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HON. WALTER A. LEDBETTER
Vol. 3, p. 1015-1016
Book has photo

The man whose career it is the province of this sketch to trace is
well known to the bar, not only of the West, but of the entire
country, as a careful, painstaking and profound legist, the foremost
constitutional lawyer of Oklahoma, and, the constitution of the state
being in large measure the work of his mind, the father of Oklahoma's
judicial system. Mr. Ledbetter is a Texan by nativity, having been
born on his father's homestead farm in Fayette County, March 9, 1863,
and is a son of T. A. and Almeida (ROBISON) Ledbetter.

Mr. Ledbetter's early education came from the public schools of the
vicinity of his birth, following which he attended the State Normal
School of Texas, and after some preparation took his law examination
and was admitted to the bar at Gainesville, Texas, on the day that he
attained his majority. He entered upon practice of his chosen calling
at Gainesville, and there continued with more or less success until
1890, when he removed to Ardmore, Indian Territory, the city being a
community of about 1,000 inhabitants and the territory embracing all
the country that now comprises the State Of Oklahoma. In the
territory there was but one United States court with civil
jurisdiction, but in the fall of 1889 a congressional committee had
been sent to the territory to make an investigation with a view of
recommending legislation to Congress, and Mr. Ledbetter at once got
into touch with this committee, with which he spent considerable
time. Conceiving the idea of procuring the location of a United
States court at Ardmore, he was sent by the people of that city to
Washington, and, his efforts there being successful, the court was
located at Ardmore, May 2, 1890.

At that time the federal courts in the territory had but limited
criminal jurisdiction, that over the higher criminal offenses being
held by the United States courts at Paris, Texas, and Fort Smith,
Arkansas, to which thousands of persons were taken annually as
principals or witnesses for trial. Having shown himself so capable in
his first mission, Mr. Ledbetter was sent year after year to
Washington to procure full jurisdiction for the courts in the
territory and, incidentally, to press the fight for statehood, and
from 1900 to 1906 had as much to do with shaping the destinies of the
sate as any other man. In 1893 his earnest advocacy of statehood and
other progressive legislation prompted the Chickasaw Legislature to
petition the Secretary of the Interior to expel Mr. Ledbetter from
the country, an action which attracted wide attention throughout the
country, but his cause was strongly supported by the people and he
was permitted to remain.

In 1906, announcing himself as a candidate for the Constitutional
convention, Mr. Ledbetter was nominated and elected, was appointed as
chairman on the Committee on Judiciary, and subsequently served on
the legal advisory and numerous other committees. In that body, Mr.
Ledbetter's services were of a most stirring and brilliant character,
as related in the following, taken from a review of his work in the
Constitutional convention:
"One of the first questions which arose in the convention involved
the power of the convention to hear and determine the election and
qualification of its members. This power was denied by certain
members, on the ground that it had not been specially delegated to
the convention by the Enabling Act, it being insisted by them that
the convention had only such powers as were specially delegated to
it. Mr. Ledbetter successfully led the fight against this contention,
maintaining that the convention possessed all the powers which it was
not specially prohibited from exercising, one of its necessary powers
being the right to determine the election and qualification of its
members. The questions at issue were of the utmost importance,
involving the consideration of great constitutional principles, which
were vindicated, after the convention had completed its work, by the
decision of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in holding that the
convention had the power to create new counties out of the old
counties of the territory of Oklahoma, to propose a state government
according to its judgment as to what a state government should be,
subject only to the requirements of the Enabling Act and the
limitations of the Federal Constitution. The Enabling Act required
the convention, as soon as its organization was completed, to adopt
the Constitution of the United States for an on behalf of the people
of the State of Oklahoma. A resolution was offered to comply with
this requirement, but it went further and declared that the 'the
Constitution of the United States is the highest and paramount law of
the State of Oklahoma' Mr. Ledbetter moved to strike out the last
clause. This motion provoked one of the most celebrated debates in
the convention, but Mr. Ledbetter's contention that the Constitution
of the United states was not 'the highest and paramount law of the
State of Oklahoma,' was sustained by the convention. His argument was
that while the Constitution of the United States was the supreme law
of the land, and as to all matters that pertain to the Federal
jurisdiction and power it was paramount, yet within the domain of
state sovereignty the state constitution and laws are supreme; that
the spheres of the State and Federal governments are separate and
distinct, and each within its sphere is supreme. Mr. Ledbetter
introduced the measure which was adopted with some amendments as the
judicial system of the state, which now constitutes Article Seven of
the Constitution.

"The Public Service Committee's Report, which fixed the passenger
fares at two cents per mile, was amended on motion of Mr. Ledbetter,
so as to empower the Corporation Commission to exempt any railroad
from the operation of this rule upon satisfactory proof that it could
not earn just compensation for the service rendered the public if not
permitted to charge more than two cents per mile, the purpose of this
amendment being to meet and avoid the claim, which was certain to be
made, that the arbitrary two-cent fare rule would be confiscatory
(sic), and, therefore, in violation of the Federal Constitution in
its effect on the smaller roads operating in the sparsely settled
portions of the state. Under the power which this amendment confers
upon the Corporation Commission a number of the smaller railroads,
with a total of about thirteen hundred mileage, have been exempt from
the two cent fare provision of the Constitution. It is now generally
conceded by lawyers that but for this amendment the two cent fare
provision of our constitution would long since have been held void.

"After the constitution was prepared and ready for submission,
certain interests in the state opposed to statehood caused a number
of injunction suits to be instituted, to prohibit the submission of
the constitution to the people of the state. Injunctions were
granted, and the questions were finally fought out in the Supreme
Court of the Territory of Oklahoma. Great public interest was aroused
by this litigation, and upon its determination depended the question
of statehood, because if the injunctions had been sustained,
statehood would have been defeated. However, Mr. Ledbetter, who had
been designated to represent the Constitutional Convention, was
successful, and the people were permitted to ratify the constitution,
and the state was admitted."

"Mr. Ledbetter was a member of the commission on behalf of the
Constitutional Convention, which was sent to Washington to confer
with the President and attorney-general on the question as to whether
the constitution, as written, conformed to the Enabling Act and
created a state government, republican in form. It is conceded that
this commission did invaluable service in removing the prejudice
against and criticism of the constitution, and that its mission
largely contributed to the final action of the President in giving
his approval to the constitution. In the state capitol controversy,
Mr. Ledbetter represented the State of Oklahoma, and sustained the
"power of the state to locate its capital before the year 1913." He
also represented the State of Oklahoma in the litigation over "River
Beds" and in the "Grandfather's Clause Act" litigation.

Mr. Ledbetter came to Oklahoma City in 1909 and here formed the firm
of Ledbetter, STUART & BELL, with offices at Nos. 815-823 American
National Bank Building. The firm is conceded to be one of the
strongest in the state, its practice being mainly before the State
Supreme Court and the United States courts.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, December 16, 1998.