RICHARD BENNETT HUBBARD, Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net 11 Jun 2001 ***************************************************************** Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas Containing Biographical Sketches of the Representive Public, And Many Early Settled Families Chicago: F. A. Battey & Company, 1889, Vol. 1, p. 425 RICHARD BENNETT HUBBARD is a native of Walton county, Georgia. His father, Richard Bennett Hubbard, Sr., was of Welsh ancestors, who, emigrating to America, bore a conspicuous part in the War of the Revolution, serving in Virginia and the Carolinas. His mother, Serena Carter, was a native of Georgia, and descended from the Carters and Battles, whose names are honorably associated with the history of that State, distinguished as they were for patriotism and every manly virtue. His father died in the sisty-fifth year of his age, in Smith county, Texas, whither he had followed the fortunes of his only son. His aged mother still lives. Mr. Hubbard has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Eliza Hudson, daughter of Dr. G. C. Hudson, a distinguished physician of Lafayette, Alabama. She bore him six children, only one of whom survives, an accomplished daughter, wife of Fred W. Mansfield, Esq., the secretary of legation in Japan from 1885 to 1889. His second wife was Miss Janie Roberts, daughter of Hon. Willis Roberts, formerly a member of the Georgia State Senate. She has presided over the executive mansion, as the "first lady of the State," with an ease and grace remembered with pride by the society of the capital, and by all who had occasion to pay their respectrs to her husband during his term of office. Of their three children only one survives. Mr. Hubbbard's educational advantages have been of the best character, and he has well improved them. He is a graduate of Mercer University, Georgia, which institution he left at the age of eighteen, with honors. He subsequently passed through the law department of the University of Virginia, and graduated in law at Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1852 he moved to Texas and began the practice of his profession at Tyler, Smith county, where has ever since resided. His success was marked from the beginning. His superior talents, excellent attainments, tireless application and strict fidelity speedily brought him into notice, and his persevering energy and and eminent success at the bar placed in the front, and early gave him a large and lucrative practice. Scarcely three years after his arrival in Texas, he was not only recognized to be a sound lawyer and eloquent advocate, but also a leader in politics. In 1855, the know-nothing or American party had acquired great prominence, and threatened the overthrow of the then dominant democracy. The whig party had been practically disorganized, and, while the great bulk of the whigs had joined the know-nothing order, thousands of disaffected democrats had also been led to believe that great danger lay in the too large immigration to the United States, and that the pope of Rome was sending thousands of Catholics to America to overturn Protestantism and subjugate the people. Whatever foundation in fact these statements may have had, it is certain that they exercised a marked influence upon the public mind. Democratic leaders saw that the newly aroused prejudices of the people were about to give power to a proscription party and that the very best talent of their party must be brought into requisition to disabuse the public mind. He canvassed the State at the request of the democracy, aroused the sympathies of his party friends, and contributed largely and conspicuously to save the State to the democrats. In the following year he again canvassed the State in the interest of his party. Early in the Spring of 1856 he was chosen a delegate from Smith county to the State democratic convention, which met to choose eight delegates to the national convention to be held at Cincinati. The State convention met at Austin, and Mr. Hubbard was chosen one of the eight delegates to Cincinnati, where he voted for Mr. Buchanan as nominee for president of the United States. On his return home the party demanded of him still further services, and again the hustings of Texas rang with the effective speeches of the gifted young orator. In 1859, when Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated president, Mr. Hubbard was appointed United States district attorney for the western district of Texas. This office he held but little over two years, but during his official life he participated in numerous famous trials before Judge Duval, one of the most famous distinguished justices of the United States district courts. In 1858 he voluntarily resigned the office, and became a candidate to represent Smith county in the State Legislature. Local considerations prompted this course. He had fulfilled his duty as an officer of the Federal court, and had won the confidence of the bench and bar, but the people of the State, and especially of Smith county, sought his voice and services in their legislative councils. His course in the legislature, to which he was elected, was marked by prudence and ability, and his speeches in that body had delivered had deserved influence. He was one of the acknowledged leaders of the legislature--though then the youngest member of that body. In 1860 the State democratic convention that preceded the national convention was held at Galveston, and at the meeting of that body Mr. Hubbard was again chosen a delegate to the national convention, which met at Charleston, South Carolina. As will be remembered one wing of the democratic party nominated Mr. Douglas, and the other the then vice-president, Breckinridge, for president; the republicans nominated Mr. Lincoln, and the Americans Mr. Bell, of Tennessee. The election of Mr. Lincoln was followed by the Civil War, lasting from April, 1861, to April, 1865. Mr. Hubbard raised the Twenty-second Texas regiment of infantry for the Confederate army, of which he was made colonel. He was active during the war in all the campaigns of the trans-Mississippi department. It is only necessary to say here that with him the war ceased when active hostilities ended. He accepted in good faith the results of that war, forgot, as far as possible, the bitterness engendered by the conflict, everywhere counseled moderation and acquiescence in the inevitable, and went quietly to work to repair the shattered fortunes of his home and of his State. His personal example exerted a healthful influence. He did not resume the practice of law till some years after the close of the conflict, and the disabilities imposed upon him by the Federal government, in consequence of his connection with the Confederate army and having held Federal office, prevented him from, taking an active part in political affairs. During the period of "reconstruction: he devoted his energies to his private business, but was by no means a disinterested observer of passing events. Although he did not approve all the measures adopted by the general government to restore the State of Texas to the Union, yet he was too wise and prudent to antagonize a power which the State was then impotent to control or even influence. He knew there was a time in not too distant future when the men of Texas must resume control of their State government, and he patiently awaited the result. As soon as he deemed it prudent he again began the practice of the law and found himself in the midst of professional business. This brought him prominently before the public again, and his friends insisted on his re-appearance in the political field. In 1872 he was sent as a delegate to the democratic State convention to be held at Corsicana. He was then nominated as one of the two electors for the State at large, and canvassed the State for Horace Greeley. Applause and welcome greeted him wherever he went, and although Mr. Greeley was not a favorite with the people of Texas, Colonel Hubbard was chosen elector by a majority of over 20,000. In 1874 he was again sent as a delegate to the democratic State convention, which met at Austin. It was composed of about eight hundred delegates, and he was unanimously chosen its presiding officer and made chairman of the State democratic executive committee. Colonel Hubbard was, by a unanimous vote, nominated for lieutenant governor (Judge Coke being nominated for governor), and was elected by a majority of over 50,000. The duties of this office he discharged with such distinguished ability as to win encomiums from every member of the senate with over which he presided; but the adoption of the new State constitution vacated all the offices and made a new election necessary. Lieutenant-Governor Hubbard was again unanimously nominated for lieutenant-governor and was elected by a majority of over 100,000. In 1876, by appointment of the State, he delivered his famous centennial address for Texas at the World's Exposition at Philadelphia. It was translated into many languages and brought thousands of emigrants to this state. In December, 1876, Governor Coke was elected United States senator, and Governor Hubbard assumed gubernatorial contol of the State under the constitution and laws of Texas. No man ever became the chief executive of a great State under more auspicious circumstances, nor with firmer purpose to render to the State and the people an essential and profitable service. His recommendations to the legislature were accepted in the spirit in which they were offered, and many prominent measures of reform were adopted. The tide of immigration rolled over the State, from which there has not been and is not likely to be a refluent wave. Before the expiration of his term of office, which closed January 22, 1879, a convention was held in Austin, in which more than 1,500 delegates took part. Governor Hubbard's name was placed before the convention as a candidate for governor. He recieved over 900 votes, and on one ballot lacked but three votes of the two-thirds necessary for the nomination; but the "two-thirds rule" prevailed, and after several days of balloting his name and those of all his opponents were withdrawn, and Judge O. M. Roberts was nominated for the position, being the compromise man. Governor Hubbard retired from office poorer in purse than when he assumed its duties, but rich in the consciousness of duties well performed and in the regard and admiration of the vast majority of the people whose State affairs he had conducted with such signal success. Subsequent events have verified the wisdom of his administration, and it holds an honored place in history. Although Governor Hubbard had announced his intention to retire from active political life, the democratic State convention, held at Galveston in 1880, selected him as one of the delegates from the State at large to the national convention that met at Cincinnati in June. His colleagues were distinguished citizens of Texas, and included some of her ablest men. The delegation was uninstructed, but it was probably known to every member of the State convention that Governor Hubbard preferred General Winfield Scott Hancock to any other man as the standard-bearer of the democracy in the national contest. When nominations were made in the convention and the name of General Hancock was presented, Governor Hubbard seconded the nomination in a speech of great power; and this speech was supplemented by another made before a vast popular assembly on the evening previous to the final ballot, and which was an ovation to the Texas orator. Hancock (who had endeared himself to the people of Texas by his patriotic course while commanding the military department of the Soutwest), and did much to secure his nomination. He also spoke in the convention in favor of admitting the Tammany delegates on a prorata basis from the State of New York, and made a deep impression upon that body. The speeches received universal praise for their eloquence and vigor, and were worthy of the Empire State of the new South and of the great occasion, and were earnestly listened to by t he representatives of more than half the people of this Union. On the 30th of June, 1880, Governor Hubbard delivered an address before the Jefferson and Washington literary societies of the University of Virginia. His subject was "The Political Apathy of the Times the Menace of the Republic, and the Duties of the American Citizens in the Premises." The title indicates the character of the oration. Governor Hubbard is a social, genial gentleman, of high literary attainments and most pleasing address; a fine specimen of the old type Southern orator, never speaking on Public occasions without due preparation and moving the hearts and sympathies of those who hear him by feeling in his own bosom the emotions he arouses in others. His brilliant canvass of the State in 1872 as a candidate for elector and his impassioned oratory in 1873 awakened the democratic party from the lethargy occasioned by the practical operation of the reconstruction acts of congress, and aided largely in wresting the State government from the hands of the republican party. In 1884, Governor Hubbard was a delegate from Texas to the natinal democratic convention at Cincinnati. He was unanimously made the first (temporary) president of that convention and presided with marked intelligence and parliamentary skill over that great multitude for over half of the session. His speeches in the convention were strong and eloquent and always to the point. He favored Grover Cleveland for president. After his nominations he canvassed Indiana and Illinois and Ohio with great success. Vice-President Hendricks was his devoted friend, and often spoke of his splendid canvass of Indiana. After the election of Cleveland and Hendricks the legislature of Texas unanimously signed a petition to the president for a cabinet position for Governor Hubbard, and this was supplemented by earnest applications, in his behalf, from many of the States of the West and South especially. Mr. Cleveland tendered him the mission to Japan, however, which he accepted and sailed for that distant land in May, 1885. His administration there is now public history and well known. He increased (by his course) our United States trade from fifteen to twenty-seven millions annually; negotiated the first and only extradition treaty between Japan and the United States; boldly held up our flag and rights in the treaty conference of the European powers and United States--as against the assaults of British and continental greed--and only a few months before he left the empire, in 1889, negotiated a separate treaty with Japan, recognizing her complete independence, as our own great Republic demanded for itself in the days of '76. This treaty was signed by Minister Hubbard by authority of his government and by the Emperor of Japan, and only awaits the ratification of the United States senate at Washington. The treaty is nowise partisan. The minister followed the precedents of both republican and democratic administrations on the recognition of foreign powers, when their progress in civilization and just laws earned a right to independence. Governor Hubbard is an earnest advocate for Japan, regarding that people as the "Americans of the Orient." On and before his departure, the Japanese government, from the palace and nobility, through all ranks of her millions, showed him extraordinary evidences of their respect and love and bade him an earnest "bon boyage" to his native land, which he had served so well. Governor Hubbard is now at his home in Texas, engaged in developing his State and its great resources.