Robert Andrews Hill was an American judge. He served at the United States District Court for the Southern and Northern Districts of Mississippi.
Background
Robert Andrews Hill was born on March 25, 1811 in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of David and Rhoda (Andrews) Hill and the grandson of Scotch-Irish forebears who had emigrated to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century and had later settled in North Carolina. In 1816 his father moved to Giles County, Tennessee, thence to Williamson County, where the son was brought up.
Education
Hill was called upon at the age of ten to contribute to the support of the family. He worked on the farm and gained his education by devoting his spare time to study. By 1833 he was able to combine school teaching with his farm work.
Career
In 1834 Hill was elected constable, serving until his election in 1836 as justice of the peace. While in this office he read law and in December 1844 he resigned to launch upon a legal career. Settling in Waynesboro, Tennessee, he practised in partnership with Elijah Walker until 1847, when he was elected by the legislature attorney general for the circuit. He was reelected in 1854, but in 1855 the office was made elective by popular vote, and Hill, who was a Whig, was defeated.
He then moved to Jacinto, Tishomingo County, Mississippi, where he entered into a law partnership with John F. Arnold. In 1858 he became probate judge and held the office during the Civil War. Hill took no part in secession but he gained the respect of both Confederate and Federal leaders.
After the war he was appointed chancellor of his district by Provisional-Governor Sharkey and held office until he was appointed United States district judge by President Johnson in 1866. He had served, meanwhile, as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1865, and in the same year he had visited Washington in the interest of the South. There he was instrumental in securing the suspension of the direct land tax, amounting to about $484, 000 in Mississippi, only a small portion of which had been collected.
As a federal judge during Reconstruction, Hill had occasion to display the qualities which distinguished him. He desired to enforce United States laws, but he did so with as little oppression and hardship as circumstances permitted. When the act of April 9, 1866, was passed by Congress, giving the negroes civil rights and privileges, he recommended to the state legislature the repeal of all laws in conflict with the provisions of the federal statute, so that litigation might be minimized. The act of March 2, 1867, which declared null and void all state interference with acts of military authorities, he upheld as constitutional, but he further held that it was not designed to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights to fair public trial. With the passage of the act of April 20, 1871, authorizing the president to suppress Ku-Klux disturbances by military force, Hill believed that he should prosecute cases under the law in order to keep the trials in civil rather than military courts. This he did by imposing a nominal fine on those declared guilty of violation of the act, releasing them on their own recognizance under bond to keep the peace toward their fellow citizens.
Long interested in education, he had served for many years as a trustee of the University of Mississippi. Following his resignation from the bench he continued to live at Oxford, Mississippi, where he spent his last years in peaceful retirement. Hill resigned from the bench on August 1, 1891; he was then a man of eighty. He died at age eighty-nine and was buried in St. Peters Cemetery, Oxford.
Achievements
Religion
Hill was long interested in education and religion, and had been an active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.