Lucius Q. C. Lamar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office January 18, 1888 – January 23, 1893 | |
| Nominated by | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | William Burnham Woods |
| Succeeded by | Howell Edmunds Jackson |
| 16thUnited States Secretary of the Interior | |
| In office March 6, 1885 – January 10, 1888 | |
| President | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Henry Teller |
| Succeeded by | William Vilas |
| United States Senator fromMississippi | |
| In office March 4, 1877 – March 6, 1885 | |
| Preceded by | James Alcorn |
| Succeeded by | Edward Walthall |
| Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus | |
| In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877 | |
| Speaker | Michael C. Kerr(1875–1876) Samuel J. Randall(1876–1877) |
| Preceded by | William E. Niblack |
| Succeeded by | Hiester Clymer |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMississippi's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1877 | |
| Preceded by | George Harris |
| Succeeded by | Henry Muldrow |
| In office March 4, 1857 – January 12, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | Daniel Wright |
| Succeeded by | George Harris (1870) |
| Member of the Georgia House of Representatives fromNewton County | |
| In office November 7, 1853 – February 17, 1854 Serving with P. Reynolds | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1825-09-17)September 17, 1825 |
| Died | January 23, 1893(1893-01-23) (aged 67) Vineville, Georgia, U.S. (now Macon) |
| Resting place | St. Peter's Cemetery, Oxford,Mississippi |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Parents |
|
| Education | Emory University (BA) |
| Signature | .png) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States of America |
| Branch |  Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |  Colonel Aide-de-camp |
| Unit | .svg) Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (Colonel, December 1864–April 1865) |
| Commands |  Mississippi19th Mississippi Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel, May 1861–May 1862)Mississippi19th Mississippi Infantry Regiment (Colonel, May 1862) |
| Wars | American Civil War
|
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II (September 17, 1825 – January 23, 1893) was a Confederate soldier, American politician, diplomat, and jurist. A member of theDemocratic Party, he representedMississippi in both houses ofCongress, served as theUnited States Secretary of the Interior, and was an associate justice of theSupreme Court of the United States. He also served as an official in theConfederate States of America.
Born and educated inGeorgia, he moved toOxford, Mississippi, to establish a legal practice. He was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1856 and served until January 1861, when he helped draft Mississippi'sOrdinance of Secession. He helped raise the19th Mississippi Infantry Regiment and worked on the staff of his wife's cousin, GeneralJames Longstreet. In 1862, Confederate presidentJefferson Davis appointed Lamar to the position of Special Confederate Commissioner toRussia. Following theCivil War, Lamar taught at theUniversity of Mississippi and was a delegate to several state constitutional conventions.
Lamar returned to the United States House of Representatives in 1873, becoming the first Mississippi Democrat elected to the House since the end of the Civil War. He remained in the House until 1877, and represented Mississippi in the Senate from 1877 to 1885. He opposedReconstruction and voting rights for African Americans.[1][2] In 1885, he accepted appointment asGrover Cleveland's Secretary of the Interior. In 1888, the Senate confirmed Lamar's nomination to the Supreme Court, making Lamar the first Southerner appointed to the court since the Civil War. He remained on the court until his death in 1893.
Lamar was born on September 17, 1825[3] inPutnam County,Georgia, nearEatonton, at the family's 900 acres (3.6 km2)plantation home known as "Fairfield".[4][5] His parents wereLucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar and Sarah Bird; he had five siblings.[3] His paternal grandparents were first cousins. The elder Lamar, a lawyer and state judge in Georgia, suffered from depression and committed suicide when Lamar was nine years old.[6] Contemporary accounts explained the suicide as resulting from eitherinsanity or severedyspepsia.[7] Several members of Lamar's family reached prominence in various levels of government. His uncle,Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, participated in theTexas Revolution and served as the second president of theRepublic of Texas.[6] He was a cousin toAssociate Justices of the Supreme CourtJoseph Rucker Lamar[5] andJohn A. Campbell[8] and was related toU.S. RepresentativesAbsalom Harris Chappell[9] andWilliam Bailey Lamar.[10]
Lamar was briefly educated in theMilledgeville school system before being enrolled at the Manual Labor School inCovington, Georgia, from 1837 to 1840. The school consolidated with Emory College (now known asEmory University) located in nearbyOxford, Georgia, in 1840, leading to Lamar's mother and one of his uncles moving to the town.[11] Lamar was an average student, faring well in subjects he enjoyed and poorly in those he did not. Beyond his studies, he participated in campus debating activities, where he gained experience in public speaking and knowledge of important issues of the time such as slavery.[12] He completed his studies in 1845.[13]
At Emory, Lamar began a relationship with Virginia Longstreet, the daughter ofAugustus Baldwin Longstreet, president of the college. The couple married in July 1847,[13] and they had four children: L.Q.C. Lamar III, Virginia, Sarah, and Frances.[3] On December 29, 1884, Virginia died from lung disease that had plagued her since 1880.[14] They were married in the President's House at Emory College in Oxford, GA—today the Dean's Residence atOxford College of Emory University.
In 1845, a few months before his twentieth birthday, Lamar moved toMacon, Georgia, where he studied law in his uncle's office for two years. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1847 inVienna.[15] Afterwards, Lamar moved back toCovington, where he set up his own legal practice.[16] Using family connections associated with the Longstreet name, Lamar took his first steps into politics whenNewton County sent him as a delegate to the stateDemocratic convention inMilledgeville in 1847 and 1849. When that convention discussed theWilmot Proviso, Lamar embraced a staunchproslavery position that he never changed throughout theantebellum period.[17][a]
Lamar moved toOxford,Mississippi, in 1849 after A.B. Longstreet became president of theUniversity of Mississippi.[17][18] In June 1850, Lamar received a license to practice law in Mississippi, and in July, he became the university's assistant professor of mathematics.[19] In the November, 1850 federal census, Lamar owned 14 slaves near Oxford (almost all women and girls)[20] compared to Longstreet's 10 slaves (almost all adults).[21] A decade later, after his brief return to Georgia described below, Lamar owned 31 slaves in Lafayette County, Mississippi, of whom 14 were female and 17 male, including 9 boys and 4 girls under 10.[22]
Lamar's political career in Mississippi began in May 1850, when he addressed aLafayette County convention on the topic of slavery.[23] In March 1851, he helped organize a local branch of theSouthern Rights Party in Oxford and soon became its delegate to the statewide party convention in Jackson.[24] Lamar campaigned on behalf of party candidateJefferson Davis for governor and was the party's spokesman in a debate in Oxford withUnionist opponentHenry Foote.[25][26] Despite Lamar's efforts, Foote defeated Davis by 999 votes.[27]
Homesick and dissatisfied as a politician, in the summer of 1852, Lamar returned to Covington and entered into a legal partnership with a friend.[28] Lamar reentered politics in Georgia by winning a seat in theGeorgia House of Representatives as a member of theDemocratic Party in Newton County, which had typically favoredWhig candidates.[29] Lamar became chairman of the Committee on the State of the Republic and also served on the Agriculture and Internal Improvements, Judiciary, and Public Printing committees, as well as on two special committees.[30] Throughout the 1853–1854 term, he focused on issues dealing with theWestern and Atlantic Railroad, party politics and slavery.[31]
In February 1854, after the legislative term ended, Lamar moved to Macon to open a law office. With support from former congressmanA. H. Chappell, Lamar sought the Democratic nomination in 1855 forGeorgia's 3rd congressional district but failed to gather enough votes at the convention to become his party's candidate.[32]
After losing that Georgia congressional campaign, and facing financial troubles as well as family responsibilities, Lamar left Georgia for the final time and returned to Lafayette County, Mississippi.[33] Along theTallahatchie River north ofAbbeville, Lamar established his 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) "Solitude" cotton plantation that by 1857 had 26 slaves, though the plantation was never fully developed.[34] Lamar also practiced law in nearbyHolly Springs with two local prominent lawyers, C. M. Mott and James L. Autrey.[35]
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In 1857, Democratic CongressmanDaniel Wright decided not to seek reelection inMississippi's 1st congressional district.The Memphis Daily Appeal suggested Lamar as a possible candidate under the Democratic ticket, though he faced difficulties due to his prior support ofHowell Cobb, a leader of the Union movement. Nevertheless, at this convention, after numerous indecisive ballots, Mississippi Democrats made Lamar their candidate, and Lamar credited his old friendJacob Thompson for the win.[36] Lamar campaigned against Whig opponent,James Lusk Alcorn by stressing his strong support of theKansas-Nebraska bill, and won by a comfortable margin, then two years later faced no opponent and thus easily won reelection.[37]
Lamar's antebellum congressional career primarily focused onsectionalist issues, especially protecting Southern interests in slavery. Lamar supported the proslaveryLecompton Constitution in Kansas withoutpopular ratification, which was the subject of a debate on the House floor on the morning of February 6, 1858.[38] When a South Carolina congressman attacked a Pennsylvania Republican congressman, a brawl ensued,[39] with Lamar attacking Illinois congressman (and Congregational minister)Owen Lovejoy, who had become a prominent abolitionist after a pro-slavery mob killed his brother.[40] Lamar supported the compromiseEnglish Bill created by southerners and PresidentBuchanan.[41] Lamar again defended slavery as an institution verbally in an 1860 speech, during which he argued that not everyone is equal.[42] While Lamar never directly advocated forsecession, he mentioned it as possible if the South lost the ability to check the majorityabolitionist opinion in the government.[43]
After the victory of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln in the November 1860 presidential election was clear, Lamar left Washington on December 12, 1860, to canvass for a seat in the upcoming Mississippi secession convention.[44] On January 12, 1861, Lamar resigned from Congress, as did all other members of the Mississippi delegation.[45][46][47]
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Lamar travelled toCharleston to participate in the1860 Democratic Convention as an emissary for Jefferson Davis's message to focus on defeatingnorthern DemocratStephen Douglas instead of withdrawing from the convention; however, this appeal had little effect on the Mississippi delegation who had already left the convention hall. He later spoke to a large group of southern sympathizers, denouncing Douglas and stating that the Democratic party had irremediably split.[48] He worked with Davis to convince Mississippi's delegates to attend the reconvened national convention inBaltimore. The Mississippi delegates attended, though would later withdraw with other southern delegates because of discontent with the northern Democrat's moderate position on slavery; thesouthern Democrats would instead nominateJohn C. Breckinridge for the presidency at their own convention. Following the conventions, Lamar accepted a professorship of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Mississippi and planned to retire from Congress at the session's end.[49]
With the victory ofAbraham Lincoln, Mississippi GovernorJohn J. Pettus convened the state's congressional delegation to recommend a policy onsecession. While Lamar and Senators Davis andAlbert G. Brown favored a moderate approach, urging cooperative secession with other southern states, they were outvoted by the other congressional members; Lamar and the others joined the resolution to make it unanimous.[50] A day after the governor's conference, he proposed a plan for the creation of a confederacy at amass meeting inBrandon, Mississippi, though it attracted little support by other southern leaders.[51]
On January 7, 1861, Mississippi's secession convention organized, and Lamar was sent as a delegate from Lafayette County.[52] Lamar swiftly moved to establish a committee to prepare anOrdinance of Secession, and by the next day, he was appointed chairman of it. On January 9, the committee presented theMississippi Secession Ordinance which Lamar had authored prior to the convention;[53] by a vote of 70 to 29, the document passed.[54] On January 10, Lamar was appointed to the Committee on Southern Confederacy, where he introduced resolutions sympathetic to South Carolina's secession and to accept an initiation to meet with other seceding states to form a confederacy. Lamar also worked on a committee to draft a declaration of causes.[55] When the convention reconvened on March 29, 1861, he voted to pass theProvisional Constitution of the Confederate States.[56]
During the months preceding the Civil War, he continued teaching students at the University of Mississippi, though by June 1861, the university suspended operations because of too few students. Lamar entered active service as alieutenant colonel in theConfederate army, where he and his law partner C. H. Mott organized the19th Mississippi Regiment of volunteers in Oxford. The regiment registered to theConfederate War Department on May 14, 1861, and subsequently left forRichmond. Mott was commissioned as acolonel with Lamar as alieutenant colonel.[57][58] While in Richmond, Lamar gave a closing address to an event headed by Jefferson Davis, where he proclaimed:
"This very night I look forward to the day when this beloved country of ours— for, thank God! we have a country at last— will be a country to live for, to pray for, to fight for, and if necessary, to die for."[59]
Before his regiment moved to the front, Lamar sufferedvertigo, forcing him to return to Oxford to recover in mid-July 1861.[60] He returned to Richmond in November, and once there he acted as an adviser for Davis, in which he assisted him with an attempt to mend relations with GeneralJoseph Johnston.[61] His unit participated in theBattle of Williamsburg, where Mott was killed in action. Lamar assumed control of the regiment and was praised for his leadership.[62] While preparing for another engagement, Lamar suffered a violentseizure, forcing him to quit combat and head to Richmond to recover. At the same time, Lamar was facing personal issues with his younger brother and his cousin dying in combat. Seeking spiritual help, he joined theMethodist Church in July.[63]
Following improvements to his health, on November 19, 1862, he returned to service, with Davis appointing him as a diplomat to theRussian Imperial Government.[64] He reached Europe on March 1, 1863,[65] though he was eventually given advice byEmperor Napoleon III that a mission to Russia would be fruitless. Lamar assisted other confederate officials in France and England,[66] though he failed to convince audiences in either country to recognize the Confederacy.[67] He received a letter from the Secretary of StateJudah Benjamin that theConfederate Senate had refused to confirm him as commissioner to Russia.[68][b] After receiving the letter, Lamar spent several more months in Europe before leaving on November 1, 1863, fromLiverpool. He arrived in Richmond in early January 1864.[70] With his return home, Lamar spent much of the last year of the war giving speeches on Davis' behalf.[71]
On December 3, 1864, he was commissioned as a colonel in the Confederate Army with duty as ajudge advocate in Richmond. He acted as an aide to GeneralJames Longstreet at the time of the Confederacy's surrender in 1865. He wasparoled and released after his surrender.[72]
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After the war, Lamar returned to Oxford to reunite with his family. The war had claimed two brothers and both of his law partners.[73] Lamar's plantation had suffered damage and had its slaves freed; the land was also returned to his father-in-law as he could not maintain payments during the war.[74] Lamar entered into a law partnership with his friendEdward C. Walthall in theCoffeevillehamlet. The successful practice was dissolved following health troubles, leading Lamar to accept a less-demanding professorship position at the University of Mississippi for the fall term of 1866.[75] He taught ethics andmetaphysics initially, though by 1867, he was the chair of the law department.[76] He became a member of theSigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in 1865 and was among the first initiates in that fraternity's chapter at theUniversity of Mississippi.[77] He became a director of theMississippi Central Railroad Company in 1867 and entered into a law partnership with E. D. Clark in Oxford in the fall of 1868.[78] From 1868 to 1872, he provided legal services for the railroad company, but by 1877, he had lost his stake when it was absorbed by theIllinois Central Railroad.[79] In 1870, he resigned from his professorship, fearing radicalization of the university and the possibility of admitting Black students after a new governing board was installed.[80]
Lamar had developed a reputation during the 1870s and 1880s as a leading contributor to theDemocratic Party's opposition to thepredominantly Republican African-American officeholders in Mississippi. Lamar's testimony before the42nd United States Congress's Joint Committee to Inquire into the Conditions of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States reveals that he was a passionate defender ofthe Southern social order and theKu Klux Klan, a secret society which had developed in response to theThirteenth andFourteenth amendments and the events ofReconstruction. On June 21, 1871, several witnesses testified before the committee that Lamar, as a defense attorney in federal court inOxford, Mississippi, objected to a witness who could identify 27 men appearing on charges for organizing the Klan and terrorizing African Americans, missionary society teachers, and Republican voters. When the witness entered the courtroom, Lamar objected to his presence, then threw a chair at the witness, and"cussedthe judge, the court and all of its officers, and the United States federal government", as students of the University of Mississippi cheered from the gallery, then punched a federal marshal who moved to defend the witness. The presiding judge,Samuel J. Gholson, revoked Lamar's law license, but only temporarily. He was allowed to continue practicing law after a three-month suspension from the bar.[81]
In 1868, Lamar purchased 30 acres (0.12 km2) in Oxford and built a six-room cottage between 1869 and 1870.[82][83] The house is now known as theL.Q.C. Lamar House Museum and was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1975.[83] The house operates as a museum and the 3-acre grounds as a park.[84]
Lamar returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1873, the first Democrat from Mississippi to be elected to the House since the Civil War. He served there until 1877. Lamar was elected by the state legislature (as was the law at the time) to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate from 1877 to 1885. Lamar was a staunch opponent ofReconstruction, and did not consider freedmen and other black Americans fit to vote. He promoted "the supremacy of the unconquered and unconquerable Saxon race."[85]
With the victory ofGrover Cleveland in the1884 presidential election, Lamar recommended several southerners for his cabinet. Despite the recommendations, Cleveland decided to nominate Lamar forSecretary of the Interior. The two shared similar views on many issues, and Lamar provided geographical balance to Cleveland's cabinet. While questions were raised over his involvement in the Confederacy and limited administrative experience, he was confirmed with little difficulty.[86] As part of the first Democratic administration in 24 years, he was beseeched by members of his own party, especially those from the South, seekingpolitical patronage.[87] He engaged these requests, dismissingRepublican officials for Democratic ones, though he did so cautiously.[88]
As secretary, he reduced the department's fleet ofcarriages for high officials,[87] as well as opposed efforts to dissolveIndian reservations.[89] He forwarded a new Indian policy, encouraging citizenship and individual land-holding; he endorsed theDawes Act of 1887.[90] He favoredconservationism withpublic lands to reduce threats of exploitation. He was a staunch defender of theHomestead Act of 1862, as he claimed it prevented mass exploitation of natural resources.[91] Lamar also worked toreclaim over 45,000,000 acres (180,000 km2), mostly from railroad corporations.[92]
He served from March 6, 1885, to January 10, 1888.[93]
In May 1887, Republican JusticeWilliam B. Woods died while in office, and following the reconvening of Congress, Lamar was nominated by Cleveland on December 12, 1887, without serious competition. Lamar was from the South just like the deceased justice,[94][8] and he would be the first Southerner nominated to the court since the Civil War.[8] As a result, Lamar's nomination "symbolized the road to reconciliation."[95] The Republican-dominatedSenate Judiciary Committee reported against his nomination because of lack of legal experience and old age; he was the second oldest nominee ever at the time. Thanks to the votes of a few western Republicans breaking from party leadership, Lamar was confirmed on January 16, 1888, by a close 32 to 28 vote.[96][8] He took the judicial oath on January 18, 1888.[8]
Lamar's time on the court was spent briefly under theWaite Court, with the rest under theFuller Court.[97] His service on the court is considered by some as unremarkable,[95][67] though to others, the quality of his opinions he produced improved as his time on the court went on.[98] Throughout his tenure, he authored 96 opinions, with him issuing 13 dissents from the court; overall, his opinions did not receive much opposition from other members of the court, with generating only four dissents.[99][100]
Lamar died on January 23, 1893, inVineville, Georgia. He was originally interred at Riverside Cemetery inMacon, Georgia, but was reinterred at St. Peter's Cemetery inOxford, Mississippi, in 1894.
Lamar was later featured inJohn F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize–winning book,Profiles in Courage (1957), for his eulogy for Massachusetts SenatorCharles Sumner (R) in 1874, along with his support of the findings of a partisan congressional committee regarding the disputedpresidential election of 1876, and for his unpopular vote against theBland–Allison Act of 1878.
A variety of places have been named in Lamar's honor, including threeU.S. counties:Lamar County, Alabama;[101]Lamar County, Georgia;[102] andLamar County, Mississippi.[103] Several communities are named for him, including ones inArkansas,[104]Wisconsin,[105]Nebraska,[106]Colorado,Mississippi, andMissouri.[107] In Oxford, Mississippi, a building on theUniversity of Mississippi's campus, Lamar Hall, and the main thoroughfare for the town, Lamar Avenue, are named for him.[108] A road in Memphis is also named for him.[109] TheLamar School in Meridian, MS, a formersegregation academy, is named for L.Q.C. Lamar.[110][111][c]
The east fork of theYellowstone River inYellowstone National Park is called theLamar River, coined by geologistArnold Hague during an 1884–85Geological Survey. Similarly, Lamar Valley, and other park places are named in honor of Lamar as Secretary of the Interior.[112] InHot Springs National Park, the Lamar Bathhouse is named for him.[113] During World War II, the Liberty ShipSS Lucius Q. C. Lamar was named for him.[114]
Emory University had two named professorships in theSchool of Law that were named for Lamar. In April 2022, Emory removed Lamar's name from the professorships after a review by Emory's Committee on Naming Honors recommended that the name be changed due to his staunch defense of slavery.[115]
Lamar told his audiences hat blacks were unfit to vote
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member from Mississippi's 1st congressional district 1857–1861 | Vacant Title next held by George Harris |
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMississippi's 1st congressional district 1873–1877 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Pacific Railroads Committee 1875–1877 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of the House Democratic Caucus 1875–1877 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 2) from Mississippi 1877–1885 Served alongside:Blanche Bruce,James George | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Interior Committee 1879–1880 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Railroads Committee 1880–1881 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of the Interior 1885–1888 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1888–1893 | Succeeded by |
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| Secretary of the Interior |
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