The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Speer, Emory

SPEER, spĕr, Emory, American jurist: b. Culloden, 3 Sept. 1848. He served in the Confederate army during the last two years of the Civil War; was graduated from the University of Georgia in 1869; studied law, and became solicitor-general of Georgia. He was a member of Congress from Georgia as an independent Democrat 1879-81 and as Independent 1881-83; he was United States attorney, 1883-85; and was made a United States judge of the Southern District of Georgia in 1885. He was also president of the law department of Mercer University, and an orator of prominence. He is the author of a legal work on ‘Removal of Causes from State to United States Courts’ (1888), and of ‘Lectures on the Constitution of the United States.’