History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 125

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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Sections 69 to 82 of the charter are concerned with this court, the chief provisions being that it should have jurisdiction concurrent with the Circuit Court, in all matters, civil or criminal, arising within the city where either party is a resident. It should be held by one Judge, to be appointed by the General Assembly, commissioned by the Governor, to hold office during good behavior, and to be paid by the Common Council. His salary and the other expenses of his court were to be paid out of the docket fees, which were to be col- lected by the clerk and turned over to the City Treasurer. The clerk was to be appointed by the Judge; the jurors to be chosen by the Common Council, and summoned by the High Constable. His functions as an nfficer of this court within the city were the same as those of Sheriffs in their respective counties, and he was to be elected by the people, like other city officers, at the annual election. It was a court of record, with a seal, and its process was directed to the High Constable ex- cept where a defendant resided outside the city limits, when it was directed to the Sheriff. Its judgments had the same liens on real and personal estate as those of the Circuit Court, and all appeals from the Mayor or any other Justice of the Peace were to be taken to next Circuit or Municipal Court whose term came first. All rules not specially laid down were to conform to those of the Circuit Court, and all appeals to the Supreme Court were to be carried up in the same way as from the Circuit Court.

By a short supplementary act of July 21, 1837, it was further provided that "its Judge shall possess all and singular the powers, and he is hereby required to perform all judicial duties appertaining to the office of the Circuit Courts of this State, and to issue all such writs and process as is, or may hereafter, by statutory provisions, be made issuable from the Circuit Courts of this State."

For this Court, Hon. Thomas Ford, who had re- signed as Judge of the Sixth Circuit in February, was selected by the Legislature. He had been Prosecuting Attorney in the Fifth Circuit, and Judge of the Sixth, when each successively included Cook County, and was favorably regarded by the Chicago Bar. He had ac- quired the reputation of being an excellent lawyer ; and as a judge was a terror to evil-doers, while as a man he was a warm and devoted friend, or an equally bitter enemy. As a citizen and politician he belonged to the dominant Democratic party, but was too broad to be a partisan, and when Governor, 1842 to 1846, did not hesitate to break loose from the unwisdom of repudia- tion and stay laws, or to espouse, support and urge with all the influence of his position every measure calculated to build up the shattered credit of the State.

The terms of the Municipal Court began with every alternate month, and it was virtually in perpetual ses- sion. An attempt was made by the politicians to pre- vent the opening of this court, the circumstances of which are thus narrated by the late Hon. Thomas Hoyne :

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

" It was a court of superior or general jurisdiction within the city. It was to be held that winter (1837-38) for the first time. It was a time of great pecuniary distress, and all obligations created during the specula- tive times were just maturing and unpaid, and there was no money to pay them. The dockets were crowded in both the Circuit and Municipal Courts, and something must be done. Some of the debtors resolved that no court should be held ; a public meeting was called to prevent it. It was held at the New York House, a frame building on the north side of Lake Street, near Wells. It was held at even- ing in a long, low dining room lighted only by tallow candles. The chair was occupied by a State Senator, Peter Pruyne; James Curtiss, nominally a lawyer, but more of a Democratic politician, who had, practically, abandoned his profession, was active. But the princi- pal advocate of suspension of the courts was a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State. Theophilus W. Smith. Upon the other side were Collins, Butterfield, Ryan, Scammon, Spring, Goodrich, M. D. Ogden, Arnold and others ; and among them the Hon. William B. Ogden, the Mayor of the city, who was subsequently admitted to the Bar of this State February 6, 1841). We will count him in for he did manly service at that meeting in sustaining the law and its regular administration, and in repudiating and denouncing any interference with the courts. He was a noble, generous man, whose hand was seen in all public works. The battle was bitterly fought. It was shown by the opponents of courts that it meant ruin if they should be held, and judgments rendered against the debtors; that $2,000,000 were then in suit against citizens which was equivalent to a sum of $500 against every man, woman and child in Chi- cago. What was to be done ? 'No one was to be bene- fited,' Curtiss said, 'but lawyers,' and he left that pro- fession some time before. Then Ryan, a man of mus- cular frame, eyes large, wide open, as great lights in his luminous intellect, great as he ever was in debate, but then active, and in his wrath, like Mirabeau, 'fierce as ten furies and terrible as hell,' when he rose to the full height of his great argument, pointing to Curtiss, asked that body of debtors if that was the kind of a lawyer . they expected to save them. If so, it had long been a question whether he had left the profession of law, or the law had left him ; but of one thing they could be sure-that if he succeeded in his present unlawful at- tempt, he Ryan would guarantee them justice, and the sooner the law discharged that obligation the better it would be for the community. Butterfield, tall in stat- ure, stern of countenance, denounced the Judge of the Supreme Court who could descend from that lofty seat of a sovereign people majestic as the law, to take a seat with an assassin and murderer of the law like Judge Lynch. Others followed ; but the good sense of the meeting laid the resolutions on the table, and the courts were held, as they have been ever since."

But the end was pot vet; and the contest was trans- ferred to the Legislature. The court was too dispatch- ful, and debtors found that scarcely had their obliga- tions matured before a judgment and execution were secured in the ever-sitting Municipal Court of Chicago. After only fifteen months of active usefulness, it was legislated out of existence, February 15, 1839, and all its business turned over to the Circuit Court which it had, as intended, so effectually relieved until a supposed political necessity demanded its repcal at the hands of the dominant party. Ten days later Judge Ford was commissioned as Judge of the Ninth Circuit.

ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH JUDGE PEARSON .- The in- creased burden thrown on his shoulders by the dises- tablishment of the Municipal Court had led Judge l'ear- son to hold the extra term in May, previously mentioned. It was at this special term that the dissidence between the Bench and Bar of Chicago became irreconcilable, by the refusal of the Judge to sign a bill of exceptions made by J. Y. Scammon, defendant's lawyer, in Phillips T's. Bristol. The Court unfortunately regarded the ex- ceptions as inspired by a desire to embarrass and antag- onize him, rather than an honest defense. In this he was doubtless deceived by his prejudices. The case was appealed by Mr. Scammon, and in virtue of a mio- tion made by him before the Supreme Court, some weeks later, an alternative mandamus was granted com- manding Judge Pearson to sign the bill of exceptions referred to, or show cause at next term of Supreme Court why he did not.

November 11, 1839, as the protracted fall term of the Circuit Court was drawing to an end, Justin Butter- field, whose co-operation had been secured by Mr. Scam- mon, arose in his place, holding two papers, and, as the affidavit of the clerk, dated November 23, declared: "With marked politeness of manner handed one paper to the Judge, saying that it was a bill of exceptions in the case of Phillips as. Bristol, tried at a former term. The Judge said, ' 1 did not sign that hill of exceptions,' to which Mr. Butterfield graciously replied, ' I am aware of that, sir, but here' presenting the other paper , 'is a writ of mandamus from the Supreme Court of this State commanding you to sign it.' . The Judge held the paper toward Mr. Butterfield, saying, 'Take it away, sir; ' to which he replied, ' It is directed to you, sir, and I will leave it with you; I have discharged my duty in serving it, and I will leave it with you.' It was at this point," continued Mr. Hoyne,* " that the Court turned to me, as clerk, and said, ' Mr. Clerk, enter a fine of twenty dollars against Mr. Butterfield,' and then he threw the papers-the bill of exceptions and writ of mandamus-on the floor in front of the desk. He con- tinued, looking at Butterfield, ' What do you mean, sir ? ' It was now that Butterfield, raising his voice, hitherto restrained, fired the first gun of what was to be a cam- paign. 'I mean, sir, to proceed against you by attach- ment, if you do not obey that writ.' The Judge, reply- ing, cried out, ' Sit down, sir ! Sit down, sir !' and to me, saying, ' Proceed with the record.'

"The record was read, the fine of twenty dollars entered up against Butterfield, and the court adjourned. The Judge was descending the Bench, and proceeding to pass through the Bar, when all the lawyers jumped to their feet; while Butterfield promptly marched up to Pearson, saying, 'Sir, you now have disgraced that Bench long enough. Sit down, sir, and let me beg you to immediately attend a meeting of this Bar, to be held instanter, in which we are about to try your case, and rid ourselves and the people, once for all, of your in- competency and ignorance !' The Judge left, but the Bar prepared an impeachment and that winter a long trial followed the presentation of articles before the House of Representatives at Springfield, where all the cloquence of the Bar was invoked, with that of other-, to impeach Judge Pearson: but the House, which was largely composed of his political friends, refused to give the impeachers a hearing.

" He, however, never recovered from the effects of this attack and prosecution. The party paraded him as a martyr, and it was said that he had achieved a triumph

. "The Lawyer as Fiomer," by Hon, Thomas Hoyne.

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THE BENCH AND BAR.

over Butterfield, Scammon, Collins, Spring, Skinner, and Goodrich, as they were old Federals and Whigs, and only wanted to berid of an incorruptible judge, a Demo- crat who was not to be terrified by such enemies of the Constitution, the Democracy and the Union. But Ryan, a life-long Democrat, established a newspaper called the Tribune, to drive Pearson from the Bench. Its leading articles were such as Junius might have written, animated by a spirit of determination to drag from the Bench a Jeffreys or a Scroggs. Pearson was finally disposed of by the party taking him up as a State Senator and electing him from the counties of Cook and Will, in 1840. And from thence, hitherto, the Bench has heeded the lesson, for there has arisen no other oc- casion for the violent and irrepressible conflict of a Bar and Bench so divided by ignorance and incompetency on one side, and great independence and intelligence upon the other."

Besides the effort at impeachment, rendered abor- tive mainly by political influence, the Judge's case was also before the Supreme Court, where he neglected to appear in person, contenting himself with a written de- fense which he requested a friendly lawyer to file in his behalf. Among the points made therein was the plea, that were this procedure of the Chicago Bar to be sus- tained, any Judge could, "by a malicious, trifling set of lawyers, if such should be found in a circuit, leaguing against him, be compelled every term to appear in the Supreme Court, andi take issue with them on countless bills of exceptions. * * * In this way a combination of designing men might exhaust the means of any Judge in the State, or make him truckle to their will, or compel a resignation for want of funds."

Mr. Scammon made a second motion, before the Supreme Court, January 14, 1840, asking that an at- tachment might issue against Judge Pearson for neglect- ing to return the writ of alternative mandamus, or sign the bill of exceptions. The Supreme Court, through Judge Theophilus W. Smith, issued a peremptory man- damus that he should appear before it in person. In the spring term of the Circuit Court at Chicago, he again allowed his feelings to override his judgment, fining Mr. Stuart, editor of the American, $too, for constructive contempt of court, based on certain ad- verse editorial criticism during the Stone murder-trial. On appeal, his decision against Stuart was reversed when reached by the Supreme Court in 1842.

June 9, 1840, the motion for attachment was re- newed, and the Court took until the next day to con- sider; but when the writ was placed in the hands of the Sheriff, it was found that the Judge had availed him- self of the postponement and left Springfield. He was pursued and overtaken at Maysville, Clay County, while apparently making the best of his way to cross the bor- der into Indiana. He was taken back to the capital and fined Stoc for contempt, which was refunded with interest by the Fifteenth General Assembly. in the ses- sion of 1846.

It was now thought best by his political .friends to withdraw him from a conflict in which his adversaries had won all the points, and he was therefore put in nom- ination as State Senator for the district embracing Cook. Will, Du Page, Lake and MeHenry counties, all within the Seventh Circuit, over which he presided as Judge. In July he made an unsuccessful attempt at Chicago to hold a meeting to indorse his candidature; but at the election in August it was found that the Democracy of the district had come up handsomely to the support of their " martyr," Cook County alone giving him 1,404 votes, and sent him triumphantly vindicated to the

Twelfth General Assembly of Illinois, for four years. He resigned the judgeship November 20, 1840.

At this distance of time there is little room to doubt that Judge Pearson through self-willed and obstinate was a well-meaning man and an upright Judge. He was by nature or education, either a warm friend or an uncompromising enemy. In Chicago he was thrown into official relations with a Bar, the leaders of which were politically opposed to him, at a time when party spirit, always too high for justice and candor, was es- pecially intense. Added to this was a sort of intellect- ual resentment that a Judge from the Wabash country should have been selected to preside over a Bar whose brightest lights were emigrants from the Eastern States. Exhibiting but scant respect and no friendship, they aroused the indignant and unguarded antagonism of a man, among whose faults cunning and hypocrisy could not be counted, nor patience and magnanimity among his virtues. He died at Danville, May 30, 1875, leaving a handsome estate to his family.

THE STONE MURDER-TRIAL .- The most notable criminal trial during the incumbency of Judge Pearson was thus designated. The story of the crime and the execution of Stone is fully related elsewhere in this work. A point of some legal interest is the apparent weaknessof the chain of circumstantial evidence upon which he was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Lucretia Thompson, as there set forth. A bit of flannel torn from a shirt which was proved to have belonged to the accused and which was found near the body of the victim, the burning by him of the clothes worn in the earlier part of the day of her disappearance. the club used as the instrument of killing to which still adhered, when found, a bunch of her hair, and a remembered threat by him against her virtue, sworn to by a single witness, in the absence of any circumstances pointing toward any other neighbor, were deemed sufficient to warrant a verdict of murder in the first degree. Nor has there ever been any doubt of its justice, although John Stone stolidly asserted his innocence to the last.

ATTEMPTS TO SUPPLY NEEDED COURT FACILITIES .- Within a year of the disestablishment of the Municipal Court of Chicago, it was recognized by the Legislature that something should be done to relieve the overloaded docket of Cook County. Toward the close of the second session of the Eleventh General Assembly on February 3, 1840, it was enacted that there should be in the county of Cook a term of the Circuit Court on the first Monday in August for the trial of criminal and chancery cases only. And it was specially provided that if the Judge of the Seventh Circuit should be un- able to hold the March term in Chicago in 1841, he should there hold a term immediately after the spring term in Lake County, the last to be reached in the cir- cuit. This law, however, by reason of failure to be re- turned in time by the council of revision did not go into effect until legally promulgated by the Secretary of State, at the close of the first session of the Twelfth General Assembly, December 5, 1842. It is of interest chiefly as showing the pressure of the problem how to give courts enough to Chicago.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICES AS CIRCUIT JUDGES .- The Twelfth General Assembly, at its second session. for reasons which here need only to be characterized as political, by an act dated February 10, 1841, legis- lated out of office the Judges of the nine circuits into which the State had by that time become divided. In their stead were created five additional Justices of the Supreme Court, and upon the nine members of that court as thus re-organized were devolved all the Circuit

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

Court duties of the State, besides their associate duties as the Supreme Court, at the capital, twice a year. This arrangement remained undisturbed until the adoption of the Constitution of 1848. To the Seventh Circuit, in- cluding Cook County, was assigned Judge T. W. Smith, who opened the spring term at Chicago toward the close of April, 1841. On the docket were found one thou- sand and sixty cases. Of these, sixty-nine civil and six chancery were cases remaining over from the disestah- lished Municipal Court, while sixty-two criminal, fifty-one chancery, and eight hundred and seventy-two civil rep- resent the unfinished business of the Circuit Court. The fall term in 1841 was also held by Judge Smith, but when the period of the spring term in 1842 came round he was too ill to hold a court, and as late as June 8 it was doubted whether he would ever be able to discharge his official duties. To keep Chicago court business within reach of judicial despatch, a special term was held by Stephen A. Douglas, July 18, 1842, the only time he served Chicago as Judge. There was a heavy docket of seven hundred and fifty cases, and but little civil business could be disposed of, because of the pressure on the court of the people's preferred criminal cases. All these terms since Pearson's in 1840 were held in the Chapman Building, corner of Randolph Street and what is now Fifth Avenue, but was then Wells Street. The fall term of 1842 was held by Judge Smith, who had meanwhile recovered. At this term an important decision was that lands in this State sold by the United States are not taxable until five years from date of pat- ent, not date of sale, as has been contended. At this term, too, the Grand Jury found indictments for libel against Walters and Weber, editors of the State Regis- ter, at Springfield, and John Wentworth, of the Chicago Democrat, because of an editorial article which ap- peared in August in the State Register and was copied in the Democrat, containing libelous and scurrilous matter against Judge Smith. It was in the shape of charges and assertions of what was declared to be an act of corruption in an opinion given by him in the Su- preme Court in January, 1842, and concurred in hy a majority of Judges, in favor of purchases of canal lots in Chicago and Ottawa in 1836. By that decision a peremptory mandamus was awarded against the Canal Commissioners to compel them to admit those purchas- ers to the benefit of an act of the General Assembly of this State, passed in 1841 in their behalf. He was also charged with removing certain clerks of court in his cir- cuit to gratify personal malignity. With bodily powers weakened by disease and feelings somewhat soured by these attacks it soon came to be understood that he contemplated an early retirement from the Bench. A meeting of the Chicago Bar was held November 25, at which, among others, the following resolution was passed : " That in the estimation of this Bar Hon. T. W. Smith possesses a high order of talent and legal at- tainments ; that as a jurist and lawyer he is able and profound ; that his conduct toward the members of this Bar, while on the Bench, has been courteous, gentlemanly, dignified and honorable." He resigned December 26, 1842.

In 1842, about fifty residents of Chicago availed themselves of the bankrupt law in the United States District Court, as Springfield. Unconscious of what the future held in store for the bankrupts of a later generation, there was much grumbling because it cost $100 to get a discharge in bankruptcy, even where the case was not contested. The lawyers charged fifty dol- lars and the other expenses were fifty more. This year marks the point of greatest financial depression in ('hi-

cago, which in a superficial view has been declared to have constituted " the harvest of the notary and law- yer," but it need scarcely be remarked that a period of general distress is fraught with counteracting draw- backs to even lawyers and notaries. June 19, 1843, the same United States Court issued a peremptory order, " That all applicants for benefit of bankrupt law per- fect their application before the 20th of December next. Upon their failure to do so, the petition will be dis- missed."

Meanwhile on February 14, 1843, three terms of the Circuit Court were provided for Cook County, on the fourth Monday in March, the third Monday in August, and the first Monday in November, of each year. And at the same session, it was enacted that the Supreme Court should hold only one term, to begin at the capi- tal on the second Monday in December of each year.

Richard M. Young, of whom a bingraphical sketch is elsewhere given, was commissioned a Justice of the Supreme Court January 14, 1843, and assigned to the Seventh Circuit. He held several terms of the Circuit Court in Cook County until his second resignation in 1847. Although never rated very high as a jurist, he was always much esteemed here, and decidedly pre- ferred to some of his colleagues by Bar and people. His clerk of court was Samuel Hoard.

In February, 1844, Representative Wentworth pre- sented to Congress a petition of the Chicago Bar, asking that two terms of the United States courts be held in Chicago each year. At home his constituents were growing impatient of the law's delays, arising from the State's inadequate provision for the city's judicial wants by only three terms of the Circuit Court. A communi- cation from "many citizens," written by a lawyer, who, however, rightly represented the public, appeared in the Weekly Democrat of October 16, asking that the next Legislature should establish a special court for Chicago. This request, supported by the public opinion of which it was the expression, was reinforced Decem- ber 3, hy Governor Ford's message to the General Assembly, in which he urged that increased judicial facilities should be extended to the growing commercial metropolis of the State. The Court of County Commis- sioners at this time took measures to enlarge and adapt the clerk and recorder's office to the additional purposes of a court-house.

By an act of February 21, 1845, the Fourteenth General Assembly ordained, "That there shall be, and is hereby created and established a Cook County Court. * * of record, with a seal and clerk, to be held by at judge to be chosen in the manner, and to hold office for the term of judges of courts of record in the State. * * Said court shall have jurisdiction concurrent with the Circuit Courts, * * and shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all appealed cases * * and in all cases of misdemeanor which are prosecuted by indictment. * * The Judge of said court shall hold four terms of said court in each year. in a building to be provided by the County Com- missioners Court of said county, in the city of Chicago, commencing on the first Mondays in May, August, November and February, and shall continue each term until all the business before the court is disposed of. * * The clerk of said court shall be appointed by the Judge thereof. * * The grand and petit jurors shall be elected, and the Sheriff shall perform same duties as in the Cir- ruit Court " Of this court. Hugh T. Dickey was chosen by the Legislature, the first Judge, and James Curtiss was by him appointed the first clerk. Judge Dickey opened the first term of the new court May 5. 1845. and at its close was thus favorably noticed by the Journal.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 125

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340