Emory Speer

Emory Speer (September 3, 1848 – December 13, 1918) was a United States representative from Georgia and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. He was born on September 3, 1848, in Culloden, Monroe County, Georgia, to Dr. Eustace Willouby Speer (1826–1899), a Methodist minister, and Annie Eliza King Speer (1827–1910). Through his mother he was a distant relative of United States Founding Father Rufus King. His paternal uncle, Alexander M. Speer (1820–1897), was a lawyer and judge who served on the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1880 to 1882. His paternal grandfather, the Reverend Alexander M. Speer (1790–1856), was also a Methodist minister, a graduate of Emory University, and one of the founders of Wesleyan College. His great‑grandfather, William Speer (1745/1747–1830), was an Irish-born soldier in the American Revolutionary War who served as an aide to General Andrew Pickens and later owned 1,400 acres of land in the Abbeville District of South Carolina, where he built the family home in which Emory Speer’s grandfather was raised. A later family history, “William Speer (1747–1830), his life, family and descendants,” by Wade Speer, chronicled this lineage. Speer’s father died on October 29, 1899, at the age of 72 after a brief illness, and his mother died on January 1, 1910, at the age of 82 after a long illness; both were buried at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Clarke County, Georgia.

Speer’s youth coincided with the upheaval of the Civil War. In 1864, at the age of sixteen, he entered the Confederate States Army as a volunteer in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, Lewis Brigade, and remained with that command throughout the remainder of the conflict. After the war he pursued higher education, receiving an Artium Baccalaureus degree in classical studies from the University of Georgia in 1869. He then read law, following the customary apprenticeship route of the period rather than attending a formal law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1869.

In his personal life, Speer married Sallie Dearing in 1869. The couple had four children: Eugenia (1870–1935), Anne (1872–1940), Sally (1876–1959), and Lulie (1877–1944). In 1874, he fathered a child, Marion Speer (1874–1970), with Eleanor Digges Morgan; Marion later became a local socialite. After Sallie Dearing’s death in 1879, Speer married Eleanor Digges Morgan soon thereafter. Eleanor died in 1919 at the age of 61. These family relationships unfolded alongside his rapid ascent in the legal and political life of postwar Georgia.

Speer began his legal career in private practice in Athens, Georgia, where he practiced from 1869 to 1883. He entered public service as Solicitor General for the State of Georgia, serving from 1873 to 1876. His early prosecutorial work and growing reputation at the bar led him to seek national office. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Forty-fifth Congress to fill the unexpired term of Representative Benjamin Harvey Hill, but he remained active in politics and legal practice.

Speer was subsequently elected as an Independent Democrat from Georgia’s 9th congressional district to the United States House of Representatives, serving in the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883. As a member of the Independent Party representing Georgia, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history marked by Reconstruction’s aftermath and the realignment of Southern politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882, which ended his congressional career but not his involvement in federal service.

After leaving Congress, Speer resumed private practice, this time in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1883 to 1885. Concurrently, he served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia from 1883 to 1885, reinforcing his standing in federal legal circles. His performance as a federal prosecutor and his prior congressional experience brought him to the attention of national leaders and positioned him for elevation to the federal bench.

On January 19, 1885, President Chester A. Arthur nominated Speer to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, vacated by Judge John Erskine. The United States Senate confirmed him on February 18, 1885, and he received his commission the same day. He served on that court until his death on December 13, 1918, in Macon, Georgia, making him the last federal judge in active service to have been appointed by President Arthur. During his long tenure, Speer presided over a wide range of federal cases, including important civil rights matters. He became unpopular in much of the white community for his view that federal law permitted the protection of African Americans, and in November 1888 he wrote to President‑elect Benjamin Harrison urging vigorous enforcement of African-American rights during Harrison’s administration. In addition to his judicial duties, Speer served as dean of Mercer University Law School in Macon from 1893 to 1918, where he lectured on constitutional law and helped train a generation of Georgia lawyers.

Speer was also an author and public lecturer. His published works included “Removal of Causes from State to United States Courts” (1888), “Lectures on the Constitution of the United States before the law class of Mercer University” (J.W. Burke Co., 1897), and “Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Addresses” (1909), reflecting his interest in constitutional interpretation, federal jurisdiction, and the great figures of the Civil War era. These writings complemented his judicial opinions and academic leadership, contributing to contemporary legal and historical discourse.

In late 1918, Speer’s health declined. After reportedly being ill for three weeks, he died around 9 p.m. on December 13, 1918, at a hospital in Macon, Georgia. Plans had been made to move him to a hospital in Baltimore for continued treatment, but his condition worsened and the trip could not be undertaken. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia. His parents, who had predeceased him, were interred at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens. Speer’s long service as a congressman, federal prosecutor, district judge, law school dean, and author placed him among the notable federal jurists of his generation and secured his place in the legal and political history of Georgia and the United States.