James Madison Wells (January 7, 1808February 28, 1899) was elected Lieutenant Governor and became the
20th Governor of Louisiana during
Reconstruction.
Early life
Born near
Alexandria, Louisiana, on January 7, 1808, Wells' father was Samuel Levi Wells II, a member of
Louisiana's constitutional convention in 1811. His mother was the former Dorcas Huie. A brother,
Thomas Jefferson Wells
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the Ap ...
, was involved in Louisiana politics. Samuel Wells died when James was 8 years old, leaving eight children.
Wells was educated at the Jesuit-run
St. Joseph's College in
Bardstown
Bardstown is a home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 11,700 in the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Nelson County.
Bardstown is named for the pioneering Bard brothers. David Bard obtained a l ...
south of
Louisville, Kentucky; Partridge's Academy,
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...
; and
Cincinnati Law School. In Cincinnati, he was tutored in law by an old-line Federalist named Charles Hammond, who edited the ''
Cincinnati Gazette
The ''Cincinnati Commercial Tribune'' was a major daily newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio formed in 1896, and folded in 1930.(3 December 1930)OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN CINCINNATI QUITS; Commercial Tribune Stopped by McLean Interests After Political Shift in ...
''. Hammond's frequent attacks on slavery failed to influence Wells. Wells later owned nearly one hundred slaves.
In 1829 he returned to
Rapides Parish, to manage several of his family's
plantations
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
.
Political activities
In 1833, Wells married 15-year-old Mary Ann Scott; together they had 14 children. Wells inherited a substantial
estate
Estate or The Estate may refer to:
Law
* Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations
* Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries.
** The Estates, representat ...
; he controlled a large
cotton plantation called ''New Hope'' near Alexandria, a
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
plantation on
Bayou Huffpower Bayou Huffpower is a stream in Avoyelles Parish between Cottonport and Bunkie, Louisiana, named for an old settler. Bayou Hoffpauir was the name of a United States post office in the area. Pitt's Mill was located on Bayou Huffpower at Evergreen-Hol ...
in
Avoyelles Parish
Avoyelles (french: Paroisse des Avoyelles) is a parish located in central eastern Louisiana on the
Red River where it effectively becomes the Atchafalaya River and meets the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 42,07 ...
called ''Wellswood'', and a large summer home ''Jessamine Hill'' near
Lecompte, Louisiana. Wells was appointed
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of
Rapides Parish in 1840 by Governor
Andre B. Roman
André Bienvenue Roman (March 5, 1795–January 26, 1866) was Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives and the ninth U.S. Governor of Louisiana.
Early years
Born near Opelousas, the son of Jacques Étienne Roman of Opelousas, Lo ...
. Wells was an active
Whig and a
large slave holder. Eventually, as the Whig Party collapsed in the 1850s, Wells became a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
. His brother, Thomas Jefferson Wells, was the Whig nominee for governor in 1859, against eventual winner
Thomas Overton Moore.
In 1860, he supported
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...
, the Northern Democratic candidate for president and was an ardent supporter of the Union. For that, he was criticized by his neighbors and by his brother. During the
Civil War, Wells was arrested by
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...
officials for his
Union sympathies.
Wells remained on his plantation outside Alexandria until the spring of 1863 when he remarked that the recently deceased Gen.
"Stonewall" Jackson should be buried "in a gum coffin, and that the bottom plank might be very thin, so that he might eat his way down to where it was intended that he should go." Soon thereafter, he fled into the woods and briefly organized a band of unionist partisans, or
Jayhawkers, to attack rebel supply trains. In November, he left the woods and moved to Union-occupied New Orleans.
[Tunnell, Crucible of Reconstruction, 23.]
By 1864,
Union troops controlled all or part of 17
parishes
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
in south Louisiana. Wells formed the Unconditional Union Club of West Louisiana. He was nominated both by radicals such as
Benjamin Flanders
Benjamin Franklin Flanders (January 26, 1816 – March 13, 1896) was a teacher, politician and planter in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1867, he was appointed by the military commander as the 21st Governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction, a ...
and moderates such as
Michael Hahn, to be
Lieutenant Governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
.
Statewide office
On March 4, 1864, Wells became lieutenant governor under Governor
Michael Hahn. He supported
compensated emancipation
Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery, under which the enslaved person's owner received compensation from the government in exchange for manumitting the slave. This could be monetary, and it could allow the owner to retain the s ...
for former slaves at the
Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1864. One year later, on March 4, 1865, Wells was inaugurated as governor when
Michael Hahn resigned to become a United States Senator. In November 1865, a
special election was held under the
Reconstruction government, and Governor Wells running as a Democrat defeated former Governor
Henry W. Allen (who was in Mexico), with 22,312 votes to Allen's 5,497. As governor, Wells removed radicals from office.
Wells came into conflict with the federal military authority under General
Nathaniel P. Banks. He supported
Hugh Kennedy as New Orleans mayor and appointed numerous former
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...
officers to state and local offices. He recommended dismantling public education and using only taxes from
blacks to pay for
freedmen's schools. Wells also wanted to build new
levee
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
s, a new capitol building, and a state penitentiary, but the
Louisiana State Legislature balked at his proposals.
His advocacy of
black suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
caused political unrest and riots which led to his unseating. On July 30, 1866, riots erupted over actions taken under the Constitutional Convention of 1864. Governor Wells did little to prevent violence, and General
Philip Sheridan held him responsible. Sheridan removed him from office on June 3, 1867, for the riots and for failing to implement reforms regarding freedmen.
Later years
After being removed as governor, Wells went home to Rapides Parish. In 1872 he supported
Republican President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
's re-election. During the 1870s Wells returned to politics as a "
scalawag" and was known by opponents as "Mad Wells." In 1873, he was appointed chairman of the State Returning Board, which was responsible for determining the legality of ballots and for discarding fraudulent votes. In this, Wells helped Republicans regain some of the votes it lost to white Democrats' anti-Black violence and terror. He was consequently appointed Surveyor of the
Port of New Orleans
The Port of New Orleans is an embarkation port for cruise passengers. It is also Louisiana’s only international container port.
The port generates $100 million in revenue annually through its four lines of business – cargo (46%), rail (31%) ...
(Customs) from 1874 to 1880.
He died on February 28, 1899, at his residence in Rapides Parish.
Sources
Political GraveyardNational Governor's Association biography*
Walter M. Lowrey, "The Political Career of James Madison Wells," ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly'', 31 (October, 1948), pp. 995–1,123,
Louisiana Historical Society
Louisiana Historical Society, established in 1835, is a historical society in Louisiana charged with documentation and protection of colonial records. According to its website, it is the oldest historical organization in the state.
The society ha ...
.
External links
State of Louisiana -BiographyCemetery Memorialby La-Cemeteries
*
* Correspondence with General
E. R. S. Canby.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, James Madison
Republican Party governors of Louisiana
1808 births
1899 deaths
Politicians from Alexandria, Louisiana
Southern Unionists in the American Civil War
19th-century American politicians
People from Lecompte, Louisiana