Representative Henry Clay Caldwell View All Years

HON. HENRY CLAY CALDWELL.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to draft resolutions commemorating the life, character and public services of the Hon. Henry Clay Caldwell, of Van Buren county, member of the House in the Eighth General Assembly, beg leave to report the following memorial:

Another soldier of the republic passed from earth on the 15th day of February, 1915. It was then that Col. Henry Clay Caldwell, who represented the county of Van Buren in the Eighth General Assembly, departed this life at Los Angeles, Calif. Born in the county of Marshall, Virginia (now West Virginia), September 4, 1832, he came with his father’s family to the Black Hawk Purchase in 1836, locating at what is now Bentonsport and removing a year or more later to a farm, where the boy worked, attending school, when practicable, in the winter. Being quite studious he began at the age of 16 to read law, entering for that purpose the office of Wright and Knapp at Keosauqua, two of the most eminent of Iowa’s lawyers. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar and at the age of 24 was chosen prosecuting attorney of the county. In 1859 he was elected to the General Assembly, taking his seat at the same time that Kirkwood became governor. In that body he was made chairman of the judiciary committee, an especially important committee at that time, because it was by that General Assembly that the codes of civil and criminal practice were revised. In the following year Mr. Caldwell attended the extra session summoned at the outbreak of the war. Here, as at the former session, he was influential as much because of his agreeable manner as of his high order of ability. In August of the year 1861 he was made major of the Third Iowa Cavalry, which he had aided Senator Bussey in recruiting. Much of the time during the first year of his service he was in command of a detachment of the Third regiment, operating in the state of Missouri. In September, 1862, Major Caldwell was made lieutenant colonel of the regiment. That winter for much of the time, although only a lieutenant colonel, he commanded a brigade. Col. Caldwell distinguished himself in the Little Rock campaign. At the head of his command, he was the first to enter the capital of that state. On the 4th of May he was made colonel of the regiment but not till after he had been recommended by his superior officers for an appointment as brigadier-general and would in all probability have ben raised to that rank, but for another appointment that came a month after he reached the colonelcy. It was then that President Lincoln made him judge of the United States District Court for the district of Arkansas. It is said of him that owing only to the earnest urgency of the loyal people of Arkansas he accepted the judgeship, having the star of a brigadier in view. His superior officer, Gen. Davidson, reporting the capture of Little Rock, said this of the soldier:

“Lieut.-Col. Caldwell, whose untiring devotion and energy never flagged during night nor day, deserves, for his gallantry and varied accomplishments as a cavalry officer, promotion to the rank of a general officer.”

Into the new office, and it was indeed much of a new office, although there had been former judges for more than a score of years, the docket was crowded with cases involving many difficult questions naturally arising because of the war. His court was one of the first in all the seceding states to pass upon these questions, and all his rulings with a single exception, were sustained by the Supreme Court. Of his manner if dispatching business in that court, much has been said in praise, and many of his rulings have been approvingly cited. In 1880 President Harrison made him one of the judges of the then new Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Caldwell identified himself loyally with the people where his duties lay, while at all times not forgetting that he was a judge of a court of the United States. As a member of the Arkansas Bar Association, he was largely instrumental in introducing many legal reforms in the laws of the state. He is said to have borne a prominent part in securing the rights of married women and in substituting code pleadings for the cumbrous forms of the common law. The state of Iowa may well do honor to one who, whether on the field of armed forces, or in more peaceful ways, did honor to the state where his early manhood was spent.

Col. Caldwell’s wife, to whom he was united in marriage in 1853, was Miss Hattie Benton, a niece of Hon. George G. Wright, one of the foremost of Iowa jurists. In the year 1903 Judge Caldwell retired from the bench, after an exceptionally long career in that capacity. His residence after that time was in the state of California.

S. H. BAUMAN,

GEO. W. BALL,

GEO. W. CROZIER,

Committee.

Adopted unanimously.