WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1856
363
1847, we find him settled at Austin, Texas, and the partner of Andrew Jack- son Hamilton in the practice of law. In 1851, Hancock was elected judge of the Second Judicial District, but resigned in 1855 to take up his private law practice again; in this same year he married Susan E. Richardson, of Brazoria, Texas. They had one son. John Hancock made himself thoroughly familiar with the land laws of Texas, and was the chief attorney, or a consulting attorney in a great many important cases involving questions of complex tenure by which the lands of the State were held. His practice in such cases was eminently successful. He was elected a member of the State House of Representatives and served from 1860-1861, but was expelled from the Legislature because he 1·efused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. In company with other loyalists he seems to have decided upon armed resistance, and even went so far as to drill with a company of "home guards," but soon decided that resistance would be in vain, and returned to his law practice. In 1864, he became the defending attorney for four men who had been arrested as Unionists; he secured their release by means of an able appeal to the fundamental rights of citizens. But he had discredited himself so thoroughly among his fellow citizens of Austin that he fled through Mexico to the North, where he remained until the war was over. He returned to Austin in 1865, in the same train with his former law partner, A. J. Hamilton; and in 1866 he was a member of the constitutional convention of that year, and was one of the staunch supporters of the furtherance of President Andrew Johnson's plan of reconstruction. He established himself as a moderate, and even had some success in moderating between the radicals and conservatives. He was definitely opposed to negro suffrage and was the author of a resolution by which the personal rights of negroes were recognized while their testimony in courts was limited to cases in which members of their own race were involved. He was a candidate for the United States Senate, but was defeated; how- ever, in 1870, he was elected as a Democrat to the 42d, the 43d, and 44th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877. In 1876 there was a general movement in Texas to send only former Confederate soldiers to Washington to represent the State, therefore, he wns defeated in the campaign for re-election to the 45th Congress. But by 1882, when free trade was the issue of the campaign, and not so much was said about the Civil War, he was again elected to the 48th Congress, and served from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1885. He was not a candidate for re-election, but returned to his law practice, in which he remained active until his death. He lies buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Texas. See J. D. Lynch, Bench and Bar of 7':exas, 422-435; C. W. Ramsdell, "Reconstruction in Texas" (1910), passim, in Columbia University Studies in Histo111, Economics and Publio Law, XXXVI; Southwestern Histo,·ical Quarterly, XVI, 118, 123; Galveston Netus (Daily), July 20, 1893; Dictiona111 of Ame,-ican Biography, VIII, 220; Biog,-a1,hical Dfrectory of the Ame,-ican Cong,-ess (1928), 1056. CONCERNING THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HARBOR OF l\'IILWAUKEE, JULY 23, 1856 1 Mr. President, I do not object to the magnitude of the sum appropriated by this bill, nor do I wish to delay the business of the Senate; but I think we ought not to pass bills unless we have
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