| Abstract: | This study examines and evaluates the contributions of Richard Bennett Hubbard (1832-1901), in the areas of Texas politics and United States diplomacy in Japan where he served as minister from 1885 to 1889. Hubbard was in many respects an unusual political figure in Texas in the nineteenth century. A native of Georgia, he received his bachelor's degree from Mercer University in that state, and then attended the University of Virginia before receiving his law degree from Harvard in 1853. Only twenty-one years of age when he and his parents left Georgia to settle in the little village of Tyler, Texas, the young lawyer soon established a reputation for oratory in a period in which oratory was much admired, for his vigorous advocacy of pro-slavery views, and for a strict construction of the Constitution. His recognized legal and oratorical abilities, combined with a business acumen, brought both wealth and political influence very quickly, and in 1859 he became the youngest member of the state legislature. In 1860 Hubbard was a strong supporter of John C. Breckinridge for the Democratic nomination for President, and after the election of Abraham Lincoln, Hubbard became a confirmed and eager secessionist. In 1861 he raised the Fifth Texas Infantry Battalion, later reorganized and expanded as the Twenty-Second Texas Infantry Regiment. As the Colonel of that unit he served with considerable distinction in the Trans-Mississippi Department throughout the Civil War. ... |
|---|