Background

Henry Adams Bullard was born on September 9, 1788 at Pepperell, Massachussets, the son of John and Elizabeth (Adams) Bullard. His father was a Congregational clergyman, his mother a member of the distinguished Adams family.

Education

Henry Bullard was sent to Harvard University where he took his A. B. degree in 1807. The Harvard alumni records also show that the degree of M. A. was conferred upon him in 1836. After graduating from the university he studied law, first in Boston and later in Philadelphia, and, at the same time, indulged a fondness for the modern languages by studying French, Spanish, German, and Italian, all four of which he is said to have been able to read and to speak with fluency.

Career

Soon after completing his legal studies, but before practising, Bullard enlisted with Toledo, a Mexican revolutionary general who was in Philadelphia gathering recruits for an expedition into Mexico, then strongly affected by the liberation movement taking place in Latin-America.

Toledo was so impressed by the young man, especially by his ability to speak Spanish, that he made him his secretary and aide-de-camp. They departed for the West, spent the winter of 1812-13 in Nashville, Tennessee, and in the spring made their way to the frontier town of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

From here they entered Spanish territory where, on August 13, 1813, their force was defeated and scattered by Spanish troops in an engagement near San Antonio, Texas.

Bullard, and a few companions, after great hardships and dangers, managed to return to Natchitoches, where he decided, since he was friendless and destitute, to remain and open a law office.

With Judge Curry he undertook to make a digest of the laws of the state, but only one volume was published because they knew that the constitutional convention, which was about to assemble, would necessarily change or abrogate many of the important laws. From 1847 to 1850 Bullard was professor of civil law in the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University).

It fell into decay, was revived in the summer of 1846, and Judge Martin, the historian, was made president. The next year the society was incorporated. When Judge Martin died in December 1846, Bullard was again chosen president, and continued in that office until the time of his death.

He died in New Orleans, and is buried in the Girod Street Cemetery.

Achievements

• Between 1822 and 1830 Bullard served as state district judge two times. Reelected to the Twenty-third Congress, he served until 1834, when he was appointed a judge of the supreme court of Louisiana. Bullard was probably the founder of the Louisiana Historical Society in 1836, and was its first president. With the exception of a few months in 1839, when he was secretary of state of Louisiana, he remained upon the state supreme bench until 1846, when the judiciary was remodeled under a new constitution and the old bench replaced by a new.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Discourse On The Life And Character Of The Hon. François Xavier Martin: Late Senior Judge Of The Supreme Court, Of The State Of Louisiana, Pronounced At The Request Of The Bar Of New-orleans

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Discours Sur La Vie Et Le Caractere de L'Honorable F. Xavier Martin, CI-Devant Juge-President de La Cour Supraeme: Prononce a la Requaete Du Barreau de La Nlle-Orleans. (Paperback)(French) - Common

    (The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 ...)

  • Discours sur la vie et le caractere de l'honorable F. Xavier Martin, ci-devant juge-president de la Cour Supraeme: prononce a la requaete du Barreau de la Nlle-Orleans. (French Edition)

    (The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 ...)

  • A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Hon. Francois Xavier Martin: Late Senior Judge of the Supreme Court, of the State of Louisiana, Pronoun

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Louisiana, January 13, 1836 (Classic Reprint)

    (New Orleans, Jan. 18, 1836. Dear Sir: The undersigned hav...)

Politics

In 1830 he was elected, on the Whig ticket, to represent the Western District of Louisiana in the Twenty-second Congress. In 1850 he was elected to the state House of Representatives, but had served only a short time when he was elected to the Thirty-first Congress, as a Whig, to fill a vacancy in the 2nd Louisiana Congressional District caused by the resignation of Charles M. Conrad, appointed secretary of state in the cabinet of President Fillmore.

Membership

He became a member of the Louisiana Historical Society in 1836. He was also a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Personality

His ability to speak French and Spanish soon enabled him to form acquaintances with members of the leading families, most of whom were of French or Spanish origin; his education and culture, his handsome face, his musical voice, and his kindly sympathy created a favorable impression; he made himself familiar with the Napoleonic Code and with the Louisiana code of 1808; his practise increased and he prospered.

Connections

On October 24, 1816, he married at Natchitoches Sarah Maria Kaiser, a native of Lexington, Kentucky.

Father:

John Bullard

Mother:

Elizabeth (Adams) Bullard

Daughter :

Julia L Bullard Garland

1833–1923

Daughter :

Marianne Bullard Lastrapes

1817–1888

Wife:

Sarah Marie Keise Bullard

1800–1874