World of Criminal Justice on Augustus Hill Garland
Augustus Hill Garland served as U.S. attorney general from 1885 to 1889 under President Grover Cleveland. Garland proved to be a controversial appointment, as he had served in the Confederate congress during the Civil War. Garland was born on June 11, 1832 in Tipton County, Tennessee. He graduated from St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1851 and read the law in a local office for the next two years. In 1853 he passed the Kentucky bar exam but decided to practice law in Arkansas. After a short time in a small town, Garland moved his practice to the state capitol in Little Rock.
With the secession of southern states in 1861 and the Civil War, Garland momentarily remained a Unionist. However, he soon endorsed Arkansas's secession and was elected to the Confederate provisional congress. After the war Garland became embroiled in a legal dispute over whether Congress had the right to exclude lawyers from federal court who had supported the Confederacy. Though President Andrew Johnson had granted an amnesty to Confederate soldiers and supporters, Radical Republicans in Congress strongly opposed such measures of reconciliation. They enacted a series of laws that sought to punish southerners who had been loyal to the Confederacy, including the law that restricted Garland and other southern lawyers from appearing in federal courts.
Garland challenged the law, arguing that it was unconstitutional abrogation of the president's power to issue pardons under the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 333, 18 L.Ed. 366 (1866), agreed with Garland, concluding that when a pardon is full "it releases the punishment, and blots out the existence of guilt."
The lawsuit did much for Garland's legal and political career. Democratic Party leaders convinced Garland to enter politics. He was elected in 1867 to the U.S. Senate by the Arkansas legislature, but the Radical Republicans in Congress prevented him from taking his seat. Congress, which has the constitutional right to review the credentials of its members, rejected Garland after concluding that Arkansas authorities had done little to aid in Reconstruction. After serving as governor from 1874 to 1876, Garland was again elected to the Senate and this time he was seated. Reelected in 1883, Garland used his legal background to good effect, becoming a member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.
In 1885 Grover Cleveland became president, the first Democrat elected to the office since before the Civil War. He promptly named Garland U.S. attorney general. Though there was some opposition to his nomination because of his service to the Confederacy, he was confirmed and took office. As attorney general he was wary of federal legislation that would reduce the power of the states. Moreover, Garland did nothing to address the growing violence against African Americans in the South.
After leaving office in 1889, Garland returned to his private law practice and he took time to write his memoirs. He died on January 26, 1899, while arguing a case before the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
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