Henry Clay Caldwell was a United States federal judge.
Background
Henry Clay Caldwell was born on September 4, 1832; the son of Van and Susan M. Caldwell of Marshall County, Virginia, United States, where he was born. His father, a well-known frontier character, moved in 1836 to Davis County on the Des Moines River, at that time part of Wisconsin Territory.
Education
He was educated in the common schools of Iowa, and began reading law in the offices of Knapp and Wright in Keosauqua, Iowa, at the age of fifteen. He was admitted to the bar in 1857, according to some sources, and became a junior partner in the firm.
Career
His judicial career was distinguished by practical common sense and sturdy independence. He was identified with numerous important reforms in the Arkansas laws, including the introduction of code pleading, the amendment of the "Anaconda mortgage" law, and the state regulation of the liquor traffic.
Caldwell entered the law office of Wright & Knapp at Keosauqua, Van Buren County, Iowa, and, on his admission to the Iowa bar in 1852 in his twentieth year, became a partner in the firm. In 1856 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Van Buren County.
In 1858 he became a member of the state legislature, acting as chairman of its judiciary committee during two sessions. In 1860 he was a delegate from Iowa to the Republican convention at Chicago which nominated Lincoln for the presidency. On the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the 3rd Iowa Cavalry, was commissioned major, and subsequently became colonel of his regiment, participating in much heavy fighting in the Mississippi Valley. In June 1864, while yet on active service, he was appointed by President Lincoln United States district judge for the District of Arkansas. The situation at that time in the district was a difficult one, the judicial machinery being disorganized and the population sullen and impoverished. In addition, as an aftermath of the war, the volume of litigation was great, most of the cases involving novel and intricate problems, requiring extreme delicacy of treatment. The people of Arkansas viewed Caldwell at first with suspicion, if not aversion, as a Northern soldier and intruder. Displaying, however, great firmness and courage, and resolutely resisting political pressure, he administered justice with scrupulous impartiality, and by his tact, common sense, and expedition gradually obtained the respect and confidence of the populace. It was said of him that "during the six years that the carpet-bag regime lasted he was the greatest protection that the people of the state had, " and it was through his influence that a subsequent attempt in Congress to reimpose repressive conditions was frustrated.
He remained district judge for twenty-five years, and was appointed circuit judge for the eighth Federal district in 1890 by President Harrison. He accepted the new position with reluctance as the district extended from Arkansas north to Minnesota and westward to Wyoming, but the creation of the United States circuit court of appeals ultimately enabled him as presiding judge to concentrate his work in St. Louis. In 1896 his name was prominently mentioned in connection with the Republican nomination for president. Four years later he dissociated himself from the party on its stand in relation to the gold standard, but firmly declined an offer of the nomination for vice-president in conjunction with W. J. Bryan. He resigned from the bench in 1903, retiring into private life, and in 1906 went to California where he passed his last days, dying in Los Angeles.
Achievements
Personality
Standing six feet four inches in height, he had a massive head with a broad forehead and a flowing beard. In manner genial, sympathetic, and eminently approachable, he held strong opinions on most subjects and never hesitated to express them in clear, pungent language. His scrupulous honesty of mind and conduct was exemplified in his declining the appointment of chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, offered him by President Cleveland, assigning as a reason his lack of the necessary qualities of training and legal equipment.
Connections
On March 25, 1857, he was married to Harriet Benton.