400 E College St, Georgetown, KY 40324, United States
Thomas was graduated from Georgetown College with high honors in 1842.
Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Thomas entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in January 1845.
Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Thomas entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in January 1845.
400 E College St, Georgetown, KY 40324, United States
Thomas was graduated from Georgetown College with high honors in 1842.
https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Law-Transplanted-Louisiana-Association/dp/1169605176/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
1883
Semmes was born on December 16, 1824, in Georgetown, District of Columbia, United States. He was the son of Raphael Semmes, a merchant of that place, and Matilda Jenkins Semmes. He was a brother of Alexander Jenkins Semmes and a first cousin of Raphael Semmes.
Thomas began his formal education at a primary school in Georgetown and was graduated from Georgetown College with high honors in 1842. After one year in the law office of Clement Cox at Georgetown, he entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in January 1845.
Admission to the bar in Washington the following March entitled Thomas Semmes to begin legal practice, but his removal to New Orleans in December 1850 returned him to the ranks of a student for three months before he had mastered the civil law of Louisiana. Here a partnership with Matthew C. Edwards, a Harvard classmate, was terminated abruptly during the campaign of 1855.
Political recognition came to him almost at once and he was sent to the lower house of the legislature in 1856. He was appointed by President Buchanan in December 1857 as an attorney for the eastern district of Louisiana.
Semmes resigned the district attorneyship within the year in order to enter and win the campaign for the post of the attorney general of Louisiana, in which office he served from 1859 to 1861. As a member of the Louisiana convention of 1861, he helped to draft the ordinance of secession. In February 1862 he took his seat at Richmond in the Confederate Senate, where he rendered able service until Lee's surrender.
At the close of the war, he made a hurried visit to Washington and secured a pardon from President Johnson so that upon his return to New Orleans he could resume at once the practice of his profession.
The most notable part of his career followed the war years. He influenced the constitutional convention of 1879 and in the convention of 1898; nevertheless, it was as an attorney that he chiefly commanded attention.
In 1873 he accepted an appointment to the chair of Civil Law in the University of Louisiana (later Tulane University of Louisiana); the pressure of work forced him to resign in 1879, but he subsequently resumed his connection and maintained it until his death.
In 1886 Semmes was elected a president of the American Bar Association.
Despite his many other responsibilities, he found time to serve for many years as president of the New Orleans School Board.
Thomas Semmes's greatest contribution was, that he exerted a guiding influence in the constitutional convention of 1879, where his plea for the payment of the consolidated bonds in full was one of the best speeches made, and in the convention of 1898, as chairman of the judiciary committee. For years his name appeared as counsel in nearly every leading case before the civil courts of Louisiana. Semmes was also a close adviser to President Jefferson Davis during the Civil war. National recognition was accorded to him in 1886 when he was elected a president of the American Bar Association. In 1900 a public school in New Orleans located at 1008 Jourdan Street was named after him.
Semmes defended Roman Catholicism against the attacks of the Know-Nothings.
Semmes was loyal to the Davis administration on most issues. Semmes helped to prepare the tax-in-kind bill and wrote the Judiciary Committee report against martial law. He favored special military exemptions for overseers and was one of the leaders in the movement on behalf of P.G.T. Beauregard's command of the western armies.
Semmes was once described as "the most distinguished statesman and brilliant lawyer of the south."
On January 8, 1850, Thomas married Mary Eulalia Knox, by whom he had seven children.
1786-1846
1800-1881
1823-1902
1828-1898
1830-1908
1832-1908
1831-1928
1851-1851
1865-1960
1867-1957
1869-1914
1871-1934
1873-1887
1875-1910
