USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 2
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In the celebrated Lovejoy case in which Judge Caton was presid- ing judge, mentioned above, Lovejoy's lawyer was James H. Collins.
JAMES H. who had been a practicing lawyer in New York be-
COLLINS. fore coming to Illinois, and in whose office young Caton had studied while gaining the rudiments. On moving west in 1833 he had farmed for a while in Kendall county, and in 1834 became Caton's partner in Chicago and was later asso- ciated with Justin Butterfield. Collins, according to the testimony of one of his contemporaries, "was indefatigable, dogmatic, never giv- ing up, and if the court decided one point against him he was ready with another, and if that was overruled, still others." He became noted for his skill as a special pleader 'and for the great care which he bestowed upon the preparation of all cases. It is said that he was at much at home on the chancery side as on the common-law side of the court. Possessed of an iron will, he became a strong and ad- vancing force as one of the earliest and most determined of the aboli- tionists, and was well fitted to play the part he did in the Lovejoy case. He died at Ottawa in 1854.
Mr. Collins originated the famous litigation against the Illinois Central Railroad for its absorption of the lake front. The "made land" south of the government pier had been purchased by the rail- road company, and to utilize this its tracks had been constructed along
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the edge of the lake, back of Mr. Collins' dwelling. Before Judge Skinner, March 28, 1853, Mr. Collins presented an application for an injunction to prohibit the use of these tracks, claiming that his frontage upon the lake gave him an ownership to the middle of the lake. The railroad finally settled his claim by a cash payment, and also disposed of similar claims of several other owners of land upon the lake front.
Associated with James H. Collins from 1835 to 1843 was Justin Butterfield, a lawyer of national reputation, whose connection not
only with the bar but the civic interests of Chicago
JUSTIN BUTTERFIELD. was of enduring importance. He was one of the trustees of Rush Medical College at its incorpora- tion in 1837; drew up the canal bill of 1842, as a result of which suffi- cient money was advanced by the bondholders to complete the canal ; as a Whig he was appointed by President Taylor commissioner of the general land office as against Abraham Lincoln, who was his competitor for the place and who had the endorsement of the Illinois delegation. Butterfield obtained the office through the superior in- fluence of Daniel Webster. Webster was the ideal and model for Butterfield, and the latter carried his admiration so far as to imitate the great statesman in dress and methods of practice. Mr. Butter- field had a sharp, decisive and incisive way of presenting a case that never failed to arrest attention. He "was strong, logical, full of vigor and resources," is Isaac N. Arnold's tribute; "wielding the weapons of sarcasm and irony with crushing power, and was espe- cially effective in invective. Great as he was before the supreme court and everywhere on questions of law, he lacked the tact and skill to be equally successful before a jury." His logic and resourceful knowl- edge of law were such that he never resorted to superficial ridicule and abuse to gain his points, and yet many anecdotes are told of a certain grim humor that often adorned his argument.
It is said that Mr. Butterfield came west when too old to conform readily to the ways of the new country, and did not mix so well with western people as some of the younger lawyers. He was college bred and a New Englander, born at Keene, New Hampshire, in 1790. Largely by his own efforts he obtained an education, entering Wil- liams College in 1807, and in 1812 was admitted to the bar. He prac-
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ticed for some time in western New York, and for twelve years was one of the leaders of the bar at New Orleans. He died in Octo- ber, 1855.
The first clerk of the city of Chicago was Isaac N. Arnold, who at the time of his election, in March, 1837, was a young lawyer who
ISAAC N. had arrived in Chicago the previous fall and had
ARNOLD. earned his first fees by drawing up real estate and general contracts. He soon resigned the city clerk- ship, and, associated with Mahlon D. Ogden, rapidly acquired a fore- most position among the Chicago bar. "In that persuasive style of address which tells most effectually on the average juror he had no superior." He was connected with many important cases, being the principal attorney in the case carried to the United States supreme court in 1843, when that court, by Chief Justice Taney, held unconsti- tutional the statute of Illinois providing that unless the prop- erty of a judgment debtor should realize two thirds of its appraised value it should not be sold under execution. Per- haps the greatest service he rendered in the public affairs of his state was his persistent defense of the public credit dur- ing a time when many men favored the repudiation of debts incurred by the state under the sanction of a reckless legisla- ture. Mr. Arnold had a long and active public career, both in state and national affairs. He was elected to Congress in 1860 and served till near the close of the war. His active hostility to slavery had brought him into prominence in connection with many movements before the war. A friend and admirer of Lincoln, and a close stu- dent of his life and work, he devoted himself, immediately on his re- tirement from Congress, to the task of writing a life of Lincoln, which work is one of the authoritative histories of the war president. Mr. Arnold, with the exception of a brief season after the fire, when he was compelled to resume active practice, during the closing years of his life devoted himself to literary labors, enjoying the esteem and respect of all classes until his death, April 24, 1884. He was born November 30, 1813, in Otsego county, New York, supported himself by teaching and other work while gaining an education, was admitted to the bar in his native county in 1835, and died at Chicago April 24, 1884. At all times in all places he was a gentleman.
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The judge of the Cook county court of common pleas from 1851 to 1853, as successor of Giles Spring, was Mark Skinner, a jurist of
MARK first rank, closely identified with the interests of Chi-
cago in many ways. He was one of those early en-
SKINNER. trusted with the financial management of the educa- tional affairs of the city, and his work in connection with education - was so important that the name of Mark Skinner has a permanent place in the history of Chicago. He was a leader in public as well as philanthropic movements of many kinds. A native of Vermont, the son of a lawyer, he obtained an excellent education, completing his legal training in the Yale Law School. He came to Chicago in July, 1836, and thenceforth until his death in 1887 was pre-eminently a man of affairs. He was at one time the law partner of Thomas Hoyne. In the later years of his career he devoted his time largely to management as a representative of invested capital and financial interests. 1
The successor of Mark Skinner as judge of the Cook county court of common pleas, in 1853, was John M. Wilson, who has been char-
JOHN M. acterized as "one of the most remarkable jurists, in WILSON. some respects, that ever held a judicial position in the courts of this county." "All the evolutions of his mind appeared to run in regular and systematic sequence, so that it would not be a difficult task to take any of his published or manuscript opinions and put it into a series of formal syllogisms by merely supplying suppressed premises." Six of his published opinions were adopted by the supreme court of the state. He later became impoverished by unfortunate investments, and died in 1884 uni- versally esteemed.
Nathaniel Pope, who held the office of federal district judge from the time the federal district court was established in Illinois in 1819
FEDERAL until his death in 1850, was the first judge to hold COURTS. a federal court in Chicago, which was in 1837, over Meeker's store, on Lake street, between Clark and Dearborn. The federal courts have been held at various locations since then; at one time in what was known as the Saloon building, southeast corner of Clark and Lake streets; after the fire, in Congress Hall, corner of Michigan and Congress, then in the Republic Life
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building, and finally in the government building on Dearborn and Monroe streets.
Thomas Drummond succeeded Nathaniel Pope in 1850 as federal district judge, and continued in the office until his appointment as federal circuit judge in 1869. For a long period the
THOMAS DRUMMOND. district judge acted as circuit judge of the federal court. The judge of the Seventh U. S. circuit, of which Chicago and Cook county were a part, from 1837 until his death in 1861 was John. McLean, associate justice of the United States supreme court and one of the eminent American jurists. David Davis was the next justice of the supreme court to hold circuit court in Chicago (in July, 1863). In 1869 Congress changed the system of circuit courts and instead of a member of the supreme court being assigned to each circuit, a separate judge was provided for each of the nine circuits. Thomas Drummond, who had been identified with the practice of law in Illinois since 1835, who had been a resident of Chicago since 1854, and who was United States district judge, was appointed judge of the seventh circuit in 1869, and held the office until his resignation in July, 1884. He died in 1890, at Wheaton, aged eighty years. Judge Drummond has been characterized as one of the most industrious, painstaking and laborious judges who ever sat on the bench. He was a federal judge for over thirty years. During his entire service the bar and the public had the utmost confi- dence in his perfect integrity. The only elective political office he ever held was as a member of the state legislature for one term. The successor of Drummond as circuit judge was Walter Q. Gresham.
On the elevation of Judge Drummond to the circuit bench, Henry W. Blodgett was appointed his successor in the district court. Though a resident of Waukegan, Judge Blodgett was so
HENRY W.
closely identified with Chicago and Cook county that
BLODGETT. his history belongs to this city as much as to his
home town. He began studying law in Chicago in 1842. He was a member of the state legislature during the fifties, and later became an active promoter of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad lines along the lake shore, and a prominent railroad attorney. At the organiza- tion of the United States circuit court of appeals for the seventh cir- cuit, in June, 1891, he was chosen as the third judge of the court.
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In 1892 he resigned to serve as one of the government's counsel be- fore the Behring Sea tribunal of arbitration.
Peter S. Grosscup succeeded Judge Blodgett as judge of the Northern Illinois district, and served until 1899, when he became judge of the circuit court of appeals for the seventh circuit. In 1905 he was elevated to the office of judge of the United States circuit court for the seventh circuit, the office he still holds. C. C. Kohlsaat was judge of the United States court for the Northern Illinois dis- trict from 1899 to March, 1905, and since then has also been a mem- ber of the federal circuit court for the seventh circuit. The judges of the federal district court since March, 1905, have been Solomon H. Bethea and Kenesaw M. Landis.
From June, 1879, until his death on Christmas day, 1905, Mur- ray Floyd Tuley was a judge of the Cook county circuit court. He was one of the venerated members of the bench and
M. F.
TULEY. bar, and the length of his public services, his prestige as a judge, and his thoroughly lovable character, connect his name with the best traditions of the Chicago judiciary. His fame is not based on celebrated cases, but grew out of the long judicial service in which his character and methods became positive features of Chicago courts. His judicial work was principally in Chancery, a branch of the law for which he was eminently fitted and in which he acquired a national reputation.
It is said that Judge Tuley never permitted a good cause to be lost because it was inadequately represented. His reply to the law- yers who objected when he assisted a poorly equipped adversary de- serves quotation : "You fellows seem to think that it is a judge's duty to sit to determine which of the lawyers trying a case is the better lawyer; I can decide that in most cases without hearing from you. I sit to get at the rights of the parties, not to determine which has the better lawyer." He insisted, however, that he had trained himself in this regard, so that the fact of his being compelled, in order to see justice done, to come to the aid of incompetent counsel did not affect his judicial impartiality in arriving at his conclusion.
In a sense, Judge Tuley continued the legal career of one of the first lawyers Chicago had. Born at Louisville, Kentucky, March 4, 1827, at five years of age he lost his father, and his mother subse- quently married Richard J. Hamilton. The latter, a Kentnckian by
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birth, had come to Chicago in 1831, having been appointed, in that year, by the legislature, the first probate judge of Cook county. Mr. Hamilton was present at the organization of the county in March, 1831, was afterwards clerk of the circuit court of Cook county, and is said to have held more offices with less personal gain than any other citizen of his time. In 1856 he was candidate for the office of lieutenant governor, the only office, it is said, for which he was de- feated.
The marriage of Mrs. Tuley and Colonel Hamilton took place in 1843, when Murray F. Tuley was sixteen years old. He had at- tended the Louisville public schools, and on moving to Chicago read law in his step-father's office, and was admitted to the bar in Chi- cago in 1847. He was at that time thought to have a tendency to- ward the dreaded scourge, consumption, and, instead of engaging in practice as a lawyer, enlisted for service in the war with Mexico, and became First Lieutenant of a company of an Illinois regiment. Arriving at Santa Fe after hostilities were over, he opened a law office there, and was one of the first, if not the first person, born in the United States, to practice law in the territory. While he had con- siderable difficulty in applying his knowledge of the common law to the Mexican Code, and even more trouble in obtaining a paying pat- ronage, as an attorney in a murder trial, he acquired a reputation which brought his services into demand. His health was improved by the climate of the Rio Grande valley, and when he left New Mex- ico he had won the victory over disease which enabled him to con- tinue a life of great labor and usefulness until he was nearly eighty years of age. He served as attorney general of New Mexico for a time, and in 1854 returned to Chicago. Thereafter among his part- ners in practice were Joseph E. Gary, Israel N. Stiles and Joseph Barker.
Judge Tuley was corporation counsel of Chicago from 1869 to 1873. His services in this connection were of great importance, hav- ing as he did, to deal with many new questions that arose after the great fire of 1871. He drew the act constituting the new charter of the city, which continued in force until the recent amendment to the constitution.
Judge Tuley had the temperament of a philosopher, the courage of a soldier, the fidelity of friendship, perfect integrity and great in-
Vol. 11-2
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tellectual ability. No greater lawyer has ever held court and admin- istered justice in the state of Illinois.
Judge Joseph E. Gary was born in Potsdam, New York, in 1821, read law in St. Louis, and being there, in 1844, admitted to the bar, JOSEPH E. GARY. began practice at Springfield, Missouri, in the spring of that year. Springfield was then the principal town in southeastern Missouri, and because of this and the location of the United States land office there, presented a field as promising to a young lawyer as any in the state. The termination of the war with Mexico and the discovery of gold in California turned the attention of many to the newly acquired territories, and our em- bryonic jurist, having gathered together his few earthly possessions, by the long important and ever romantic Santa Fe trail, went to per- haps the oldest of tilled American lands, which we call New Mexico. There he met Murray F. Tuley, and they, destined to become promi- nent figures and distinguished jurists in the great city of the lakes, practiced law in the land of the herder, the trader, the teamster, the ranchman and the bolero.
Judge Gary used to tell how before a territorial court he defended a Mexican accused of murder. There had been a killing, the evi- dence against his client was strong and he was convicted. Our future jurist at once prayed an appeal to the supreme court of the dis- trict and asked for time in which to present a bill of exception. These requests were promptly granted, which done, the judge quietly re- marked, "Mr. Gary, the supreme court sits in October; there will be no stay of proceedings, and your client will be hung in September." All of which took place as the judge said it would. Law business was not very brisk and a good opportunity to earn subsistence happening, our hardy and vigorous son of New York assisted in driving a herd of sheep to the Pacific coast. Arrived at San Diego, he waited until a north-bound steamer came along, and on this sailed to San Fran- cisco. What a place was San Francisco in the later forties and the early fifties of the past century! Glittering bars, music halls and gambling hells lined the streets, along which, beneath huge som- breros, strode miners, unshaven and unshorn, seeking to stretch to. the utmost the leash which had so long held them in sunken pits, out of which they dug the yellow gold. Revelry-No! develry is a more descriptive word-ran rampant. But what has this to do with a
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biographical notice of Judge Gary? Nothing-save that he was the manner of man who saw, studied and kept away, finding occupation and entertainment in the study and practice of law. For a time he practiced law in the Emporium of the Pacific; but ever in the rest of eve there came to his soul a glimpse of the vale in which he was born, a sound of the water that fell at the mill and sight of fields laden with corn, of maidens that in boyhood he knew, and old folk that might be passing away, and he longed to look on that which had been, and see if he could be a boy again.
So this San Francisco lawyer returned to Potsdam, to Chicago, and went to Berlin, Wisconsin, whither fate led him to his marriage with Miss Elizabeth Swetting on the 28th day of November, 1855.
Mr. Gary was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cook Coun- ty in 1863, and thereafter continued under successive elections a judge of said court until his death in November, 1906, having under force of many elections by the people, held the office of judge of a court of superior and general jurisdiction for a longer period than any other person so chosen in the United States, if not in the world.
He had a vigorous mind that seemed never to need rest or to be dull. His memory was phenomenal. He knew, not dimly or hazily, but with substantial accuracy, what the supreme and appellate courts had held upon every question presented to them; and he knew also where to find the decision he wished to call attention to. In his judicial office he was utterly indifferent to the applause of the multi- tude, the blandishments of power, as well as the bitterness of those who took offence at his conduct. He was devoted to his family, loved his friends and hated no one. He brought sunshine into every room he entered and carried good cheer wherever he went. He was a delightful working companion; fought fairly and good naturedly for his view and helped those who differed with him to find authori- ties for the conclusions they held. He recognized that the funda- mental distinction between free government and despotism is that the former is a government by law and the latter by men; that in a free government all, high and low, poor and rich, are not only equal before the law, but it is to be equally and impartially administered to all, and that the downfall of liberty begins with a denial of the pro- tection of the law to a despised or feeble few. For more than forty years he sat as a judge, ever endeavoring, not to win favor, fame,
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applause or renown, but, to apply the law to the facts presented to him. The judgments he rendered were not of his choosing; they were such as in his view the law pronounced. As a judge he en- ยท deavored, not to make, but to declare and apply the law. He under- stood that in free governments, the function of executive and judicial departments is to act under, be servient to, apply and obey the law ; that in this blessed land, law reigns and rules over all. He had an infinite fund of humor and told a joke upon himself or his best friends with equal zest.
Death came to him not with the rude alarm of a hostile foe. He sank to rest, dropped into the infinite as the tired infant falls asleep in its mother's arms. For him the shades of eve had come. His work here done, his earthly day ended, the uplifting arms of the Eternal bore him away.
Alas for London and Paris, Berlin and Vienna, which, having been great cities so long that the memory of man runneth not to the
MUNICIPAL contrary, cannot remember the simple ways of
their village ancestors. Fortunate Chicago, that,
COURT. in the years the psalmist accords to man, has outgrown its judicial clothing half a dozen times and congratulates itself upon the advance that has been made in the machinery for the administration of justice. No court was held in Chicago save by justices of the peace until 1833 or May, 1834. John Kinzie was recommended by the commissioners' court of Pike county for justice of the peace in 1821, and again recommended in 1823 by the commis- sioners' court of Fulton county. Austin Crocker and another were in 1825 confirmed as justices of the peace for Peoria county, in which Chicago then was. Then came an advance; the people were permitted to rule, came into their own, and by a law of December 30, 1826, justices of the peace were thereafter elected by the people for the term of four years. The constitution of 1848 provided that there should be elected, in each county and such districts as the general assembly might direct by the qualified electors, a competent number of justices of the peace. Chicago thereunder elected justices of the peace for more than twenty years. The constitution of 1870, hailed throughout the United States as an advance in governmental meth- ods, provided that all justices of the peace in the city of Chicago should be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and con-
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sent of the senate (but only upon the recommendation of a majority of the judges of the circuit, superior and county courts) and for such districts as might be provided by law. By act of the legislature, in force March 29, 1871, the judges of the circuit, superior and county courts of Cook county were directed to, before the first day of April, 1875. and every four years thereafter, recommend to the governor seven persons for justices of the peace in South Chicago, seven for West Chicago and five for North Chicago.
By act in force July 1, 1872, it was provided that in each of the towns in which is contained any part of the city of Chicago, there should be elected one constable for every ten thousand inhabitants. The change from the election of justices of the peace in a city con- taining half a million of people, to recommendation by judges of the courts of record and thereon appointment by the governor by and with the consent of the senate, proved favorable to the administration of justice and during the thirty years in which this system was in ex- istence there was little general complaint of the conduct of the justices in the discharge of the duties of their office. The judges adopted the practice of not recommending any person for justice of the peace unless he had been by the supreme court of the state admitted to practice law before it and other state courts.
For a great city, the system by which the justices and constables received compensation was bad. None of the justices or constables was paid a salary. The earnings of each depended upon the judicial or executive work he did. A justice before whom many mere and undisputed collection cases were brought, might make in a day a handsome sum. Justices, favored by the police, and before whom persons arrested were taken, often obtained a good deal by the mere examination of sureties and approval of bonds offered by parties giv- ing bail. The police in taking parties whom they knew or believed to be professional criminals, or guilty of some great crime, often, being uncertain just what the evidence will show, preferred several charges; the justice might require bail to be given upon each offence charged, and would, if the same were given, be entitled to a fee upon each bond. Nevertheless, it is but just to the persons who served as justices of the peace during this thirty years, to say that there was little general complaint of their conduct as judicial officers. Neither a defeated lawyer or litigant is filled with a sense of the learning and
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