Thomas Courtland Manning

Background

Thomas Courtland Manning was the son of Joseph and Sarah (Houghton) Manning, and was born on September 14, 1825 in Edenton, N. C. , where the Mannings, originally from Virginia, had settled.

Education

He was educated in the public schools of Edenton and at the University of North Carolina, which, although he did not graduate, conferred the honorary degree of LL. D. upon him in 1878.

Career

After leaving the university he taught school in Edenton, studied law. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar, and thereafter practised in his native town until 1855, when he removed to Louisiana, settling in Alexandria, Rapides Parish. He soon had a large and lucrative practice, and when the Civil War broke out he was the acknowledged leader of the bar in his section of the state. From early manhood he had been a Democrat of the state-rights school, and he took an active part in the political life of Louisiana. In 1861 he was a member of the secession convention. Soon afterward he was made a lieutenant in the first Confederate military company raised in Rapides Parish, but shortly accepted the position of aide-de-camp on the staff of Gov. Thomas O. Moore, which office he held until 1863, when he was appointed adjutant-general of Louisiana with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1864 he was appointed an associate justice of the state supreme court by Gov. Henry W. Allen, serving in this capacity until the close of the war, when he returned to Alexandria and his law practice. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic state convention, and presidential elector for the state at large. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1876, where he supported Samuel J. Tilden for the presidential nomination. In 1877 he was appointed chief justice of the Louisiana supreme court, and held the office until 1880, when the new constitution of 1879 went into effect and ended his term by the formation of a new court. The following year he was again a presidential elector and was appointed by the Democratic governor to the seat in the United States Senate occupied by W. P. Kellogg, but was not recognized by that body. In 1882 he was again appointed to the supreme bench of Louisiana, and served until 1886, when he was appointed United States minister to Mexico by President Cleveland. He held this office until his death in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City, soon after his arrival to attend a meeting of the board of trustees of the Peabody Educational Fund, of which he was a member.

Achievements

• Manning was a lawyer of extensive and varied acquirements and held a distinguished position at the bar of his state.

Personality

Manning was a man of imposing appearance and deportment, cultured, endowed with a large measure of self-esteem, self-reliant, reserved, and somewhat exclusive.

Connections

On January 18, 1848, married Mary Blair.

Father:

Joseph Ferrebe Manning

Mother:

Sarah Haughton Manning

Brother:

John Moore Manning, Sr.

December 25, 1803 - August 13, 1872

Wife:

Mary Manning (Blair)

References

• Standard History of New Orleans, Louisiana: Giving a Description of the Natural Advantages, Natural History, Settlement, Indians, Creoles, Municipal ... Transportation, Struggles Against High