Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 186.  Jefferson County.

ISAAC CALDWELL, of Louisville, was born near Columbia, Adair county,
Kentucky, January 30, 1824, and died at his country home near Louisville,
in the sixty-third year of his age.  He rose from a humble station and
carved his name indelibly on this history of jurisprudence in Kentucky.
The successful men of America have usually been those who have planned
their own advancement had have accomplished it, in spite of many
obstacles, through their own efforts.  On this class Mr. Caldwell was a
worthy representative.  Not every practitioner of the law grasps the
spirit of our institutions.  Numbers who bear the name of lawyer are
content to become expert in the technicalities of legal lore, to have
concern for the financial returns which it brings them and forget the
weightier matters of the law, its essential principles.  Those larger
minds which pierce through the statutory mazes and grasp, in the midst of
bewildering details, the great outlines and comprehend them through the
spirit of law--that spirit which is the life principles of our organic
instruments--are the minds of great jurists; and a fitting illustration
of such a mental phase was found in Mr. Caldwell, who for many years
practiced before the courts of Louisville, the state and the nation.
     The blood of Scotch-Irish and French Huguenot ancestors mingled in
his veins.  His parents, William and Ann (Trabue) Caldwell, were children
of Revolutionary fathers, and were pioneers of Kentucky.  William Caldwell
was appointed clerk of the county and circuit courts of Adair county and
continued his connection with these offices for over forty years, holding
the esteem and confidence of the people as a trusted and worthy public
servant.
     Isaac Caldwell acquired his elementary education in the schools of
his native place and in the clerk's office under his father's immediate
supervision.  He matriculated in Georgetown College and was a student
in that institution until 1844, when he returned to Columbia, Kentucky,
and studied law under the direction of Judge Zachariah Wheat, afterward
a member of the court of appeals; in 1846 he was admitted to the bar,
became a partner of his former preceptor and continued to practice law
with him until 1851, when he entered into partnership with Colonel George
Alfred Caldwell, an elder brother, also a native of Adair county, a man of
brilliant intellect and strong character.  He had at the age of twenty-four
represented his county in the state legislature.  In 1843-5, he was
representative in congress; took part in the discussion leading up to the
war with Mexico, and on the expiration of his term he entered the army,
rendering efficient service as the colonel of a regiment.
     Returning to Columbia, he was again elected to congress, serving for
the term 1849-51.  In partnership with his brother, he removed to
Louisville, where he remained until his death, September 17, 1866.  He
was a most able and successful practitioner, eloquent in the defense of
his client's interests, and was a participant in the most of the important
litigations in the Louisville courts from 1851 to 1866, attaining the
first place in the bar of the state as its acknowledge head.
     In the life-time of his brother, the great ability and acknowledge
leadership of George Alfred; and the modesty and brotherly love, almost
reverence, which Isaac, the younger, ever evinced toward him, was such
that Isaac his his own merit and belittled his own qualifications in
comparison with those of his idol; and never, at any time throughout his
life, would Isaac Caldwell consent to a comparison of himself with his
beloved and adored elder except to his own disparagement.
     The two brothers met with an abundant success in the metropolis of
their state, and on the sudden death of George Alfred Caldwell, Isaac
found himself in possession of a large and varied business, embracing
cases in all of the courts, state and federal.
     Isaac Caldwell was an untiring and indefatigable worker, conducting
cases involving large interests and intricate complications, and at the
same time engaging in criminal practice where the life or liberty of
clients was at stake.  In the latter class of cases few attorneys were
more effective or labored more assiduously in defense of their clients.
He threw himself, with all the earnestness and enthusiasm of his nature,
into the case at hand, and for the time knew nothing except his duty to
his client whose cause he made his own.  Impassioned eloquence, in
dignant invective, cogent reasoning, together with searching analysis of
all the springs which control the human mind in its judgment of the
motives of a fellow man, were all brought to bear upon the jury and rarely
without effect.  He was a great lawyer, not only the qualities of
intellect, but also by that more practical test,--the success which
attended his efforts.  His ability was not confined to one line of judicial
practice; he seemed equally successful in all departments of law and won
an enviable reputation in practice before the Kentucky court of appeals
and the United States supreme court.
     In 1870 he took a prominent part in the contest before the
legislature in the matter involving the Cincinnati & Southern Railroad.
In the same year he engaged as attorney for the state in the discussion
of the civil rights bill and conducted some of the most important cases
involving the enforcement and interpretation of the same before the
supreme court of the United States.
     Without the desire for fame and with no ambition for office, he
achieved the one and had the other frequently tendered to him.  In 1875
he was urged to become a candidate before the legislature for United
States senator, but declined to permit his friends to urge his election.
In 1876 he was elector at large for Kentucky in the interest of Samuel J.
Tilden for president and took an active interest in the contest, as he
always did in all matters that enlisted his sympathy and support.  He
was for years president of the University of Louisville and gave much
of his time to further the interest of that institution.  His memory is
cherished by the bar of Louisville, with which he was connected for a
period of over thirty-six years, and of which, at his death in 1887, he
was the acknowledged leader.  His amiability, generosity and courtesy
were equal to his legal attainments, and his death, at sixty-three years
of age, came all too soon.
     He was married on the 20th of January, 1857, to Miss Catherine
Smith, daughter of Daniel and Hettie (Palmer) Smith.  She was a most
accomplished lady and the home life of Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell was an
ideal one.  Mrs. Caldwell died several years previous to her husband's
demise.  Few members of the bar of Louisville have left a more enduring
impression, both for legal ability of high order and the individuality of
personal character which impresses itself upon the community, then Isaac
Caldwell.  His legal acumen was masterful, his integrity unassailable,
his honor irreproachable.

Caldwell Trabue Wheat Smith Palmer
=
Adair-KY Scott-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/caldwell.i.txt