USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 12
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Mr. Jewett would have adorned almost any station in public life. On several occasions, but not upon his own motion, his name was suggested by those high in official position for important and national place. But the strange law to which I have referred seemed in every instance to operate to his exclusion from public life. Possibly it is true that his interests were more strictly professional than public and general. It is certain that in all matters touching the honor and dig- nity of the profession his interest was keen and active; and that to the diligent pursuit of that profession he devoted all his energies and tal- ents with a fidelity that was undeviating.
He was one of the founders of the Chicago Bar Association. A number of the lawyers of this city met at the rooms of the Chicago Law College in November, 1873, and signed a paper agreeing to unite in forming such an association. Mr. Jewett's name was first in the list of signers, a fact which speaks much for the regard and esteem in which he was held by his professional brethren at that time; for this sentiment induced the promoters of this important enterprise to regard his name as one of all others to head such a movement. He was the fourth president of the association, serving one term in 1877.
Mr. Jewett was in a high degree conservative. He stood "fast upon the ancient ways" and deprecated hasty and ill-considered changes in the law or its administration. Possibly he felt a little too
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much impatience with that spirit of social restlessness which seems to be more keenly alive to existing evils, than fertile in the suggestion of practicable remedies for their correction.
He was interested in legal education, and at the time of his death was, as he had been from its foundation, the dean of the John Mar- shall Law School of this city. He was also and for some time had been president of the Chicago Historical Society.
To those of us who knew him well, what has thus been written seems to portray but faintly the great lawyer who for so long has been such a familiar figure in our professional life. The writer feels how true it is that the name and fame of such are so quickly forgot. How impossible it is, even in the profession, to keep alive the memory of those whose professional labors have adorned the bar and often pro- moted and advanced, in no small degree, the interests of the state.
Within the last twenty years a striking change has taken place in the Chicago bar. Scarce one, of those then its recognized leaders, re- mains to us. The last to leave us, by no means the least conspicuous, indeed, perhaps the most familiar, was Mr. Jewett. His place will never be filled; for today is not as yesterday. Chicago has passed from its pioneer stage, and those who were its pioneers at the bar are nearly all gone.
However well those who come after them meet their duties and responsibilities, they can never occupy the same relation to the profes- sion and the community which these, our predecessors, sustained.
Mr. Jewett led an active, busy and useful life, intimately concerned with the growth and development of our city when it was emerging from the condition of a small, almost rural community, into that of a mighty metropolis.
His professional associates will always remember him not only as a great lawyer, but as a high type of all those qualities which have contributed to the traditional glories of a learned and noble pro- fession.
(By S. S. Gregory.)
John H. Hamline died February 14, 1904, at his home in the city of Chicago. To portray what manner of citizen he was, how impor-
JOHN H. tant his services to the city and the state and how ably and honorably he followed the profession of the law, needs no friendly hand. They are matters of
HAMLINE.
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public knowledge. Singularly free from self-seeking, desiring public recognition only as a lawyer, shaping his conduct by conscience re- gardless of public favor, he so impressed himself upon the community as to be recognized not only as a worthy leader of public opinion, but as one who sought the city's welfare with such unselfish zeal, intelli- gent tenacity and grim determination, as to give him a peculiar and almost unique distinction. The convincing proof of such recognition followed immediately upon the announcement of his death. In the expressions concerning him in public addresses, in private conversa- tions, and on editorial pages, there was no conventional tribute, but rather a general avowal of sorrow in the passing of a strong man, who gave his exceptional strength ungrudgingly, bravely and effectively to the service of his city.
It is inevitable that the thoughts of one undertaking a memorial of John Hamline should incline first to him in his capacity as a citizen. Though he was an able and successful lawyer, it was as a citizen that he attained his pre-eminent place in the life of the community; and it is chiefly because he was a rare example of what a citizen of a republic should be that his memory deserves public record. Indeed, he consciously subordinated Hamline the lawyer to Hamline the citi- zen, and paid every debt which he conceived he owed to the state at whatever cost to his success in his profession.
If he had no other claim to be remembered than as a lawyer, his career would have been a notable one. He not only practiced law suc- cessfully, and in accordance with the best traditions of the profession, but he bore a conspicuous part in maintaining the highest standards of the bar and in improving the methods and personnel of the courts.
Had he not been a great citizen-for such he was-nor able law- yer, nor having any title to public reputation, he would have been held in loving memory by those who knew him well, for his rare qualities as friend and companion. He met and satisfied all the demands of the intimate and familiar relations of life. And those who knew him best held him in a respect which bordered on reverence.
It is therefore to John H. Hamline in his relations as citizen, law- yer and friend that this brief article will be devoted.
His life was a very full, but not an exceptionally eventful one.
Mr. Hamline was born in Hillsdale, New York, the 23rd of March, 1856. In his early infancy his parents removed to Mt. Pleasant,
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Iowa. His father was Leonidas P. Hamline, a physician, and his grandfather was L. L. Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1865 Dr. Hamline removed with his family to Evanston, Illinois, where John H. Hamline spent his youth, attending the public schools and the Northwestern University, from which he was grad- uated in the year 1875, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In col- lege he displayed the same qualities of leadership which distinguished him in after life. After two years of study at Columbia Law School, New York, from which he was graduated in the year 1877, he took his examinations for the bar in Illinois, was admitted September 14, 1877, and immediately entered upon the practice of law at Chicago, and pursued it in this city until his death. His home was still in Evanston, of which village he was elected corporation counsel in 1880. an office which he held until 1884. Thus early in his practice his at- tention was closely and practically drawn to municipal and constitu- tional law, and he acquired an extensive and thorough grounding in those branches of which he made effective use in later years. He prepared for the village a complete municipal code, which was pub- lished in 1882. About 1885, he removed to 1621 Prairie avenue. which continued to be his home for the remainder of his life. In October, 1886, he entered into partnership with Frank H. Scott, a friend from infancy, under the firm name of Hamline & Scott. Sub- sequently Frank E. Lord became a member of the firm, and in 1889 the name was changed to Hamline, Scott & Lord, and continued so until Mr. Hamline's death, Redmond D. Stephens becoming a mem- ber of it in 1902. Mr. Hamline was elected in 1887, and served one term as a member of the Common Council of the City of Chicago, and by his vigorous and courageous discharge of the duties of that office, challenged the attention of the community. The principle of enforcing compensation for municipal franchises was advocated in the city council by him for the first time. Thenceforth, though taking an active part in public affairs, he never held, nor was a candidate for any political office. He was a member of the American Bar Associa- tion, the Chicago Bar Association, to the presidency of which he was elected in 1891, the Illinois State Bar Association, of which he was president in 1896-7, and of many clubs and societies. In 1895 he was chosen president of the Union League Club, and he also served a term as president of the Chicago Law Club.
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Mr. Hamline was married to Josephine Mead, who survives him. Of this marriage five children were born, of whom three died in child- hood. There survived him his daughter, Josephine Hamline, aged fifteen years, and his son, John H. Hamline, Jr., six years of age.
John H. Hamline's zeal in the cause of good government was manifested at his entrance upon manhood, and continued without in- termission until his death. To understand his title to the distinction of a great citizen it is necessary to know, not so much what he did, and what he undertook to do, as the motives which actuated him, and the completeness with which they controlled his conduct. In his con- ception of the duty of the citizen to the state, and in his rare fidelity in the discharge of that duty, his right to that title is to be found. He was a firm believer in democracy-in popular self-government in its broadest sense. His faith in it was the faith of the fathers touched by an almost religious fervor. It was not a profession, an abstrac! theory, held lightly in so far as involving obligation, but as vital as the beating of his heart. It shaped the course and conduct of his life. The key to his entire career of public activity is to be found in his recognition of the necessity that each citizen must perform his part in governing, in order that there shall be true popular government-and his unqualified acceptance of the duties which that necessity imposed on him individually. In this sense of obligation alone is the explana- tion of the large part which John Hamline took in the affairs of the city and state for nearly twenty-five years. He had no political ambi- tions, but very great ambitions in his profession; and he fully under- stood that his activity in public affairs was an impediment to his reali- zation of these latter. Yet his own interests did not enter into his public activities, except as things to be denied. Frequently his stand on public questions cost him valued clients. For this there was no compensation in the prominence given him as a reformer, for such a role had no attractions for him whatever. He was at times misunder- stood and subjected to bitter criticism. Though in the midst of con- troversy he preserved a grim exterior, yet in fact he was keenly sensi- tive and suffered much under such attacks. But neither loss of clients, alienation of friends nor stinging criticism could turn him aside from the performance of that which he saw as his duty to the community. Nor did he ever, under any provocation, allow himself to swerve from the pursuit of the object he had in view, to make a personal defense.
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He did not bare his wounds to the public, nor suppose that injustice done him was a matter of any concern to it; nor would he permit a battle for a measure to become a contest of personalities between men. But once, and that in the last days of his life, did he by any public expression show how much he suffered under criticism. In the lines imprinted on the first page of his pamphlet on the "Mueller Bill" he gave the key to his life :
"Oh Neptune, you may save me if you will; you may sink me if you will, but whatever happens, I shall keep my rudder truc."
Mr. Hamline's title to be called a great citizen rests not alone on his recognition and acceptance of the duties of citizenship at whatever cost to himself, but as well on the practical efficiency with which he discharged them. Taking into account not merely disposition toward public affairs, nor ability nor energy, nor years of unselfish public service, nor results achieved, but all of these combined, it may safely be asserted that in the past twenty years Chicago has had no better citizen. For himself he claimed nothing, freely giving credit to others for the fruits of his own efforts. He was concerned only in effecting results, and not at all as to where credit should be bestowed.
In order to correctly measure his qualities and efficiency as a citizen, it is also necessary to understand and to take into account the fact that the determined efforts which he put forth from time to time as a speaker and leader in the cause of good government, and which were known to the public, were but the occasional expressions of an unflagging devotion to his civic duties, which manifested itself in his daily life, in as conscientious performance of them as he gave to his obligations to his clients. His was that every day patriotism which concerns itself consistently and continuously with, and discharges faith- fully, the duty nearest at hand, whether great or small.
His efforts in behalf of reforms in government were marked by dogged persistence, intensely practical methods and the exhibition of a keen knowledge of human nature. Possibly no better example can be cited than his connection with the movement for a reform of the civil service, for in this his earliest as well as his latest public activities were engaged, and through the intervening years his efforts in its behalf were constant. The first formal attempt to secure specific legis- lation for Chicago, in this direction, was an ordinance introduced by him in the city council in the year 1887. Though in those days civil
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service reform was sneered at by politicians, and its necessity was not yet understood by the great body of well-meaning citizens, the pro- posed ordinance barely failed of enactment by a corrupt, spoils-seeking council. The incident is significant in that it was an early illustration of Hamline's effectiveness-manifested often afterward-in dealing in the public interest with men whose points of view were wholly an- tagonistic to his own. There was a simple, direct, virile, human quality in him that took hold on those with whom he came in contact. He did not respect caste, nor condition, but approached men of every shade of character on the basis of common manhood, and the men whose practices he fought, believed in and respected him. And this fact made it possible for him to render signal service to the public, on many occasions of which the public does not know.
In the year 1894 the mayor of Chicago appointed a board of three members, of whom Mr. Hamline was one, to introduce the merit system in the administration of the police department. There were advocates of the system who expressed the belief that the ap- pointment was a political trick, and deprecated its acceptance. None who heard it will forget Hamline's reply to such critics, delivered at a dinner of the National Municipal Reform Association, at which the mayor was present : "When I want to go anywhere, I do not wait to hitch my wagon to a star. I take anything that is going my way." The incident was significant of the practical sense that marked his efforts, and which contributed largely to the success of the various movements with which he was identified. Together with his asso- ciates, Messrs. Ela and Rubens, he administered the duties of the office with a vigor and decision, and in so doing gave the citizens a wider familiarity with the principle of the merit system, and assisted ma- terially to pave the way for the passage by the legislature of the Civil Service Act of 1895.
To John H. Hamline, more than to any other one man, is the city indebted for the framing, passage by the legislature and adoption by the voters, of that law. As president of the Union League Club, in 1895 he called a meeting of delegates from more than fifty clubs and societies, and united them in the effort to secure such legislation. The law was in the main drawn in his office; he was the organizing force which sent committee after committee to Springfield to appeal to the legislature for its passage, and he chiefly directed the remark-
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able noon-day campaign in factories and stores which resulted in its adoption. His connection with it cannot be measured by what was done by him within the knowledge of the public. By letter and per- sonal visits he spurred prominent citizens into activity, induced them to journey to the capital, carried on a large correspondence with members of the legislature, secured the co-operation of luke-warm or hostile politicians by convincing them that to help was good politics for them individually, and went about among the police and other place-holders, persuading them that their personal interests would be served by the introduction of a system under which their tenure would not depend on political favor. After the passage of the law, his inter- est and activity in its behalf did not cease. His time and professional knowledge and skill were at the service of the commissioners and were availed of by them in putting it in operation and defending it from attack. It was a fixed rule with him, observed in this, as on all other like matters, to accept no compensation for professional services in connection with or in any way arising out of reform movements in which he had participated.
As has been said, almost his latest as well as his earliest efforts for the public welfare were directed toward civil service reform. He worked vigorously to procure the passage by the last assembly of a law applying to the state. In accepting an appointment by the present governor to act with two others in framing such a law, he was guided by the same considerations which dictated his acceptance of a place on the mayor's police commission. The law was framed and submitted to the assembly by the governor in a message recommending its pas- sage, but notwithstanding vigorous efforts, in which Mr. Hamline participated with his accustomed energy, it failed of passage.
Mr. Hamline's labors in behalf of civil service reform have been selected for this extended reference because they were begun in his early manhood and continued until his death. But they serve only as an illustration of his activities as a citizen, and not as their measure. In many other matters of public concern, notably the Humphrey and Allen bills, the preservation of the city's rights in the lake front, the granting of franchises to public service corporations, the consolidation of the supreme court, he displayed the same qualities of leadership and expended his time, energies, abilities and money with the same
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self-sacrificing generosity which marked his efforts in behalf of that reform.
His advocacy of, or opposition to, men or measures, as a speaker on public platforms, was characterized by a peculiar directness, the choice of apt language, without any effort at rhetorical display, in- tense earnestness coupled with complete self-control, and unflinching courage. He was blunt and unsparing in his denunciation of candi- dates for office whom he deemed unfit, yet malice or venom had no place in his nature. He understood and made allowance for human weakness and was charitable and generous in his judgments of his fellow-men. In his arraignment of aspirants for office, at times bitter in the extreme, he was wholly impersonal; it was never the individual as such, but always the candidate, at whom he directed his blows. A love of conflict he no doubt had, as all good fighters have, but it was the compelling sense of his duty as a citizen that for so many years made him a prominent figure in the community's affairs, and during the last ten years of his life it was that sense of duty alone. In in- vective and denunciation he had no pleasure, and when he indulged in it, as at times he did, it was in the stern, grim fashion of one in deadly earnest. Indeed, back of and inspiring his public activity in all its phases, was his serious and wholly unselfish conception of the obligations which citizenship laid upon him.
Mr. Hamline was fortunate in the choice of his profession. Its employments were congenial to him, and he followed them with un- flagging interest and zest. To him the work of the law was not drudgery, but a source of keen intellectual pleasure, and its contro- versies afforded frequent opportunities to gratify his love of conflict. It was his rare good fortune to be a worker in love with his work, and to find in it adequate and satisfying occupation for all his facul- ties. He pursued it with entire devotion, not as a trade, but as a profession, and never ventured out of its paths to occupy his abilities elsewhere for gain. Its pecuniary rewards, though they came to hin in satisfactory measure, were the least of its attractions, and his labor in any given case was not proportioned to the amount, but to the questions involved therein. Nature equipped him generously for the profession and he supplemented her gifts by the conduct of his life. He possessed a broad, clear and vigorous mind, orderly and logical in its processes, with a singular capacity for recognizing and siezing
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upon the vital and essential. His body was a faithful ally of his mind-robust, virile and nervously sound, enabling him to work hard and tirelessly. And, added to this equipment of brain and body. there was flawless integrity. All who knew him intimately recog nized in him a rare and exceptional honesty. It has been said by one that the word honesty took on a new meaning when applied to John H. Hamline. It was not alone that he was incapable of an act which he knew to be wrong, but that his perception of right was singularly clear and true. A retrospect of many years of intimate association fails to reveal an act of his properly subject to the smallest criticism judged by the highest standards of honor.
Possessing these qualities it followed as of course that his career at the bar was successful. Recognition as a lawyer of solid attain- ments came to him early after his admission, his clientage steadily grew, and his professional life became one of constant and laborious employment. The time that he gave generously and freely to serve the community was the valuable possession of a busy man. but he did not by reason of his participation in public affairs, fail of diligent and faithful care for the interests of his clients. Once having accepted a case his client's cause became his own. His preparation of cases was marked by the most painstaking attention to detail and exhaustive examination of authorities. From his youth he was an interested student of history and of the development of government and of law. and, although keeping himself acquainted with and using skillfully current decisions, it was the habit of his mind to refer and test all questions by reference to principles. In trials he was fair and candid with the court, presenting no theories or propositions which he did not believe to be sound, but supporting his contentions with force, courage and tenacity.
Mr. Hamline was connected with much important litigation, in- volving questions affecting the interests of the community as well as of his individual clients. Of this character were the suits affecting the franchises of the Union Loop, and certain street railway companies. and the numerous controversies concerning the lake front. His ac- quaintance with the history of the lake front was comprehensive. as was also his knowledge of the law affecting the questions involved. acquired by years of careful study and investigation.
During the latter years of his life his hearing became impaired.
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causing his friends apprehension that the scope of his professional life might be seriously narrowed. He never expressed to his near friends any anxiety on account of this growing infirmity. That he realized what the future might have in store for him cannot be doubted. That he did not permit the contemplation of such a future to interfere with the serene conduct of his life or to impair the best use of his abilities, was a demonstration of the high courage which always distinguished him.
Mr. Hamline was given to very direct and blunt speaking, and deserved the reputation which he bore as a grim, hard fighter. But in his career there was new proof that the world loves a good fighter, and the very qualities that earned him that reputation attracted and preserved to him the respect and personal regard of his brother lawyers.
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