Archibald Williams (June 10, 1801 – September 21, 1863) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. Williams was a friend and political ally of President Abraham Lincoln.
Education and career
Born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, the son of John Williams and Amelia Gill Williams, Williams read law to enter the bar in 1828. In 1829, he entered private practice in Quincy, Illinois. For several months in early 1832, he served as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War against Native Americans. In the fall of 1832, he supported Henry Clay for President of the United States.Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago, IL: 1901), p. 590. Also see William H. Collins and Cicero F. Perry, Past and Present of the City of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois (Chicago, IL: 1905), p. 272. Also see History of Adams County (Chicago, IL: Murray, Williamson, and Phelps, 1879), p. 415. He was the United States Attorney for the District of Illinois from 1849 to 1853. He served in both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate.
State senate service
While in the Illinois Senate, Williams studied and reported on School Financing to the Senate, arguing for local control of schools rather than establishing a statewide system. Later in his legislative career, he labeled the Illinois Internal Improvements program "Infernal Improvements" due to its financial difficulties leading to bankruptcy.Letter, Archibald Williams to Henry Asbury, December 27, 1839, Henry Asbury File, Quincy Historical Society, Quincy, Illinois.
Service as United States Attorney and Fugitive Slave Act
As the United States Attorney for Illinois, it was Williams's job to prosecute cases in the United States District Court. The job became more difficult for Williams in 1850 when Congress enacted the Compromise of 1850, which included a new Fugitive Slave Law. This law required Williams, in his role as United States Attorney, to oversee the capture of runaway slaves and their return to their owners in the South. Williams was opposed to slavery personally but, in the 1850s, acknowledged the right of slave owners in the South to keep their slaves. He fully discharged his duties under the Fugitive Slave Act.Quincy (Illinois) Whig, October 29, 1850; February 4, 1851; and September 18, 1852; quoted in Dennis J. Thavenet, "William Alexander Richardson, 1811-1875," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nebraska, 1967, p. 118, 129.
Federal judicial service
On March 8, 1861, Williams was nominated by President Abraham Lincoln to a new seat on the United States District Court for the District of Kansas created by 12 Stat. 126. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 12, 1861, and received his commission the same day. Williams served in that capacity until his death in Quincy on September 21, 1863.
Williams was the first person to hold the office of United States District Judge in Kansas, Kansas itself having just achieved statehood."Death of Judge Williams," Quincy (Illinois) Whig, included in "Death of Hon. Archibald Williams," Quincy (Illinois) Herald, Volume XXX, Number 4, September 28, 1863. Williams moved to Topeka, Kansas, the state capital, where he served more than two years as Judge. He moved back to Quincy shortly before his death.
Notable cases
During his tenure as the United States District Judge for Kansas, Williams worked on such issues as building a branch of the transcontinental railroad across Kansas,David G. Taylor, "Thomas Ewing, Jr., and the Origins of the Kansas Pacific Railway Company," Kansas Historical Quarterly, Summer 1976 (Volume 42, No. 2), p. 155-179. fair treatment of Native Americans in railroad matters,"Order for Issue of Bonds for Use of Delaware Indians," June 10, 1861, in Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: 1953), Volume IV, p. 400-402. Also see Abraham Lincoln to Orville Browning, Washington, July 20, 1861, in Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: 1953), Volume IV, p. 455 and the loyalty to the Union cause of a United States Army officer stationed in Kansas.Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton, April 16, 1863, in Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: 1953), Volume VI.
Last call on Lincoln
While still serving in Kansas, Williams traveled to Washington, D.C., and, on May 29, 1862, paid a last visit to his old friend Lincoln in the White House.Theodore C. Pease and James G. Randall, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning (Springfield, IL: 1925 and 1933), Volume I, p. 547.
Relationship with Lincoln
Lincoln was elected to the state legislature in 1834. Williams and Lincoln became good friends and both subsequently joined the Whig Party. Lincoln was said to have seen Williams as a great "reasoner." The two men were described as "sitting next to each other in the southeast corner of the statehouse." It was noted: "Lincoln did not hesitate to consult Williams at all times, and the two men were often associated in legal work."Carl Landrum, "From Quincy's past: Archibald Williams, early lawyer," Quincy (Illinois) Herald-Whig, December 5, 1971.
Williams ran for the United States Senate as a Whig in 1836 and in 1842. At those times the selection of United States Senators was made by both houses of the state legislature. Lincoln voted for Williams the first time he ran for United States Senator in 1836.Paul Simon, Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness: The Illinois Legislative Years (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), p. 54. Also see Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years – One Volume Edition (New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954), p. 51. The second time Williams ran, in 1842, Lincoln was no longer in the state legislature and thus could not vote for his friend. In both instances, Williams was not elected.
Lincoln was admitted to practice law in the United States Circuit Court on December 3, 1839. United States District Judge Nathaniel Pope presided over the ceremony. A Quincy newspaper noted that Williams was present at the ceremony.Quincy (Illinois) Whig, December 14, 1839, quoted in Earl Schenck Myers, Ed., Lincoln Day by Day – A Chronology, 1809–1865 (Dayton, OH: Morningside, 1991).
Williams presided over a Whig Party state convention meeting in Springfield, Illinois, in 1843. Lincoln attended the convention and was elected a Whig Party presidential elector for the 1844 presidential election. Unfortunately for the Whigs, Democrat James K. Polk of Tennessee won the presidential election.
In June 1844, Williams was elected president of an Illinois state Whig Party convention in Peoria, Illinois. Lincoln spoke to the convention in support of the United States charging higher tariffs on imported goods, a major Whig position at the time.Website: MrLincolnAndFriends.org., click on Politicians, click on Archibald Williams.
Along with Lincoln, Williams in the 1840s supported the African colonization of freed slaves by joining the Illinois colonization society. Although opposed to slavery, both men believed Southerners should be allowed to keep their slaves but also should be urged to free their slaves voluntarily and return them to Africa. This was thought to be a reasonable and non-coercive solution to the slavery problem.Sangamo Journal, January 23, 1845, quoted in Maurice J. Baxter, Orville H. Browning: Lincoln's Friend and Critic (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1957) p. 66-67.
1848 election
In the 1848 presidential election, Lincoln was backing General Zachary Taylor, a Mexican War hero, for the Whig Party nomination. A problem developed when Orville H. Browning, a Whig Party leader in Quincy supported the nomination of past Whig Party favorite Henry Clay. On April 30, 1848, Lincoln wrote a letter to Williams urging him to support Zachary Taylor and, if possible, also enlist the support of Browning."Valuable Lincoln Letter Treasured by Quincyan; Was Written to Judge Archibald Williams in 1848; Mrs. Walter D. Franklin Prizes Highly Note Written by Emancipator," Quincy (Illinois) Herald-Whig, February 20, 1947.
Washington, April 30, 1848
Dear Williams,
I have not seen in the papers any evidence of a movement to send a delegate from your circuit to the June convention—I wish to say that I think it all important that a delegate should be sent—Mr. Clay's chance for election is just no chance at all. He might get New York, and that would have elected in 1844 but it will not now; because he must now at the least, have Tennessee, which he had then and, in addition, the fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. I know that our good friend Browning is a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear he is favoring his nomination. If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and try if he can possibly, as a matter of judgement, count the votes necessary to elect him.
In my judgment, we can elect nobody but Gen. Taylor, and we cannot elect him without a nomination—Therefore don't fail to send a delegation—
Your friend as ever,
A. Lincoln
This letter demonstrates the close friendship and easygoing familiarity between Lincoln and Williams. It also reveals Lincoln's developing skills as an up-and-coming Illinois politician. It is not known whether Williams prevailed on Orville Browning to support Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination for president in 1848.Norma Lorene Johnston, "Lincoln's Relationships with Four Quincy Republicans," Masters Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1955, p. 23.
Once in the White House in Washington, D.C., newly elected President Zachary Taylor appointed Williams the United States District Attorney for the state of Illinois. Lincoln had sent the following letter in support of Williams's nomination:
Washington, March 8, 1849
Hon: John M. Clayton
Secretary of State
Dear Sir:
We Recommend that Archibald Williams, of Quincy, Illinois, be appointed U.S. District Attorney for the District of Illinois, when that office shall become vacant.
Your Obt. Servts.
A. LincolnAbraham Lincoln to John M. Clayton, March 8, 1849, in Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL: 1953), Volume 2, p. 39.
The Mormon Problem in Illinois
Joining with his friend and fellow Quincy lawyer Orville Browning, Williams in 1841 helped to defend Mormon leader Joseph Smith from being extradited to Missouri to face possible execution for alleged crimes.B. H. Roberts, History of the Church (Latter-Day Saints), Volume 4, p. 367. Joseph Smith was the founder of the Latter Day Saints movement (Mormons), and he and his church were unpopular because of the voting power of his supporters and their belief in men having multiple wives. Thanks to Browning's and Williams's arguments in court, Smith was not extradited to Missouri but remained in Illinois and founded a Mormon colony at Nauvoo, Illinois.
Four years later, in 1844, Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob while incarcerated in the jail at Carthage, Illinois. Williams and Browning switched sides and helped to defend in court the accused murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The defendants were all found not-guilty.Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1975), p. 182.