Amos Tappan Akerman (February 23, 1821 – December 21, 1880) was an American politician who served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871.
A native of New Hampshire, Akerman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1842 and moved South, where he spent most of his career. He first worked as headmaster of a school in North Carolina and as a tutor in Georgia. Having become interested in law, Akerman studied and passed the bar in Georgia in 1850; where he and an associate set up a law practice. He also owned a farm and enslaved eleven people. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Akerman joined the Confederate Army, where he achieved the rank of colonel.
After the end of the war in 1865, Akerman joined the Republican Party during Reconstruction. He became an outspoken attorney advocate for freedmen's civil rights in Georgia. Akerman was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as his U.S. Attorney General; with Grant's support, he vigorously prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan under the Enforcement Acts. Akerman was assisted by Solicitor General Benjamin Bristow in the newly established Department of Justice. Attorney General Akerman also prosecuted important land grant cases that concerned railroads in a rapidly expanding West. Akerman advised on the United States first federal Civil Service Reform law implemented by President Grant and the U.S. Congress. Possibly due to Akerman's rulings against the Union Pacific Railroad, Grant asked for Akerman's resignation from the cabinet. Although Akerman left office at Grant's request, he continued to support Grant. He returned to Georgia, practiced law, and remained highly popular in the state.
Early years Akerman was born on February 23, 1821, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the ninth of twelve children of Benjamin Akerman and his wife.Parker (9/12/2002), Amos T. Akerman (1821–1880), viewed on 1-15-2015 He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, where he graduated in the class of 1842 with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Headmaster, farmer, and law practice
Upon graduation, Akerman moved South where the climate was thought better for his lung condition. He quickly got a job as a headmaster/instructor of a boy's academy in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, at that time part of Richmond county. Akerman was known as a strict teacher. In 1846, he was hired by planter John Macpherson Berrien as a tutor for his children in Savannah, Georgia. Berrien had been President Andrew Jackson's Attorney General and was a prominent Whig.Brown (1997), Amos T. Akerman 1821–1880 Akerman took advantage of Berrien's extensive law library and became fascinated with the field. Akerman passed the Georgia Bar in 1850, and moved to Peoria, Illinois, where his sister resided, and briefly practiced law. Akerman returned to Georgia and practiced law in Clarksville.
Akerman returned to Georgia, where he opened a law practice in Elberton, with Robert Heston. In addition to practicing law, Akerman also farmed and enslaved eleven people. In terms of politics Akerman was a Whig.
American Civil War Although he was against secession as a solution to the North–South conflicts, Akerman was loyal to his adopted state. At age 43, he joined the Confederate States Army in the spring of 1864. Akerman first served in General Robert Toombs' brigade and later in the quartermaster's department where it was his job to procure and dispense uniforms, weapons and other supplies to the soldiers. Akerman was put into active service against the Union during Sherman's 1864 march through Georgia.
Reconstruction Akerman joined the Republican Party in the campaign for freedmen's citizenship and suffrage. He was an outspoken proponent of Reconstruction as a member of Georgia's 1868 state constitutional convention and when appointed as U.S. district attorney for Georgia (1869). His appointment was blocked for some time by Congress, since he had served in the Confederate army. Akerman served for a total period of six months in this position. Akerman also strongly advocated Georgia's readmission into the Union and struggled to gain stability and federal compliance in the state.
United States Presidential election 1868 During the 1868 Presidential campaign, there was concern that Akerman supported presidential candidate Horatio Seymour over Grant. To stop the rumor, in a letter from Elberton, Akerman published his full endorsement for Ulysses S. Grant. He served as the Republican presidential state elector from Georgia. Akerman believed Grant would restore order and peace to the violence-plagued South. Akerman believed Grant would respect the "rights of the laborer as a freeman, citizen and voter". Akerman wrote that violence in the South against blacks was motivated by revenge after the white Southerners had been defeated by the North, lost substantial property in the emancipation of slaves, had their society disrupted, and were temporarily disenfranchised. Akerman believed that Congressional Reconstruction had been the better plan for the Southern states, opposed to President Andrew Johnson's plan. He believed that freedmen deserved federal protection from the law and he endorsed the enfranchisement of their men. Akerman admitted he was initially strongly opposed to blacks voting; however, his opinion changed as he came to believe that this was the only way that blacks could gain political power and protection.
United States Attorney Georgia 1869 In 1869 President Grant appointed Akerman as U.S. Attorney in Georgia. President Grant, initially, attempted to protect African American voters against white violence and discrimination by the use of State courts.
White vs. Clement In June 1869, Akerman argued in defense of Richard W. White, a mulatto who had won the state election for Superior Court county clerk.Davis (June 1869), Can a Negro hold office in Georgia?, pp. 4–7. White's opponent, William James Clement, represented by Solicitor General Alfred B. Smith of the Eastern Georgia Circuit court, said that White was ineligible to hold office since he was a black man. A lower court had ruled that if Clement could prove that White was a black man, he could not hold office.Davis (June 1869), Can a Negro hold office in Georgia?, pp. 103–112. The case went to the Georgia's Supreme Court where Akerman defended White's election and said his color did not deny him the right to hold office. Akerman argued that the former laws, based in the South's slave society, did not apply anymore. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 stated that Georgia had no current civilian government.Davis (June 1869), Can a Negro hold office in Georgia?, pp. 65–79. Akerman argued that since blacks had been granted the franchise throughout the United States, they had the right to hold public office. He argued that blacks had participated in the Georgia's new constitutional government in 1868 without distinction of color. He also noted that both President Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant had appointed black men to public office and that the current U.S. Constitution did not recognize or discriminate on the basis of a person's color. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that White had the right to hold public office regardless of his race.
United States Attorney General
On June 17, 1870, Grant selected Akerman as United States Attorney General.New York Times, June 17, 1870 Akerman was the "only person from the Confederacy to reach cabinet rank during Reconstruction". Having become attorney general shortly after the creation of the new Justice Department, Akerman dealt with legal issues from the Department of the Interior, such as the question of whether competing railroad companies deserved more land in the West in return for expanding the country's transportation system. He also dealt with the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. He led enforcement efforts to suppress the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the South through litigation. He had experienced its violence first-hand. He oversaw prosecution of more than 1100 cases against KKK members, gaining convictions.
Akerman did not create the Department of Justice, but he helped play a pivotal role in its development. He helped to appoint members and set standards, but due to the geographical constraints, past laws, and financial restrictions he struggled to properly build a strong Department of Justice.Jed Handelsman Shugerman. "The Creation of the Department of Justice: Professionalization Without Civil Rights or Civil Service." Stanford Law Review 66, no. 1 (2014): 121-72.
Akerman resigned on December 13, 1871.
Ruled against Union Pacific On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act that in addition to promoting the transcontinental railroad allowed the Union Pacific Railroad to make subsidiary railroad branch lines, including one through Kansas. One of these subsidiaries was financially unable to complete the railroad through Kansas, as a result, the Union Pacific applied for federal assistance in the form of land grants and bonds. On June 1, 1871, Attorney General Akerman denied land grants and bonds to the Union Pacific and upheld previous rulings against federal assistance. Company attorneys lobbied Akerman to change his mind, however, he refused to change his ruling. This upset Collis P. Huntington and Jay Gould, who were connected to the Union Pacific Railroad and demanded Akerman's removal from office.
Ruled on Civil Service Law On September 7, 1871, Att. Gen. Akerman ruled on the newly formed Civil Service Commission passed by Congress on March 3, 1871, and signed into law by President Grant on March 4. In the United States first ever Civil Service Reform legislation a commission was set up to establish rules, testing, and regulations, authorized by the President, for the best possible candidates to be appointed civil service positions. The funding for the Commission only lasted for one year until June 30, 1872. Akerman ruled that the commission, run by a chairman appointed by the President, was legal, since Congress and the President had every right in their constitutional power to put in the best candidates to serve in the United States Government. Akerman believed this was the original intent of the framers of the U.S. Constitution. Akerman, however, ruled that the Commission did not constitutionally have the power to forbid an appointment; only to aid the President and Congress to put in the best person qualified for the job. Akerman also ruled that the competitive testing need not be overly restrictive as to take away the appointment powers given to the President and Congress under the U.S. Constitution.
Prosecuted Klan