Jim Ferguson got in trouble for throwing his weight around, and for using the publics money as a personal slush fund. Scandals of all sorts, from the brazen to the bizarre, have occurred for decades at all levels. In 1928, for the first time since 1914, Ferguson was not an active participant in a political campaign, but even then he took some interest in the race for the governorship and gave his support to Louis J. Wardlaw. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Texas History Minute: Jim Ferguson only Texas governor to be impeached, removed. Although Ferguson was disqualified from holding public office, he did try to run in the 1924 elections to redeem his reputation. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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. Hall investigated the university's forgivable-loans program and admissions policies and preferential treatment to politically-connected individuals. He was replaced by William P. Hobby after the Texas House of Representatives found him guilty in ten of twenty-one charges. In order for an official to be impeached, articles of impeachment must be brought by the Texas House of Representatives. 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? Although he had never held office, he was not a stranger to political problems; he had done much work in keeping local-option prohibition from Bell County, had been one of the Bell County managers in the campaign of Robert L. Henry for Congress in 1902, had helped carry Bell County for Cone Johnson in his contest with Joseph Weldon Bailey in 1908, had served as a campaign manager for Robert V. Davidson in 1910, and had aided Oscar B. Colquitt in his successful gubernatorial campaign (1912). She even used the word Christian in the law, implying that Christian forgiveness was appropriate here. In 1917, James E. Ferguson, nicknamed "Pa Ferguson," was impeached and removed from the governorship of Texas. Ferguson was the only "wet" candidate in the Democratic primary and garnered all of the anti-prohibitionist votes over a plurality of "dry" candidates. After all, he was known as Farmer Jim. The Ferguson controversy with the university brought renewed interest in the old charges, however, and at about the same time a number of new charges were made. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. Prohibition was a major issue in the campaign of 1914, with several aspirants for the governorship on both sides of the question. Has Austin Eliminated All Restrictions On People Experiencing Homelessness? The vote was 25-3. Cities | Millions of Texans have rare diseases. Oklahoma has impeached and removed two governors, and West Virginia impeached four members of its State Supreme Court at the same time in 2018. The Constitution gives Congress the power of impeachment in federal cases. House Speaker Franklin Fuller called a special session to consider charges of impeachment against the governor. James Ferguson. 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. The controversy grew out of the refusal of the board of regents to remove certain faculty members whom the governor found objectionable. 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. | When he was four years old, his father died. James Edward Ferguson, also called Farmer Jim or Pa was born in Bell County in 1871. TEXAS HISTORY MINUTE: The impeachment of Pa Ferguson, Texas lawmakers push for statewide paid parental leave, Graford secures regional quarterfinal in domina, Parker County man arrested on charges of impersonating an officer, 'New' doors opening: Poston Dry Goods now Mineral Wells hub, Mineral Wells native celebrates 103rd birthday, UPDATED playoff basketball scores: 2/20-2/21/23, Brock moves on with emphatic win over Holliday, Graford secures regional quarterfinal in dominant fashion, Millsap's Coach Johnson relishes his 'calling'. Found in volume 15,291 (available at govinfo). ii) During the period between World Wars I and II, James and Miriam Ferguson were the most powerful couple in Texas. All Rights Reserved.Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | site credit, on Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson, Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson, Leaders of Their Race: Educating Black and White Women in the New South. The House then chooses members to act as managers to present the case to the Senate for trial. The charges were then sent to the state Senate for trial. 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. Your donation keeps our trusted reporting free and accessible for all Texans and during a legislative session when lawmakers are set to tackle issues from school choice for K-12 students to school safety improvements to changes in property taxes, its critical that Texans know what lawmakers decisions mean for their futures. If Hall is impeached, he would bethe third person in Texas history to be in that situation. Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Almost a century later, the Ferguson impeachment presents both striking similarities and key differences to. W. V. Howerton, ed., Facts on Ferguson: A Review of the Impeachment and a Reply to Charges Made by Ex-Governor Ferguson (Austin, 1918). James Edward (Pa) Ferguson (1871-1944), Texas governor, son of James Edward and Fannie (Fitzpatrick) Ferguson, was born on August 31, 1871, near Salado, Bell County, Texas. [15][16] No unelected official in Texas has ever been successfully impeached or removed from office. Dr. Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan who enjoys sharing these stories about people from the Lone Star state. He blamed his directors for running a shoddy operation. Public policy. Dictionary of American History. 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. The Texas Supreme Court disagreed, so he had his wife run in his place. James Edward Ferguson, also called Farmer Jim or Pa was born in Bell County in 1871. Only the governor can do that. 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. He had been an opponent of Ferguson for the Democratic party's nomination for governor in 1914.[11]. Ferguson also ran for President of the United States in the 1920 election as the candidate of the American Party. Senators then act as jurors while the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. [8], Prior to his inauguration, Ferguson conferred with officials at the University of Texas regarding appointments affecting learning and higher education. The accusations, apparently true, were typical of the corruption, graft, and manipulations of American public life. She served two nonconsecutive two-year terms as governor: January 20, 1925 January 17, 1927. Ma placed a distant fifth. With charges growing against Ferguson, the House of Representatives drew up 21 charges against him and voted to impeach. He was kicked out of a local prep school, Salado College, at age 12 for misbehavior. 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While there, legislators legally took up another matter, impeachment. 9, 1916) Gen. John J. Pershing led US forces in a hunt for Villa from March 14, 1916 to Feb. 7, 1917 Ross Phares, The Governors of Texas (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1976). Centex baseball preview: What's old, new, borrowed and blue for 2023? In 1917, James Ferguson was impeached and removed from office as governor of Texas while under indictment. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. we are currently accepting new members. In 1920 he was an unsuccessful candidate for President on his own American party ticket. American banker and politician (18711944), Brochure, "Meet the Fergusons: Two Governors for the Price of One", Bell County Museum, Belton, Texas, Lucadia Christiana Niles Pease (18671869), Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Texas Politics Project, Governors of Texas, 12. The Texas Senate reduced the charges to 10, half of which dealt with the transfer of the $5,600. He was replaced by William P. Hobby after the Texas House of Representatives found him guilty in ten of twenty-one charges. He tapped Reverend Allan Ferguson Cunningham to serve as State Librarian, despite his lack of training or experience in the field. He started his own newspaper that fall, Ferguson Forum, to promote his views that the impeachment was illegitimate. Seven of the charges related to misapplication of public funds, one to embezzlement, and one to the diversion of a special fund. Hall updated Governor Rick Perry's office in April 2013 with the full list. The Senate removed Ferguson from office by a vote of 25-3. Farmer Jim wasnt even much of a farmer, though he owned a few farms and was incredibly loyal to farmers. The Senate found Ferguson guilty on five charges relating to mishandling of public funds and abuse of power in relation to the university. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. Even his former political allies couldnt find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence and his own indefensible behavior. He entered Salado College, a local preparatory school, at age twelve but was eventually expelled for disobedience. With charges growing against Ferguson, the House of Representatives drew up 21 charges against him and voted to impeach. 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. The veto was retaliation against the university because of its refusal to dismiss certain faculty members whom Ferguson found objectionable, including William Harding Mayes, former Texas Lieutenant Governor and founder and dean of the University of Texas School of Journalism. Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Ma placed a distant fifth. ." [1] Impeachments in Texas begin in the Texas House of Representatives which must cast a majority vote in favor of impeachment. 4. Provision was made for the establishment of the Austin State School. Jim Ferguson so enormously popular 100 years ago. Copyright 2022 Coordinating Council for Women in History. He had been accused of misappropriating funds, but investigations failed to find anything that would warrant impeachment, and the probe seemed to be closed. The Legislature then came back into session to consider impeachment, an attempt Ferguson immediately condemned. Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Norman D. Brown, Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921-1928 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984). The impeachment process begins with the House of Representatives. Soon the talk of impeachment is echoing through the halls of the Capitol. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. [6] They had two daughters: Ouida Wallace Ferguson, and Dorrace Watt Ferguson. He convened the commission, and the body approved that Barker write a letter to the Governor-elect. I dont have to give any reasons, according to the American Political Science Review. Five of the articles sustained by the Senate charged Ferguson with the misapplication of public funds, three related to his quarrel with the University, one declared that he had failed properly to respect and enforce the banking laws of the state, and one charged that he had received $156,500 in currency from a source that he refused to reveal. In 1924, Ferguson entered his wife Miriam, known as "Ma", in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Ferguson was born to the Reverend James E. Ferguson, and Fannie Ferguson near Salado in south Bell County, Texas. Eight governors have been removed from office through impeachment. KVUE is looking back at the history of some past Texas governors. Nine years later, Ferguson died of a stroke. After an unsuccessful campaign for president in 1920, Ferguson ran the gubernatorial campaign of his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson, in 1924. The prohibitionists held an elimination convention and pledged their support to Thomas H. Ball of Houston. In 1935, the Fergusons lost their ranch in Bell County because of financial troubles during the Great Depression. Other high-profile librarians voiced their support of Winkler, as did the son of an ex-governor, and a chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Ferguson declared that the legislature constituted little more than a "kangaroo court," but only a few Barred from state office, he ran for president in 1920 on the American Party ticket. In the United States legal tradition, impeachment is comparable to an indictment in a criminal court. An argument over spending tax dollars, an attempt to silence political opponents, and charges of a kangaroo court. This is not a current story but a faint echo of a notorious event in Texas History, the impeachment of Gov. Elections in 2023 | In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly-contested race. The legislature then came back into session to consider impeachment, an attempt Ferguson immediately condemned. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. 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. Ferguson did some good things. In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. 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. There are 150 members of the Texas State House. Vinson asked what they had done to deserve it and he said, I dont need a reason, Im the governor.. In 1903, Ferguson was elected as city attorney in Belton, Texas. 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 that is the case, then the state house must follow procedures outlined regarding calling a special session specifically for the process of impeachment. His wife was defeated for re-election in 1926, following questions of improper use of her pardoning power. Sam Houston was the first president of the Independent Republic of Texas , and he later served as governor of the state of T, Connally, John Bowden, Jr. He was a popular figure, singing laws protecting sharecroppers and providing state funding for rural schools. As a result of these and other expenditures, the ad valorem tax rate for state purposes advanced from 12 1/2 to 30 cents. 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. He can be reached by email: Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. Though Fergusons hatred for UT ran deep, he never fully explained his animus. The incumbent State Librarian was Ernest Winkler, who was a professional historian with years of experience as a librarian. Fifteen federal judges and one cabinet official have been impeached by the House since the ratification of the Constitution. Governor have not acted, then by proclamation of the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate. We help women historians thrive through events, resources, and community. As a political speaker he had few equals. He left home at 16, traveling and taking odd jobs until he returned to farm in Bell County. This was a vital point to Ferguson, because the impeachment barred him from running for any office in Texas for life. In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly contested race. It appears that there were no criminal proceedings in this case. Almost a century later, the Ferguson impeachment presents both striking similarities and key differences to the ongoing saga involving University of Texas System Regent Wallace Hall. Only 17 federal officers have been impeached since 1776. There are 31 members of the Texas State Senate. An effort was begun in 2013 to investigate the possibility of impeaching University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall. . Dictionaries thesauruses pictures and press releases. 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. I suppose the best of these was substantially increasing the funding for public education, particularly benefiting rural Texas, and creating a Texas Highway Department, even though he later raided the agencys funds with impunity. Similarly, the Texas constitution gives the lower house of the legislature power to impeach judges, the governor, and statewide elected officials. 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. Yet the House rejected a broad attempt to impeach Johnson for abuse of power in 1867, because many congressmen felt a president had to commit a crime to be impeached. Impeachment is the process by which the legislative branch has the authority to remove a sitting public official. While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. At the same time, officials had begun looking into Fergusons finances. July 2, 20146 AM Central. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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 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. Popular commented articles jurors while the chief justice of the charges related to misapplication public! Called a special fund was an unsuccessful campaign for President on his own indefensible behavior, in 1924 his... 'S nomination for governor in 1914. [ 11 ] over spending tax dollars, an attempt immediately! Majority vote in favor of impeachment against the governor, and the body approved that Barker write letter., '' was impeached and removed from office establishment of the refusal of the Supreme Court disagreed, so had. 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