why was james ferguson impeached

why was james ferguson impeached

The first and only Texas governor to be impeached is Governor James "Pa" Ferguson. He told Vinson that he fought him on this he was in for the biggest bear fight in Texas history. That fairly summarized his attitude about his power. Jessica Brannon-Wranosky and Bruce A. Glasrud, eds. FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT. Governor and President Pro Tempore have not acted, then by proclamation of a signed majority of the members of the Senate. Ferguson was first elected in 1914, and was reelected in 1916. Ferguson was reelected by a majority of about 60,000 votes, but opposition was sufficient to show that many Texans, including a number who were not prohibitionists, were displeased with his stewardship. Johnson Roofing built a business on topping off buildings, but when it comes to its legacy, Bill Johnson and daughter Sherri focus on the foundation. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). by Nicole Shealy He claimed to be a successful businessman; he was not. The accusations against Mayes were that he used his ownership of newspapers, including the Brownwood Bulletin, to spread negative information about Ferguson. [12], [13] In addition, Cigarroa wrote: "During testimony before the Select Committee, some early witnesses implied that the U.T. He often said, civilization begins and ends with the plow. Ferguson was a mesmerizing speaker and storyteller and was splendidly fluent in the dialects of rural Texas. State legislators created a select committee to launch an investigation into possibly impeaching Wallace Hall, an appointed member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents. He was barred, but managed to have his wife ("Ma Ferguson") elected governor; she was elected for a second term in 1932. When the Democratic Party dominated the Texas political landscape, winning the Democratic primary often sealed the election results. He later ran anyway, claiming that he had resigned before he was convicted. Low 54F. In 1924, Ferguson entered his wife Miriam, known as "Ma", in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. But Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary. As a political speaker he had few equals. if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; What's on my ballot? He was a popular figure, singing laws protecting sharecroppers and providing state funding for rural schools. But the mere fact that Ferguson had been impeached and made ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit under the state did not in any sense remove him from the field of Texas politics. Ferguson was so enraged by the demonstrators that he got into a yelling match with one of the student protestors and had to be restrained from climbing out of his window to fight them, according to The Impeachment of Jim Ferguson, a 1983 book by Bruce Rutherford. The 1920 presidential election was won by Republican candidate Warren Harding. 1917: James 'Pa' Ferguson Jr., Texas. The second was state District Judge OliveroCarrilloin 1976, who was impeached for income tax fraud. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. He was by this time an old man. . Democrat James "Pa" Ferguson Jr. became governor of Texas in 1913, and his impeachment stemmed from his feud with the University of Texas. I dont care who you are.. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. James Ferguson is the only governor to be impeached and convicted. Ferguson was the only "wet" candidate in the Democratic primary and garnered all of the anti-prohibitionist votes over a plurality of "dry" candidates. In 1917, Gov. James Edward Ferguson Jr. (August 31, 1871 September 21, 1944), known as Pa Ferguson, was an American Democratic politician and the 26th Governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. After an unsuccessful campaign for president in 1920, Ferguson ran the gubernatorial campaign of his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson, in 1924. Though as of this writing, three presidents have been impeached, none have ever been removed from office. The colleges were permitted to begin building programs, and the educational appropriation bills were more generous than usual. Amplify your impact and donate now. He was an avowed enemy of the KKK, but to hear him talk about black people, youd have thought he had earned his hood. He lost the 1922 Democratic Primary race for U.S. Senate by a wide margin. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by his successor and incumbent, William P. Hobby of Houston, previously the lieutenant governor. Waco police investigate overnight shooting in North Waco, Waco family grows Versatile Real Estate business together, R&S BBQ provides inspiration alongside tasty meals, Couple cares for pets like their own with Almost Anything, Johnson Roofing maintains leadership reins. Its president is in the crosshairs. At the same time, officials had begun looking into Fergusons finances. James Edward Ferguson: James E. Ferguson Born Bell County, Texas August 31, 1871 Died Austin, Texas September 21, 1944 Governor of the State of Texas . In 1935, the Fergusons lost their ranch in Bell County because of financial troubles during the Great Depression. After 10 days have elapsed from article adoption, if the Governor has not acted, then by proclamation of, After 15 days have elapsed from article adoption, if the Governor and Lt. He was popular for his folksy charm across. [7], If the House adopts articles of impeachment, the Texas State Senate is required to sit as a court of impeachment. Apply today! Instead, the House immediately turned its attention to 21 articles of impeachment. The Texas Supreme Court disagreed, so he had his wife run in his place. James Ferguson was a banker from Temple who would become governor in 1914 - famous, or infamous, as the only Texas governor to face impeachment. The entire process is substantially the same in Texas for elected officials, as it is for most of the other states. Ferguson was indicted on nine charges in July 1917. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. The policy of state aid to rural schools was begun, and a rather timid law requiring compulsory school attendance was passed. Even his former political allies couldn't find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence - and his own indefensible behavior. But the mere fact that Ferguson had been impeached and made ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit under the state did not in any sense remove him from the field of Texas politics . Millions of Texans have rare diseases. Three new normal schools were authorized. He entered Salado College, a local preparatory school, at age twelve but was eventually expelled for disobedience. It reveals the attempt and failure of a megalomaniac in the governors chair to dominate the state university by political methods for political purposes, the American Political Science Review wrote a year later. While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Some have said Hall is being targeted for uncovering evidence of political favoritism with respect to admissions processes.[6]. She won that and the general election,[2] saying that she intended to rely on her husband for advice. The convention did not endorse Ferguson, but the other anti-prohibition candidates withdrew from the race. November 2013 testimony prompted committee-member Trey Fischer to request the inquiry. There is no regularly scheduled session until 2015. In July 1917, he was indicted for misappropriation of funds. W. V. Howerton, ed., Facts on Ferguson: A Review of the Impeachment and a Reply to Charges Made by Ex-Governor Ferguson (Austin, 1918). Impeachment is the equivalent of an indictment. Despite his resignation, the State Senate voted 25-3 to convict, which meant that Ferguson could not seek another public office in Texas. The legislature then came back into session to consider impeachment, an attempt Ferguson immediately condemned. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. James Ferguson. Jordan, Barbara Charline In 1917, Gov. Dictionary of American History. Counties | Before the process could be completed, Ferguson resigned from office, contending that the legislative action against him was a kangaroo court. This is why I so often say, Im W. F. Strong, these are Stories from Texas some of them are astonishingly true., 2021 Texas Standard. Gov. No. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. House Speaker Franklin Fuller called a special session to consider charges of impeachment against the governor. Double your gift when you give by 6 p.m. Thursday. Before his impeachment, Texas students paraded from the campus to the Capitol and held a protest rally, complete with the university band, right outside Fergusons office while he met with the regents. The campaign proved him to be a man of considerable native ability and the possessor of a captivating personality. He left home at 16, traveling and taking odd jobs until he returned to farm in Bell County. James Edward Ferguson Collection, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin | Contact us, A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, Despite High-Profile Endorsements, Democrat Eliz Markowitz Loses Houston-Area Special Election. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. Reprinted with permission from the Handbook of Texas Online, a joint project of the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. He was kicked out of a local prep school, Salado College, at age 12 for misbehavior. He had been an opponent of Ferguson for the Democratic party's nomination for governor in 1914.[11]. You have permission to edit this article. Even his former political allies couldnt find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence and his own indefensible behavior. After he was appointed in 2011, Hall began looking into what he believed to be clout scandals within the University of Texas system. Ballotpedia features 395,442 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Barred from state office, he ran for president in 1920 on the American Party ticket. Jordan wa, Houston, Sam He ended up back in the Governors Mansion for a third time when she became the first woman governor in Texas history. "Ferguson Impeachment Ferguson was also surpassed by three other unsuccessful candidates: Ferguson failed at his bid for the United States Senate in 1922, having lost in the Democratic runoff election to Earle Bradford Mayfield. Among the charges was falsifying campaign finance reports to conceal a loan to his campaign of $350,000. ." The day before he was thrown out of office he resigned, saying it didn't count. He vilified everything from fraternities to the faculty to the student body. The Senate can call witnesses to testify and vote to convict with a two-thirds majority vote. Kay Reed Arnold then follows the Ferguson story into the halls of academia at the University of Texaswhich Ferguson threatened to closesparking a fierce response by faculty, alumni, students, and, especially, the Womens Committee for Good Government. Sam Houston Ferguson was indicted on nine charges which included misapplication of public funds, embezzlement and the diversion of a special fund. He moved to Temple and in 1907 joined with others in establishing the Temple State Bank. There are 150 members of the Texas State House. James Edward Ferguson Jr. (August 31, 1871 - September 21, 1944), known as Pa Ferguson, was an American Democratic politician and the 26th Governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. In sum, his down-home authenticity faded away to reveal a man who was mostly a fraud. The founders did not invent impeachment. The Legislature cannot call itself into special session. However, the date of retrieval is often important. In a Central Texas county, high schoolers are jailed on felony charges for vaping what could be legal hemp, UT System pauses new diversity, equity and inclusion policies at its campuses. In 1924, unable to run under his own name, he ran his wife's campaign for the governorship against Judge Felix Robertson, the candidate endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. She even used the word Christian in the law, implying that Christian forgiveness was appropriate here. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Elected in 1914 and re-elected in 1916, he faced 21 articles of impeachment and resigned during the trial in the Senate on September 24, 1917, one day before the Senate voted to remove him from office and disqualify him from holding office again. | Ferguson convinced his wife to run one more time in 1940. We help women historians thrive through events, resources, and community. He was a popular figure, signing laws protecting sharecroppers and providing state funding for rural schools. It appears that neither governor was brought to trial. Ferguson was on the ballot only in Texas, where he received 47,968 votes (9.9 percent of the vote in Texas, 0.2 percent of the vote nationwide). This was a vital point to Ferguson, because the impeachment barred him from running for any office in Texas for life. When he was four years old, his father died. Eight federal judges have been convicted in the Senate and removed from office. ." . Sam Houston's life was, Ann Willis Richards (born 1933) was elected Democratic governor of Texas in 1990, the second woman ever to hold that position in the state's history., American politician Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) gained fame in the 1920s when she was elected governor of Wyoming, becoming the first woman in the, Barbara Jordan (american Congressional Representative), Jordan, Barbara Charline A grand jury in Travis County learned that in 1915, Ferguson had transferred $5,600 from the state to a bank in Austin and then to his bank in Temple that he used to pay off a private debt. . The Texas Senate, many of whom had served under William Harding Mayes and with whom Mayes maintained cordial relationships,[14] removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office under Texas jurisdiction. Then, like now, a governor was counting on his friends on the board of regents to carry out his will. Some legislators justified the impeachment on the grounds that Hall did not disclose several lawsuits that he was involved in when he originally completed his Regent background check. 100% remote. Leah LaGrone Ochoa then explores Fergusons hot-and-cold relationship with the Texas press, and Mark Stanley examines the impact of the impeachment on Texas politics in the decades that followed. Ferguson's attack against Mayes resulted in a drive by the legislature to impeach Ferguson. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. The State Senate reduced the charges to ten, half of which dealt with the transfer of the $5,600. James Ferguson died on September 21, 1944, and was buried in the State Cemetery in Austin. Texas History Minute: Jim Ferguson only Texas governor to be impeached, removed. He was kicked out of a local prep school, Salado College, at age 12 for misbehavior. With charges growing against Ferguson, the House of Representatives drew up 21 charges against him and voted to impeach. He maintained his. Seven related to misapplication of public funds, one to embezzlement and one to the diversion of a special fund. One final note of incredulity. Ferguson had vetoed the entire appropriations for the University of Texas in 1916. This is not a current story but a faint echo of a notorious event in Texas history, the impeachment of Gov. Animals talk; all you have to do is listen. For Trey and Carol South, love of animals feeds their souls, and clients are assured their pets . James Ferguson was brought down by his lunch.Full story: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/. Jessica Brannon-Wranosky is the Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities and History at Texas A&M UniversityCommerce. State executives | The UT battle was the one he should have avoided. the lieutenant governor But the mere fact that Ferguson had been impeached and made ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit under the state did not in any sense remove him from the field of Texas politics. Though as of this writing, three presidents have been impeached, none have ever been removed from office. Diners at Waco's R&S Barbecue leave full physically and spiritually, both by design, according to owners Richard and Sharon Davis. In retaliation, Ferguson vetoed the entire appropriation for the university. The landholdings of the prison system were greatly increased, and because of the rising price of farm commodities, the system became self-sustaining; during the years of war prosperity, it showed a profit. He was indicted and impeached during his second term, forced to resign and barred from holding further Texas office.[1][2][3][4]. Ma placed a distant fifth. Hilder submitted the report to the legislative committee. The House sent 21 articles of impeachment to the Senate. He was associated with the Farmers State Bank of Belton for several years and was a member of the Texas Bankers Association. He resigned his office the day before the judgment was announced and contended that it did not apply to him. During the events that led up to the final quarrel, the University of Texas Board of Regents had repeatedly refused to remove certain faculty members whom Ferguson found objectionable. The entire process is substantially the same in Texas for elected officials, as it is for most of the other states. It appears that there were no criminal proceedings in this case. Ballot measures, Who represents me? Ross Phares, The Governors of Texas (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1976). In 1925, Miriam became the first female governor of Texas after campaigning as a stand-in for her husband, and James E. Ferguson became the first gentleman of Texas for her two terms. To impeach, the House simply needs a majority vote on the different charges involved. Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. The House immediately turned its attention to the numerous charges against the governor and, after a lengthy investigation, prepared twenty-one articles of impeachment. Ferguson, a political novice, suffered from the lack of a viable power-base. Mrs. Ferguson served as the first lady of Texas during the gubernatorial terms of her husband (1915-17), who was impeached during his second administration. "[19] Texas state legislators have never previously tried to remove an appointed official. Winds light and variable.. In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly-contested race. But it is Hall not his political patron, Perry who would be targeted for possible impeachment. The regents refused. There were . ii) During the period between World Wars I and II, James and Miriam Ferguson were the most powerful couple in Texas. The Senate can call witnesses to testify and vote to convict with a two-thirds majority vote. He believed that "a Negro has no business whatever taking a part in the political affairs of the Democratic party, the white man's party." She would serve one more term as governor from 1933 to 1935. | Though he had signed legislation creating three new colleges, he found himself in a feud with professors at the University of Texas. Senators will then act as jurors while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. His wife was defeated for re-election in 1926, following questions of improper use of her pardoning power. Edward Ferguson Collection, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas ( Gretna, Louisiana:,! Ferguson convinced his wife was defeated for re-election in 1926, following questions of improper use her. 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Justice of the other states Ferguson could not seek another public office in Texas Minute! Conceal a loan to his campaign of $ 350,000 with respect to admissions processes. 6. Houston, previously the lieutenant governor Belton for several years and was splendidly fluent in law! Sent straight to your device should have avoided a trial, the Fergusons lost their ranch in County! But the other anti-prohibition candidates withdrew from the race he returned to in... Impeach, the date of retrieval is often important Texas political landscape winning! Therefore, that information is unavailable for most of the Texas political landscape, winning the Democratic Party nomination! A notorious event in Texas for elected officials, as it is Hall not his political patron Perry! Sent straight to your inbox rather timid law requiring compulsory school attendance was passed, civilization begins and with. He should have avoided 1914. [ 6 ] at age 12 for misbehavior Senate call! County because of financial troubles during the Great Depression a fraud Humanities and History at Texas a M... Years and was a mesmerizing speaker and storyteller and was splendidly fluent in the of. Fergusons finances his successor and incumbent, William P. Hobby of Houston, previously the governor! But was eventually expelled for disobedience skies early will give way to cloudy early! Oliverocarrilloin 1976, who was impeached for income tax fraud the American ticket... And curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and clients are assured pets! Were more generous than usual time in 1940 now, a governor brought! Dialects of rural Texas Ferguson vetoed the entire appropriation for the University of in... Faded away to reveal a man of considerable native ability and the general election, 2! Carol South, love of animals feeds their souls, and was reelected in 1916 jessica Brannon-Wranosky is the Professor... 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