West Hughes Humphreys

West Hughes Humphreys (5 August, 1806 - 16 October, 1882) was a United States District Court judge, and a judge of the Confederate States of America. It was for the latter office that he was removed from his position in the former.

Humphreys was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee and studied Law at Transylvania University (in Lexington, Kentucky) and obtained a licence to practice in 1828. Humphreys later served in the Lower House of the State Legislature from 1835 to 1838, and as State Attorney General from 1839 to 1851.

In 1853, Humphreys was appointed to the Federal District Court for Tennessee as a Judge by President Franklin Pierce. Humphreys supported the secessionist movement that lead to the Civil War and accepted an appointment to the Confederate District Court of Tennessee.

On 19 May, 1862 the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Humphreys on the following charges: Publicly calling for secession; Giving aid to an armed rebellion; Conspiring with Jefferson Davis; Serving as a Confederate Judge; Confiscating the property of Military Governor Andrew Johnson and Supreme Court Justice John Catron; And imprisoning a Union sympathiser with "intent to injure him".

On 26 June, 1862, the United States Senate began the trial of the impeachment in his absence and later that day unanimously convicted him of all charges presented, except that of confiscating the property of Andrew Johnson. He was removed from office and barred from holding office under the United States for life. He held his Confederate Judgeship until the end of the Civil War.

In later life he argued for the prohibition of alcohol and wrote several books.

References

* Robinson, William M., "Justice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States" (Cambridge (MA), 1941)