Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory

Enter Judge Williams

90 d D Breaking Chains I have by heavy exertions given my daughters a good English education— we have the finest country for a pore man to make a living in I have ever seen if the man is only able to labour. But now with bad helth and of the age that I am [I] have hard times to keep up.7 It isn’t known whether Shirley replied to Ford. The scheme may have seemed too bizarre for Shirley to take seriously, and he chose to ignore the letter. But for whatever reason, it doesn’t appear Ford made any concrete attempt to reclaim Robin and Polly Holmes. Enter Judge Williams Judge Cyrus Olney told Robin Holmes on June 24, 1853, that the court would await the arrival of a new Supreme Court justice before deciding whether Holmes would get his children back—or whether Nathaniel Ford could keep them. The new judge arrived within a few days, and within a few more days, on July 13, issued a landmark ruling in favor of Holmes. For a new judge, it was an extraordinarily quick resolution of a controversial and important case. The judge was George H. Williams, newly confirmed by the U.S. Senate as chief justice of Oregon’s Territorial Supreme Court, following his nomination by President Franklin Pierce. Williams had never been to Oregon and had only the briefest possible time to familiarize himself with the Holmes case. The thirty-year-old Williams was described by a biographer as “tall, heavy framed, rather awkward.’’ Born and raised in New York, Williams lived at the time of his nomination in Fort Madison, Iowa, where he owned a newspaper and served as an elected district judge. His nomination as Oregon’s chief justice was seen as a political reward—he had been a presidential elector for Pierce, whose first choice, O. C. Pratt, had been rejected by the Senate.1 Williams would play an important role in organizing Oregon for statehood. He would later serve as a U.S. senator from Oregon, and U.S. attorney general under President Ulysses Grant. Grant would also nominate Williams for chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, although the post would be denied him. He would end his political career as mayor of Portland.2 When Williams arrived in Oregon, the Holmeses had been subjected to delay after delay, and the case was still unresolved after fifteen months. Had Ford’s Secret Strategy d D 91 George H. Williams, the chief judge of Oregon’s Territorial Supreme Court, who ruled in Robin Holmes’ favor in his suit to free his children from Nathaniel Ford. Williams later became a U.S. senator and the U.S. attorney general. (Oregon Historical Society) he chose, Williams would have had ample reason to also go slowly—he had arrived in Portland only days earlier with his wife, Kate Van Antwerp; they were moving into a new home; he barely knew his fellow justices; and he could legitimately say he needed more time to consider the legal issues. Williams also didn’t give himself much time to learn the major players in the new Oregon Territory—those who called the shots, so to speak—or familiarize himself with local attitudes toward slavery and blacks. In today’s judicial system, any one of these might be a reason—spoken or unspoken—for a judge to take his time. However, Williams not only did not proceed slowly, he moved the decision forward by several months, well ahead of the hearing Judge Olney had scheduled for the following December in Salem. d D On July 13, 1853, Judge Williams issued the following ruling on Ford v. Holmes: [S]aid Judge having heard the allegations and evidence of the petitioner and respondent, orders and decrees that the said children Jenny or Mary Jane, James and Roxanna be and they hereby are awarded to the care and custody of their parents, Robin Holmes and his wife, to be and remain with them as their children as fully and in all respects as though they, the said children, had not been in the custody of the said Ford.3 92 d D Breaking Chains The Oregon Statesman published the verdict in a brief article on July 19, 1853, saying, “The court decreed that the lawful custody of said children belonged to the parents and ordered said Ford to deliver...