So, he quit ahead of time so he could then turn aroundand he was counting on coming right back and getting reelected. Copyright 2022 Coordinating Council for Women in History. Texas History Minute: Jim Ferguson only Texas governor to be impeached, removed. [9] According to his accusers, Hall filed requests of more than 800,000 pages, which some Texas administrators called an unnecessary burden. 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. 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. 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. Ross Phares, The Governors of Texas (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1976). 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. Oklahoma has impeached and removed two governors, and West Virginia impeached four members of its State Supreme Court at the same time in 2018. A grand jury in Travis County learned that in 1915, Ferguson had transferred $5,600 from the state to a bank in Austin and then to his bank in Temple that he used to pay off a private debt. 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. James Ferguson is the only governor to be impeached and convicted. There were two major elements of the impeachment charges brought against Ferguson in 1917. He left home at 16, traveling and taking odd jobs until he returned to farm in Bell County. The Board of Regents hired the firm to review whether Hall may have violated any federal privacy laws in his handling of student information. Encyclopedia.com. Norman Kittrell, Governors Who Have Been and Other Public Men of Texas (Houston: Dealy-Adey-Elgin, 1921). 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. Henry S. Johnston of Oklahoma Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. The account said Ferguson accused the student protesters of committing treason against him. Impeachment is the process by which the legislative branch has the authority to remove a sitting public official. This is not a current story but a faint echo of a notorious event in Texas history, the impeachment of Gov. In retaliation, Ferguson vetoed the entire appropriation for the university. After he was appointed in 2011, Hall began looking into what he believed to be clout scandals within the University of Texas system. There are 150 members of the Texas State House. You can cancel at any time. Waco police investigate overnight shooting in North Waco, Waco family grows Versatile Real Estate business together, R&S BBQ provides inspiration alongside tasty meals, Couple cares for pets like their own with Almost Anything, Johnson Roofing maintains leadership reins. The legislature passed generous appropriation bills, and the ad valorem tax rate reached the constitutional maximum of thirty-five cents. Soon the talk of impeachment is echoing through the halls of the Capitol. Scandals of all sorts, from the brazen to the bizarre, have occurred for decades at all levels. System has not protected the privacy rights of students, staff, and patients. He only made the ballot in Texas, winning just under 10% of the vote. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 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. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses. With charges growing against Ferguson, the House of Representatives drew up 21 charges against him and voted to impeach. Even his former political allies couldn't find him innocent in the face of such damning evidence - and his own indefensible behavior. The impeachment process begins with the House of Representatives. Almost a century later, the Ferguson impeachment presents both striking similarities and key differences to. But Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary. While the campaign of 1916 was in progress, the Ferguson administration had been charged with a number of irregularities. James Ferguson died on September 21, 1944, and was buried in the State Cemetery in Austin. The Senate, sitting as a High Court of Impeachment, spent three weeks considering the charges and finally convicted the governor on ten of them. James E. Ferguson Called on Tejanos to rise up/support the revolution; Called on other minorities to join Tejanos to carve out a republic from land US took from Mexico US Pancho Villa Mexican guerilla leader led an attack on Columbus NM (Mar. July 2, 20146 AM Central. Despite his resignation, the State Senate voted 25-3 to convict, which meant that Ferguson could not seek another public office in Texas. Jim Pa Ferguson became the first person in Texas to be impeached. He told the UT president, Dr. Robert E. Vinson, that he wanted them fired. You have permission to edit this article. Dr. Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. But the day before the conviction was certain to come down. 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). Gov. In 1922 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. In general, the purpose of an impeachment proceeding is to remove from office a . Their campaign slogan: Two governors for the price of one.. Centex baseball preview: What's old, new, borrowed and blue for 2023? 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. After a trial, the Senate voted him out of office by a vote of 25-3 and banned him from holding any state office. He was re-elected in 1916. The day before he was thrown out of office he resigned, saying it didn't count. In 1918 he sought the Democratic party nomination for the governorship but was defeated by William P. Hobby. In sum, his down-home authenticity faded away to reveal a man who was mostly a fraud. The entire process is substantially the same in Texas for elected officials, as it is for most of the other states. Nine years later, Ferguson died of a stroke. But in the midst of this personal war he had sparked with the flagship university in Austin, Ferguson appeared before a Travis County grand jury and was indicted on nine charges. Jordan, Barbara Charline The House immediately turned its attention to the numerous charges against the governor and, after a lengthy investigation, prepared twenty-one articles of impeachment. However, the date of retrieval is often important. One final note of incredulity. The founders did not invent impeachment. 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. He lost the 1922 Democratic Primary race for U.S. Senate by a wide margin. Ballotpedia's election legislation tracker, Political favoritism in admissions to the University of Texas, Forgivable loans program at the University of Texas Law School, House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations (TSAO), Joint Committee on Oversight of Higher Ed Governance, Excellence & Transparency, University of Texas System Board of Regents, 1987 Memorandum within the Texas Legislative Council regarding removal of state officers by the state legislature, Analysis of Constitutional Impeachment Procedures in Texas, Texas House Bill 588, the "Top 10% Rule" (1997), https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Impeachments_in_Texas&oldid=8020920, Conflicts in school board elections, 2021-2022, Special Congressional elections (2023-2024), 2022 Congressional Competitiveness Report, State Executive Competitiveness Report, 2022, State Legislative Competitiveness Report, 2022, Partisanship in 2022 United States local elections. Title 6, Chapter 665 of the Texas Government Code addresses the impeachment and removal of public officers by the state house. 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. 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. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 86 (October 1982). With strong support from progressive and anti-Prohibition forces, "Farmer Jim" was elected governor of Texas in 1914. He had been accused of misappropriating funds, but investigations failed to find anything that would warrant impeachment, and the probe seemed to be 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. Before his impeachment, Texas students paraded from the campus to the Capitol and held a protest rally, complete with the university band, right outside Fergusons office while he met with the regents. [1] Impeachments in Texas begin in the Texas House of Representatives which must cast a majority vote in favor of impeachment. The Fergusons beat Robertson and went to the Governor's Mansion for a third time. Dr. Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan who enjoys sharing these stories about people from the Lone Star state. You have permission to edit this article. KVUE is looking back at the history of some past Texas governors. State executives | This is why I so often say, Im W. F. Strong, these are Stories from Texas some of them are astonishingly true., 2021 Texas Standard. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Thats how she likes it. we are committed to exploring the diverse experiences and histories of all women. He later ran anyway, claiming that he had resigned before he was convicted. If that is the case, then the state house must follow procedures outlined regarding calling a special session specifically for the process of impeachment. Only two elected officials in the history of Texas have ever been successfully impeached. To impeach, the House simply needs a majority vote on the different charges involved. StrongJanuary 29, 202010:48 amArts & Culture, Stories From Texas, Bain News Service /Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]. In 1917, James E. Ferguson, nicknamed "Pa Ferguson," was impeached and removed from the governorship of Texas. But it is Hall not his political patron, Perry who would be targeted for possible impeachment. He said the governor served the people, but he used the power of the office to reward his friends and crush not just his political enemies, but good servants of the state whose only offense was not voting for him. Some legislators justified the impeachment on the grounds that Hall did not disclose several lawsuits that he was involved in when he originally completed his Regent background check. When his reasoning was questioned, he would respond, I am governor of Texas. Even during the workday Christina De La Cruzs family is rarely far away. "Ma" Ferguson became the second female governor in the United States, with Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming being the first. Samuel Houston (1793-1863), American statesman and soldier, was the person most responsible for bringing Texas into the Union. 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. Fifteen federal judges and one cabinet official have been impeached by the House since the ratification of the Constitution. The state was blue, then really indigo. Bruce A. Glasrud is professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay, and retired dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Sul Ross State University. By W.F. State legislature | Federal courts | Which Way Will Harris County Precinct 3 Turn In 2020? The accusations against Mayes were that he used his ownership of newspapers, including the Brownwood Bulletin, to spread negative information about Ferguson. Provision was made for the establishment of the Austin State School. The chairman of the investigating committee, William H. Bledsoe of Lubbock, called for impeachment. Retaliation, Ferguson died on September 21, 1944, and the ad valorem tax rate the. In retaliation, Ferguson died of a notorious event in Texas begin in the 1918 primary! 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