THE GREAT GAINES CASE

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 269, 11 June 1868, Page 2

THE GREAT GAINES CASE

The Supreme Court of the United States, in three decisions in her favor, has finally settled the great and remarkable case of Mrs General Gaines. These three decisions were made upon appeals brought up from the Louisiana courts touching the right and title to vast amounts of real estate in New Orleans and in the State of Louisiana, the contestant, including the city of New Orleans, claiming said properties upon transfers resting on a will of Mrs Gaines' father, made anterior to that, bequeathing her all his estates. But she had a more serious battle to fight in the outset, upon questions raised by the holders of the property as to the fact of the will upon which she based her claim and touching her legitimacy as a daughter of Daniel Chirk. She first heard of this will accidentally, some thirty odd years ago, from an eye witness of its .execution, her father's best friend, at time living at Havana, and who had heard of her whereabouts. Mrs Gaines was then, we believe, the wife of a Mr Whitney, a worthy and enterprising man, and the news to her was a complete surprise ; for her father had died when she was a child in years, and her guardians had kept her in total ignorance on the subject. She forthwith proceeded to an investigation of her case ; but before she had unravelled its mysteries her husband died, from the violence and persecution of her enemies; and she, in the struggle for existence, was left a poor widow, with three helpless children upon her hands. In this extremity, though resolved to establish her good name and her rights as the one great purpose of her life, she was shortly brought to the verge of despair, when Major General Gaines, of the United States A.rmy, learning her story and her distress, and believing in the justice of her cause, sought her out in her humble lodgings at New Orleans and volunteered his assistance. Such an offer at that crisis, from such a man, was like the veritable appearance of a good fairy. The General was captivated by the fair widow; but, a chivalrous soldier, he stated that considering the disparity in their ages he could not presume to talk of marriage. He would leave her perfectly free upon that point, but in any event she might count upon his services in her cause. The young widow accepted the offer and the man, and as the wife of General Gaines, worth a quarter of a million, she soon brought her case before the courts. His fortune was sunk in the litigation, and she, in the lapse of years, again was left a widow without the means needed to cope with the powerful league of her wealthy adversaries. Upon the strength of her cause, however, she still contrived to fight them from court to court, frequently baffled, often penniless—but never dismayed —an indomitable little woman, dispossessed, engaged in the unequal contest of the law against the holders of twenty, millions of her property. At length, in 1868, she gained a decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, establishing her claim as the legitimate heiress of her father and the validity of his will bequeathing

hor his estates. Then the war of the rebellion interposed and cut off for five years all further proceedings. At its close claims of a rightful possession by tho city of New Orleans and other parts, of {large amounts of her property resting upon a previous will, were brought into the localcourts and carried thence up to the Supreme Court of the United State?, where they were decided in her favor on Monday last. Thus she becomes the wealthiestwoman in the United States and still apparently not over sixty years of age. Her case is one of the most remarkable of its class on record ; her history, embracing her successes and defeats, her troubles and trials in connection with this case, is one of the strangest of romances. She haa becomo, through her long experience, a learned lawyer in the most difficult branch of the profession and is still one of the most charming of her sex. She has fought one of the most unequal and unpromising conflicts in all the annals of litigation; she has achieved one of the completest and greatest victories, and long may she live to enjoy it.— New York Herald.