Augustus Garland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 38thUnited States Attorney General | |
| In office March 6, 1885 – March 4, 1889 | |
| President | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Benjamin H. Brewster |
| Succeeded by | William H. H. Miller |
| United States Senator fromArkansas | |
| In office March 4, 1877 – March 6, 1885 | |
| Preceded by | Powell Clayton |
| Succeeded by | James Henderson Berry |
| 11thGovernor of Arkansas | |
| In office November 12, 1874 – January 11, 1877 | |
| Preceded by | Elisha Baxter |
| Succeeded by | William Read Miller |
| Confederate States Senator fromArkansas | |
| In office November 8, 1864 – May 10, 1865 | |
| Preceded by | Charles B. Mitchel |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Member of the Confederate House of Representatives fromArkansas's 3rd district | |
| In office February 18, 1862 – November 8, 1864 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | David Carroll |
| Delegate to theConfederate States Provisional Congress fromArkansas | |
| In office May 18, 1861 – February 17, 1862 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Augustus Hill Garland (1832-06-11)June 11, 1832 Covington, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | January 26, 1899(1899-01-26) (aged 66) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Holly Cemetery |
| Political party | Whig (before 1855) American (1855–1859) Constitutional Union (1859–1860) Democratic (1860–1899) |
| Education | St. Mary's College, Kentucky St. Joseph's College, Kentucky(BA) |
| Signature | .png) |
Augustus Hill Garland (June 11, 1832 – January 26, 1899) was an American lawyer andDemocratic Party politician fromArkansas, who initially opposed Arkansas' secession from the United States, but served in both houses of theCongress of the Confederate States and theUnited States Senate before becoming the 11thgovernor of Arkansas (1874–1877) and the 38thAttorney General of the United States (1885–1889).[1]
Garland was born inCovington, Tennessee on June 11, 1832, to Rufus and Barbara (née Hill) Garland. In 1830 his father owned 13 slaves,[2] and owned a store. Following a drunken fight in which Rufus stabbed a man, the family moved to Lost Prairie inLafayette County, Arkansas along theRed River when Augustus was one. Later that year, Rufus died, forcing Barbara and Augustus to relocate toSpring Hill, Arkansas, where she met Thomas Hubbard. In 1836, Barbara married Hubbard, a local lawyer, judge, and political candidate who owned five slaves in the 1850 census.[3]
Garland attended Spring Hill Male Academy from 1838 to 1843. Hubbard moved the family toWashington, Arkansas, theHempsteadcounty seat, in 1844.[4] He attendedSt. Mary's College inLebanon, Kentucky, and graduated fromSt. Joseph's College inBardstown, Kentucky, in 1849.[5] After school, Garland returned to Arkansas and initially taught at Brownstown School in Mine Creek,Sevier County, but returned to Washington to studylaw withHempsteadCounty clerk Simon Sanders. He married Sarah Virginia Sanders on June 14, 1853; they would have nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood.[6]
Admitted to the bar in 1853, Garland started his law practice with his stepfather. Garland moved toLittle Rock in June 1856, and became a law partner to Ebenezer Cummins, a former associate ofAlbert Pike. When Cummins died, Garland took over his extensive practice at age 25 and took on slightly younger attorney William Randolph by 1860, who lived with Garland's young family.[7]
Garland owned three enslaved females in the 1860 census (two 27 years old and an 11-year-old girl),[8] and his elder brotherRufus Garland Jr. owned 9 slaves in Hempstead County, Arkansas.[9] Nonetheless, Augustus Garland represented the slave Abby Guy in two appeals to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1857 and 1861, ultimately winning her freedom.[10]
Garland became one of Arkansas's most prominent attorneys and was admitted to the bar of theSupreme Court of the United States in 1860 with the assistance ofReverdy Johnson.[11]
Garland supported theWhig andAmerican "Know Nothing" parties during the 1850s. Local Whigs sought Garland to run for county treasurer prior to starting his legal career, but he declined.[12] However, Garland remained active in politics. He gave speeches for DemocratEdward A. Warren during the1856 election for theArkansas 2nd.[13]
In theelection of 1860, Garland was apresidential elector in the Arkansas Electoral College for theConstitutional Union Party voting for the party's nominees ofJohn Bell andEdward Everett.
The election ofRepublicanAbraham Lincoln to thePresidency of the United States led to the secession of the Deep South states from theUnion. Garland consistently opposed secession and advocated Arkansas's continued allegiance to theUnited States. His elder brother Rufus raised a Confederate infantry company (the "Hempstead Hornets") and accepted a captain's commission. Augustus Garland was selected to representPulaski County at the 1861secession convention in Little Rock, where he voiced his opposition. After Lincoln called for 75,000 troops from Arkansas to help suppress the Confederate States, Garland gave his support to secession.[14]
Four days after approving the secession ordinance, the convention delegates appointed Garland to theProvisional Confederate Congress,[15] where he was the youngest member of the body.[16] Garland was elected to theConfederate House of Representatives over Jilson P. Johnson in the1st Confederate States Congress in 1861,[17] where he was a member of the Committees on Public Lands, Commerce and Financial Independence, and the Judiciary. In 1862, Garland was narrowly defeated byRobert W. Johnson, who had been the incumbent in theUnited States Senate, for a seat in theConfederate States Senate, with the twelfth ballot going 46-42.[18]
He was reelected to the Confederate House of Representatives in 1863, where he was now serving alongside his brother Rufus.[19] In 1864 was appointed to theConfederate States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death ofCharles B. Mitchel in a close vote against Albert Pike.[20] As a Congressman, he made efforts to establish aSupreme Court of theConfederate States and supportedPresidentJefferson Davis, with the exception of Davis' aside suspending thewrit ofhabeas corpus for the duration of the war (as had Lincoln in the North). He returned to Arkansas in February 1865, when it was clear the Confederacy was about to lose so that he could help facilitate the transition of power from exiled Confederate governorHarris Flanagin toIsaac Murphy with GeneralJoseph J. Reynolds, and the return of his state to the Union.[21][22]
Not long after theCivil War ended,PresidentAndrew Johnson pardoned Garland on July 15, 1865. He was nonetheless forbidden to resume his legal practice without taking theIronclad Oath, which theUnited States Congress had required of allConfederate government or military officials, per a law passed on January 24, 1865. InEx parte Garland, Garland argued that the law was unconstitutional andex post facto. On January 14, 1867, by a vote of five to four, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed.[23] The ruling caused considerable uproar in the north, but former Confederates hoped that the judicial system could be used to prevent the implementation ofCongressional Reconstruction.
Arkansas legislators elected him to theUnited States Senate for a term beginning in 1867 but was not allowed to take the seat because Arkansas had not yet been readmitted to theUnion. Garland knew the election was "a doubtful, if not an empty offer". While in Washington DC attempting to be seated in the Senate, Garland worked behind the scenes to push the Supreme Court to hear the case ofMississippi v. Johnson which challenged the constitutionality of theReconstruction Acts; however, the Court refused.[24]
Garland had established himself as a key player in Arkansas politics, a strong conservative capable of working with the federal government, and widely recognized as a sharp legal mind. However, Garland was most noted by contemporaries for strong advantages he held in the political sphere: pragmatic, plain-spoken, and informal, yet brilliant and well-networked with national political figures from around the country. In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Garland recognized the changing political winds and withdrew from public participation in politics during early Reconstruction.[25] Between 1868 and 1872, as he resumed his legal practice, Garland observed politics from a distance and used his influence behind the scenes, only rising to speak against the1868 Arkansas Constitution. Following ratification of the new constitution in April 1868, Democrats were faced with the choice to take a "voter's oath" or be ineligible for state office. Garland and others worked within theDemocratic Party of Arkansas to make the choice to take the oath and fight the Republicans at the ballot box in November 1868.[26] Garland in 1869 helped found theSouthern Historical Society and gathered papers of Arkansas Confederate veterans. He worked to repay debts incurred fromEx parte Garland, which cost him $1,760 ($37,800 in today's dollars) and $750 from time in Washington ($16,900 in today's dollars), all while fielding questions about his inactivity in the public sphere.[27] During this time, he partnered in his law practice for several years withSterling R. Cockrill, who would later become Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.[28][29]
In 1872, with theRepublican Party split into three factions,Arkansas Democrats sought Garland to help elect Democrats into thestate legislature and had been considered for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. While he was willing to help fight Congressional Reconstruction and Republican rule in Arkansas, Garland sought to avoid engaging in "fruitless" political efforts while his personal finances recovered. He declined seeking the 1872 gubernatorial nomination given the low annual salary ($2500, or $65,600 in today's dollars) and that the position was viewed to be below his political stature.[30]
During the conflict known as theBrooks-Baxter War, Garland became a primary strategist forGovernorElisha Baxter and served as deputy secretary of state. Though Baxter andJoseph Brooks were both Republicans, Baxter was more sympathetic to theRedeemers, unreconstructed Democrats and Confederate veterans seeking to repudiate theRadical Republicans. After Baxter was evicted from theOld State House on April 15, 1874, Baxter went withU. M. Rose,Henry C. Caldwell,Freeman W. Compton, and others to visit Garland athis home at 1404 Scott Street around midnight to strategize a return to power. The following day, Baxter declaredmartial law in Pulaski County and gave an address to the people urging a rally at the capitol. Garland organized, as president of the Little Rock Bar, a resolution of many prominent attorneys condemning Judge Whytock's order that elevated Brooks to the governor's mansion. Garland took up residence atAnthony House for the next three weeks to help manage the Baxter effort.[31] Garland's plan to engagePresident of the United StatesUlysses S. Grant to call for a special meeting of the newly-DemocraticArkansas General Assembly to resolve the matter led to a win for Baxter, who recommended astate constitutional convention in 1874. Garland read the proclamation from Grant endorsing the General Assembly's restoration of Baxter to a throng in front of the Anthony House to applause. Baxter began re-appointing officeholders from pre-Civil War and the Confederate government; apolitical realignment had taken place, ending Reconstruction in Arkansas and returning the state to Democratic control.[32]
Following the drafting of a new constitution,an election was held for voters to ratify the new constitution and elect a slate of officers to serve under it, if approved. At the three-day Democratic state convention beginning September 8, 1874, Baxter was twice nominated as gubernatorial candidate but refused to accept both times. Garland was nominated by a unanimous vote over variousfavorite son nominees, which were withdrawn. Republicans did not nominate candidates in protest, believing the election was illegal and appealing to the United States Congress to declare the 1868 constitution the law of the land. The new constitution was ratified on October 13, 1874 and Garland received almost unanimous support to become Arkansas's 11th governor.[33]
Garland was faced with a number of problems after taking office as Governor including turmoil in the state over threatening groups like theKu Klux Klan, an ongoing congressional investigation over the Brooks-Baxter conflict and the state debt of$17,000,000. With help from the finance board, the debt was significantly lowered in two years time. Garland was a strong supporter of better education. He urged the legislature to establish schools for theblind anddeaf, successfully advocated in appointing a new president for the Arkansas Industrial University, today theUniversity of Arkansas, and helped found the Branch Normal College, today theUniversity of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which made education more accessible forAfrican-Americans. Under his administration, he also oversaw the creation of the Arkansas Bureau of Statistics and the Arkansas Bureau of Agriculture, Mining and Manufacturing.
Garland ran successfully for the United States Senate in 1876, thus succeeded Republican Powell Clayton. Voters re-elected him in 1883. In the Senate, he served as a member of the Committees onPublic Lands, theTerritories and theJudiciary, serving as chairman of the Territories Committee in the46th Congress. As a Senator, he made efforts to bring about tariff reform,internal improvements, as well as the regulation ofinterstate commerce and a federal prison system, federal aid to education and civil service reform.
Garland resigned from the Senate in 1885 after accepting the appointment ofAttorney General of the United States by newly electedPresidentGrover Cleveland, becoming the first Arkansan to receive acabinet post.[34]
Not long after taking office, Garland became embroiled in a political scandal. While serving in the Senate, Garland became ashareholder in and attorney for the Pan-Electric Telephone Company which was organized to form regional telephone companies using equipment developed by J. Harris Rogers. TheBell Telephone Company brought suit against Pan-Electric forpatent infringement after it was discovered that their equipment was similar to that of Bell's. Garland was ordered to bring a suit in the name of theUnited States to invalidate the Bell patent, breaking their monopoly of telephone technology, but refused to do so. However, while Garland was on vacation in the summer,Solicitor GeneralJohn Goode authorized the suit.
A year-long congressional investigation and constant public attention affected his work as Attorney General, however, despite having to serve under a cloud of suspicion, he was supported by President Cleveland. Garland was also the first, and to date only, United States cabinet secretary to becensured by Congress when, in 1886, Garland failed to provide documents about the firing of aUnited States Attorney.
President Cleveland lost reelection toBenjamin Harrison in the1888 election and Garland left office at the end of Cleveland's term in 1889. He resumed practicing law inWashington, D.C., and published a number of books, includingThe Constitution As It Is (1880),Experience in the Supreme Court of the United States, with Some Reflections and Suggestions as to that Tribunal (1883),Third-Term Presidential (1896),Experience in the Supreme Court of the United States (1898) and Treatise on the Constitution and Jurisdiction of the United States Courts (1898). On January 26, 1899, while arguing a case before the Supreme Court, Garland suffered astroke and died a few hours later in theCapitol. He was interred atMount Holly Cemetery inLittle Rock, Arkansas.[35]
The followinglocations were named after Garland:
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The new entity was named after Augustus H. Garland, Attorney General in the administration of President Grover Cleveland. Garland was a former Arkansas governor and senator who had gained renown through his efforts to regain the right to practice law as a pardoned Confederate.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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