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...