He showed up most every day to his own trial, invited or not, with two armed Texas Rangers as escorts. To impeach, the House simply needs a majority vote on the different charges involved. Barred from state office, he ran for president in 1920 on the American Party ticket. StrongJanuary 29, 202010:48 amArts & Culture, Stories From Texas, Bain News Service /Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]. He was re-elected in 1916. "In light of the fundamental role attorneys play, it would lead to an absurd result were it criminal for an official to provide student records to his or her attorney in the face of litigation, or anticipated litigation, involving these records," Philip Hilder wrote in the report. the lieutenant governor Unlike federal offices, which require formal charges brought against an individual and in most cases criminal charges, the Texas Constitution does not provide specific grounds for impeachment. ex-governor banned from holding state office. He told the UT president, Dr. Robert E. Vinson, that he wanted them fired. His wife was defeated for re-election in 1926, following questions of improper use of her pardoning power. Ferguson would often call into question the value of a college diploma, saying it was book learning gone to seed. He said some professors took three years to learn that you couldnt grow wool on an armadillo. His constituency, he claimed, resided where the creeks forked and he felt they were getting short-changed by not getting enough basic education, while the kids at UT were getting too much of it., He said those kids go up to Austin for four years and return home with nothing but a mandolin and liver damage. As my brother Redneck Dave would say, That right there is funny. Nine years later, Ferguson died of a stroke. Eight federal judges have been convicted in the Senate and removed from office. Throughout his years in banking he took an active interest in county and local politics. Hilder submitted the report to the legislative committee. Though no Texas official has been impeached and removed from office at the state level since Ferguson, Texas politics has hardly been scandal-free. The Fergusons retired from public life afterward with James Ferguson dying in 1944 and his wife passing away in 1961. Jessica Brannon-Wranosky concludes with an assessment of the historical memory of Fergusons impeachment throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Of course, her husband was the only one the amnesty applied to. The Court of Impeachment, by a vote of twenty-five to three, removed Ferguson from office and made him ineligible to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the state of Texas. During Ferguson's first term, the legislature passed several measures of major importance. He later ran anyway, claiming that he had resigned before he was convicted. Heres where Ferguson made his first greatest legal blunder. [12], [13] In addition, Cigarroa wrote: "During testimony before the Select Committee, some early witnesses implied that the U.T. [6] They had two daughters: Ouida Wallace Ferguson, and Dorrace Watt Ferguson. He left home at sixteen and wandered for two years through the states of the Far West, where he lived by accepting any employment offered. "[19] Texas state legislators have never previously tried to remove an appointed official. The Texas Senate reduced the charges to 10, half of which dealt with the transfer of the $5,600. 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. It appears that there were no criminal proceedings in this case. Aside from the act instituting the highway department, the second Ferguson administration was marked by little in the way of important legislation. [5], In 2013, the Texas State Legislature began an impeachment trial for Regent Wallace Hall. In 1922 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. A reiteration and compilation of documents created in the House impeachment proceedings. The legislature passed generous appropriation bills, and the ad valorem tax rate reached the constitutional maximum of thirty-five cents. The House sent 21 articles of impeachment to the Senate. 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. The policy of state aid to rural schools was begun, and a rather timid law requiring compulsory school attendance was passed. James Ferguson. Three new normal schools were authorized. Samuel Houston (1793-1863), American statesman and soldier, was the person most responsible for bringing Texas into the Union. The excitement that greeted the veto was soon overshadowed by the greater excitement that surrounded the impeachment trial. Please subscribe to keep reading. 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. He was by this time an old man. [10], After being re-elected in 1916, Ferguson vetoed the appropriations for the University of Texas. Before the process could be completed, Ferguson resigned from office, contending that the legislative action against him was a kangaroo court. She won that and the general election,[2] saying that she intended to rely on her husband for advice. Dr. Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan who enjoys sharing these stories about people from the Lone Star state. Though he was kicked out of office and disgraced in front of his colleagues, Ferguson was still very popular among his hard-core supporters and rallied back. When he was four years old, his father died. In 1924, unable to run under his own name, he Mr. Ferguson, known as "Pa", ran his wife's campaign for the governorship against Judge Felix Robertson, the candidate endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. He was kicked out of a local prep school, Salado College, at age 12 for misbehavior. While there, legislators legally took up another matter, impeachment. First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Ballotpedia features 395,442 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. At 16, he left home and drifted through the states of the American West, working successively in a vineyard, a mine, a barbed wire factory, and at a grain ranch. The State Senate reduced the charges to ten, half of which dealt with the transfer of the $5,600. As Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, a core source of original meaning, the framers "borrowed" the model from the English.And, as Raskin pointed . Legislators have accused Hall of abusing his power and targeting University of Texas, Austin President Bill Powers, while Hall maintains he was acting as a responsible regent investigating situations of clout and accountability problems within the University of Texas system. He blamed his directors for running a shoddy operation. After returning to Bell County, he farmed and worked with a railroad-bridge gang until, after a brief study of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1897 and began the practice of law in Belton. After all, he was known as Farmer Jim. While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses. He was popular for his folksy charm across. An effort was begun in 2013 to investigate the possibility of impeaching University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall. Though as of this writing, three presidents have been impeached, none have ever been removed from office. FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT. James Ferguson is the only governor to be impeached and convicted. Encyclopedia.com. He was an avowed enemy of the KKK, but to hear him talk about black people, youd have thought he had earned his hood. As a result of his actions, in 1917, Ferguson became the only Texas governor impeached and removed from office. If the state legislature is not in regular session during the time of impeachment, a special session can be called specifically to handle impeachments. It was, in his mind, absolute. Vinson asked what they had done to deserve it and he said, I dont need a reason, Im the governor.. Impeached provides a new examination of the rise and fall of Fergusons political fortunes, offering a focused look at how battles over economic class, academic freedom, womens enfranchisement, and concentrated political power came to be directed toward one politician. U.S. Congress | He was indicted and impeached during his second term, but according to Ferguson technically impeached, after he resigned office. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ferguson-impeachment, "Ferguson Impeachment The colleges were permitted to begin building programs, and the educational appropriation bills were more generous than usual. After he was appointed in 2011, Hall began looking into what he believed to be clout scandals within the University of Texas system. Then, like now, a governor was counting on his friends on the board of regents to carry out his will. And once again, there is talk of impeachment in the Legislature. Impeachment is the process by which the legislative branch has the authority to remove a sitting public official. Democrat James "Pa" Ferguson Jr. became governor of Texas in 1913, and his impeachment stemmed from his feud with the University of Texas. At the same time, officials had begun looking into Fergusons finances. Apply today! Its our 10th year participating in Amplify, and to celebrate, weve got $15,000 in matching funds from four generous Tribune supporters. Only two Texas public officials have been impeached in the state's history. He was re-elected in 1916. In 1917, Gov. Similarly, the Texas constitution gives the lower house of the legislature power to impeach judges, the governor, and statewide elected officials. Ferguson convinced his wife to run one more time in 1940. In sum, his down-home authenticity faded away to reveal a man who was mostly a fraud. 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 . 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. The incumbent State Librarian was Ernest Winkler, who was a professional historian with years of experience as a librarian. He only made the ballot in Texas, winning just under 10% of the vote. After he returned to Texas, he studied law in Bell County and was admitted to the bar. In retaliation, Ferguson vetoed the entire appropriation for the university. November 2013 testimony prompted committee-member Trey Fischer to request the inquiry. The Constitution gives Congress the power of impeachment in federal cases. [17] Governor of Texas Rick Perry's spokesperson said the investigations send a "chilling message" to gubernatorial appointees. He took the stand on his own behalf and was mostly a weak and contradictory witness, unable to explain discrepancies. James Ferguson. He made only a few speeches and must have known long before the votes were cast that Mrs. Ferguson had no chance to win. Committee member Dan Flynn said he was not surprised by the findings and was pleased the university counsel reached a conclusion.[21][22][23][24]. There were . Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. U.S. President | 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. Both elected and non-elected officials can be impeached in Texas. Winds light and variable.. Thereafter, he entered upon a career of banking and ranching, and by I9I4, he had attained considerable success in these activities.' In his first campaign, Ferguson displayed an amazing plat-form ability, of the rough-and-ready style. He claimed to be a successful businessman; he was not. Ballot measures, Who represents me? If that is the case, then the state house must follow procedures outlined regarding calling a special session specifically for the process of impeachment. In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly contested race. The second was state District Judge OliveroCarrilloin 1976, who was impeached for income tax fraud. This independence made him critical of existing policies, earning him sufficient popular support to win office, but also the consequent wrath of the establishment that could have protected him from investigation. The ruling declared that he could no longer hold office in Texas, but he ran the campaigns of his wife, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson. Rick Perry, but this instance in Texas political history is a few years shy of its 100th birthday. There are 150 members of the Texas State House. On July 21, 1917, in the midst of the excitement, Ferguson appeared before the Travis County grand jury, and several days later it was announced that he had been indicted on nine charges. The vote was 25-3. He was a popular figure, singing laws protecting sharecroppers and providing state funding for rural schools. 100% remote. The [Texas House of Representatives] immediately turned its attention to the numerous charges against [Governor James Ferguson] and, after a lengthy investigation, prepared twenty-one articles of impeachment. 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. Senators will then act as jurors while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. On December 31, 1899, he married Miriam A. Wallace; they had two children. When Ferguson found that he could not have his way, he vetoed practically the entire appropriation for the university. She would serve one more term as governor from 1933 to 1935. Senators then act as jurors while the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. 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. General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin, Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services. Eight federal judges have been convicted in the Senate and removed from office. In addition, he established Farmers State Bank. Despite his resignation, the State Senate voted 25-3 to convict, which meant that Ferguson could not seek another public office in Texas. The Senate removed Ferguson from office by a vote of 25-3. [8], Prior to his inauguration, Ferguson conferred with officials at the University of Texas regarding appointments affecting learning and higher education. But Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary. Interns wanted: Get paid to help ensure that every voter has unbiased election information. Ross Phares, The Governors of Texas (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1976). After being re-elected in 1916, Ferguson became the only governor to a! 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