Robert Martin Douglas (January 28, 1849 – February 8, 1917) was a

North Carolina Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists ...

justice and political figure. At the beginning of his career, the young attorney served as private secretary to the Republican governor of North Carolina, and secretary to 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 ...

Early life and education

Born on January 28, 1849, at his maternal grandmother's home in Rockingham County, North Carolina, he was the first of two sons of Senator

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 ...

(

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 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

) and Martha Martin, originally of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Martha died after the birth of her third child, a daughter, in 1853, and the unnamed infant died a few weeks later. Robert was only four. He and his brother Stephen spent considerable time when young with their maternal grandmother and the Martin family in their mother's home state. After his father married

Adele Cutts Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

, from a Maryland

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family, she had the boys baptized and reared them as Catholic with his permission. The family split their time between homes in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Illinois during his father's Senate service. Douglas attended Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. in 1867. He later earned a

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

degree and a doctoral degree in law from the same institution.

Career

In the aftermath of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Douglas turned away from the Democratic Party to which his father had belonged. He believed that the party had died during the war. He became a leading Republican and active in

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

governments. In 1868, Douglas served as private secretary to the Governor of

. From 1869 to 1873, he was appointed private secretary to President

. For the next decade, he served as

United States Marshal The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforcem ...

for

. In 1888 he was appointed to serve as Master in Chancery to the

United States Circuit Court The United States circuit courts were the original intermediate level courts of the United States federal court system. They were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. They had trial court jurisdiction over civil suits of diversity jurisdict ...

. He continued until 1896, when he was elected as associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. In 1901, Justice Douglas and Chief Justice

David M. Furches David Moffatt Furches (April 2, 1832 – June 7, 1908) was an American politician and jurist who served as an associate justice (1895–1901) and chief justice (1901–1903) of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Biography David M. Furches was b ...

(also a Republican) were

impeached Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

by the Democratic Party-controlled

North Carolina House of Representatives The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the North Ca ...

"for issuing an allegedly unconstitutional ''mandamus'' ordering the

State Treasurer In the state governments of the United States, 48 of the 50 states have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the position in 1926; duties were transferred to New York State Comptroller. Texas abolished the position of Texas ...

to pay out money." Neither was removed from office by the necessary two-thirds vote of the North Carolina Senate, although a simple majority of senators favored removal. Douglas served his eight-year term and then retired from the court. A principal contributor to the building of St. Agnes Church in Greensboro, Douglas authored the article on "North Carolina" for the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

''. Douglas died at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 8, 1917.

Marriage and family

On June 23, 1874, Douglas married Jessie Madeline Dick, daughter of the Honorable

Robert Paine Dick Robert Paine Dick (October 5, 1823 – September 12, 1898) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Education and career Born on October 5, 1823, in Greensboro, North Ca ...

, a Supreme Court justice of North Carolina. They had four children together: *Madeleine Douglas (who later married Col. Edward Warren Myers) * Robert Dick Douglas (1875–1960) *Stephen Arnold Douglas (born 1879) *Martin F. Douglas (born 1886)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Robert M. 1849 births 1917 deaths Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences alumni North Carolina Republicans United States Marshals Justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court Georgetown University Law Center alumni Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century North Carolina politicians United States judges impeached by state or territorial governments Catholics from North Carolina