Alexander H. Hardy

Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, by Dunbar Rowland, BS, LLB, LLD, Printed by Press of Hederman Bros., Jackson, Miss., 1935, pgs 94-96

Alexander H. Hardy, chief justice of the Mississippi Court of Errors and Appeals, was born in Somerset County, Maryland, on the 25^th of December, 1809.  He was well educated, and, having obtained his license as a lawyer, removed to Mississippi in the year 1836.  In January 1837, he was admitted to the bar of the high court of errors and appeals, and entered at once upon a most successful professional career.

In 1853 he was elected to a seat upon the bench of the high court over Judge William Yerber, who was then upon the bench, but who had rendered himself unpopular with the dominant party in consequence of his opinion in the case of Johnson vs. The State, in which he maintained the liability of the State for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank.  Judge Hardy held this office until October, 1860, and was then re-elected without opposition.

In 1865 he was again elected a judge of the high court over George L. Potter, and in January, 1866, was appointed chief justice of Mississippi.  In November, 1866, he was re-elected without opposition, but resigned the position on the 1^st day of October, 1867, by letter to the governor, in consequence of the court’s being placed by the Federal government in subordination to the military power of the United States.

He then removed to the city of Baltimore and resumed the practice of his profession, but was soon after appointed Professor at Law in the University of Maryland, which position he held until 1871, when he returned to Mississippi and resumed the practice of law in October, 1877.  He was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States.

Judge Hardy was firm believer in the doctrine of state’s rights; was immovably Southern in his views, and favored secession both as a right and a necessity.  He was appointed by the governor of Mississippi, in December, 1860, as a commissioner to the State of Maryland in relation to the political crisis then existing.  Failing in his efforts to communicate with the legislature of that state, in consequence of the refusal of its governor to convoke that body, Judge Hardy addressed himself directly to the people, and in his speech, delivered at Princess Anne on the first day of January, 1861, presented the subject of secession – its right and its reason – in a lucid and elaborate manner.  He depicted, with the ken of inspiration, the policy and purpose of the party about to take possession of the Federal government, showed that the principles announced by the president-elect and the leaders of his party were subversive of all equality in the Union, destructive of the rights of the Southern people, and virtually a revolution of the government.  But, although the people of Maryland were aroused by his presentation of the situation, they could do no0thing in view of the action of the State government.

In 1882 Judge Hardy wrote and published a pamphlet entitled “Secession considered as a Right in the States composing the late American Union of States, and as to the Grounds of Justification of the Southern States in exercising the Right.”  In this treatise he ably discussed the fundamental principles of the American government, the conditions upon which it was created, and its interpretation by the authors of the Federalist.

Judge Hardy was a fluent speaker, a polished writer, and an interesting companion.  The qualities which so eminently fitted him for a judge designated him for other marks of distinction, and in 1861 the title of LL.D., was tendered him by the faculty and trustees of the University of Mississippi, but he declined the honor.  In 1867, on his resignation as a judge of the high court, he was offered the position of Professor at Law in the same institution, but that was, also, declined.

As a lawyer Judge Hardy was learned and profound.  As a judge, his uniform urbanity, together with his able and dignified manner of administering justice, excited the admiration of the bar.  His decisions were searching and comprehensive, clear and logical in nouncement (sic), and exhaustive in their elucidation of the rights of the parties.  His opinions were numerous, and entered largely into the composition as an enduring monument sixteen volumes of the Mississippi Reports, from Vol. 26 to Vol. 41, inclusively.

They are characterized by an independence of thought and a self-reliance which bespeaks the possession of resources rarely acquired, and a fertility of legal genius which only a clear ad well-defined sense of right and wrong could inspire, and which only talents of the highest order could develop.

Judge Hardy resided in the cultured little city of canton, an old ante-bellum town of Madison county, where he practiced law for many years.

© Copyright 2006 by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.