Henry Clay Caldwell was a United States federal judge

United States federal judge

In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....

 and Union Army officer.

Early years

Caldwell was born in what is now Marshall County, West Virginia

Marshall County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 35,519 people, 14,207 households, and 10,101 families residing in the county. The population density was 116 people per square mile . There were 15,814 housing units at an average density of 52 per square mile...

, in 1835, in what was then Indian territory, and was largely self-educated, a circumstance credited with the cultivation of a homespun philosophy. He moved with his parents to Iowa in 1837, where his father, Van Caldwell, once a wealthy Virginia farmer, took land in the "Black Hawk Purchase" at Bentonsport and operated the first licensed ferry on the Des Moines River; his mother was Susan Moffit Caldwell. He was educated in the common schools of Iowa, and began reading law

Reading law

Reading law is the method by which persons in common law countries, particularly the United States, entered the legal profession before the advent of law schools. This usage specifically refers to a means of entering the profession . A small number of U.S...

 in the offices of Knapp and Wright in Keosauqua, Iowa

Keosauqua, Iowa

Keosauqua is a city in Van Buren County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Van Buren County.-History:...

, at the age of fifteen. He was admitted to the bar in 1857, according to some sources, and became a junior partner in the firm.

Career

He was a Prosecuting attorney of Van Buren County, Iowa from 1856 to 1858, and a member of the Iowa House of Representatives

Iowa House of Representatives

The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly. There are 100 members of the House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 29,750 for each constituency...

 from 1859 to 1861. In 1854 he married Harriet Benton. He enlisted in the 3rd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

, rising to the rank of Colonel, and attained command of the unit. He served with distinction at the Battle of Kirksville

Battle of Kirksville

The Battle of Kirksville was a battle in the American Civil War, fought in the town of Kirksville, Missouri, on August 6, 1862. The Union victory helped consolidate Federal control over northeastern Missouri.-Battle:...

, and he led the cavalry forces that captured Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

, on September 10, 1863. He was nominated for promotion to general officer, but the territory required his judicial expertise more than his military ability and he resigned his commission June 4, 1864.

Subsequently, President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 nominated Caldwell to both the United States District Court for the Eastern

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas is the United States District Court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: Arkansas, Chicot, Clay, Cleburne, Cleveland, Conway, Craighead, Conway, Crittenden, Cross, Dallas, Dehsa, Drew, Faulkner, Fulton, Grant,...

 and Western Districts of Arkansas

United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas

The United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas is a United States District Court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: Ashley, Baxter, Benton, Boone, Bradley, Calhoun, Carroll, Clarke, Columbia, Crawford, Franklin, Garland, Hempstead, Hot Springs, Howard,...

 on May 2, 1864, both seats having been previously vacated by Daniel Ringo

Daniel Ringo

Daniel Ringo was a United States federal judge in Arkansas who sided with the Confederacy during the American Civil War.-Biography:Born in Cross Plains, Kentucky, Ringo read law to enter the Bar in 1830...

. He was confirmed by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 on May 28, and received commission on June 20. He served on that bench for over twenty-five years.

Then on February 27, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...

 elevated Caldwell to the United States circuit court

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 jurisdiction and major federal crimes. They also had appellate...

 for the Eighth Circuit, filling a seat vacated by David Josiah Brewer

David Josiah Brewer

David Josiah Brewer was an American jurist and an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 years.-Early life:...

. Caldwell was confirmed by the Senate on March 4 and received commission the same day. But just a year later, on June 16, 1891, he was reassigned to the newly-created United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Arkansas* Western District of Arkansas...

, where he became that court's first Chief Judge.

Caldwell retired on June 4, 1903, and died in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, in 1915. At his death, Judge Caldwell was hailed as the most prominent citizen of Little Rock, the city he had once captured. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Little Rock.

Legacy

Known as Clay to intimates, Caldwell was mildly progressive as a jurist. He once gave law books to Scipio Africanus Jones

Scipio Africanus Jones

Scipio Africanus Jones was an African-American educator, attorney, judge, philanthropist, and Republican politician from the state of Arkansas...

, a young black man with the (ultimately very successful) ambition to become a lawyer, who dropped in on him one day unannounced. He ordered the release of the radical journalist Moses Harman, who had argued for the abolition of government, religion, and marriage, on a writ of error.

His minority opinion in Hopkins vs. Oxley Stave Company (1897) is cited as an eloquent defense of the right to trial by jury, which, he observed, is always regarded with hostility by wealth and aristocracy, corporations and trusts: "A distrust of the jury is a distrust of the people, and a distrust of the people means the overthrow of the government our fathers founded. Against the exercise of this jurisdiction the Constitution of the United States interposes an insurmountable barrier [...] These mandatory provisions of the Constitution are not to be nullified by mustering against them a little horde of equity maxims and obsolete precedents originating in a monarchical government having no written constitution."

Further reading

• Caldwell, Henry C. "Trial by Judge and Jury." American Federationist, 17:385-89, May 1910.

Deals with contempt of court cases and censorship by injunction in labor disputes.

• "Railroad Receiverships in the Federal Courts of the United States: Remarks of the Hon. Henry C. Caldwell before the Greenleaf Club." St. Louis, 1896.

concerns creditors' rights