Chicago City (part 23 of 57)

E. H. McCajrtrcome forward as defender of the persons accused of the dynamite outrage in Haymarket Square on May 3, 1886. Messrs. Solomon, Zeisler and Foster were associated with him in the defence, and the skill, ingenuity, eloquence and persistence of that defence have passed into history. They failed, but the general belief of bench, bar and public was and still is that no power, skill, eloquence or ingenuity would have served to defeat the case made by the State. True, there may have been a feeling that if the victims had not been policemen,* the prosecution might, after all, have failed, but that does not show that it ought to have failed, for no general, serious, unprejudiced public sentiment exists to-day (1894) against the conclusion that the prisoners were all implicated, to a greater or less extent, in the criminal conspiracy.

Ezra Butler McCagg, perhaps the most scholarly of the old-line lawyers and the one who has given most time, talent and money to elegant literature, was born in Kinderhook, N. Y., the son of Isaac McCagg, a rich New York merchant. His mother, Louise Caroline Butler, was also of good family. His education was of the best and was carried on under private tuition. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1847 and came to Chicago in 1848. He married Caroline Ogden, the widow of William Jones and sister of William B. and Mahlon D. Ogden; and his son, Louis McCagg, shares the great Ogden estate.

In 1849, he became a partner of Jonathan Young Scammon, which partnership afterward included the Hon. Samuel W. Fuller, and the great firm of Scammon, McCagg & Fuller was for twenty years one of the most distinguished in the profession. After Mr. Scammon's withdrawal in 1872, and Mr. Fuller's death in 1873, Mr. W. I. Culver was admitted. Of late years Mr. McCagg has practiced chiefly alone.

Mr. McCagg's position and antecedents have placed him above the sordid and the trivial lines of practice in his profession - even if he could have engaged in them under any circumstances, which is unlikely. Important cases in equity and real estate law have fallen to his share; cases where the practitioner occupies a place of trust, rather than those where shifty expedients are called for, or where court, jury and witnesses are subjected to the wiles of counsel striving not to do justice but to defeat it.

In 1861-5, Mr. McCagg was an efficient laborer in behalf of the soldier, being a working member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission and the working president of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission. In 1871, after the great fire, he was one of the immortals who, enjoying the confidence of the community, were entrusted with the vast responsibility and the immeasurable labor of administering the world's charity through the Eelief and Aid Society. His less conspicuous public services were given in the founding of the Historical Society, the Academy of Design, and Academy of Sciences, the University of Chicago and other institutions which have helped to make Chicago what it is in charity, philanthropy, letters and art. The private library which Mr. McCagg had collected before 1871, the fruit of many years of intelligent toil and travel, and lavish expenditure of money, included among other treasures, a unique collection of historical memorials of the earliest settlers in the northwest - the pioneers of France in the new world. All were destroyed - every vestige - one of the most heart-rending losses in even that appalling holocaust. It is hardly too much to say that Mr. McCagg has never fully recovered from the blow. He has gathered a new library, of course, for he is one of the men around whom good books seem to cluster of themselves; but though the old treasures are only memories, no new ones can take their place.

E. c. Lamed. standby> distinguished in many (1820-1884.) ways; military, philanthropic, educational, literary and religious. E. C. Larned's grandfather served in the Revolution; his father was a respected business man of Providence, R. I.; his mother was an author, and from her he inherited scholarly literary and social culture which made him a marked man in every position of life, and never for a moment ceased to be his conspicuous trait to the day of his lamented death.

Edwin Channing Larned was born in Providence, R. I., was thoroughly educated, and graduated from Brown university in 1840. He served a year as professor of mathematics at Kemper College in St. Louis, and came to Chicago in 1847, forming a partnership with Cyrus Bentley, a man like himself in engaging characteristics.

In 1854 Mr. Larned and Judge Manierre were counsel for the first colored man claimed as a fugitive from slavery under the new law enacted to enforce such claims. The act, it will be remembered, provided that in cases of that nature the alleged fugitive should be arrested by Federal officers and examined before a Federal commissioner, who was charged with the sending of the prisoner (if he found reason to believe him to be an escaped slave), to the State whence he was alleged to have escaped, leaving him there to demand a trial under the laws of that State

The law was extremely unpopular, and seems to us now as an odious enactment, seeing that under it a citizen of Illinois might be summarily taken from his own State, without requisition from the Governor of another State, to that other State for trial; far from his friends and witnesses, and perhaps utterly unable there to secure a public trial by jury, even if he chanced to be entitled to his liberty.

Mr. Larned was naturally - inevitably - a Republican, and a fervid supporter of Lincoln's candidacy and his administration. He was one of the celebrated Union Defence committee of 1861 and was prominent in every effort for the prosecution of the war and the well-being of the soldiers. He served four years - 1861 to 1865 - in the trying, arduous and responsible office of United States District Attorney for northern Illinois, and received from Mr. Lincoln expressions of deep regret on his resigning his office.

Mr. Larned was one more of the splendid workers who seemed, at the time of the fire, to have been called into being for the express purpose of serving their city and their fellowcitizens in their sore need; he, with the others at the head of the Eelief and Aid society, served devotedly, unflinchingly, freely and without pay, for days, weeks and months, many of them to the entire neglect of their private affairs.

A chapter, or a volume might be well devoted to the life and services of this good and great man. His services during the war and following the fire have been barely alluded to. He was active also in the establishment of the Public Library, the Citizens' Association, the Historical Society, the Relief and Aid Society and many other works of charity, philanthropy and patriotism.

word he was a full-measured man and citizen, filling all the places of political, social and professional life with rare ability and a conscientious zeal, and an earnest and manly purpose, which made his influence in Chicago, at the time when such influence was most needed, a constant force in behalf of justice and good government.

Twenty years have elapsed since my partnership with Mr. Larned. If I had been called upon at that time to pronounce a eulogy upon his character and services, it might have been thought by some whose knowledge of him was limited, that the sentiments expressed were colored by the warm friendship engendered by daily courtesies of mutual interests, and that the judgment was blinded by the too near influence of his brilliant conversation. But the years which have passed since then have brought many

Mr. Larned's wife was Anne Frances Greene, daughter of the Hon. Albert C. Greene, of Rhode Island; a woman whose high praise it is to say that she was a helpmeet worthy of her husband. Four children were born to them, Walter Cranston, who is practicing law in the especial line of real estate, Frances Greene and Julia, author of a volume of serious and beautiful verse, and Edwin Channing. The first and third survive their father.

came to Illinois in 1834 and James got his education at primary and grammar schools, finishing at Knox College. Later he studied law at Memphis, Tenn., and was there (1852) admitted to the bar. (He had already shown his bent by practicing in justice courts). He opened a law office in Chicago in 1853, and at once got an excellent business.

In 1861 he was elected county judge and administered the office for eight years with conspicuous ability, being long regarded as the ablest probate lawyer at any bar. In 1872 he was elected to the State legislature and re-elected in 1874. Andreas says of him:

He became identified with many important acts, especially those that were beneficial and opened a larger^field of usefulness to 'women. _Among these y women eligible to all school offices in the State and allowing them to become notaries public; those he drew up and introduced. He introduced a bill allowing foreign corporations to loan money on real estate security in Illinois, and also a bill incorporating the fire patrol of the city. Taking an active and prominent part in both sessions of the legislature, his head, heart and hand were always ready to do some kindly deed for the benefit of mankind.

In 1852 he married Miss Myra Colby, founder and editor of the Chicago Legal News which under their joint labor, care and ability, has grown to be perhaps the strongest law journal in the country or the world. Mrs. Brad well has herself the knowledge and power to constitute a good lawyer, and Judge Bradwell adds to his great legal lore literary ability of the first order. It speaks volumes for both husband and wife that while the latter is capable of man's work and success, the former is inspired by this fact to enter the lists as champion of the broadening of the privileges and advantages of the sex and enlarging the field of their usefulness and independence. The best thought of the world is moving in that direction.

Judge Bradwell had the honor of deciding a test case regarding the validity of the legal tender act of 1862. C. B. Farwell tendered U. S. treasury notes in payment of his county and town taxes, and the county treasurer declined to receive them. Judge Bradwell decided that the tender was good.

great-grandfathers of his on both father's and mother's side having been in service, and one of them, a captain of artillery, having fallen in Washington's famous victory at Trenton.

He was born at Washington in 1832, and was classically educated. He studied for the bar in the University of Virginia and in the office of James M. Carlisle, described as the leader of the bar in Washington City, where Mr. Tree was admitted in 1855. He soon came to Chicago, and at once took a high place, through his ability, education and personal address; his manners through life having united polish, dignity and cordiality. In 1864 he became president of the Chicago Law Institute; in 1870 he was elected a judge of the circuit court, to which post he was re-elected and held the office until he resigned in 1875.

He distinguished his advent to the bench by an act of courage and public spirit which would have seemed more natural to an experienced judge. The city council had fallen into a state of disgraceful corruption, the infamy being embattled and fortified by a long course of a triumphant immunity. A grand jury being called, Judge Tree charged it to look carefully into the matter and to indict fearlessly any person who should be shown to them to have been guilty in their official capacity of criminal practices. The result was the indictment, trial, conviction and punishment for bribe-taking of many members of the council, with the natural results of a reform - for the time-being - of that perennial sink of corruption.

In the great fire of 1871, Judge Tree was one of the severest sufferers in his person and possessions. With his family, and that of his father-in-law, H. H. Magie, he barely escaped, by heroic efforts, from the old Magie mansion which stood between Ontario, Cass, Erie and State streets, facing south and occupying, with its adjuncts, the entire square, as was the good old fashion of those days. Being so isolated, the family stayed too long in the presence of the advancing flames, and when they finally fled, the house, the outhouses, the grass, trees, shrubs and the very fences were ablaze. Judge Tree's story of the escape is one of the most vivid, graphic and terrible of all those written about that dreadful night. (II Andreas 743.)

Judge Tree, in a spirit of self-sacrifice, allowed himself to be repeatedly nominated for Congress on the ticket of his party - the Democratic - in a district overwhelmingly Republican. In 1884 he was a delegate to the national convention which nominated Mr. Cleveland. The celebrated contest for the senatorship, in 1885, wherein he was the

Democratic nominee, resulted in his defeat by General Logan by a single vote, and in the same year he was appointed by President Cleveland Minister to Belgium, a post which he filled with distinguished ability; and in 1888 he was appointed to the higher diplomatic post of Minister to Russia. This he resigned in 1889 to devote himself to the management of the large moneyed interests of his family.

His next public service deserves peculiar remark from his being called to it by a Republican administration. President Harrison appointed him a member of the " Pan-American Monetary Commission," which had for its object the fostering of commerce between American nations by agreeing on a coinage which should be current at the custom-houses of all the States. In this commission he took a prominent, if not a leading part.

Being still in the prime of life and the full vigor of his powers, Judge Tree may be considered to have before him other posts of honor and distinction, should he choose to accept them.

Judge Tree's public spirit, artistic taste and love for Chicago and her history, are all exemplified in a magnificent gift made by him to the city's adornment. It was during his residence in Brussels that he commissioned Count de Lalaing to execute for him a bronze statute, of heroic size, of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de Lasalle; the most distinguished of the explorers who made their way from France, by the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to this region, two hundred years ago, and fully a century in advance of the coming of the English. That statue, fine and dignified, is one of the chief ornaments of Lincoln Park, worthy companion to those of Lincoln and Grant which (with several of less note) honor that magnificent lake shore pleasure ground.

Ann Smith of St. Albans, and after practising his profession there for some years he came to Chicago (1853) and formed with Van H. Higgins and B. F. Strother the firm of Higgins, Beckwith & Strother. In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Yates to the supreme bench to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Chief Justice Caton. His work in that court was distinguished for strength and accuracy and his opinions for brevity and clearness.

On leaving the bench he was appointed general counsel for the Chicago & Alton railway and two years later he became head of the firm of Beckwith, Ayer & Kales which then took charge of the law business of that road, and continued that connection till 1873, when he retired from the firm to become general solicitor of the road. He remained in that position through the rest of his life, yet from time to time engaged as consulting counsel in important cases outside.

His judgment was sound, bis powers of discrimination great and his capacity for work unlimited. He never had a case that he did not examine thoroughly in all ils aspects and he had a capacity for seizing, almost instinctively, the vital points in a case and the power to impress his own ideas o& others in their strongest aspect. There is not a lawyer whom I have known so eminent in all respects, or a lawyer whose judgment was more respected by the courts and other lawyers. His thoroughness was remarkable. Nothing escaped him. He discovered all there was in a case and his mind moved with equal rapidity and accuracy. His greatest strength lay in arguing upon the law before a court. . . . He was remarkably successful and was rarely beaten. If he fouud he was on the wrong side he would advise a settlement. He was never willing to go to trial and expose his client's interests where the chances were strongly against him. The judges respected his opinion because he was careful never to mislead the court. He tried first to satisfy himself and then the court. Scarcely any other lawyer had so many cases in the'supreme court of this State.

Judge Beckwith was an open-handed man and a generous liver. His income, immense in his later years, was balanced by his expenditures. He spared neither his purse nor himself and rarely took a vacation from his work, even up to his death, which took place in 1890.

Mrs. Beckwith survives her husband . Of their three children the oldest, Henry W., a young man of brilliant parts, died in 1891, while consul at Bermuda, whither he had gone for his health. A younger son, John W., was admitted to the bar in 1892 and is in the law department of the Chicago & Alton railway. A daughter, Mrs. Edward P. Cutter, lives in Cincinnati.

Judge Beckwith was a liberal Democrat, usually voting with his party in national elections, but in State and local matters nearly independent of party ties.

family was originally Scotch-Irish and came over to this country early in the present century. Francis had an academic education and in 1851 entered Yale as a sophomore, but was forced to leave his class because of ill-health. He entered the law office of the renowned Daniel S. Dickinson at Binghamton and was admitted to the bar in 1855. He soon came to Chicago and began the practice of his profession in the office of the strong firm of Higgins, Beckwith & Strother. His success was early and constant, and in 1866, favored no doubt by the knowledge Judge Beckwith had gained of his character and ability, he became a member of the firm already mentioned as one of the most distinguished in practice at the Chicago bar, that of Beckwith, Ayer & Kales. The firm remained unchanged until 1873, when its senior member retired to become counsel of the Chicago & Alton railway, and Ayer and Kales remained together until Mr. Ayer in his turn allied himself with a railway corporation (the Illinois Central) after which time Mr. Kales practiced alone, having in his care and keeping manyimportant cases, especially those involving the law of real estate, banking and corporations.

His legal knowledge, perception, shrewdness and ability were of the highest order, and his devotion to his profession and the interests of his clients was distinguished even in a community of lawyers so strong, intent and tireless as those of Chicago. He was a good speaker, of the argumentative, conversational, persuasive and convincing kind. His cases were thoroughly thought arid studied before trial, then ably argued and contested before court and jury.

As might be expected from his scholarly training, the law did not alienate his attention from general literature. He kept up his reading all through life, and was as pleasant to meet socially as a friend as he was formidable professionally as an opponent.

Mr. Kales married (1863) Miss Ellen P. Davis, a favorite in the best Chicago society, the daughter of Dr. Nathan S. Davis, dean of the faculty of the Chicago Medical College; a physician widely recognized as the leader of his profession in the north-west. Mr. Kales died in 1883, surviving his wife scarcely two years. Four sons and three daughters were born to them, and six children survive their parents. The eldest, John Davis Kales, is established as a physician.

asker would hear several names suggested; one would pick out an equity lawyer, another a real estate lawyer, another a corporation lawyer, another a jury lawyer, another a criminal case lawyer, etc. But on asking for the best "all-round lawyer," excluding the specialists, or (what is much the same thing) asking the others who would be their second choice as leading counsel, it is probable that Mr. Jewett would be found to have a decided majority of the votes. With his deep study, his long experience, his high character, his great sagacity, his habit of success, his courtly gravity and dignity of manner; he occupies a place nearly unique in the regard of the courts and the public. The case he takes in hand seems half won by his taking it.

It was shortly after the landing of the Mayflower pilgrims, that two brothers Jewett arrived from England and settled at Eowley, Mass. ; one of them remaining in New England, while the other moved to Maryland. From the last-named branch sprang Hugh J. Jewett and his brother Thomas L. Jewett, both eminent as lawyers and financiers. The New England Jewetts have been well known and highly respected; John N. Jewett, with his steady, sturdy march from the stony farm to the first rank of the great profession in a great city, speaks well for his race and lineage.

John Nelson Jewett was born (1827) on a farm in Maine, and his early life was spent in extorting, from the rugged soil of the Pine-tree State, a living and the rudiments of learning. In 1845, the family moved to Wisconsin and he spent a year in teaching school, a doorstep to the temple of law which has felt the tread of many a good lawyer. His early studious efforts must have been faithful and able, for in 1847, we find him back in his native State, entering old Bbwdoin as a sophomore. In 1850, he was graduated and at once became principal of an academy at North Yarmouth. At the same time he was reading for the bar, and two years later he rejoined his family near Madison, Wis., where he completed his studies and was admitted to practice in 1853, when he became a partner of Wellington Weigley at Galena, 111. In 1856, he came to

Chicago, entering the office of Van H. Higgins. His succeeding partnerships - each a step on his part toward the head of 'his firm, and of the profession - were Scates, McAllister, Jewett & Peabody; Scates, McAllister & Jewett, McAllister & Jewett; Jewett & Adams, and later, when his sons Edward E. and Samuel K. were ready to begin practice, John N. Jewett & Jewett Brothers.

Mr. Jewett has been offered a seat on the county court bench, and even on the bench of the supreme court of Illinois. He refused to allow himself to be classed as an aspirant to the supreme court of the United States, admirably as he would have filled the place.

In 1870, the legislature was elected which would have to adapt legislation to the new State constitution, and he accepted the office of State Senator in order to help in the work. Since then he has often been pressed to accept political preferment, but has steadily declined. Even now, when his fortune is established and his sons well started in life, it is doubtful if he could be tempted away from his beautiful home and his beloved profession. A seat in the United States senate or on the supreme bench, if offered to him unsolicited, might prove irresistible.

As a practitioner, he is ready, quick and capable, always equal to any emergency. In conversation be is pleasant and affable; in argument analytical, logical and strong, sometimes indulging in pungent satire. He speaks tersely and to the point, in an attractive, forcible manner. Conforming himself to the principles of the strictest integrity and to the most honorable dealings, he expects the same from those with whom he associates or has business relations.

In 1855, Mr. Jewett married Miss Ellen R. Rountree, daughter of the Hon. John H. Rountree, of Wisconsin. Mrs. Jewett is a leader in society, an authority in matters of art and taste, and has always been prominent in the management of the Fortnightly Club (once its president), a splendid and farfamed organization of women, devoted to

Chief 'Justice Fuller traces his descent direct to the Mayflower. His father was Frederick A. Fuller, and his mother, Catherine Martin Weston. His grandfather on the mother's side was Nathan Weston, chief justice of the Maine supreme court, and his uncle, George Melville Weston, was a prominent lawyer of Augusta. Melville Weston Fuller was born February 11, 1833, at Augusta, Me., and grew up with good educational advantages. He was prepared for college at Augusta and entered Bowdoin college in 1849, where he was graduated in 1853. Thence he went to Dane Law School (Harvard), where so many of our western jurists have earned their diplomas. He is described as having been a rather aimless youth, but in college a model student, with a special gift for public speaking. He began his law practice in Augusta, but finding business lacking, he employed his time and eked out his income by newspaper work;- a circumstance to which is doubtless due something of the literary facility which has always formed a strong feature in his career.

An interesting fact connected with this journalistic experience is this : At a certain session of the legislature which Melville W. Fuller reported for the Augusta Age (which he and his uncle, B. A. G. Fuller, published together), James G. Elaine was engaged as correspondent of the Kennebec Journal. Though opposed in politics the two men were always personal friends, and at last, by curious coincidence, found themselves in Washington together ; the one, Chief Justice of the supreme court, and the other, Secretary of State.

Mr. Fuller's success in Augusta as a lawyer was in proportion to the law business of the place, and so not large or satisfying. His success in politics was in proportion to his ability and therefore excellent. At twenty-three he was city attorney and president of the common council of Augusta.

Still, it must have been unconsciously borne in upon him that Augusta and Maine, always loved and honored by him, were after all a "pent-up Utica" to such a soul as his. He must at least see the great West. In 1856 he came to Chicago, meeting here his friend and fellow- townsman, Mr. S. K. Dow, a practising lawyer, who urged him to emigrate, offering him a place in his office and, at his choice, either a partnership in the business or a salary of $50 a month. He chose the latter and worked on those terms five months, living within his income. But scarcely a year had passed before he began to do a fine and profitable business, which went on increasing with remarkable speed and steadiness up to the time of his leaving the bar for the Supreme bench.

In politics he wasa staunch Democrat and by friendship and sympathy a warm adherent of Stephen A. Douglas. At Mr. Douglas's death in 1861, he delivered the funeral oration, his speech being a masterly production. In the same year he was elected a member of the constitutional convention, and two years later we find him in the Illinois legislature. Here he gave the same strenuous support to the War which was offered by other Douglas men ; he was a unionist, but not an anti-slavery man or .Republican. The war Democrats were in favor of the war as they thought it should be conducted, giving their adherence to the McClellan plan as being the most certain to triumph and restore the integrity of the country.

Here it seems well to quote from some fine verses written by Mr. Fuller long afterward. They are on the death of General Grant and show at once a loyal feeling for the great soldier's services and a true poetic thought and diction ; a power of composition rare in the learned, practised and successful lawyer :

But in the wide world's sense of duty done, The gallant soldier finds the meed of fame: His life no struggle for ambition's prize Simply the duty done that next him lies. *****

Mr. Fuller was a hard worker in his profession; and it is said of him that in any case his stoutest fighting is done when the day seems lost, when he is very apt to turn defeat into victory. He is reported to have had, during this thirty years' practice, as many as 2, 500 cases at the Chicago bar; which, deducting his absence at the legislature, etc., would give him at least one hundred cases a year; fewer, necessarily, in the earlier part of his practice and more afterward. This shows a remarkable degree of activity and grasp of business. He has never made a specialty of any kind of law, though there are some wherein his name scarcely appears; for instance, divorce law and criminal law. Among his many cases are Field against Leiter; the Lake Front case; Storey against Storey's estate; Hyde Park against Chicago; Carter against Carter, etc., and the long ecclesiastical trial of Bishop Cheney on the charge of heresy.

His partnership with Mr. Dow lasted until 1860. From 1862 to 1864 his firm was Fuller & Ham, then for two years Fuller^ Ham & Shepard, and for two years more Fuller & Shepard. From 1869 to 1877 he had as partner his cousin, Joseph E. Smith, son of Governor Smith, of Maine. Since that time he has had no partner. His business was only such as he chose to accept; and his professional income has been estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000 a year.

He was delegate to the Democratic National conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876 and 1880, always taking a prominent place. Just after Mr. Cleveland's election to the presidency, Mr. Fuller called on him in Albany, and Mr. Cleveland .at once conceived for him a very high appreciation. On the death of Chief Justice Waite it seemed desirable that the new Justice should be taken from the West; and Mr. Fuller's liberal education, the catholicity of his law practice, his marked industry, ability and command of language - all these, joined with his devotion to the principles of his party, made him a natural choice for nomination to the position. High and unexpected as was the honor, Mr. Fuller hesitated before accepting it. If it satisfies his ambition in one direction it checks it in another.

The salary of the chief justice of the United States is $10,500 a year; very far less than the gains arising from general practice in the front rank of lawyers, or from service as counsel of any one of hundreds of great corporations. So there comes a kind of dead-lock; if a man happens to be born to riches, he is pretty sure never to go through the hard work which alone gives leadership in the law. If he starts poor, then, having his fortune to make, he cannot take Federal judicial office; that being a life-long position. The only way in which the Federal bench can be appropriately filled, under the circumstances, is when by chance a man prefers power and dignity to mere riches; or where his success has been so sudden that he is able (and willing) to accept a judgeship as a kind of honorable retirement from the struggle and competition of practice.

appointment. He accepted it, was hailed in his new dignity with genial cordiality, and has filled the office with unimpeachable credit and honor.

Mr. Fuller's first wife was Miss Calista 0. Reynolds. She died young, after bearing him two children. He married a second time, taking to wife Mary Ellen, daughter of the distinguished banker, William F. Coolbaugh. His family now consists of eight daughters and one son; and his domestic and social relations are as happy as it is possible to imagine; the young ladies being full of gaiety and loveliness in all its styles and types. He himself is never so well content as in his own household, making merry with all. It is even whispered that should a Democratic administration come again into power, so that his resignation would not throw his own party out of the tenancy of the office to which it chose him, he might give up the irksome and confining dignity and the forced residence in a strange city, and return to the West, to the city of his choice to the home of his heart.

For others of the most distinguished of Chicago's practitioners, the reader is referred to another section of this work. Among them are William C. Goudy (whose noteworthy career was closed by death after the sketch of him had been prepared) and General George W. Smith the much honored and beloved soldier-lawyer, who still survives.

either sphere lie was well able to reach the highest place; in each he stood in the front rank. A large private fortune (springing from the rise in value of pine-timber land and mills) relieved him from any slavish devotion to his business; and in at least one case - the management of the Relief and Aid Society after the fire - he used this liberty freely and devotedly for the benefit of his suffering fellow-citizens.

Samuel W. Dexter, United States Judge for the Territory of Michigan, who had founded the town of Dexter. Samuel's father was a member of the cabinet of President John Adams, a friend of Hamilton and an advocate of the adoption of the constitution. Franklin Dexter, brother of Samuel and, therefore, uncle of Wirt, was an eminent lawyer of the days of Daniel Webster, practising in the same courts and often in the same cases, and taking rank with the "Great Expounder of the Constitution" - a title, by the way, which had been borne by the elder Dexter before it was bestowed on Mr. Webster.

With such family traditions, Wirt Dexter naturally took up the study of law; but before engaging in practice he took part in his father's business, fitting out logging camps, etc., and became the Chicago agent for the product of the mills. All through his life he was at least as good a business man as lawyer; each kind of training helped the other. This catholicity of culture is common in Chicago. The banker is not ignorant of law, nor the merchant of political economy, nor is either without interest in art and literature; while the good lawyer is sure to have thoughts and views on all branches of knowledge.

Mr. Dexter's form was never one of the familiar sights in court. His practice was largely in consultations; while the juniors of his firm took upon themselves the drudgery of facing witnesses and jury.

Mr. Dexter, always a philanthropic and public-spirited citizen, shone out in a striking light when the great fire wrapped Chicago in what seemed hopeless gloom. He was a member of the Relief and Aid Society,and one of the solid men whose wealth and standing made that organization the obviously proper channel for the distribution of the vast stream of charity which poured in on the mayor in a flood which was almost as trying in the greatness of its responsibility as was the public demand in the greatness of its extremity. Home and private business put aside, these devoted men, " without money and without price," gave to humanity a service which is no less notable for its ability, accuracy, wisdom and efficiency, than for its self-sacrificing generosity. A great and widely ramified system was suddenly created, to meet the perils of waste through unwise giving, and of blame through imperfect accounting. All was unimpeachable. Every worthy sufferer of the scores of thousands was properly succored, and every penny of the millions spent was properly accounted for.

Mr. Dexter's house was always the home of culture and elegant hospitality; the abiding place of strangers distinguished in literature and the arts. He suffered severely by an accident, which occurred in 1888, when his horse reared and fell backward on him. From this he seemed to have quite recovered when, in 1890, he died from disease of the heart. He left a widow, one of the brightest ornaments of cultivated society, and a. son and daughter.

Daniel Goodwin, Jr., was born (1832) in New York city. He was the son of John W. and Lucretia (Goodwin) Woolsey. Losing his mother when he was two years old, he was adopted by her brother, Judge Daniel Goodwin, for whom he had been named, and whose name he bears as a surname. lie was graduated at Hamilton College in 1852, and studied law in the office of his adoptive father in Detroit, but removed to Auburn where his uncle, S. A. Goodwin, lived, and where Daniel was admitted to the bar in 1854. In 1858 he came to Chicago with his uncles and together they formed a partnership, which did a large and profitable business.

Mr. Goodwin early took real-estate law as his especial field, and he has done well in it; not only in practice, but in the investments to which that practice naturally led him. He has never allowed his devotion to business to dwarf the literary and scholastic tastes of his youth. He is eminently the scholar and gentleman, as well as the business man, and

Israel Newton Stiles was born in Connecticut in 1833, a farmer's son, attending school in winter and doing farm work in summer; but rounding out his schooling at an academy. In 1853 he migrated to Lafayette, Indiana, and his course adds one to the host of fine lawyers whose first trials - perhaps as troublesome, anxious and perplexing as any - were before the unruly court of a mixed school, lie taught not only the common branches, but also singing, while he was reading for the bar.

He was admitted in 1854, and began to practise in Lafayette, Ind. This was interrupted by the Kansas agitation, in which he engaged heart and soul, with a power and eloquence that marked him as a master of persuasive and inspiring oratory; a distinction which has grown with his years. Logic, learning.wit, humor, irony and fervid poetry, these and the other elements of true eloquence were his portion by nature and his possession by cultivation. He did a great service to the struggle which began in Kansas and ended at Appomattox. His patriotism did not exhaust itself in words. When war broke out, he raised a company, enlisted as a private, and, promoted to a lieutenancy, was made adjutant of the Twentieth Indiana volunteer infantry. At the battle of Malvern, the glorious ending of the momentous "six days' fight" on the Peninsula in front of Richmond, he was taken prisoner, and spent six weeks in Libby Prison. After his exchange, he was commissioned Major of the Sixty-third Indiana and become in succession its lieutenant-colonel and colonel; and in January, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general for services at the battle of Franklin, the fearful fio-ht where the Rebellion "dashed its brains

Before going into the war, Gen. Stiles had been prosecuting attorney for his district and State senator. On the disbanding of his regiment he came to Chicago and began a career of high distinction and success. In 1869 he was elected city attorney, and served ill that office until 1871, when the famous partnership of Tuley, Stiles & Lewis was formed, one of the strongest combinations at the western bar. On the election of Mr. Tuley to the bench (1870) the firm continued as Stiles & Lewis.

Gen. Stiles' almost unequaled success as a jury lawyer has been called " wonderful," "extraordinary," "unaccountable," etc., and attributed to " magnetism," and other imaginary sources. But he himself poohpoohs all this foolish talk, and says that the only art he knows is the art of being on the right side. A noted offender - afterward a convict - called on him and held out toward him a cheque for $1,000, asking his services in the approaching trial. " No," said the general, " I shouldn't be of any use to you in this case."

This brings up the whole question of "professional ethics" regard ing the indiscriminate acceptance of retainers. On the one side it is urged that to defend the guilty is to wrong the public; and to use legal acumen against conscience in a case between one man and another is an effort to do injustice, to defraud a litigant of his rights. On the other side it is urged that the lawyer should not arrogate to himself the office of court and jury, prejudge the cause and act on that prejudice. In every court a defendant who has no counsel is assigned counsel, who cannot decline the task if he would.

At any rate, General Stiles attributes his unbroken success to a persistent refusal to use his power "to make the worse appear the better reason." In the celebrated "County Commissioners' Boodle cases. " General Stiles helped Mr. Grinnell in the prosecution; and in the trial which resulted in the

Whose skill so great he could divide A hair 'twixt sou' and sou'-west side. . . . Hardy, these young fellows are after us. Some of them are going to expose our old tricks. They have "got on to" them, and we old fellows can't play the games we think we can .... and if he is on the right side - and he generally is, for he naturally feels he has not the ability to win the wrong side of the case; that goes to old lawyers - getting on the right side of the case." There are lawyers who believe that one side of a case is just as good as the other. . . . There are lawyers who think that the greatest compliment that can be paid to their reputation and their ability comes when they have succeeded in cheating the penitentiary of its just dues. There are lawyers who regard the acquittal of a red-handed murderer under the influence of their power and eloquence as the highest compliment that can be paid to their ability. . . True eloquence comes only with a background of truth This is the people's case. Yes, gentlemen, this is the people's case; it is your case; it is my case. It is a case which calls for the administration of justice without sentiment, without tiars, without smiles when it comes to that.

'General Stiles had no check in his splendid career as a member of the bar until, within a few years, his sight begun to fail, and total blindness has supervened. Words fail to express the thrill of regret that pierces the hearts of his friends at such a blow, to a man - patriot, soldier, orator, scholar, jurist - who, in the prime of intellectual vigor is stricken in this pitiable manner. There is no consolation for them or alleviation to him, unless it be in the thought that for a nature like his the light of day is not indispensable. Eloquence, the power to capti- - vate hearts by high thought clothed in fitting words, shines in a light surpassing the sun; a light that never was on sea or land, the light of the soul. It is history's task to reflect its after-glow, even when the mind that gave it birth has grown dim in the shadow of death.

The Bench And 3A R.

One writes the mime of E. A. Storrs and begins his story with regret, admiration, Emery A. storrs. sympathy and - disrespect! (1835-1885.) Why is it that the arch enemy of mankind, alcohol - the destroyer compared to which Attila, " the Scourge of God," was merciful - chooses for its victims the brightest and most lovable of the race? The question has been asked since history began, and will remain unanswered until its last page is turned.

Storrs was born in Hinsdale, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., in 1835, the last of a race of lawyers. He studied law with his father and other practitioners, and became a partner in the firm of Austin & Scroggs, of Buffalo, leaving them in 1859 to come to ChicagOj where he was hailed as the brightest light of oratory, whether at the bar, on the rostrum, or, alas, at the convivial board. His perception of the opportunity for an argument, a retort, a sarcasm, an anecdote, was like the lightning's flash; and his use 'of them like the bolt itself.

Oratory, as to form, is protean, while as to color it is variable as the chameleon and brilliant as the prism. Like the glories of dawn or the hues of sunset, oratory is but for the hour. . . . The very term implies the relation of speaker and hearer, the charmer and the charmed. Separate these factors and the spell is broken. . . . Can the untuned harp reveal its marvelous possibilities to the inexperienced? So is it with the orator when away from the spirit of the occasion, the inspiration of the hour. ... A genius, Emery A. Storrs most assuredly is, if by that word is implied high and peculiar gifts of nature, impelling the mind to creative imagery of the highest type, and reaching its ends by a kind of intuitive power.

. . . It is with Storrs as it was with Choate; his style was a combination of all that was best in the rival schools of Atticism and Asianism. It possesses at once the compactness and grace of the first with the gorgeous coloring and vivid phrase of the latter.

He said so many "good things " that he reached that questionable stand where any witticism that sounded like him was attributed to him. Some, however, were surely original with him:

Of a certain lawyer whose forte certainly did not lie in trying causes he said: " * * * * can take a default as well as any lawyer in Chicago."

Kegarding the Chicago climate - often deficient in the quietequability which should attend spring and autumn - he said: "There are only three seasons in Chicago - July, August and winter."

A biting simile for some luckless superficial victim of his wit was typifying him with a house built on a short building lot: "The minute you open the front door you're in the back yard."

Storrs was a good lawyer. He worked hard, kept faith with brother lawyers, and gave his clients good service. But he had 110 sense of the value of money to himself or to others. He drove away business, not by under-working but by over-charging, and when he had cash in hand he lavished it on anything but the payment of his debts. A fine dinner he gave was levied upon by attachment and a constable remained in charge. When some one joked him about this he retorted, " 0 well, you know that at our Lord's supper there was one representative of the government."

At a certain trial where legal fees were in question he was asked if his own charges were not apt to be rather large. He turned to the court and said with mock solemnity, " I do not propose that the inadequacy of my charges shall ever be a disgrace to my profession."

who had just come back from a long stay abroad, and was accused of the enormous offense of "putting on airs." The latter had paused in his speech to say, " Please excuse my foreign accent, your Honor." Storrs followed, and in his remarks, having occasion to allude to a false step in the case, called it n "faux pas," taking care to pronounce the words " fox pass," and added, "excuse my foreign accent, your Honor," to the great amusement of all present.

An ardent Republican, Mr. Storrs " took the stump" in behalf of Lincoln's re-election, and of Grant in 1868. He was a delegate to the national convention in the latter year and again in 1872 and in 1880. He was one of the vice-presidents of the convention of 1872. The constitution and bylaws of the great " Citizen's Association" of Chicago were draughted by him, and he was one of the main promoters of the Citizens' League for the suppression of the sale of liquor to minors.

The last named good action brings up a pathetic feature in Storr's life, his heroic struggles with his cruel, deadly enemy, the love of drink. Time after time did he " reform," banish the poison from his lips and his life, take his place among men, and even act as a missionary of the cause of temperance, making strong, brilliant, impassioned appeals in its behalf. Could he have lived where drink was not, what a glorious life might have been his! But where it parades in shameless nakedness, thrusting itself forward at every step -

As a specimen of the eloqwence he brought to bear in the cause of temperance, that cause to which he gave the support of sound argument and the more costly help of sad personal warning, observe the following apostrophe to water, an extempore effort called forth when, at a supper given to celebrate his triumph in a hard fought case, friends were drinking wine, and he, poor fellow, confining himself to lemonade. He was challenged to make a temperance speech, and raising a glass of water, he spoke thus:

Adam's ale - about the only gift that has de. scended undcfiled from the garden of Eden! Nature's common carrier - not creatid in the rottenness of fermentation, not distilled over guiltv fires; virtues and not vices are its companions. Docs it cause drunkenness, disease, death, cruelty to women and children? Will it place rags on the person and morlgageson the stock, faim and furniture? Will it consume wages and income in advance and ruin men in business? No! But it floats in white gossamer clouds way up in the summer sky and hovers in dreamy mist over the merry faces of our sparkling lakes. It veils the woods and hills of earth's landscapes it a purple haze where filmy lights and shadows diift hour after hour. . . . It is carried by kind winds and falls in rushing curtains of liquid drapery over all the thirsty woods and fields, and fixes in God's myslic skies His beautiful bow of promise, glorified with a radiance that seems reflected out of heaven itself.

He died suddenly at Ottawa, while in attendence on the supreme court arguing the appeal of Joseph C. Mackin convicted of perjury in the election fraud case. Mr. Storrs did not quite die and "leave no sign." His lectures before the Chicago Law School on the English Constitution and Trial by Jury, his lecture on Municipal Government, his address before the Historical Society and at the opening of the new Board of Trade were memorable, each in its way, and the volumes of the North American Review contain essays by him of marked power and brilliancy. Then, too, since his death, two interesting and instructive volumes have been published for the benefit of his widow, a biography and a collection of political sayings and speeches. They are delightful reading.

Oil reaching, in the rough chronological order which has been followed, the last of the lawyers who were best known at the Chicago bar at the the outbreak of the war for the union, I find that my limit of space has been far passed. This suggests that as there must be an arbitrary line drawn somewhere (it being impossible to treat individually the 2,800 practitioners now at that bar or even to make a fair and intelligent choice among them) the subject may now be dismissed with a few words.

specialization, classification, division of labor. The early practitioner was in fact as well as in name attorney and counsellor at law, solicitor in chancery and proctor in admiralty. His law embraced the civil and the criminal; the federal and the State, actions ex contractu and ex delicto.

A case of murder, robbery, assault, slander or petty theft, the getting or contesting of a divorce, the getting or the infringement of a patent, a debt, an accident, a breach of contract or of trust, a collision on the lake or a land-claim connected with its shore line, ejectment, attachment, garnishment, distraint, replevin, pension, probate, trespass on rights of person or property - any and all were grist in his mill, and nothing was sent away. It is still the same with a large proportion of the younger practitioners, but among the leaders it is otherwise. Few are offered retainers on the criminal side of the court, and fewer still accept them. The patent lawyers are a class by themselves, as are the admiralty lawyers. Divorce is largely isolated, also the soliciting of pensions. Condemnation cases are urged of necessity by corporation lawyers, and they have also the defence in the immense business of railway damage cases. Real estate takes all the time of some offices; criminal court practice that of others.

This all tends toward the better doing of the work. The shoemaker no longer makes harnesses, or the blacksmith, plows. The general practitioner, on meeting in a particular case a specialist whose life is devoted to causes of that particular class, finds himself handicapped, and if he does justice to his client it is only by an unreasonable and unprofitable outlay of time and care, seeing that he may never have another case calling for the same kind of knowledge. Therefore, litigants are constantly met by civil excuses, which say in effect: "That is not in our line. You may better go to so-and-so." And, however hurt the applicant may feel, the advice is for his own good.

outgrowth of the law-school, and less the achievement of irrepressible individual power in the "self-made man." To quote the late Chief Justice Waite:

The time has gone by when an eminent lawyer in full practice can take a class of students into his office and become their teacher. Once that was practicable, but now it is not. The consequence is that law schools are now a necessity.

Another authority quotes as follows: Mr. Herron, in his work on the History of Jurisprudence, declares that in the matter of legal reform and in that of legal authorship the United States have surpassed England, and he attributes the fact "to the superior legal education which the American lawyers receive, and to the schools of law established throughout the United States."

The Northwestern University Law School (the circular whereof is my authority for the above quotations) deserves notice in an article on the Bench and Bar of Chicago, for it has had a great influence in their formation, and it is destined still more largely to shape their future. In its faculty and list of lecturers it shows (among others) the following distinguished names: Judge Blodgett, Justices Harlan and Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court: Judge Gresham, of the U. S. Court of Appeals; Judge Bunn, of the U. S. District Court; Judge Elliott, Chief Justice of Indiana; Judge Thompson, of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, and ex-Judges Booth and Farwell of the Illinois courts.

By great and constant effort the bench has been to some extent freed from the clash of party politics. The candidates for judgeships are chosen from each political party alternately; and by affiliation, half are Democrats and half Republicans; the vacancies as they occur being filled from the party claiming the allegiance of the retiring judge. This does not, by its own force, produce a "nonpartisan" judiciary; it is merely a judiciary equally divided as to political creed. But in effect the end is reached, for it is almost universally conceded that politics have no preceptiblc influence on judicial action. In each case the elevation of a man to the high office - the tremendous power and responsibility - of a judge on the bench, gives him a view of duties and obligations far above that which he possessed us a private citizen. Most lawyers bewail the system of an elective judiciary, with the harrassing - often humiliating - position in which it places candidates for office at a popular election . But the effective answer to their fault-finding is an appeal to the result. By all pre-conceived notions the system should be disastrous; in experience it is essentially successful.

Competition - not the low-lived rivalry for the business of any particular client, but general and tremendous emulation - prevails. The man who simply does his duty is left behind in the race; he who does more than his duty, reaches out for new usefulness, grasps at new responsibilities, shoulders new labors, he it is whose success verifies the wellworn saying, "There is always room at the top." The man who learns every Ihing, forgets nothing, tires never, fears not at all and keeps a smiling, good-humored, thoughtful face through good hours and bad, through victory and defeat, is the man whose course is clear. He only need add to these, perfect health, perfect habits, nerves of iron and a stainless record, to make him sure of reaching that pleasant upper region where elbowroom is plenty, where he can choose his cases, his clients and his course. Many have gotten there and more are getting there; but at the same time, wrecks strew the shore and skeletons the roadside.

"Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: All things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power."

Mention has already been made of the embryotic stage in the evolution of Chicago's judiciary system - the days when it was "reaching blindly toward the light," the days (well within the memory of living men) when John Kinzie was repeatedly nominated justice of the peace before he or any other justice was commissioned; and the slow years when, even after several had been commissioned, no courts were held, no dockets kept (so far as we know) and, in short, nothing done officially beyond the marrying of two or three couples.

Also of the infant stage - infans, speechless - when though a court of record was ordered, none was organized because there was no case to try.

These were followed by a circuit court which tried its first case in the spring of 1834; the circuit at that time embracing all the State lying north of the Illinois river; that is, the counties of Cook, La Salle, Putnam, Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Hancock, McDonough, Knox, Warren, Jo Daviess, Mercer, Rock Island and Henry. Two terms a year were to be held in each of these fifteen counties, (now subdivided into thirty-nine) making thirty terms in all.

This migratory court made necessary a peripatetic bar; and the good old custom of "circuit-riding" was the result. Judges and lawyers rode on horseback or traveled in country wagons across the counties; talking law, politics, religion or what-not; bandying jests and stories.playing jokes on each other, braving frost and snow, rain and sleet, winds and floods, sunshine and clouds, and carrying their saddle-bags, as a general rule, the entire law-library on which they relied in the cases they had to try.

Ex-judge Mark Bangs, now (1894) one of the veterans of the State Bar, describes this life as, on the whole, the very happiest slate possible to man\

The practice of riding the circuit in those early days, while it may be regarded as the knighterrantry of the profession, was an admirable training-school to make ready and skillful practitioners. The want of books compelled reliance upon reason and leading principles.

I have known the trip to Springfield to take five days and nights, dragging wearily thorough mud and sleet; and there was an amount of discomfort and annoyance about it sufficient to exhaust the patience of the most amiable. But the June journey was as agreeable as the December trip was repulsive. A four-in-hand, with splendid horses; thebestTroy coaches; good company; the exhilaration of great speed over an elastic road much of it a turf of grass, oft*n crushing under our wheels the most beautiful wild flowers; every grove fragrant with blossoms framed in the richest green; our roads not fenced in, but with freedom to choose our route; here and there a picturesque log cabin covered with vines; boys and girls on their way to the log schools; and the lusty farmer digging his fortune out of the rich earth. . . . The judge usually sat upon a raised platform, with a pine or whitewood board on which to write his notes. A small table stood on one side for his desk, around which were grouped the lawyers, toD often, I must admit, with their feet on top of it. . . . The court-rooms were always crowded. At court were rehearsed and enacted the drama, the tragedy and the comedy of real life. . . . The judges and lawyers were the stars; and wit and humor, pathos and eloquence always had appreciative audiences. The leading advocates had their partisans, personal and political, and the merits of each were canvassed in every cabin and school-house and at every horse-race, bee and raising.

In such a school were Lincoln, Douglas, David Davis and their kind forged, hardened, sharpened and tempered. Can we wonder at their rude strength and clearcutting acuteness? Their absolute readiness when the crisis came?

The rapid growth of Chicago's law business encumbered the circuit docket with hundredsof untried cases; and as a measure of relief the city charter (1837) provided two new courts; a mayor's court, wherein the chief officers of the city exercised a jurisdiction equal to that of a justice of the peace and a municipal court, having a jurisdiction concurrent with that of the circuit court. The latter held six terms a year, and its sessions were practically continuous. The general bankruptcy of 1837 impelled debtors - a designation embracing nearly every citizen - to try to abolish lawsuits by abolishing this most efficient court. The attempt was, for a time, frustrated by the noble efforts of such great men as Collins, Butterfield, Ryan, Scammon, Spring, Goodrich, Arnold and the Ogdens; but the legislature did, after all

The next measure of relief was the creation of additional supreme court justices and their assignment to circuit duties, and at the first term held after this provision was made, there were more than a thousand cases for trial. A special term was held in 1842, whereat Judge Stephen A. Douglas presided, the only time he ever held court in Chicago. Later (1843) a third annual term of the circuit court was provided for Cook county, and in 1845 the legislature established a county court having jurisdiction substantially concurrent with that of the circuit courts. Hugh T. Dickey was its first judge, and made for himself an enviable record in the office.

The next step in advance was the institution of the first United States Court in Chicago; it being opened and presided over by Judge Nathaniel Pope, in the absence of Judge McLean of the circuit court.

In the same year the new State constitution was adopted, which divided the State into seven judicial circuits, with a provision that the number might be enlarged by the legislature, which provision made possible many subsequent movements calculated to keep the court facilities abreast with the progress of population and business. Between 1848 and 1870 the number of circuits was increased to thirty. The constitution also continued the county courts in the counties of Cook and Jo Daviess, thus providing continuous sessions (should they be needed) in Chicago and Galena. Giles Spring was elected judge of the county court, to succeed Judge Dickey who had resigned to take his place on the circuit bench. The mayor's court was also kept up, being the fore-runner of all our police courts, seeing that on April 26, 1849, it was ordered that "violators of any city ordinance be brought before the mayor, daily, at nine o'clock, in his office in the north room of the market." (The market at this time occupied State street between Lake and Randolph streets.)

In 1851 the legislature amended the city charter so far as to empower the common council to designate justices of the peace to act as police justices, and continued the same powers in the mayor.

Beside ordering the continuance of the county courts of Cook and Jo Daviess counties, the constitution of 1848 instituted for each county in the State a county court of peculiar and limited jurisdiction as follows:

The jurisdiction of said court shall extend to all probate and such other jurisdiction as the general assembly shall confer in civil cases, and such criminal cases as may be prescribed by law, where the punishment is by fine only, not exceeding one hundred dollars.

To remedy the confusion arising from the existence of two courts with like name but diverse jurisdictions, the legislature added the words "common pleas " to the old name of the county courts of Cook and Jo Davieas. It was in the Cook County Court of Common Pleas that Judge Skinner (elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Spring) took his seat in the September term of 1851 and held court continuously for seven months, clearing off a large accumulation of cases and bringing the docket up to date, a state of things which he maintained through his term, at the sacrifice of his own health, for he was compelled by weakness to decline re-election.

In 1853 the legislature established for Chicago the " Recorders Court," giving it jurisdiction as follows : Concurrent with the circuit court in all criminal cases except treason and murder, and in all civil cases where the amount in controversy should not exceed $100, also all appeals from justice courts.

The business of the United States courts had been growing constantly and in spite of the remarkable power and unwearied devotion of Judge Drummond the accumulations were considerable. In 1856 the judge added three "adjourned terms" to the two provided by act of Congress, making the sittings, practically, almost continuous, seeing that the terms began on the first Mondays of March, May, July and October, and the third Monday in December. (These sessions were in addition to those he was called upon to hold in the other courts in his district.)

The " Cook County Court of Common Pleas" was supplanted in 1859 by the "Superior Court of Chicago," consisting of three judges, one of whom was the existing judge of the County Court of Common Pleas (John M. Wilson), and the other two (elected in the following April) were Grant Goodrich and Van H. Higgins. Judge Goodrich was succeeded by Judge Joseph E. Gary, now the senior of Chicago judges. Judge Higgins was succeeded by the late lamented John A. Jameson.

This, then, was the small and inadequate provision of State courts of record for the growing city during the " stormy sixties ;" one circuit court for the circuit of Cook and Lake counties, three superior courts for the city of Chicago, and one recorder's court for certain criminal matters and all appeals from justices of the peace.

As may be imagined, these few tribunals were crowded to excess, and in hundreds of cases the delay of hearing amounted to a denial of justice.

The constitution of 1870 made a strenuous and successful effort to meet the emergency and remedy the evil. It made Cook county a circuit by itself, with a court of five judges, to be increased proportionately with any increase in population.

The first judges to hold offices under the new law were W. W. Far well, Henry Booth, John G. Rogers, beside Judge E. S. Williams (holding over) and Lambert Tree, elected to fill a vacancy in the recorder's court, which was continued under the name of the "Criminal Court of Cook County," its jurisdiction being enlarged to the full scope of a circuit court, and its bench being provided for by assignment of judges from the circuit and superior courts.

The I3Ench And Bar

were continued; therefore the newly made provisions doubled the judicial force and gave promise of a system of judicature ample, unhurried, deliberate and dignified, commensurate with the interests at stake.

But the catastrophe of October 8-9, 1871, threw all into chaos. Every scrap of record of every case in every court vanished from the face of the earth in one short half-hour. Scarcely a law book was left in the city. Scarcely a law office had, on Monday morning, anything but ashes to show for all the papers, files, documents, records, books and letters which had crowded its desks, shelves and pigeon-holes on Saturday night.

The mind refuses to grasp the "abomination of desolation" which confronted the bench and bar as the smoke cleared away and the ruins grew cold with the coming of the hard winter of 1871-2.

It would be useless to try to tell - or even to imagine - how the order of things was restored; or, rather, how a new order of things was instituted. Thousands of pending cases were never resumed, partly because of the destruction of evidence, partly because of the loss of means to carry on the litigation, partly because judgment, if recovered, would be valueless upon execution. Savings were lost, fortunes destroyed, hopes blasted and lives wrecked, beyond count and beyond human conception.

Yet the recovery had to be made - was made. The "burnt record act" provided for the restoration of records where possible, and the admission of copies in place of original documents under certain restrictions. Also for the establishment of a separate docket and calendar for "burnt record" cases, they being entitled to more prompt hearing and dispatch than other actions. So, through the purging the courts of hundreds of baseless causes, the forced abandonment of hundreds of others more meritorious, the invincible courage and industry of bench, bar and clientage, litigation has been renewed and the stream has flowed on, higher and stronger than ever, scarce a ripple on its surface marking the wrecks that lie below. The next change in the system was the establishment (1874) of appellate courts by the legislature in accordance with the provision of the constitution of 1870. Four were provided in all, of which one was located in Chicago. Each court has three judges who sit together; and has appellate jurisdiction (only) in matters of appeal and writ of error from final judgments, orders and decrees of the circuit and superior courts, except in criminal matters and cases involving a franchise, a freehold, or the validity of a statute. In these cases appeal and writ of error lie direct to the supreme court. The appellate court, therefore, is only efficient for the relief of the supreme court, and adds nothing to the efficiency of the courts of first instance. The appellate judges are provided by assignment (under the order of the supreme court) from the circuit and superior courts. The first judges assigned in the Chicago District, were W. W. Heaton, George W. Pleasants and Theodore D. Murphy.

The next change - and one of the most important - in the judiciary system of Cook county, was the institution (1877) of the probate court, of which Joshua C. Knickerbocker was elected judge. To condense the very able article on this subject contained in III Andreas, p. 246:

The status of this court was early brought in question, and several decisions of the supreme court have been required to settle the controversy. . . . The first question raised was the constitutionality of the act providing for the establishment of probate courts in each of the counties having a population of 70,000 and over. The supreme court at tbe March term, 1882 . . . sustained the constitutionality of the act. The next question . . . arose out of a conflict of jurisdiction between this and the county court. Judge Knickerbocker assumed the position that when the probate court was established the county court in such county was deprived of its jurisdiction in matters of probate and all other matters over which probate courts are given jurisdiction . . . that of the probate court being exclusive. This opinion was confirmed by the supreme court in Klokke vs. Dodge.

part passu with those of the State; nor hsa their business been of uniform growth as has that of the others. Their greatest single volume of business was that arising under the Federal statute of bankruptcy, passed March 2, 1867 and repealed May 11, 1878; during which 5,349 cases, involving probably $25,000,000, were adjudicated in the district court; most of them under the great jurist, Henry W. Blodgett, who became judge of that court Jan. 11, 1870, and held the office continuously until 1892 when he resigned to accept the high post of counsel for the American commissioners in the Bering Sea arbitration.

Perhaps the next largest branch of litigation has been the foreclosure in the U. S. Circuit Court of railway mortgages and deeds of trust; such cases to the number of a score or more having come before the court; involving property to the value of not less than $20,000,000.

The other most noted cases tried in the Federal courts have been those connected with the internal revenue system, including the celebrated "Whisky Eing" prosecutions, which were instituted and carried to a triumphant conclusion before Judge Henry W. Blodgett, under the district attorneyship of Hon. Mark Bangs, assisted by able counsel and opposed by all the force and ingenuity which could be brought to bear through personal and political influences and an unlimited use of money.

The latest change in the Federal judicial system is the establishment (1890) of the appellate courts. These are organized in each judicial circuit in the Union, and serve as intermediate tribunals wherein a considerable proportion of the cases appealed from the circuit and district courts have final adjudication; to the very great relief of the supreme court of the United States. The court of appeals for the seventh judicial circuit (Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin) holds its sessions in Chicago.

TJ. S. Court of Appeals: Justice, John M. Harlan; Judges, William A. Woods and James G. Jenkins; Clerk, Oliver T. Morton; terms, October in each year.

U. S. Circuit Court : Judge James G. Jenkins; Clerk Sherburne W. Burnham; law terms, 1st Monday in March, May, July and October, and 3d Monday in December; Chancery terms every month.

State Courts

Appellate Court, First District: Judges, Joseph E. Gary, Henry M. Shepard, and Arba N. Waterman; Clerk, T. G. McElligott; terms, 1st Tuesday in March and October.

John C. Schubert; terms, 1st Monday in (for about sixty days) the judges are in vacaeach month. tion, except one each of the Circuit and Supe-

This presents an array of thirty-one courts rior Judges, who remain in session for emerpresided over by thirty-four judges. Almost gencies, injunctions, receiverships, writs of

Some Notable Trials In Chicago

THE perfection of the Common Law? has been the boast of jurists and lawyers since its foundations were laid in early English history, in the application of the principles of justice and equity, through judicial decisions, to the varying needs of an advancing civilization. However paradoxical it may appear, the perfection of the system consists in its imperfection. From the nature of the case it can never attain perfection, for its chief glory consists in its flexibility; not indeed in its fundamental maxims and principles, but in the application of these to the ever changing phases of enlarging commerce, and the new requirements of improving social conditions. The Common Law of England met with an infinite variety of new conditions when it was transplanted to America, especially when the monarchical and aristocratic institutions among which it h'ad its birth and early maturity, gave way before the advance of democratic and popular government. And on this side of the ocean the evolution of trade and manufactures, the growth of liberal ideas, the expansion of inland commerce, the rise of corporate franchises and the introduction of new inventions, as well as an almost infinite variety of new interests, has called for radical changes in its ancient code. Again, as the settlement of the country has progressed, pushing a teeming population away from the Atlantic sea-board over the mountains, and spreading it. over the interior valleys, modifications in application of principles, and administration of justice have been continually introduced. In the evolution of such a city as Chicago it is inevitable that a great variety of new

Then the changes which the Statute Law, not always wisely or intelligently framed, has introduced, not only in methods of procedure but in personal and civil rights as well, has given occasion for judicial construction, and introduced continually new and changing obligations and remedies. So infinite are the phases of civil relations, so variant the customs of society, and so dominant the passions and ambitions of men, that a condition of settled and permanent administration of law is never reached.

Precedents established to-day are overturned to-morrow. Decisions applied to one state of facts, with unquestioned propriety, are unsuited to the exigencies of another. In proportion as a community is progressive, as its relations become complex, as its commerce broadens and its interests diversify, there arises a continual need of judicial interference and construction, to interpret laws, and apply them for the promotion of justice. For such reasons perfection is never reached. No sooner are one set of precedents established than varying conditions require others. Hence, as a city like Chicago grows in numbers and increases in business, courts multiply, judges have to be increased in number, calendars become crowded, and the bar becomes an essential and efficient power in the harmonious development of its life.

It is proposed to gather up from the judicial records of Chicago some of the notable cases and subjects which have occupied the thought of the judiciary and the bar - a task not entirely barren of interest, and marking in a manner, like landmarks, the progress of the social and political life.

The United States was the original source of the land titles in the city of Chicago. That part of the original plat lying between Madison and Kinzie streets on the south and north, and State and Ilalsted streets on the east and west, containing three-eighths of a square mile, and lying upon the main channel of the Chicago river, and over the junction of the two branches, was what was known as "Canal Land, "having been granted by Congress in 1827 to the State of Illinois for the purpose of aiding in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.

In the autumn of 1829, commissioners Authorized the laying out the " Town of Chicago " on the section comprised within the above mentioned limits. That part of the town lying between the lake shore and State street, was a part of the military reservation of Fort Dearborn, and was surveyed, platted and sold at a later date, under instructions from the Secretary of War, by authority of an act of Congress, and was known as Fort Dearborn Addition. As the city extended its limits the titles were derived from the Canal Trustees or from the Land Office, according as they were situated upon odd or even numbered sections. As may be conjectured many disputes and collisions occurred in the allotment among settlers and purchasers of these tracts, which depended upon questions of fact settled by the rude authorities of those days, without giving rise to proceedings which have become historical.

Jean Baptiste Beaubean, a trader with the Indians, and son of a French pioneer of Detroit, had purchased a rude house and occupied unchallenged an undefined piece of ground outside the walls of Fort Dearborn. As the prospects of making a town began to brighten, and some value began to be attached to lands, he made one or two ineffectual attempts to enter his claim. At last in May, 1835, he applied to the Register and Receiver of the Government Land Office in Chicago to enter the southwest fractional quarter of section 10, township 37, range 14 east, containing a trifle over 75 acres of land, for which he tendered in payment $94.61. His application was granted, a receipt for the purchase money made, and a certificate of entry made and delivered to him. The next year Murray McConnell, a lawyer residing at Jacksonville, as grantee of the greater part of the claim, brought a suit of ejectment in the Circuit Court of Cook county against Col. Lafayette Wilcox, who was in charge as Agent of the United States of the government property at Fort Dearborn. The action was tried before Judge Thomas Ford at the October term of 1830, of the Circuit Court. Mr. McConnell tried the case on the part of the plaintiff, and David J. Baker, Esq., United States District Attorney, appeared for the defendant.

Judge Ford held that the entry by Beaubean was valid, but that it could not be enforced against the United States until a patent had issued. He directed a verdict to be entered for the defeiidant. Tradition affirms that President Jackson had a patent before him, and was in the act of attaching his signature to it, when he was informed of the pendency of the suit, when he tore the paper into fragments, and threw them under his feet. This, however, lacks verification.

Mr. McConnell appealed the case to the State Supreme Court, where it was elaborately argued. The case is fully reported in 1st Scammon, 344. The opinion of the court, prepared by Justice Smith covers thirty four pages of Scammon's Reports. Judge Lockwood dissented and Judge Wilson declined to sit from interest.

Histor7 Of Chicago

the land, judicial in its nature and conclusive; that the military reservation had in fact been abandoned by the government; that the action would lie against the agent of the U. S., and that the laws of Illinois made the land office certificate, a competent title, and governed the case. The opinion discussing these and a number of other collateral questions, is an interesting one. It is apparent that the Court deemed the questions important ones, and designed to lay down a precedent which should settle the mooted questions. It is, too, an able opinion, citing copious authorities, and reasoning out its conclusions with a chain of specious, if not sound logic.

The case was then removed to the Supreme Court of the U. S. by writ of error, where it was again elaborately argued at the January term of 1839, and the opinion of the supreme court reversing the State Supreme Court was delivered by Justice Barbour, and is reported in 13 Peters' Reports 497. It held that the receipt and certificate of entry by the local land officers were void, as made upon a subject, over which they had no jurisdiction, since the land was a part of a military reservation, which, though sometimes left unoccupied, had been made by competent authority, and could not be deemed abandoned when left unoccupied by stress of military events; and finally that the laws of Illinois had no application to the case; that it was solely governed by the laws of the United States. JSlo more thorough overthrow of the logic of a State Court was ever made by the Federal Court. The case well illustrates the conflict which local and general views produce, even in the highest tribunals, serving different jurisdictions.

While these proceedings were in progress in the courts, an effort was made in 1838 to establish the claim in Congress. Testimony was submitted, and the merits of Mr. Beaubean as a settler and friend of the government in its relations with the Indians, were strongly insisted on.

good reason to suspect collusion on the part of the local land officers, and reported adversely. In 1840 the United States filed a bill in chancery, to procure the cancellation of the certificate issued to Mr.' Beaubean, and he was decreed to surrender it for cancellation, and the purchase money which he had paid was refunded to him.

When the Fort Dearborn addition was sold by the government, a number of lots were selected by Mr. Beaubean, with the understanding among the settlers that no one should bid against him. A speculator however, bid so that Mr. Beaubean secured only one lot for which he paid $225. An indignation meeting was held by the settlers, but it was ineffectual to set aside legal decisions or cancel title.

At last Congress passed an act donating to Mr. Beaubean four or five lots as compensation for his improvements, which closed the long and exciting controversy over the Beaubean claim.

The early settlers of Chicago, largely nurtured in New England, and imbued witU FU itive ^e sentiments of equality and Slaves, liberty so intense and predominant in that section of the country, infused into the community a leven of their principles and sentiments that, while professedly loyal to what were at that time in political circles, denominated the "Compromises of the Constitution," it was difficult to carry them into effect, when they called for the surrender of escaped slaves into their former bondage. "The underground railroad" ran through Chicago on its way to Canada and had there many vigilant station agents.

Neither the judges of the courts nor the officers charged with the administration of the law, were vigilant to enforce its requirements upon alleged fugitives, while public opinion was violently opposed to it. It resulted that few fugitives were returned and applications after a few unsuccessful attempts, fell into "innocuous desuetude."

six or seven free colored men, all of whom had come from free States. The lawgivers of Illinois, however, had not contemplated such a contingency, the earlier population (of the State at large) having come from slave States. The laws had provided that if a negro was found in the State without free papers, he should be prosecuted and fined, and if necessary, sold to pay the fine. Some of the enemies of the black man, or pro slavery admirers of the black code, or believers in the blessings of the peculiar institution for the heaven-marked subject race, or possibly some aspirant for political preferment at the hands of the dominant party, which was largely under the control of the slave holding aristocracy of the South, felt it to be their duty or interest to prosecute these early representatives here of the proscribed race. J. G. Caton undertook their defense and pleaded their case before the Court of County Commissioners. This was putting a very liberal interpretation of judicial powers on the rather euphemistic term court, as applied to the Board of County Commissioners. But ' Court ' was then the legal designation of that body, and the young lawyer overcame their natural modesty, or their unwillingness to assume a function hitherto unheard of. They ended by acceding to the learned Jurists' exposition of the law, and as the highest accessible representatives of the judiciary of the sovereign State of Illinois, they granted to his grateful clients the required certificates of freedom, which were never questioned, and passed for excellent free papers. Mr. Caton's fee was a dollar from each of the beneficiaries."

The first fugitive slave case that arose is described by Andreas in his interesting narrative of the Bench and Bar of Chicago. " On the seventh of June, 1851, before George W. Meeker, U. S. Commissioner, was arraigned one Morris Johnson, alleged to be a runaway slave. Crawford E. Smith, of Lafayette county, Mo., by power of attorney to Samuel S. Martin, of Chicago, had him arrested as his slave William, who had escaped from his premises July 4th, 1850.

'-' After a trial which occupied three days, besides postponements, the prisoner was discharged on the 13th, ostensibly because of a discrepancy between the writ and the record. The former called for a copper colored negro five feet five inches in height, while the latter showed a dark enough negro to be called black, while he measured five feet eight inches. His acquittal was largely due to the unpopularity of the law and the unwillingness of the bench, bar and people of Chicago to act as negro hunters for southern slave holders. Among other obstacles thrown in the way of the owner's representatives in this case, was the demand that they should prove by other than hearsay testimony that Missouri was a slave State. Had the decision been different, it is probable that Crawford E. Smith would have been no nearer getting possession of his chattel, as the ' underground railroad ' was at that time in active operation here.''

Another case is related by the same authority. " Three alleged fugitive slaves, thrown into jail in Chicago on a charge of assault were taken to Springfield on a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Treat of the Supreme Court, and discharged by him, September 22, 1854. Some ten weeks later, Col. Henry Wilton, U. S. Marshal arrived in Chicago from Springfield, armed with four writs for the arrest of as many runaway slaves. He ordered out the Light Guards in anticipation of resistance, and directed that company A of the National Guards should be in readiness. The officer in command of the Light Guards took legal advice from ex- Judge Dickey, who assured him that Henry AVilton had no legal authority to issue such an order, whereupon the military withdrew, and the Marshal returned to Springfield without the fugitives."

The proclamation of emancipation by Abraham Lincoln, sealed by the surrender at Appomatox, so unified American institutions on the basis of the equal and inalienable rights of all men, that no similar demand could arise.

restricted, not much attention was paid to Lake Front the "Parian rights, which in controversies, the course of her growth to commercial supremacy, have become of great importance and inestimable value. Titles to lands abutting upon the lake were derived from the government through the Fort Dearborn reservation, the sale of canal lands, and direct purchases of lands in even numbered sections from the land office. Through these lands streets were dedicated in original plats, or laid by municipal authority, sometimes skirting the lake front, and in other cases running at a right angle from it. When lands were donated to the State in aid of the Illinois Central railroad, a right of way through the public lands was given one hundred feet in width. In the grant of these lands made to the railroad company, the right of way was widened to two hundred feet, and in the ordinances of the city extending the right of way through the corporate limits, it was again broadened to three hundred feet. The company in consideration of the municipal grant undertook and constructed a breakwater outside of its line, at enormous expense, along the whole water front of the city.

In 1853, James H. Collins, one of the able and early lawyers in the city, applied to the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, presided over by Judge Skinner, for an injunction against the Illinois Central railroad company. Mr. Skinner owned a lot abutting the lake, and claimed ownership to the middle of the lake, and contested the right of way. The petitioner argued the case in his own behalf, assisted by I. N. Arnold and J. M. Wilson, while the railroad side was conducted by James P. Joy, of Detroit. The litigation resulted in a compromise by which the railroad company paid Mr. Collins damages, and secured the right of way over his land.

The next year a similar suit was instituted by Clias. Walker, who owned an abutting lot, in the circuit court, Judge Morris presiding Commissioners had awarded to Mr. Walker

$47,800 damages, from which an appeal was taken; eight days were occupied in taking testimony, and two in the argument of counsel. The jury found for tha plaintiff and assessed his damages at $20,712. Thus the right of abutting owners to payment for land taken by the railroad company for its right of way, notwithstanding the grants by the government, the State, and the city, was established and acquiesced in by the company.

Thus matters stood for thirty years. In the meantime the railroad company had acquired other rights by purchase of land and city ordinances, and had built many tracks along the lake front, filled in a broad stretch between the ancient shore line and its tracks, and erected stations, slips, warehouses and other structures to accommodate its immense traffic. It had become a great and wealthy corporation. The City too had grown, and its commerce expanded. A new generation had come upon the stage, less ready to extend privileges to an exacting corporation, and disposed to criticise and limit those somewhat improvidently granted by the authorities of the infant City, intent only upon securing the entrance of the railroad .

The railroad company had secured a confirmation of its claims by an act of the State legislature passed in 1869 over the veto of Governor Palmer, by virtue of which it made most extravagant claims. It claimed ownership in fee of three blocks of ground situated at the north end of Lake Park and adjoining the companies' railroads; also the absolute ownership of the bed of Lake Michigan for one and a half miles along the whole lake front, and one mile into the lake. Also the exclusive right to build, own and control for its own profit, piers, docks and wharves, in the outer harbor of Chicago, and by virtue of certain ordinances of the city, passed in 1852, '5 and '6, it also claimed the right to widen its railroad one hundred feet into the lake from Randolph street to Twelfth street, and the right to use in perpetuity two trian- gular pieces of ground covering an area of several acres recovered from the lake in front of ground belonging to the United States. The value of the property and rights claimed was estimated by the United States Attorney at $100,000,000.

Kestive under these comprehensive claims, and moved with indignation at the prospect of the heritage of the people being appropriated by a grasping corporation for private profit, in March, 1883, a suit was instituted by the State of Illinois, on relation of the attorney-general, against the Illinois Central railway company, the city of Chicago and the United States, in the circuit court, which, on petition of the railroad company was removed into the circuit court of the United States for the northern district of Illinois.