Amos T. Akerman

Akerman was born on February 23, 1821, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the ninth of twelve children of Benjamin Akerman and his wife. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, where he graduated in the class of 1842 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. ==Headmaster, farmer, and law practice==

Upon graduation, Akerman moved South where the climate was thought better for his lung condition. He quickly got a job as a headmaster/instructor of a boy's academy in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, at that time part of Richmond county. Akerman took advantage of Berrien's extensive law library and became fascinated with the field. Akerman passed the Georgia Bar in 1850, and moved to Peoria, Illinois, where his sister resided, and briefly practiced law. Akerman returned to Georgia and practiced law in Clarksville. Akerman returned to Georgia, where he opened a law practice in Elberton, with Robert Heston. In addition to practicing law, Akerman also farmed and enslaved eleven people. In terms of politics Akerman was a Whig. ==American Civil War==

Although he was against secession as a solution to the North–South conflicts, Akerman was loyal to his adopted state. At age 43, he joined the Confederate States Army in the spring of 1864. Akerman first served in General Robert Toombs' brigade and later in the quartermaster's department where it was his job to procure and dispense uniforms, weapons and other supplies to the soldiers. Akerman was put into active service against the Union during Sherman's 1864 march through Georgia. ==Reconstruction==

Akerman joined the Republican Party in the campaign for freedmen's citizenship and suffrage. He was an outspoken proponent of Reconstruction as a member of Georgia's 1868 state constitutional convention and when appointed as U.S. district attorney for Georgia (1869). His appointment was blocked for some time by Congress, since he had served in the Confederate army. Akerman served for a total period of six months in this position. Akerman also strongly advocated Georgia's readmission into the Union and struggled to gain stability and federal compliance in the state. ==United States Presidential election 1868==

During the 1868 Presidential campaign, there was concern that Akerman supported presidential candidate Horatio Seymour over Grant. To stop the rumor, in a letter from Elberton, Akerman published his full endorsement for Ulysses S. Grant. He served as the Republican presidential state elector from Georgia. Akerman believed Grant would restore order and peace to the violence-plagued South. Akerman believed Grant would respect the "rights of the laborer as a freeman, citizen and voter". Akerman wrote that violence in the South against blacks was motivated by revenge after the white Southerners had been defeated by the North, lost substantial property in the emancipation of slaves, had their society disrupted, and were temporarily disenfranchised. Akerman believed that Congressional Reconstruction had been the better plan for the Southern states, opposed to President Andrew Johnson's plan. He believed that freedmen deserved federal protection from the law and he endorsed the enfranchisement of their men. Akerman admitted he was initially strongly opposed to blacks voting; however, his opinion changed as he came to believe that this was the only way that blacks could gain political power and protection. ==United States Attorney Georgia 1869 ==

In 1869 President Grant appointed Akerman as U.S. Attorney in Georgia. President Grant, initially, attempted to protect African American voters against white violence and discrimination by the use of State courts. White vs. Clement In June 1869, Akerman argued in defense of Richard W. White, a mulatto who had won the state election for Superior Court county clerk. White's opponent, William James Clement, represented by Solicitor General Alfred B. Smith of the Eastern Georgia Circuit court, said that White was ineligible to hold office since he was a black man. The case went to the Georgia's Supreme Court where Akerman defended White's election and said his color did not deny him the right to hold office. Akerman argued that since blacks had been granted the franchise throughout the United States, they had the right to hold public office. He argued that blacks had participated in the Georgia's new constitutional government in 1868 without distinction of color. He also noted that both President Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant had appointed black men to public office and that the current U.S. Constitution did not recognize or discriminate on the basis of a person's color. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that White had the right to hold public office regardless of his race. ==United States Attorney General==

Brady 1869 On June 17, 1870, Grant selected Akerman as United States Attorney General. Akerman was the "only person from the Confederacy to reach cabinet rank during Reconstruction". Having become attorney general shortly after the creation of the new Justice Department, Akerman dealt with legal issues from the Department of the Interior, such as the question of whether competing railroad companies deserved more land in the West in return for expanding the country's transportation system. He also dealt with the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. He led enforcement efforts to suppress the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the South through litigation. He had experienced its violence first-hand. He oversaw prosecution of more than 1100 cases against KKK members, gaining convictions. Akerman did not create the Department of Justice, but he helped play a pivotal role in its development. He helped to appoint members and set standards, but due to the geographical constraints, past laws, and financial restrictions he struggled to properly build a strong Department of Justice. Akerman resigned on December 13, 1871. One of these subsidiaries was financially unable to complete the railroad through Kansas, as a result, the Union Pacific applied for federal assistance in the form of land grants and bonds. Ruled on Civil Service Law On September 7, 1871, Att. Gen. Akerman ruled on the newly formed Civil Service Commission passed by Congress on March 3, 1871, and signed into law by President Grant on March 4. In the United States first ever Civil Service Reform legislation a commission was set up to establish rules, testing, and regulations, authorized by the President, for the best possible candidates to be appointed civil service positions. The Freedman's Bureau in the Deep South were sent hundreds of complaints by blacks who had been persecuted and attacked by whites. One United States attorney of later years characterized this Klan activity as "the worst outbreak of domestic violence in American history to date." Upon his assumption to office, Akerman's primary duty was to stop the violence against blacks in the South and prosecute the perpetrators. Akerman, expanding the powers of the Department of Justice, started an investigating division that looked into the organization of the Klan in the South. Rumor was that Grant was pressured by Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano, who sympathized with railroad tycoons Collis P. Huntington and Jay Gould, and had demanded Akerman's resignation. According to McFeely, with Akerman's resignation "went any hope that the Republican party would develop as a national party of true racial equality". ==Return to Georgia and death==

Although he was offered another government job, he returned to Georgia, where he continued to practice law until his death in Cartersville, on December 21, 1880. He was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in the city. ==Family==

Days before he entered active Confederate Army service in 1864 during the American Civil War, Akerman married Martha Rebecca Galloway. The couple had eight children; one child died before adulthood. Their son Alexander Akerman was a Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida from 1929 to 1948. ==Honors and historical recognition==

Cartersville's Oak Hill Akerman monument An Akerman monument was placed at Akerman's gravesite in Cartersville's Oak Hill Cemetery. Akerman monument text in Cartersville at the site of his former home. The marker commemorated his career as both teacher and attorney, including his prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. The marker states: ==References==