Rice Garland

Rice Garland (September 30, 1799 – August 13, 1863) was an American lawyer, jurist, politician, and slaveholder who served as a United States Representative from Louisiana from 1834 to 1840. He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he received a basic education before turning to the study of law. After reading law and qualifying for the bar, he was admitted to practice and began his legal career as a young attorney.

In 1820 Garland moved from Virginia to Opelousas, Louisiana, where he continued the practice of law. Establishing himself in his adopted state, he built a professional reputation that would later support his entry into public life. As a member of the slaveholding class in the antebellum South, he participated in the legal and political structures that underpinned the region’s economy and society, while advancing his standing within Louisiana’s legal community.

Garland entered national politics in the early 1830s during a period of intense partisan realignment. He was elected from Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative Henry Adams Bullard. He took his seat on April 28, 1834. He was subsequently reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress and then as a member of the Whig Party to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses, serving four consecutive terms. During his tenure he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War, a position that placed him at the center of congressional oversight of military spending at a time of continuing frontier conflicts and evolving federal military policy.

Garland’s service in Congress extended from April 28, 1834, to July 21, 1840. As a member first of the Anti-Jacksonian opposition and then of the Whig Party representing Louisiana, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in debates over federal power, economic policy, and the role of the executive branch. He resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on July 21, 1840, to accept a judicial appointment.

Upon leaving Congress, Garland was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. He took up residence in New Orleans and served on the state’s highest court until 1846. In that capacity he was involved in adjudicating important questions of Louisiana civil and commercial law during a formative period in the state’s jurisprudence, which was shaped by a blend of civil law traditions and American constitutional principles.

In 1846 Garland left Louisiana and moved to Brownsville, Texas, a growing community on the Rio Grande that had recently come under United States control following the annexation of Texas and the onset of the Mexican–American War. There he resumed the practice of law, continuing his legal career on the southwestern frontier. He lived and worked in Brownsville until his death on August 13, 1863, during the midst of the American Civil War. He died in Brownsville, Texas, closing a public life that had spanned law practice, congressional service, and high judicial office in the antebellum South.