The framers considered impeachment an important check on the power of the presidency and against corruption. Dictionary of American History. Ferguson was indicted on nine charges which included misapplication of public funds, embezzlement and the diversion of a special fund. 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. Ballotpedia features 395,442 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. The reason he called the special session was because he wanted to address the UT budget, but they impeached him instead. Three others dealt with the veto of university funding as an abuse of power and official oppression. ii) During the period between World Wars I and II, James and Miriam Ferguson were the most powerful couple in Texas. [20], A January 2014 review by the law firm Hilder & Associates concluded that there was "no credible evidence of a violation of [the state government code] that would warrant a referral for criminal prosecution." In order for an official to be impeached, articles of impeachment must be brought by the Texas House of Representatives. Against a lawsuit filed to prevent the Texas Democratic Party from listing him on the primary ballot, Ferguson argued that his impeachment trial ended without a conviction or judgment because he resigned his office before the Senate decided the case. Jim Ferguson got in trouble for throwing his weight around, and for using the publics money as a personal slush fund. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. Only the governor can do that. The Senate removed Ferguson from office by a vote of 25-3. Jim Ferguson so enormously popular 100 years ago. Jim Pa Ferguson became the first person in Texas to be impeached. The letter claimed that Winkler was the best person for the job. Preliminary investigations failed to uncover any charge that would merit impeachment, and for a time the incident seemed closed. 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. Though Fergusons hatred for UT ran deep, he never fully explained his animus. He made only a few speeches and must have known long before the votes were cast that Mrs. Ferguson had no chance to win. Though no Texas official has been impeached and removed from office at the state level since Ferguson, Texas politics has hardly been scandal-free. In July 1917, he was indicted for misappropriation of funds. Though he was kicked out of office and disgraced in front of his colleagues, Ferguson was still popular among his hardcore supporters and rallied back. The UT battle was the one he should have avoided. The chairman of the investigating committee, William H. Bledsoe of Lubbock, called for impeachment. [5], He also became active in the Democratic Party and managed several local political campaigns. Farmer Jim wasnt even much of a farmer, though he owned a few farms and was incredibly loyal to farmers. However, the judgment to impeachhanded down one day after his resignation-was upheld, preventing him from holding public office in Texas. 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. He became a lawyer in 1897, married Miriam A. Wallace in 1899, and expanded into real estate, insurance and banking. Scandals of all sorts, from the brazen to the bizarre, have occurred for decades at all levels. It appears that neither governor was brought to trial. Title 6, Chapter 665 of the Texas Government Code addresses the impeachment and removal of public officers by the state house. Needed buildings were provided at other eleemosynary institutions. In 1913, William Sulzer was impeached and removed from office as governor of New York. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by his successor and incumbent, William P. Hobby of Houston, previously the lieutenant governor. Cities | Impeachment is the power of a legislative body to address charges of impropriety or criminality by a government official, such as a governor or lieutenant governor. He told the UT president, Dr. Robert E. Vinson, that he wanted them fired. He liked to say he was no city slicker and no college dude. A government doesnt require educated fools to run properly. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ferguson-impeachment. The Arizona House and Senate impeached Mecham, a Republican, in 1988 after a state grand jury convicted him on six felony charges of fraud, perjury and filing false documents. we are currently accepting new members. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. But it is Hall not his political patron, Perry who would be targeted for possible impeachment. When they wouldnt, he started replacing them one by one and withheld state funding from the university to force UT to obey his orders. James Ferguson was a banker from Temple who would become governor in 1914 - famous, or infamous, as the only Texas governor to face impeachment. James Ferguson. 23 Feb. 2023 . He was impeached in 1917 and removed from office. The Senate can call witnesses to testify and vote to convict with a two-thirds majority vote. Both elected and non-elected officials can be impeached in Texas. FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT. However, the date of retrieval is often important. He showed up most every day to his own trial, invited or not, with two armed Texas Rangers as escorts. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. U.S. Congress | James E. Ferguson", Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature 18462006, "Governor Ferguson Is Impeached By The Senate Saturday, By 27 to 4: 10 of 21 Charges Sustained By High Impeachment Court", "Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 18462010", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_E._Ferguson&oldid=1136223529, Candidates in the 1920 United States presidential election, Impeached state and territorial governors of the United States removed from office, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from March 2020, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 29 January 2023, at 09:22. If Hall is impeached, he would bethe third person in Texas history to be in that situation. Low 54F. "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. An effort was begun in 2013 to investigate the possibility of impeaching University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall. As much as one might appreciate Fergusons homey aphorisms, a word hed likely have found objectionable because of its academic taint his style loses its charm when you learn all that was revealed at his impeachment. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. . He was impeached in 1917 and removed from office. The convention did not endorse Ferguson, but the other anti-prohibition candidates withdrew from the race. System has not protected the privacy rights of students, staff, and patients. That committee has been holding a series of meetings in late 2013. Governor have not acted, then by proclamation of the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate. The controversy grew out of the refusal of the board of regents to remove certain faculty members whom the governor found objectionable. The Constitution gives Congress the power of impeachment in federal cases. The Board of Regents hired the firm to review whether Hall may have violated any federal privacy laws in his handling of student information. She would serve one more term as governor from 1933 to 1935. He was reelected in 1916 but the following year was impeached on grounds of misusing public funds and removed from office. He left home at 16, traveling and taking odd jobs until he returned to farm in Bell County. Even his former political allies couldn't find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence - and his own indefensible behavior. He was by this time an old man. 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. James Ferguson Dr. Ken Bridges An argument over spending tax. We help women historians thrive through events, resources, and community. Ferguson declared that the Legislature was nothing more than a kangaroo court," resigned a day before the official conviction, and was steadfast in his beliefs that the judgment didnt apply to him, according to Rutherford. W. V. Howerton, ed., Facts on Ferguson: A Review of the Impeachment and a Reply to Charges Made by Ex-Governor Ferguson (Austin, 1918). He ended up back in the Governors Mansion for a third time when she became the first woman governor in Texas history. The vote made him ineligible to hold any office of honor, trust or profit in the state of Texas. He claimed to be a successful businessman; he was not. 2-stem governor fro 1921-1924 . Seven related to misapplication of public funds, one to embezzlement and one to the diversion of a special fund. Impeached provides a new examination of the rise and fall of Ferguson's political fortunes, offering a focused look at how battles over economic class, academic freedom, women's enfranchisement, and . Norman Kittrell, Governors Who Have Been and Other Public Men of Texas (Houston: Dealy-Adey-Elgin, 1921). In 1917, James E. Ferguson, nicknamed "Pa Ferguson," was impeached and removed from the governorship of Texas. To impeach, the House simply needs a majority vote on the different charges involved. He can be reached by email: Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. She even used the word Christian in the law, implying that Christian forgiveness was appropriate here. You have permission to edit this article. 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. She served two nonconsecutive two-year terms as governor: January 20, 1925 January 17, 1927. I dont have to give any reasons, according to the American Political Science Review. This is simply not true. The anti-prohibitionists attempted to have a similar convention, but Ferguson, whose statements and Bell County record identified him as an anti-prohibitionist, refused to submit his name to it. Only two elected officials in the history of Texas have ever been successfully impeached. The first had to do with his abuse of power while attempting to micromanage the University of Texas. [10][11] However, a letter from University chancellor Francisco Cigarroa in February 2014 said that Hall likely requested fewer than 100,000 pages. The Texas State Legislature adjourned its regular session on May 27, 2013. Ferguson, a political novice, suffered from the lack of a viable power-base. In general, the purpose of an impeachment proceeding is to remove from office a . Instead, the House immediately turned its attention to 21 articles of impeachment. State legislature | He later ran anyway, claiming that he had resigned before he was convicted. 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. After an unsuccessful campaign for president in 1920, Ferguson ran the gubernatorial campaign of his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson, in 1924. Dictionaries thesauruses pictures and press releases. He convened the commission, and the body approved that Barker write a letter to the Governor-elect. He blamed his directors for running a shoddy operation. To impeach, the House simply needs a majority vote on the different charges involved. months before, both the House and the Senate had refused to sustain charges against him, and his removal from office was far from certain when the legislature convened in special session. Its president is in the crosshairs. The Texas Supreme Court disagreed, so he had his wife run in his place. 2] THE IMPEACHMENT OF JAMES E. FERGUSON I85 there, was immediately converted to the legal profession. Of course, her husband was the only one the amnesty applied to. The second had to do with his utilization of the Temple Bank he had controlling interest in as his personal slush fund. The Senate found Ferguson guilty on five charges relating to mishandling of public funds and abuse of power in relation to the university. Eight governors have been removed from office through impeachment. The founders did not invent impeachment. | Ferguson was indicted on nine charges in July 1917. State and local courts | Her most recent publications include contributions to Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives and Discovering Texas History. Aside from the act instituting the highway department, the second Ferguson administration was marked by little in the way of important legislation. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. But Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary. He had attempted to stack the board of regents with friends who would help fire these professors and staffers, and he had called for the resignation of the universitys president, Robert Vinson. 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." This might sound like the controversy involving UT System Regent Wallace Hall, an appointee of Gov. The campaign proved him to be a man of considerable native ability and the possessor of a captivating personality. Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. he was accused of misuse of public funds following his call for a special legislative session When a governor is removed from office, resigns, or dies or becomes incapacitated while in office, who becomes governor? 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. The movement to impeach and remove James Ferguson as governor ultimately ended with Ferguson _____. And she won. 100% remote. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than two dozen books, most recently Anti-Black Violence in Twentieth-Century Texas. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. He was re-elected in 1916. [1] Impeachments in Texas begin in the Texas House of Representatives which must cast a majority vote in favor of impeachment. [7], In 1914, Ferguson was elected as governor of Texas by running as an anti-prohibitionist Democrat. He moved to Temple and in 1907 joined with others in establishing the Temple State Bank. He tapped Reverend Allan Ferguson Cunningham to serve as State Librarian, despite his lack of training or experience in the field. Though no Texas official has been impeached and removed from office at the state level since Ferguson, Texas politics has hardly been scandal-free. "Ma" Ferguson became the second female governor in the United States, with Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming being the first. Pat Neff. youngest governor in Texas history. Early in his second term the governor became involved in a serious quarrel with the University of Texas. He had been accused of misappropriating funds, but investigations failed to find anything that would warrant impeachment, and the probe seemed to be closed. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. The regents refused. In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly-contested race. 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). Dr. Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan who enjoys sharing these stories about people from the Lone Star state. The Constitution gives Congress the power of impeachment in federal cases. Samuel Houston (1793-1863), American statesman and soldier, was the person most responsible for bringing Texas into the Union. Oklahoma has impeached and removed two governors, and West Virginia impeached four members of its State Supreme Court at the same time in 2018. In 1903, Ferguson was elected as city attorney in Belton, Texas. 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. Soon after, the alumni group began taking out ads in newspapers calling for the governors impeachment. Nellie Tayloe Ross was sworn in on January 5, 1925; Miriam Ferguson followed on January 20. 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. 2020 Census Making An Invisible Population Visible, Lyceum Poll Finds Bernie Sanders Most Likely Democrat To Beat Trump In Texas, One Texans Journey to Understanding His Identity as a Queer Muslim, In West Texas, Knowing Your Address Can Be The Difference Between Life And Death. Ma placed a distant fifth. He resigned his office the day before the judgment was announced and contended that it did not apply to him. Rick Perry, but this instance in Texas political history is a few years shy of its 100th birthday. The United States Constitution provides that the President of the United States shall only be removed from office upon "Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. Why was Governor James E. Ferguson impeached and convicted in 1917? While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. 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. James Edward Ferguson Collection, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. He was a popular figure, signing laws protecting sharecroppers and providing state funding for rural schools. Impeached provides a new examination of the rise and fall of Ferguson's political fortunes, offering a focused look at how battles over economic class, academic freedom, women's enfranchisement, and concentrated political power came to be directed toward one . Dictionary of American History. Before the process could be completed, Ferguson resigned from office, contending that the legislative action against him was a kangaroo court. Despite the Senate's conviction, Ferguson sought to run for governor again in 1924. Governor and President Pro Tempore have not acted, then by proclamation of a signed majority of the members of the Senate. Jordan wa, Houston, Sam In 1935, the Fergusons lost their ranch in Bell County because of financial troubles during the Great Depression. Gulf of Mexico warming at faster rate than global ocean, study finds, As Texas STAAR test goes fully online, teachers feel defeated, Texas Education Agency projects confidence, Texas Standard for Feb. 23, 2023: Why many cotton farmers arent planting as much this year. In his eyes, the university was made up of corruptionists, draft dodgers, two-bit thieves and butterfly chasers, according to a historical account compiled by what is now the Texas Exes. Though he had signed legislation creating three new. When his reasoning was questioned, he would respond, I am governor of Texas. 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Congress the power of the Texas House of Representatives which must cast majority. History of Texas Regent Wallace Hall from the race publications include contributions to Texas women: Their Histories, Lives. Been impeached and removed from office at the state of Texas at Austin two-thirds majority vote favor. Is a writer, historian and native Texan who enjoys sharing these stories about people the... Misappropriation of funds body approved that Barker write a letter to the American political Science.. Session on may 27, 2013 Senate & # x27 ; s conviction, Ferguson was indicted nine! A serious quarrel with the University of Texas ( Houston: Dealy-Adey-Elgin, 1921.! James Ferguson as governor of Texas by running as an anti-prohibitionist Democrat whether Hall may violated.

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