The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 2, July 1898 - April, 1899 Page: 15
[335] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Oran Milo Roberts.
,In 1864, while still in the army, he was elected Ohief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and the war being manifestly near its close,
he came home and assumed once more the judicial station. This
interval of warlike experience is made the occasion for a sarcastic
reference by George W. Paschal, Reporter of the Supreme Court,
and a violent Union partisan, in the preface to Volume 28 of the
Texas Reports, where it is said: "The Chief Justice and one of the
judges upon the bench, whose constitutional views had hitherto
been reliable, entered heartily into the secession movement. The
position of one of them (Oran M. Roberts) and the political ten-
dency of his mind made him a zealous leader. Indeed, he became
the president of the -secession convention, and the chairman of
the committee of public safety. In this he but followed his early
training and the school to which he had attached himself. Per-
haps it was due to his acts (for inconsistency has no boundaries)
to meet the full consequences of his political leadership. At any
rate, he doffed the judicial robes and girded on a broad-sword. He
went forth to the battlefield. Whether or not he won military
laurels equal to his judicial record, it is needless to say. Suffice
it, that he returned to the Chief Justiceship of the court in 1864."
The same spirit of 'petty spite and rancor led the 'same reporter
to omit to publish a number of very important decisions rendered
by the court during the period of the war.
It may be remarked in this connection that at the time Seces-
sion was agitated ,and accomplished very many of the ablest public
men in Texas were staunch Union men, especially 'among the early
leaders and in the Southern section of the State. These men nat-
urally antagonized Judge Roberts in his active and prominent part
in the Secession movement; and it is a fact that whatever dispar-
agement or want of appreciation his great abilities and public
service have at -any time or in any degree sustained-and it has
not been appreciable--has emanated from that class of traditional
critics and jaundiced opponents.
When the State government was organized under the methods
of presidential reconstruction, in 1866, he was elected United
States Senator, defeating B. H. Epperson, and his colleague was
the venerable David G. Burnet, ex-president of the provisional gov-
ernment of the Republic in 1836, who .defeated John Hancock.
The senators and representatives from Texas went to Washington
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 2, July 1898 - April, 1899, periodical, 1898/1899; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101011/m1/19/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.