodation was anathema, and the explosive character of the High
Court's response merely testified to the loathsomeness of the idea in
the minds of three men who had ceased deporting themselves like
justices."
It is in the discussion of the High Court and manumission that the
relationship between justice and public demand is especially
highlighted. Unfortunately, Lang poses more questions than she
BOOK REVIEW
answers about the shaping role that the judiciary actually played in
developing and strengthening the political philosophy of Mississippi
as it was espoused by political leaders of the time. Without delving
into the personalities of the justices, Lang illustrates well the hair-line
interpretations the court found itself making in its attempt to protect
the Mississippi social structure and yet maintain its dignity as a high
court.
A brief glance is given to the status and function of the court in the
post war era through 1875. Here Lang suggests the principal activities
of the court were determining the status of state laws passed during
the Confederacy and interpreting Mississippi's post war relationship
to the federal union. Gone were the days of the court's magnificence
and high-mindedness; the court focused its attention on the re-
establishment of Mississippi out of its political ruins.
In the concluding chapter of this study, Lang offers some after-
thoughts on the material she has presented, posing some "What if?"
questions and finding that her basic premise still holds, i.e., "the high
court was a legal-political institution functioning in a philosophically
deviant state." It is only in this last chapter that Dr. Lang begins to
mention justices by name and to speculate on the influence of personal
philosophy on the court's decisions. Although Dr. Lang makes a suc-
cessful presentation of her theses based almost entirely on case study,
the question begs to be asked if her work would not have been
stronger had she devoted some of her explication to the persons and
personalities that occupied the seats on the High Court from 1817 to
1875.
Regardless, Dr. Lang is to be commended for her study on the
history of Mississippi appellate court; she has done a fine job in point-
ing out the role of the judiciary in the developing constitutional crisis
of the first half of the nineteenth century. It is to be hoped that the
judicial role in the shaping of the social-political climate of Mississippi
will be further analyzed and delineated using Defender of the Faith as
the starting point.
1978]



In Robert Hall the court refused to follow the lead of the cases immediately preceding it which delved into the justifications for wage differentials to discover evidence of discrimination. If the Equal Pay Act is to be effective, the courts must discover the motive for paying women less, not just accept the employer\u27s excuse at face value. Robert Hall may represent a step backward for the Equal Pay Act and the ramifications of the decision should be carefully studied before it is allowed to stand. This decision could be broadly construed to enable an employer to undermine the Act by justifying his wage differentials with a general assertion that male employees are of more economic benefit. If economic benefit is allowed as an exception to the Act, it should be strictly correlated to individual employees, and the courts must be alert for patterns of discrimination against one sex. Otherwise, economic benefit to the employer, as an exception to the Equal Pay Act, could be the loophole through which the whole purpose of the Act could disappear

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Commercial Law Priorities under UCC 9-310 Relinquishing and Regaining Possession of Reparied Equipment - Thorp Commercial Corporation v. Mississippi Road Supply

Defender of the Faith, The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875 by Meredith Lang

Attorney General Opinions

Table of Contents

Commercial Law Priorities under UCC 9-310 Relinquishing and Regaining Possession of Reparied Equipment - Thorp Commercial Corporation v. Mississippi Road Supply

Standard Life Insurance Company of Indiana v. Veal: A Perspective Look at Punitive Damages in Mississippi

Defender of the Faith, The High Court of Mississippi, 1817-1875 by Meredith Lang

Note, Equal Pay Act - Economic Benefit to Employer is Justification for Wage Differential Between Male and Female Employees

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