Thomas S. Bocock | |
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.jpg) Official portrait,c. 1857 | |
| Speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives | |
| In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865 | |
| President | Jefferson Davis |
| Preceded by | Howell Cobb (asPresident of the Provisional Congress) |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of the C.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's5th district | |
| In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia | |
| In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | Paulus Powell |
| Succeeded by | William Goode |
| Constituency | 5th district (1847–1853) 4th district (1853–1861) |
| Member of theVirginia House of Delegates fromBuckingham County | |
| In office December 5, 1842 – December 2, 1844 | |
| Preceded by | John W. Haskins |
| Succeeded by | Thomas H. Flood |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Salem Bocock (1815-05-18)May 18, 1815 Buckingham, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | August 5, 1891(1891-08-05) (aged 76) |
| Resting place | Old Bocock Cemetery |
| Party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Hampden–Sydney College |
Thomas Salem Bocock (May 18, 1815 – August 5, 1891) was a Confederate politician and lawyer fromVirginia. After serving as anantebellumUnited States Congressman, he was the speaker of theConfederate States House of Representatives during most of theAmerican Civil War.
Born atBuckingham County Court House inBuckingham County, Virginia, he was the sixth of eleven children born to John Thomas Bocock and Mary Flood. His mother was of a powerful and distinguished family which later producedHarry Flood Byrd and his father was a farmer, lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County Court House and friend ofThomas Jefferson. Bocock was educated by his father and other private teachers as a child. He attendedHampden–Sydney College, where he befriendedRobert L. Dabney (his rival for class valectedorian) and graduated in 1838.
His oldest brother,Willis Perry Bocock (1807–1887), may have been the most successful lawyer in the area (Buckingham County splitting off Appomattox county in 1845), as well as state attorney general beginning in 1852. Although Thomas' legal mentor, Willis resigned his official position and moved toMarengo County, Alabama in 1857 shortly after marrying Mourning Smith, a wealthy widow originally from South Carolina, although returning for family visits.[1] Another elder brother, John Holmes Bocock, became a Presbyterian minister in Lynchburg and then the District of Columbia.[2] A slightly younger brother, Henry Flood Bocock (b. 1817), also became a lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County courthouse (at the time of Lee's surrender to Grant), director of Farmer's Bank in Lynchburg, as well as Presbyterian lay leader and later trustee of Hampden-Sydney College. Their brothers William Stevens Bocock, Charles Thomas Bocock, and Nicholas Flood married but did not have such distinguished careers, and Milton Bocock died as a teenager; their sisters Amanda, Martha, Mary Matson and Mary Fuquar all married.[3]
Thomas Bocock married his second cousin Sarah Patrick Flood in 1846, but she may have died in childbirth or from complications. They had a daughter Bell (1849–1891). His second wife was Annie Holmes Faulker. They married in Berkeley County, Virginia (later West Virginia) in 1853 and had five children: Thomas Stanley Bocock, Willis P Bocock (1861–1947) and daughters Mazie F., Ella F. and Sallie P. (all of whom married twice).[4]
Bocock studied law under his eldest brother and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He began his legal practice inBuckingham Court House, and was elected to theVirginia House of Delegates, where he served from 1842 to 1844. He was also the firstprosecuting attorney forAppomattox County, Virginia when it split offBuckingham County, serving from 1845 to 1846.
Bocock was elected aDemocrat to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1846, serving from 1847 to 1861. He became chairman of theCommittee on Naval Affairs from 1853 to 1855 and again from 1857 to 1859. In 1859, Bocock was nominated forspeaker of the House, but withdrew after eight weeks of debate and multiple ballots failed to elect a speaker.[5]
A committed slaveholder and Southern nationalist, Bocock praised SenatorPreston Brook's attack onCharles Sumner, but later reinvented himself as a moderate on theKansas slavery issue. Bocock spoke at the inauguration of the Washington Equine Statue on the grounds of the State Capital in Richmond in 1860, but his rise in Confederate circles came after his speech against Force Bill on February 20 and 21, 1861 which he had published and distributed at Virginia'sSecession Convention.
Following the start of the Civil War and Virginia'ssecession, Bocock was elected as aDemocrat to theConfederate States House of Representatives in 1861, serving until the end of the war in 1865. He was a member of the unicameralProvisional Confederate Congress, as well as the succeedingFirst andSecond Confederate Congresses. Bocock was unanimously elected speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives, and served from 1862 to 1865. However, in the final year, he broke with PresidentJefferson Davis and his personal friend and political ally Secretary of WarJames A. Seddon over the issue of arming slaves, arguing that such would be tantamount to abolishing slavery, as did his allyRobert M. T. Hunter. He left Richmond during the April 1865 evacuation, and later fled his home, the Wildway plantation.
As the war ended at nearbyAppomattox Court House, Bocock owned more than twenty slaves. He did not want to pay his former slaves as workers, instead telling them he would provide food and shelter, as he had under slavery. Bocock even tried to purchase several formerly enslaved people from neighbors. The African Americans appealed to the provost marshal, who said they deserved "liberal compensation."[6]
Bocock moved toLynchburg while maintaining Wildway as his summer home, where he practiced law and helped form theVirginia Conservative Party. He supported President Andrew Johnson for election in 1868, and later unsuccessful Democratic Presidential candidatesHorace Greeley in 1872 andSamuel Tilden in 1876.
One of the architects ofJim Crow Laws, Bocock served in Virginia's House of Delegates again from 1877 to 1879. He was a delegate to theDemocratic National Conventions in 1868, 1876 and 1880. Bocock opposed the VirginiaReadjuster Party and ultimately handed over the political reins to a younger generation, includingAlexander H. H. Stuart, and concentrated on his legal practice and family.[7]
He died in Appomattox County, Virginia, on August 5, 1891, and was interred at Old Bocock Cemetery near hisplantation, Wildway.
Media related toThomas S. Bocock at Wikimedia Commons| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 4th congressional district 1847–1853 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 5th congressional district 1853–1861 | Succeeded by |
| Confederate States House of Representatives | ||
| New constituency | Member of theC.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 5th congressional district 1862–1865 | Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded byasPresident of the Provisional Confederate States Congress | Speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives 1862–1865 | Position abolished |
| Notes and references | ||
| 1. Because ofVirginia's secession, the House seat was vacant for almost nine years before Ridgway succeeded Bocock. | ||
Chairs of theUnited States House Committee on Armed Services | ||
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| Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947) |  | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee* (from 1947) | ||
*Alternately namedNational Security in 104th and 105th Congresses. | ||
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
