Arkansas Supreme Court Historical Society
Governor and Supreme Court Justice Simon P. Hughes By L. Scott Stafford
Photo courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission
Two justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court—Henry M. Rector and Elisha Baxter— were later elected to the office of governor, but only one person—Simon Pollard Hughes— served first as governor and then as a justice of the Supreme Court. Hughes was born in Tennessee in 1830 and joined relatives in Pulaski County, Arkansas, at age 14 following the death of both parents. He returned to Tennessee in 1846 to attend Sylvan Academy (Sumner County) and Clinton College (Smith County) before financial circumstances ended his formal education. After teaching school for two years, he returned to Monroe County, Arkansas, in 1849 and began farming. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1854 and, while serving in that office, he read sufficient law to be admitted to practice in 1857. During the political crisis that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln, Hughes opposed secession. After the Civil War began, he nevertheless joined the Confederate Army and eventually became a lieutenant colonel. When his regiment was eliminated in an army reorganization, he joined a Texas cavalry unit as a private and served until the end of the war. Hughes returned to Monroe County, whose voters sent him to the 1866 Arkansas General Assembly. Under Reconstruction, which began in Arkansas with the 1868 adoption of a new constitution, Hughes was denied the right to vote due to his pre-war service as a public official coupled with his wartime service in the Confederate Army. For the next six years he farmed and practiced law. In 1874 Hughes was selected as a Monroe County delegate to the Constitutional Convention convened by opponents of Reconstruction in the aftermath of the BrooksBaxter War. While serving as delegate to the convention he was selected by the Democratic Party as its nominee for attorney general. At the October 1874 election that ratified the Constitution of 1874, Hughes was elected as the first attorney general under the constitution. His most noteworthy achievement as attorney general was his assertion and successful defense before the Arkansas Supreme Court of a law subjecting railroads to tax on lands granted them by the federal and state govern30
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ments. St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway v. Loftin, 30 Ark. 693 (1875), affirmed 98 U.S. 559 (1878). After a single term as attorney general Hughes was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1876 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. For the next eight years he practiced law in Little Rock. Hughes tried again for the office of chief executive in 1884. He and Little Rock cotton broker John G. Fletcher, father of the noted poet, campaigned throughout the state seeking delegates to the 1884 Democratic state convention. At the state convention it took Hughes 33 ballots to get the Democratic nomination, but he easily defeated the Republican nominee at the 1884 general election. Hughes ran for reelection in 1886. He secured the Democratic nomination with little opposition and in the general election defeated Republican Lafayette Gregg, who had served on the Supreme Court during Reconstruction. During his two terms as governor Hughes worked to address the large amount of debt incurred by the state during Reconstruction. Although much of that debt had been repudiated by court decision and constitutional amendment, the undisputed debt was still sufficient to jeopardize the state’s credit rating. The debt problem would continue after Hughes left office, but his efforts did reduce the debt and put the state on a sounder financial basis. In 1888 Hughes broke with tradition and sought a third term as governor. His main opponents in the state Democratic convention were his 1884 opponent, John G. Fletcher, and a Lonoke plantation owner, James P. Eagle. After over 100 ballots, Fletcher’s delegates began moving to Eagle, who defeated Hughes on the 126th ballot. Subsequently, with Hughes’ support, Eagle was elected governor. After leaving the governor’s office in early 1889, Hughes returned to the practice of law, but in the spring of that year the legislature increased the number of Supreme Court justices from three to five, and Hughes was elected in a special election to fill one of the newly created positions. Hughes spend the next 16 years on the high court, longer than the ten years he had spent as governor and attorney general. His opinions while on the court tended
to be short and succinct, as would be expected of a person more accustomed to making decisions than explaining them. The reasoning in many of his opinions was only one paragraph long. See, e.g., Scott v. State, 63 Ark. 310, 38 S.W. 339 (1896). The explanation in least at one opinion consisted of a single sentence. Mann v. German Nat’l Bank, 15 S.W. 154 (1891). Hughes died in 1906, less than two years after leaving the high court. He is buried in historic Mount Holly Cemetery on South Broadway in Little Rock. Additional reading: Donovan, Gatewood, and Whayne, eds., The Governors of Arkansas : Essays in Political Biography. 2d ed., Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1995. Simon Pollard Hughes (1830-1906), The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net (December 30, 2011). This article is provided by the Arkansas Supreme Court Historical Society, Inc. For more information on the Society contact Rod Miller, Arkansas Supreme Court Historical Society, Justice Building, Suite 1500, 625 Marshall Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201; Email: rod. miller@arkansas.gov; Phone: 501-682-6879. Historian Michael B. Dougan (left) presented the living Sterling R. Cockrill with copies from the Summer and Fall issues of The Arkansas Lawyer that contain the biography of his great grandfather, Supreme Court Chief Justice Sterling R. Cockrill, the youngest chief justice in the state’s history.