West Hughes Humphreys

West Hughes Humphreys
West Hughes Humphreys
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee; Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee; Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
	In office; March 26, 1853 – June 26, 1862
Appointed by	Franklin Pierce
Preceded by	Morgan Welles Brown
Succeeded by	Connally Findlay Trigg
3rd Attorney General of Tennessee
	In office; 1839–1851
Governor	James K. Polk; James C. Jones; Aaron V. Brown; Neill S. Brown; William Trousdale
Preceded by	Return J. Meigs III
Succeeded by	William Graham Swan
Personal details
Born	West Hughes Humphreys; August 26, 1806; Montgomery County, Tennessee
Died	October 16, 1882 (aged 76); Nashville, Tennessee
Relations	John W. Morton
Father	Parry Wayne Humphreys
Education	Transylvania University; read law

West Hughes Humphreys (August 26, 1806 – October 16, 1882) was the 3rd Attorney General of Tennessee and a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. He was ultimately impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted and removed from office by the United States Senate for supporting the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

Education and career

Born on August 26, 1806, in Montgomery County, Tennessee,[1] Humphreys attended the law department of Transylvania University,[1] failing to graduate due to ill health,[2] and read law in 1828.[1] He entered private practice in Clarksville, Tennessee from 1828 to 1829.[1] He continued private practice in Somerville, Tennessee from 1829 to 1839.[1] He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1835 to 1838.[1] He was the 3rd Attorney General of Tennessee from 1839 to 1851.[1] He was reporter for the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1839 to 1851.[1] He resumed private practice in Nashville, Tennessee from 1851 to 1853.[1]

Federal judicial service

Humphreys was nominated by President Franklin Pierce on March 24, 1853, to a joint seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee vacated by Judge Morgan Welles Brown.[3][1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 26, 1853, and received his commission the same day.[1] His service terminated on June 26, 1862, due to impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.[1]

Impeachment, conviction and removal from office

Humphreys served as a Judge of the Confederate District Court for the District of Tennessee from 1861 to 1865.[1]

On May 19, 1862, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Humphreys on the following charges: publicly calling for secession; giving aid to an armed rebellion; conspiring with Jefferson Davis; serving as a Confederate judge; confiscating the property of Military Governor Andrew Johnson and United States Supreme Court Justice John Catron; and imprisoning a Union sympathizer with "intent to injure him."[2][4][5]

On June 26, 1862, the United States Senate began the trial of the impeachment in his absence and later that day unanimously convicted him of all charges presented, except that of confiscating the property of Andrew Johnson.[2] He was removed from office and barred from holding office under the United States for life. He held his Confederate judgeship until the end of the Civil War.[1]

Later career and death

Following the end of the American Civil War, Humphreys resumed private practice in Nashville from 1866 to 1882.[1] In later life, Humphreys argued for the prohibition of alcohol and wrote several books.[2] He died on October 16, 1882, in Nashville.[1]

Family

Humphreys' father, Parry Wayne Humphreys, was a United States Representative from Tennessee.[2] Humphreys was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.[6] He had a daughter, Annie Humphreys, who married John W. Morton, a captain in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War and later the founder of the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.[7]

Works

Suggestions on the Subject of Bank Charters (1859)
Some Suggestions on the Subject of Monopolies and Special Charters (1859)
An Address on the Use of Alcoholic Liquors and the Consequences (1879)

References

"Humphreys, West Hughes - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.
Sturgis, Amy H. "West H. Humphreys". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
"Judge West Hughes Humphreys". United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
Aynes, Richard L. (1993). "The Impeachment and Removal of Tennessee Judge West Humphreys". Georgia Journal of Southern Legal History. 2: 71–98.
Hall, Kermit L. (1975). "West H. Humphreys and the Crisis of the Union". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 34: 48–69.
"The Late Judge Humphreys". The Tennessean. October 19, 1882. p. 8. Retrieved September 28, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
"John W. Morton Passes Away in Shelby". The Tennessean. November 21, 1914. pp. 1–2. Retrieved September 25, 2016 – via Newspapers.com. To Captain Morton came the peculiar distinction of having organized that branch of the Ku Klux Klan which operated in Nashville and the adjacent territory, but a more signal honor was his when he performed the ceremonies which initiated Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest into the mysterious ranks of the Ku Klux Klan.