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 the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

Early life and education

Born on January 28, 1849, at his maternal grandmother's home in

Rockingham County, North Carolina Rockingham County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 91,096. Its county seat is Wentworth, North Carolina, Wentworth. The county ...

, he was the first of two sons of Senator

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (né Douglass; April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. As a United States Senate, U.S. senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party (United States) ...

(

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) and Martha Martin, originally of

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. 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, from a Maryland

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 Georgetown College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers over 40 undergraduate degrees and a Mas ...

in Washington, D.C. in 1867. He later earned a

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

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, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, 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 History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

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 in the United States, federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the United States federal judi ...

for

. In 1888 he was appointed to serve as Master in

Chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

to the

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. 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 (also a Republican) were

impeached Impeachment is a 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 Eu ...

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 North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House, who holds powers si ...

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

State Treasurer In the state and territorial governments of the United States, 54 of the 56 states and territories have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the office of New York State Treasurer in 1926, in which the duties were transfer ...

to pay out money." Neither was removed from office by the necessary two-thirds vote of the

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The 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 Encyclopedi ...

''. Douglas died at his home in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

, on February 8, 1917.

Marriage and family

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

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Robert M. 1849 births 1917 deaths Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences alumni Law enforcement officials from North Carolina 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 North Carolina state court judges 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century North Carolina politicians United States judges impeached by state or territorial governments Catholics from North Carolina