Horatio Washington Bruce

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Horatio Washington Bruce

Horatio Washington Bruce (born February 22, 1830 in Vanceburg , Kentucky , † January 22, 1903 in Louisville , Kentucky) was an American lawyer and politician .

Career

Horatio Washington Bruce, son of Amanda Bragg (1803-1852) and Alexander Bruce (1796-1851), was born in 1830 about a mile south of Vanceburg, Lewis County . His parents named him after two of his uncles: Horatio and Washington Bruce. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and his father was a wealthy landowner who served as a Whig in the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825 and 1826 . His maternal grandfather also served in the War of Independence. On his father's side, Horatio Washington Bruce was of Scottish descent and on his mother's side, English.

Bruce attended private schools in Lewis County and in Manchester ( Ohio ). At the age of 16 he started working as a salesman in a general store - a position he held until 1849. He also worked as a postmaster at the post office in Vanceburg. He then taught in 1849 for a period of five months at a school in Vanceburg and in 1850 also for a period of five months at another school in Lewis County. In December 1850 he moved to Flemingsburg ( Fleming County ), where he at Leander Cox (1812-1865) Jura studied. After receiving his admission to the bar in July 1851, he opened his own law firm in Flemingsburg. In late 1851 he was named an examiner by the Fleming County District Court and soon thereafter was elected to the Flemingsburg Board of School Trustees .

Bruce also had a political career. He joined the Whig Party. Before the presidential election of 1852 , he gave campaign speeches for Winfield Scott (1786-1866) and William Alexander Graham (1804-1875). After the Whig Party broke up, he joined the Know-Nothing Party . In 1855 and 1856 he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, where he represented Fleming County.

On June 12, 1856, he married Elizabeth Barbour Helm (1836-1913), daughter of two-time Kentucky Governor John L. Helm (1802-1867), in Helm Place, the bride's home, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The couple had six children: Lucinda Hardin (1857–1857), Helm (1860–1927), Elizabeth Barbour (1863–1925), Maria Preston Pope (1867–1945), Mary (1872–1938) and Alexander (1875–1942 ). In August 1856, Bruce was elected Commonwealth's Attorney in the 10th District. This included the following counties: Mason County , Lewis County, Greenup County , Rowan County , Fleming County and Nicholas County . He held this post until 1858.

In late 1858 he resigned from his post as Commonwealth's Attorney and moved to Louisville, Jefferson County . There he founded the law firm Helm and Bruce with his brother-in-law Benjamin Hardin Helm (1831–1863) . In the presidential election of 1860 Bruce actively supported John Bell (1797-1869) and Edward Everett (1794-1865), both of the Constitutional Union Party . In 1861 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the US House of Representatives . He suffered a defeat to Robert Mallory (1815-1885).

When the Civil War broke out , Bruce sided with the Confederate States and on August 17, 1861, moved from Louisville to Bowling Green ( Warren County ), the Confederate headquarters in Kentucky. He took between 29 and 31 October 1861 in part as a delegate at the first meeting secession of Kentucky, in Russellville ( Logan County took place). The self-convened assembly laid the foundation for Kentucky's exit from the Union . It made a second secession meeting necessary, which took place in Russellville between November 18 and 19, 1861. At the second meeting, a decree of secession was passed declaring Kentucky's exit from the Union. A Provisional Confederate Government of Kentucky was also established and he was elected to the legislature. Shortly thereafter, Kentucky was incorporated into the Confederate States.

On January 22, 1862, Bruce was elected as a delegate to the first Confederate Congress. He sat on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which was responsible for the inauguration of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) as President and Alexander Hamilton Stephens (1812-1883) as Vice-President. He also sat on the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Patents. On January 10, 1864, he was re-elected to the Second Confederate Congress and served there until the end of the Confederation in 1865.

Bruce and the other members in Konföderiertenkongress , together with President Davis, remained until April 2, 1865 in Richmond ( Virginia ). Then they fled to Danville (Virginia), where they stayed until the surrender of Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870) at Appomattox Court House . Then Bruce first traveled to Greensboro ( North Carolina ) and from there to Augusta ( Georgia ), before he returned to Richmond after the promised pardon for all Confederates by US President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875). Bruce traveled to Washington, DC , where he arranged a meeting with his closest friend and colleague from Kentucky, Attorney General James Speed (1812-1887). Speed ​​informed him that Bruce had received a pardon for all acts during the Civil War.

On June 19, 1865 Bruce returned to Louisville and founded the law firm Bruce and Russell there in August 1865 with his former student Samuel Russell. They dissolved the partnership in 1868 when Bruce was elected to the District Court of the 9th District. This included the following counties: Jefferson County, Oldham County , Shelby County , Spencer County and Bullitt County . With a majority of 10,611 votes out of a total of 14,817 votes, he achieved the victory. Bruce was among the first Kentuckiers to ask the courts to recognize black testimony as competent and valid. In this regard, he wrote a letter to the Chicago Evening Post on February 20, 1869, in support of the cause .

He began working as a law professor at the University of Louisville in early 1872 , although he had never attended college. He held the chair for history and law, real estate law, and contract and criminal law. He was also President of Louisville Medical College. Governor Preston Leslie (1819–1907) appointed him Chancellor at Louisville Chancery Court in 1873 to fill the vacancy that arose from the death of Chancellor Cochran. In the subsequent by-election in February 1874, he was elected for the remainder of the term by Chancellor Cochran. In August 1874 he was re-elected for a full six-year term. He resigned on March 10, 1880 from his post at the Louisville Chancery Court to accept the position as Attorney with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad . Shortly after taking this position, he also resigned from his position as a professor at the University of Louisville.

Bruce died in Louisville in 1903 and was buried there in Cave Hill Cemetery .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amanda Bragg Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  2. ↑ Alexander Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  3. ^ A b c d e f g h Levin, H .: Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky , Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company, 1897, p. 191
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky , Chicago, Illinois: JM Gresham Company, 1896, pp. 395f
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g William Elsey Connelley and Ellis Merton Coulter: History of Kentucky , Volume 5, The American Historical Society, 1922, p. 625
  6. ↑ Elizabeth Barbour Helm Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  7. ↑ John Larue Helm in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ Lucinda Hardin Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  9. ^ Helm Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ Elizabeth Barbour Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  11. ^ Preston Pope Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  12. ^ Mary Bruce Smith in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  13. ↑ Alexander Bruce in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  14. ^ A b Van Meter, Benjamin Franklin: Genealogies and Sketches of Some Old Families who Have Taken Prominent Part in the Development of Virginia and Kentucky Especially: And Later of Many Other States of this Union , JP Morton, University of Virginia, 1901, p 123

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Bruce, Horatio Washington
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH near Vanceburg , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1903
Place of death Louisville , Kentucky