1914, Ferguson was elected
Governor of Texas running as an anti-
prohibitionist Democrat. He served in this position from January 19, 1915 to August 25, 1917.
After being re-elected in 1916, Ferguson vetoed the appropriations for the
University of Texas. The veto was retaliation against the university because of its refusal to dismiss certain faculty members whom Ferguson found objectionable. This move spurred the drive to
impeach Ferguson. A leading Ferguson critic on the UT campus was
historian Eugene C. Barker. Ferguson was indicted on nine charges in July 1917. The
Texas House of Representatives prepared 21 charges against Ferguson and the Senate convicted him on 10 of those charges,
including misapplication of public funds and receiving $156,000 from an unnamed source.
[3] Freshman legislator
George Peddy of
Shelby County, who was also the president of the UT student body known as a critic of Ferguson, was in military training at
Camp Funston in
Kansas, when in 1917 the impeachment proceedings came before the House. He managed to return to Austin for the vote.
[4] The
Texas Senate removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office under Texas jurisdiction. Despite this ruling, Ferguson ran for governor in the 1918 Democratic primary, but he was defeated in the Democratic primary by his successor,
William P. Hobby of
Houston, previously the
lieutenant governor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Ferguson
