USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 22
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On these occasions he was brought into intimate com- panionship with the lawyers of the district, who were for the most part men of culture and intellectual vigor, but of distinctive characters and varied attributes, and he learned from this informal association with them the varied ele- ments and compositions of professional character. From the old citizens of the country he learned much of its past history. Among these there were men who had settled in the land as early as 1822, and had participated in all the revolutions and changes of government that had occurred since that time. He found them familiar with all the stir- ring events of the past and willing at all times to communi- cate them. His business afterwards led him to extend his researches over nearly the entire State and to note the va- riety in the condition of things in every section, which furn- ished a still wider field for investigation and reflection.
On the organization of the judiciary of the new State in 1846, he was appointed by Governor Henderson judge of the Fifth Judicial District. He. was then but thirty years of age; but public sentiment called for his services and his promotion was received with general satisfaction. He was appointed for the term of six years ; but, having
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served five years, during which he was engaged more than eight months of each year in the active duties of the bench, he resigned and returned to his practice at the bar.
The judicial duties of Judge Roberts during that period were peculiarly arduous and exacting. He was the first judge of the district under the judiciary system of the State government, and the task devolved upon him of establishing a course of procedure in conformity with the new order of things; to interpret and apply the body of statutes enacted under the new organic law, to bring them for the first time to the test of the Constitution, both of the State and the United States, and to fit them upon society. The rights, immunities, and liabilities of the citizen were to be ascertained and fixed upon a solid basis, com- posed of the different elements upon which they rested, and fashioned by the new innovations, both of the statute and organic law. This was rendered more difficult by the scarcity of precedent. But few questions of importance had been settled by the Supreme Court of the Republic, and the untamed elements of its jurisprudence mingled with the unexplored streams of the new system. To lead these into the smooth channels of justice required legal talent and judicial capacity of the highest order. But his ability and industry met all the requirements of the situa- tion ; and, gathering up the legal fragments of the revolu- tion and annexation, he blended them into a harmonious machinery, and made a lasting impression upon the juris- prudence of the State.
In 1857 he was elected associate justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Lipscomb, and held this position until 1862, when he re- signed and became colonel of the Eleventh Regiment of Texas infantry in the Confederate army.
A thorough Jeffersonian in his views of government, Judge Roberts was a staunch advocate of State's rights and was in favor of prompt and decisive measures to repel the aggression of the Republican party upon the rights and institutions of the South. As early as December, 1860, he delivered an able speech at Austin upon the " Impending
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Crisis," in which he said: " What shall Texas do? As one of her citizens, I am for State action - action by the constituted authorities of the State -action singly and conjointly with other Southern States, until we are made secure in our rights, liberties and honors. Such action should be prompt, calm, deliberate, harmonious and well directed, so as to secure the desired object, and at the same time preserve peace and social order among ourselves. Our allegiance is due to both the State and Federal govern- ments, because the sovereign power of Texas, at the time of our annexation to the general government so ordained it as its will. And until the same sovereign power shall be brought into action, and declare a different will, it is our duty as citizens to make ourselves subservient to the one as well as the other."
Discussing the question whether it was best to seek re- dress within the Union by demanding a constitutional amendment guaranteeing protection to the rights of the South- ern States, or by quietly withdrawing from the Union, he con- tinued: " In all these stages of State action, too great solicitude can not be felt by all parties, to preserve social order ; so that if the Federal government should refuse to recognize the right of the State to exercise its reserved power of changing its form of government, and should en- deavor to subjugate it, the energies of the people may be united in repelling invasion. Which one of these remedies may be adopted is for the people to say when they shall have found the means of expressing their will. It is my purpose now to show that the present attitude of public affairs justifies them in adopting either of the remedies that they may think necessary for their safety. I have no fears that inconsiderate rashness will control them. They have pondered upon the issues of this crisis long and well. They have made up their minds. There is no agrarian spirit abroad in this country. There is no war of classes. There is no conflict between labor and capital. Our peo- ple are not asking or seeking to extort any favors from the government to themselves, or to deprive others of any right. They have no desire for a social rupture at home.
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Their excitement arises from an entirely opposite cause - a high resolve now to throw themselves in the breach, not to destroy, but to protect rights ; not to destroy property, but to protect property ; not to destroy life, but to make life worth having ; not to produce discord, but to end it. This excitement is not a shallow noisy riffle, but a deep irresistible current, springing from the firmest conviction of the mind."
These sentiments vibrated upon the chords of the public heart, and, in consequence of the views which he announced in this speech, he was chosen by acclamation president of the Texas Secession Convention of 1861, in which he advo- cated but one remedy - that Texas should resume her sov- ereignty and withdraw from the Union ; and he promptly accepted the appeal to arms. He was a gallant and efficient officer, and led the Eleventh Regiment with distinction through the campaigns of the Trans-Mississippi Depart- ment.
In 1864, while still at the head of his regiment, he was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Judge Wheeler, upon which he resigned his commission in the army and again took his seat upon the bench. At the close of the war he returned to Tyler and resumed the practice of his profession; but his public services were soon again placed under requisition, and he was elected to represent his county in the State convention of 1866, and was made chairman of the judiciary committee of that assembly, in which he took an efficient part in framing the Constitution under the Johnson reconstruction.
In August, 1866, he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, and repaired with his credentials to the Fed- eral capital, but being rejected, together with his colleague, the venerable David G. Burnett, he placidly returned to Texas and confined his interest in public affairs to the re- demption of his State from the Moloch grasp of Federal oppression.
From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of law in the High School at Gilmer, Texas, and upon the return of Demo- cratic ascendancy in 1874, he was reappointed by Governor
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Coke to the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and, in 1876, was elected to the same position by the people.
As a lawyer Judge Roberts is thorough and profound. Tutored in the school of early labor, he began the study of his profession properly, and early acquired the requisite and infallible habits of success. His love of truth and his powers of research found no satisfaction within the bounds of superficiality and no lodgment upon the surface of in- vestigation ; hence he never rested with the comprehension of mere abstract propositions, but sought the origin, his- tory and philosophy of law. Subsidiary to these qualities, he possessed natural endowments of a high order. The natural bent of his mind is highly philosophical and re- flective. His keen and ready perception, his trained habits of analysis and logical synthesis, enabled him to eliminate principle from sophistry, to sift the real from the hypo- thetical, and present truth in the simple and plain robes of common sense.
These qualities which had given him reputation as a lawyer and distinction as a district judge, he brought to the Supreme Bench enlarged and intensified by experience, and ripened by the sunshine of his meridian intellect. His duties as a Supreme Judge gathered and concentrated his powers, and he blended the ardor of devotion and the candor of rectitude with the calm depths of wisdom.
His decisions are distinguished for their logical clearness, their search for truth and justice, and for their lucid expos- ition of principle. It was said of the brilliant Sergeant S. Prentiss that he " argned a case all to pieces;" and, while Judge Roberts always avoids mere dictums and questions non coram, it may be said, that as to its merits, he decides a case all to pieces. He leaves no question in doubt neces- sary for the vindication of justice, or to establish clearly the rights and relations of the parties.
His opinions are numerous. They extend through fifteen volumes of the Texas Reports, and involve almost every important question that can affect society. His interpreta- tion of the rule in Shelly's Case, 21 Texas, 804, in which he
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held that in a deed made to a person for the term of his natural life, and at death to his lawful issue forever, the words " lawful issue " are words of purchase, and not of limitation, has been adopted by several law colleges.
The following are among the important questions which his decisions have enlightened : The right of eminent domain, 22 Texas, 504; statute of frauds explained, 22 Texas, 708 ; right to forfeit charter, 24 Texas, 80; man- damus against a State officer, 24 Texas, 317; law and justice compared, 25 Texas, 245; character of deceased evidence in murder cases, 43 Texas, 243; mandamus against commissioner of general land office - one of the finest opinions in Texas jurisprudence - 40 Texas, 647 ; rules for the courts of Texas -drawn by him -47 Texas, 598. These cases will well repay the most careful study.
In 1878 he was elected Governor of Texas, and his administration was characterized by the most patriotic, vigorous and successful efforts for the promotion of the mate- rial prosperity of the State, and not only gave unusual satisfac- tion to its citizens, but added luster and honor to its name abroad. In 1880 he wasre-elected, and in his inaugural address to the seventeenth Legislature, said: "In review of the eventful career of Texas in the past, long an unknown land to the civilized world, emerging into existence in the gloom of a far-off country, cradled in revolutions and wars, growing up with a history filled with sore trials and grievous sacrifices, alternated by glorious achievements, both civic and military, famous for her great men and chivalric people, and now rising up conspicuously into general view, with her vast proportions and magnificent resources, and fairly entering upon the grand struggle for their development, I can but feel diffident of my ability to be equal to the task before me as your chief magistrate, now for the second time called to preside over the destinies of our beloved State. But sustained by an ardent zeal for her prosperity and future greatness, I cheerfully and hopefully accept the position at the behest of a generous people, who have manifested their desire to place their public interests under my care and direction, as they have done before. It is only by the
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wisdom of the Legislature, the harmonious co-operation of the executive officers, and the patriotic aid of the citizens that I can hope to be equal to the grave responsibilities imposed upon me, in the effort to make Texas what she should be in the near future -- the great and prosperous State of the American Union."
Serious efforts had been made, from time to time, to remove the capital from Austin, and the diversified and sometimes conflicting interest of the State had even caused the project of dividing it into several States to be discussed. To both of these enterprises Governor Roberts was strenu- ously opposed. He wished to preserve Texas in all the grandeur of its original integrity and in all the panoply of its power, and he appreciated the wisdom of the patriots who selected Austin as the seat of government. The de- struction of the capitol building by fire caused the question of removal to be agitated with increased ardor in some parts of the State during his first administration, and it was dur- ing his second administration that provision was made and a contract effected for the erection of a capitol building which, when completed according to the specifications, will be next to the capitol at Washington, perhaps the most spacious and elegant edifice in America. This building was by the original contract to be constructed of limestone of a standard quality quarried near the city of Austin ; but it being recently ascertained that a sufficiency of the re- quired material could not be procured from the neighboring quarries, a board, authorized by the Legislature and consist- ing of the present Governor, Controller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, has so amended the original contract as to cause the edifice to be built of a beautiful speckled fos- siliferous granite found in inexhaustible quantities in Burnet County. For this structure the State by the original con- tract agreed to grant to the contractors three millions of acres of the public lands in one body, which comprises a territory perhaps larger than the State of Rhode Island, and by the amended contract the contractors are to have in ad- dition the labor of five hundred convicts without cost. The building as estimated will cost over five million of dollars,
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and its erection, it is hoped, forever unifies the State and forever establishes Austin as its capital.
There is no man in Texas more familiar with its people, its products, its varied characteristics, diversified interests and vast resources, than Governor Roberts, and while Gov- ernor of the State in 1881, he found time amidst his official duties to embody his knowledge in a valuable little book describing Texas, and the development of its advantages and resources. In this work he presents the causes of de- lay in the settlement of the country, which he attributes chiefly to its having no good port of entry on the Gulf Coast. He also presents an outline of its physical geo- graphy, the great variety of its productions, the comparison of its different belts, its natural resources, its natural wealth as found in its mineral waters and its water courses, the methods of cultivation of crops, the modes of transportation and of travel in Texas, its flora and fauna. In this work he shows that the pursuit of a train of useful business in Texas presents a reasonable certainty of success to every one who will intelligently and steadily follow it.
He was a strenuous advocate and supporter of the educa- tional interests of the State, and in his message to the Legislature in 1881, said :
" In all the grades, from the highest to the lowest, the edu- cational system should be regulated and adapted to the wants of the people in every condition of life ; should have in all its parts and branches a well defined consistency in relation of one to the other in the different gradations, and should all be under the same supervision, government and control, to the extent that it is fostered by the State gov- ernment, not including private institutions of learning. The natural division in the gradation of schools, in order to meet the wants of the people is into three steps or degrees of education. The common schools for the millions, the academies for the thousands and the college or university for the hundreds. So it has been and ever will be ; and the encouragement and provision for each degree are equally essential in the effort to elevate society." His career as Governor was highly beneficial to the State, and when he
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retired from that office in 1883, he left the affairs of Texas in a prosperous condition.
Ex-Governor Roberts is a man of great amiability of char- acter. In social life he is bland, polished and refined, yet plain and unostentatious in his manners, and is a general favorite with the bar and people of Texas. His vast store of learning, his pure professional and social ethics, and his conversational powers, render him a welcome and interest- ing guest in every circle, and he is revered by the rising generations of the State.
In 1883 he was appointed by the Board of Regents Pro- fessor of Law in the University of Texas - a position which he now holds, and for which he is peculiarly qualified by his knowledge of law and his eminent exemplification of the highest professional standard.
Ex-Governor Roberts is now in his seventieth year, and, like the Grecian sage, has seen two generations pass away, whose polity was enlightened by his wisdom, whose welfare was promoted by his counsel, and now the third catches the inspiration of his example. He is a living Gamaliel of the perfect manner of democratic customs and institutions, and his services are still eminently useful in the inculcation of the great principles of truth and the precepts of wisdom, as well as the lessons of a noble example, upon the minds of the rising generations of Texas ; and when he shall be summoned from the sphere of his earthly labors there is no one who will go up to the great high court with a clearer brief - with a brighter seroll of purpose, of duty and of performance.
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RICHARD COKE.
The distinguished subject of this sketch was born in Vir- ginia, in the year 1829. He had the advantages of a thor- ough education, and graduated with honor at William and Mary College in 1849. Having chosen the profession of law, he diligently and thoroughly prepared himself for the bar, and on obtaining his license in 1850 he removed to Texas and located at Waco, where he began the practice of his profes- sion and has since continued to reside. He was a young man of sterling qualities, steady habits, and popular manners, which, in conjunction with a strong mind and finished edu- cation, soon opened to him the avenues of success and dis- tinction. His professional ascent was rapid and brilliant, and in a few years he took a position in the front rank of the bar of his district.
In 1865 he was appointed district judge, and so ample were the qualifications which he manifested in this capacity, and so able and efficient was his career upon the district bench, that, in 1866, he was elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He held that position three years, and adorned it with an ability and purity honorable to himself and, at that time, particularly elevating to the jurisprudence of the State.
At the general election held in December, 1873, in pur- suance of an act of the Legislature and the proclamation of E. J. Davis, then Governor of Texas, the Democrats elected the entire delegation of Congressmen, a large majority of the members of the State Legislature, and at the same time elected Richard Coke Governor of Texas by a majority of nearly fifty thousand votes. The Supreme Court was at that time composed of radical partisans, some of whom were exotics and adventurers, of military importation; and
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the leaders of the Republican party, having procured an individual to act as designated, concocted a fictitious case to enable the court to decide upon the political question as to the validity of the election. For this purpose one Jose Rodriguez, a Mexican, applied to Wesley Ogden, of the Supreme Court, whom the reporters contemptuously style the presiding judge, for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging in his petition that he was restrained in his liberty by one A. B. Hall, sheriff of Harris County, upon the charge of having voted illegally at the late election. The case came up on the trial of the writ under the style of Ex parte Rodriguez, reported in 39 Texas, 705, and Hon. Frank M. Spencer, district attorney for Harris County, was, in the absence of the Attorney-General, appointed by the court to represent the State. A number of gentlemen represent- ing the Austin bar, obtained the consent of the court to assist him. These were M. A. Long, C. S. West, Thomas E. Sneed, W. M. Walton and A. W. Terrell; while A. J. Hamil- ton represented the relator. The counsel for the State promptly challenged the jurisdiction of the court upon the ground that the case was fictitious and was invented for the purpose of extorting from the court an opinion as to the constitutionality of the election. This position was sub- stantiated by the sworn testimony of Judge George Gold- thwaite, of Houston, who was cognizant of the facts, and by the personal averment of the district-attorney, who asked permission of the court to expose the fraud, or that Rodriguez be discharged. The motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction was overruled, whereupon the district attorney, representing the Attorney-General, indignantly withdrew from the case. The court then proceeded to the extremity of the issue and declared the election illegal and void, upon which Governor Davis issued his proclamation prohibiting the assembling of the newly elected Legislature. That body, however, promptly convened on the day ap- pointed for its meeting; yet the Governor declined to receive any communication from it, and appealed to General Grant, then President of the United States; but he declined to interfere. Davis finally vacated the Governor's office
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and Governor Coke took peaceable possession of it. The re- porters, in a note to this case, aptly remark that it belongs to the political historian to perpetuate the memory of the events and circumstances of this case; and as to the corre- spondence and details connected with it, and the observa- tions which it suggests, the author of this work will likewise pass the task of commemorating them to that functionary. It was, as the reporters observe, a purely partisan political, and not a judicial question.
On the 15th of January, 1874, Governor Coke and Lieu- tenant-Governor Hubbard were duly inaugurated and in- stalled in their respective offices, and the Legislature immediately enacted an amendment to the Constitution reorganizing the Supreme Court and increasing the number of judges to five, upon the adoption of which Governor Coke promptly reorganized the court and removed the three judges of Ex parte Rodiguez fame. His appointments to the bench and to all other important positions were highly judicious and felicitous, and during his administra- tion the entire machinery of the State government, wrenched from partisan control and the clogs of imbecility and corruption, was again brought into smooth and har- monious motion. New avenues of prosperity were opened up to the people, new enterprises were stimulated, and new hopes inspired, until the highest anticipations of pros- perity seized upon the minds of all classes of people. Railroad communications of the most vital importance were established, and a constant tide of immigration flowed into the State.
The people of Texas smarted under the exotic Constitu- tion forced upon them by the military authority and its allies in the State, and it was under the auspices of the ad- ministration of Governor Coke that the excellent constitu- tion of 1875 was framed and adopted, and which forms the present organic law of the State. This constitution effected a change in the tenure of office, and in April, 1876, the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were re-inaugu- rated; but in May Governor Coke was elected to the United States Senate. He, however, continued to perform
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the duties of the gubernatorial office until December, and on the 4th of March, 1877, took his seat in the Senate, to which he has been twice re-elected.
In his second message to the Legislature in January, 1875, in referring to the state of affairs existing at the time of his first inauguration and the great change wrought by Democratic policy, be said: " The circumstances under which you assemble are auspicious. How striking the con- trast with those which surrounded your first convention, one year ago? Then darkness and gloom brooded over the land, and over the hearts of the people. Forebodings of danger to popular liberty and representative govern- ment caused the stoutest and most patriotic among us to tremble for the result. A conspiracy bolder and more wicked than that of Catiline against the liberties of Rome, had planned the overthrow of free government in Texas. The capital and its purlieus were held by armed men under command of the conspirators; and the treasury and de- partment officers, with all the archives of the government were in their possession. Your right to assemble in the capitol, . as the chosen representatives of the people, was denied, and the will of the people of Texas scoffed at and defied. The floors of the halls in which you now sit, had been ex- amined by the conspirators, and it had been ascertained that the armed forces entrenched in the basement beneath could pierce them with their missils, if necessary to attack you. The President of the United States was being im- plored to send troops to aid in overthrowing the govern- ment of Texas, chosen by her people by a majority of fifty thousand. The local and municipal officers throughout the State, in sympathy with the infamous designs of these desperate and unscrupulous revolutionists, taking courage from the boldness of the leaders at the capitol, were re- fusing to deliver to their lawfully elected successors the offices in their possession. A universal conflict of juris- diction and authority, extending through all the departments of government, embracing in its sweep all the territory and inhabitants of the State, and every question upon which legislative government is called to act, was imminent
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