The tenant law was passed but remained on the statute books only a short time before being declared unconstitutional. There is no regularly scheduled session until 2015. He submitted his resignation the day before he was scheduled to be formally convicted. An effort was begun in 2013 to investigate the possibility of impeaching University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall. Dictionary of American History. Only the governor can do that. The Texas Senate, many of whom had served under William Harding Mayes and with whom Mayes maintained cordial relationships,[14] removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office under Texas jurisdiction. Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson (Texas A&M University Press, 2017) Hardcover. In 1906, he sold Farmers bank and established Temple State Bank. Jim Ferguson got in trouble for throwing his weight around, and for using the publics money as a personal slush fund. Impeached. resigning his office and being barred by the legislature to ever serve a state office again. In addition, he established Farmers State Bank. 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. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses. James Ferguson Dr. Ken Bridges An argument over spending tax. Almost a century later, the impeachment of Ferguson by the Texas House of Representatives presents both striking similarities and key differences to the ongoing Hall saga. The charges of impeachment grew from a controvesy with the University of Texas administration, and resulted in Ferguson being charged with misapplication of public funds among nine other charges. 100% remote. Though he had signed legislation creating three new. Though no Texas official has been impeached and removed from office at the state level since Ferguson, Texas politics has hardly been scandal-free. Ferguson was indicted on nine charges which included misapplication of public funds, embezzlement and the diversion of a special fund. Angry that two professors had openly criticized his administration, Ferguson demanded that the board of regents fire them. The excitement that greeted the veto was soon overshadowed by the greater excitement that surrounded the impeachment trial. [5], On December 31, 1899, he married Miriam A. Wallace at her family home. He liked to say he was no city slicker and no college dude. A government doesnt require educated fools to run properly. In 1924, his wife, Miriam Ma Ferguson won election as governor as a stand-in candidate in a tightly-contested race. He was impeached in 1917 and removed from office. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than two dozen books, most recently Anti-Black Violence in Twentieth-Century Texas. 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." The vote was 25-3. ii) During the period between World Wars I and II, James and Miriam Ferguson were the most powerful couple in Texas. The prohibitionists passed over their better-known leaders and gave their support to Charles H. Morris of Winnsboro, a political unknown. Bruce Rutherford, The Impeachment of Jim Ferguson (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983). Aside from the act instituting the highway department, the second Ferguson administration was marked by little in the way of important legislation. The Constitution gives the House power to impeach the president, officials appointed by the president (including cabinet officers) and judges. At the same time, officials had begun looking into Fergusons finances. 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 Senate can call witnesses to testify and vote to convict with a two-thirds majority vote. 2-stem governor fro 1921-1924 . His wife was defeated for re-election in 1926, following questions of improper use of her pardoning power. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. [4], In Texas, two officials have been successfully impeached -- Governor James Ferguson in 1917 and Judge O.P. 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 impeachment process begins with the House of Representatives. You have permission to edit this article. This call was of doubtful legality, but Ferguson removed all question by calling the legislature to meet for the purpose of making appropriations for the University of Texas. Three new normal schools were authorized. "[3] In general, impeachments are a rare occurrence. ." https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ferguson-impeachment, "Ferguson Impeachment Similarly, the Texas Constitution gives the lower house of the legislature power to impeach judges, the governor and statewide elected officials. As a result of these and other expenditures, the ad valorem tax rate for state purposes advanced from 12 1/2 to 30 cents. Scandals of all sorts, from the brazen to the bizarre, have occurred for decades at all levels. And once again, there is talk of impeachment in the Legislature. In 1918 he sought the Democratic party nomination for the governorship but was defeated by William P. Hobby. [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." You can cancel at any time. He was kicked out of a local prep school, Salado College, at age 12 for misbehavior. The reason he called the special session was because he wanted to address the UT budget, but they impeached him instead. Governor and President Pro Tempore have not acted, then by proclamation of a signed majority of the members of the Senate. He was impeached in 1917 and removed from office. 27 February 1917 in Floresville, Texas; d. 15 June 1993 in Houston, Texas), governor of Tex, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ferguson-impeachment. 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. If the Senate is not in session, there are four ways by which it may be convened.[7]. He started his own newspaper that fall, Ferguson Forum, to promote his views that the impeachment was illegitimate. The regents refused. 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. 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 . In 1922 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. 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. Low 54F. The ruling declared that he could no longer hold office in Texas, but he ran the campaigns of his wife, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson. Apply today! In 1917, James E. Ferguson, nicknamed "Pa Ferguson," was impeached and removed from the governorship of Texas. Copyright 2022 Coordinating Council for Women in History. The vote was 25-3. The Legislature then came back into session to consider impeachment, an attempt Ferguson immediately condemned. You have permission to edit this article. 23 Feb. 2023 . Reprinted with permission from the Handbook of Texas Online, a joint project of the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. The account said Ferguson accused the student protesters of committing treason against him. With strong support from progressive and anti-Prohibition forces, "Farmer Jim" was elected governor of Texas in 1914. FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT FERGUSON IMPEACHMENT. The Senate, sitting as a High Court of Impeachment, spent three weeks considering the charges and finally convicted the governor on ten . 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 lost the 1922 Democratic Primary race for U.S. Senate by a wide margin. Jim Ferguson so enormously popular 100 years ago. It proved his undoing. Ma placed a distant fifth. If the state legislature is not in regular session during the time of impeachment, a special session can be called specifically to handle impeachments. Senators then act as jurors while the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. His father died when he was 4. [5], In 2013, the Texas State Legislature began an impeachment trial for Regent Wallace Hall. While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. One final note of incredulity. It appears that neither governor was brought to trial. Preliminary investigations failed to uncover any charge that would merit impeachment, and for a time the incident seemed closed. The letter claimed that Winkler was the best person for the job. Of course, her husband was the only one the amnesty applied to. Rachel M. Gunter further places the Ferguson impeachment in the context of the suffrage movement. But the day before the conviction was certain to come down. When the Democratic Party dominated the Texas political landscape, winning the Democratic primary often sealed the election results. So, he quit ahead of time so he could then turn aroundand he was counting on coming right back and getting reelected. When the House is not in session, there are three ways that the House may be convened for purposes of impeachment. Even his former political allies couldnt find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence and his own indefensible behavior. He vilified everything from fraternities to the faculty to the student body. KVUE is looking back at the history of some past Texas governors. Hall investigated the university's forgivable-loans program and admissions policies and preferential treatment to politically-connected individuals. Gov. The issues were prohibition, the tax rate, and certain unpalatable rumors concerning the Ferguson administration. Only 17 federal officers have been impeached since 1776. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses. 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. As historian Cortez Ewing pointed out, Ferguson was the voice of the people, and with his sixth-grade education, he promoted the idea that he had not suffered the damages of higher degrees. The state was blue, then really indigo. James T. DeShields, They Sat in High Places: The Presidents and Governors of Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1940). When he was four years old, his father died. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Norman D. Brown, Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921-1928 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984). He served 15 months as governor. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges, is separate from the act of impeachment itself. 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