West Hughes Humphreys

West Hughes Humphreys (August 26, 1806 – October 16, 1882) was the 3rd attorney general of Tennessee and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

During the American Civil War, he served as a Confederate judge from 1861 until the end of the war in 1865. He was ultimately impeached by the United States House of Representatives in 1862, being convicted and removed from office by the United States Senate for supporting the Confederate States of America. He was banned from federal service for life.

Education and career

Born on August 26, 1806, in Montgomery County, Tennessee, Humphreys was the son of attorney and judge Parry Wayne Humphreys and his wife Mary West. His father later served on the State Supreme Court, was elected to one term in Congress, and served nearly two decades on the state judicial circuit.

Humphreys was educated privately and attended the law department of Transylvania University.

On June 26, 1862, the United States Senate began the trial of the impeachment in his absence and later that day unanimously convicted him of all charges presented, except that of confiscating the property of Andrew Johnson.

Humphreys was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He married and had a daughter, Annie Humphreys, who married John W. Morton, who during the Civil War served as a captain in the Confederate States Army. Afterward, Morton was a founder of the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Reportedly Morton initiated former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest into the KKK.

Works Suggestions on the Subject of Bank Charters (1859) Some Suggestions on the Subject of Monopolies and Special Charters (1859) An Address on the Use of Alcoholic Liquors and the Consequences (1879)