Alexander Rives

Alexander Rives
Judge Alexander Rives
Judge of Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
In office December 19, 1866 – June 3, 1869
Judge of United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
In office February 6, 1871 – August 1, 1882
Nominated by	Ulysses S. Grant
Succeeded by	John Paul
Personal details
Born	June 17, 1806 Nelson County, Virginia
Died	September 17, 1885 Charlottesville, Virginia

Alexander Rives (June 17, 1806 – September 17, 1885) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and plantation owner who (unlike his brother and several of his sons) opposed his state's secession in 1861 and through the American Civil War. The former Unionist became a judge on the Virginia Court of Appeals (later the Virginia Supreme Court, 1866-1869), and after an unsuccessful campaign for Congress as a Republican, became a federal judge (1871-1882).^[1]

Early and family life

Rives was born at Oak Ridge plantation in Nelson County, Virginia. His mother, the former Margaret J. Cabell, and merchant father Robert Rives (1764-1845) had many children: Dr. Landon Cabell Rives, Margaret Jordan Rives, William Cabell Rives, Lucy Shandon Brown, Paulina Cabell Rives, Robert Rives, Jr., Henry Rives, James B Rives, George Rives, Elizabeth Rives and Alexander Rives(who died as an infant and whose name was recycled to this son). Beginning in 1821, this Alexander Rives attended Hampden-Sydney College and graduated in 1825. He then attended the University of Virginia and graduated in 1828.

The Cabells and Rives were among the First Families of Virginia. Three of his brothers—Robert, Jr., George, and William C.—also served in the General Assembly. His nephew Edward A. Pollard edited the Richmond Examiner along with Robert William Hughes. This Alexander Rives was the great-uncle of Alexander Brown, author of several books on the early history of Virginia and of The Cabells and their Kin (1895).^[2]

Rives married Belgian-born Isabella Bachem Wydown (1804-1861), daughter of English-born minister Rev. Samuel Wydown, in 1829. They had ten children before her death: James Henry Rives, Margaret, Dr. Alexander Rives Jr., teacher Robert Rives, Charles M. Rives, Emma B., Adela B. and Francis W. Rives. The middle-aged widower's second marriage, to Sally Kearsley Watson (daughter of Richmond physician Dr. George Watson) on May 29, 1862 in Louisa, Virginia, produced no children.

Early career in law and politics

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Rives was offered a professorship at Washington College (that later became Washington and Lee University), and accepted it, but almost immediately regretted his decision and declined it. Instead, he sought and received admission to the Virginia bar, Rives began a private legal practice.

Like his brother William C. Rives, Alexander Rives was initially a Democrat, but opposed the sub-treasury policy of President Martin Van Buren. Thus, Rives joined the Conservative Party in 1840, and the Whig, party in 1844.^[3]

Nelson County voters elected Rives to represent them in Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. He also won election to the House of Delegates in 1852–53; and the Virginia State Senate in 1859–61. He lived in Charlottesville until 1833; then at "Carlton" on Monticello until 1873, and spent his final years at "Eastbourne Terrace" in Charlottesville.^[4]

Although his brother William C. Rives (a former U.S. Senator and Congressman from Virginia, as well as Minister to France under President Zachary Taylor) served in the Confederate Congress), Alexander Rives opposed the secession of Virginia in 1861 and throughout the war. The 1860 federal census indicates that lawyer Rives owned real estate worth $60,000 and personal property (including enslaved persons) worth $94,496.^[5]

After the American Civil War, Rives served as the ninth Rector of the University of Virginia from 1865 to 1866.

Pursuant to the Virginia Constitution of 1864, on December 19, 1866, voters elected Rives as a judge on the Supreme Court of Appeals. He remained on the court until June 3, 1869, when pursuant to Congressional Reconstruction, Major General John Schofield removed Rives and both colleagues on account of their Confederate service, per new federal legislation applicable to Mississippi, Texas and Virginia.

In 1870, Rives ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican, but lost to Richard Thomas Walker Duke. Duke's son recalled of this campaign that Rives "had 'ratted' and became a 'scalawag' republican." Nonetheless, Rives had obtained a pardon for his opponent, to remove Duke's disability from seeking office, without charging Rives's usual fee of up to $500.^[6]

Judgeship

By year end, President Ulysses S. Grant decided to appoint Rives as judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Also, Virginia legislators the prior year had elected both Rives' colleagues to the Virginia Supreme Court, together with three other judges (but refusing to elect the three Union judges appointed by General Schofield pending adoption of the Virginia Constitution of 1869). Prior to Rives' appointment (in which the U.S. Senate concurred), the last Western District judges were John White Brockenbrough, who resigned to join the Confederacy, and John Jay Jackson, Jr., who served the counties that became West Virginia and remained in the Union during the War. There was no Western District of Virginia from 1864 until 1871, when Congress re-established the Western District. During that period, the only federal judge for sole Virginia district was John Curtiss Underwood, who had one of the highest caseloads in the nation, particularly of bankruptcy cases after the collapse of the plantation economy and 1869 recession.

In 1878, Judge Rives took the then-controversial view that the exclusion of blacks from jury service in Virginia state courts was a violation of the Equal Protection rights of two criminal defendants, granting their petitions for habeas corpus relief.^[7] The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution denouncing the Reynolds decision, and demanding an appeal.^[8] The Supreme Court agreed in principle with Rives, in three decisions issued on March 1, 1880, but overruled his reasoning in Virginia v. Rivesordering him to return jurisdiction over the petitioners to the Commonwealth.^[9] However, in Ex parte Virginia the court confirmed federal authority to enforce African Americans' rights to serve on juries, and in Strauder v. West Virginia the court declared states could not limit jury service to whitemen.^[10] Over 100 years later, the Supreme Court ruled that even the use of peremptory challenges where exclusion was made on the basis of race was unconstitutional, in Batson.

Death and legacy

Judge Rives retired on August 1, 1882.^[11] He was replaced on the Western District bench by Judge John Paul.

Alexander Rives died in 1885, and was buried beside his wife and namesake son in Monticello Memorial Park, Albemarle County, Virginia.^[12] Two of his sons who served in the Confederate army lie nearby: Lt. Charles Meriweather Rives (who died in the Battle of Cold Harbor) and Robert Rives. Their eldest brother, James Henry Rives, is buried in Lynchburg. His grandson (son of his youngest daughter Adele) and namesake Alexander Rives Skinker (1883-1918) won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in World War I (which proved fatal). Some of Judge Rives' papers before 1875 are held by the University of Virginia library.^[13]

The Rives family estate where Judge Rives was born, Oak Ridge in Nelson County, was sold in 1867, but remains today as an event and wedding venue. It was renovated beginning in 1901 by magnate Thomas Fortune Ryan, and more recently by John Holland Sr. and his son John Holland Jr.^[14][15][16] None of the homes where Judge Rives lived are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but if still extant like Oak Ridge, may be among properties in various historic districts.

The federal appellate judge from Alabama who figured prominently in several racial desegregation cases in the mid-20th century, Richard Rives, is not a close relative, but they may share 18th century Virginia ancestors.

Notes and references

External links

• Genealogy from the University of Virginia Special Collections Library