USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The great revolution; a history of the rise and progress of the People's Party in the city of Chicago and county of Cook > Part 7
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The Court (Judge Moore), in his opinion quashing the last indictment for false swearing, referred to the affidavit made by Mr. Gage and published heretofore. This affidavit con- formed substantially to the provision made by the 35th sec-
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tion of chapter 5 of the city charter. But by an amendment it was provided that the word " unlawfully " should be inserted before the word "use" whenever the same occurred. By section 34 it was provided that the treasurer may be directed or authorized by ordinance or resolution of the Common Council to loan, on deposit, the funds of the city, in the banks thereof. Hence the word "unlawfully " was very necessary, preceding the word "use." Inasmuch as said word "unlawfully " was omitted by Mr. Gage, his affidavit did not comply with the statute, and was therefore a volun- tary affidavit. There was also concerned a question as to the time of making the affidavit.
The Court concluded as follows :
"Because the affidavit was not authorized by law; or, rather, because it did not conform to the law, and was there- fore unauthorized ; and secondly, because it does not appear that the affidavit was made at or about the end of the month, and because it does not appear that the report and affidavit were required by the Comptroller when made, on the 6th of December, 1873, the indictment must be quashed."
The report of a portion of the Finance Committee, published elsewhere in reference to the Gage matter was not "official." Messrs. McGennis and Ogden signed the report after a comparison of the books of the Comptroller, Collector and Treasurer ; presuming the cash to be safe on the showing. If those gentlemen had visited the banks, they might have been snubbed, as Ald. Bateham of the old Committee had been. Upon his visit, it appears he was informed that if Mr. Gage desired to know how much money he had there, Mr. Gage could ascertain. Again, in calm considera- tion, there were very few men at that time who had not the strongest confidence in Mr. Gage.
PART II.
C ITY
OFFICERS.
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HARVEY D. COLVIN.
HARVEY D. COLVIN.
Harvey D. Colvin, Mayor of the city of Chicago, was born in Herkimer, Herkimer county, New York, Dec. 18, 1814. Up to his election on the People's ticket, by a ma- jority of 10,251, Mr. Colvin devoted the greatest energies of an uniformly active life to the building up of the United States Express Company in the West. Of this most flour- ishing institution Mr. Colvin was the General Agent in Chi- cago, when called upon to stand at the head of the People's ticket - a selection made only after the most mature delib- eration of the leaders.
Mr. Colvin's business life commenced in Little Falls, N. Y., where he was engaged for seventeen years in the manu- ufacture of boots and shoes. He subsequently became con- nected with the American Express Company in the same locality. Removing thence, he organized, in 1854, the Uni- ted States Express Company in Chicago, with a capital of about $500,000. The growth of the company under his direction, in those twenty years, has been so marvellous that the amount of capital now invested is $6,000,000.
Among the positions of public trust held by Mr. Colvin, while in Little Falls, were the Overseership of the Poor, the County Superintendency of the Poor, and a Town Supervi- sorship.
Mayor Colvin assumed the duties of his present office on the first day of December, 1873. His Honor's inaugural Ad- dress was read before thirty-nine aldermen, as follows : Rich- ardson, Foley, Warren, Dixon, Coey, Fitzgerald, Sidwell,
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Spalding, Pickering, Stone, Schmitz, Reidy, McClory, Cullerton, M. B. Bailey, Hildreth, O'Brien, T. F. Bailey, Clark, Woodman, White, Miner, Heath, Moore, Campbell, Quirk, Cleveland, Eckhardt, McGrath, Mahr, Stout, Schaff- ner, Lengacher, Cannon, Murphy, Brandt, Lynch, Corcoran, and Jonas. Alderman Kehoe was absent.
The following extracts are culled from the Address as in- dicative of the attitude of His Honor upon the several important questions referred to :
" During the last municipal administration the attention of our community has, to a great extent, been diverted from all questions referring to an economical management of the city finances, or even to the protection of life and property, by efforts as fruitless as they were frantic, to enforce certain ordinances in regard to the observation of the first day of the week. It is a well known fact that those ordinances, how much soever they may have been in consonance with the public opinion of a comparatively small and homogeneous popula- tion at the time of their enactment, have ceased to be so, since Chicago has, by the harmonious cooperation of citizens be- longing to different nationalities, grown from a village to the rank of one of the greatest cities of the world. For a series of years it has been the practice of our municipal administration to treat those ordinances as 'obsolete,' and to refrain from enforcing them. It is not intended to denounce that practice, but merely to state that, within the past year, it has become distasteful to a large portion of the community. In our late election the issue has been fairly and squarely made whether the existing ordinances shall be retained and enforced, or, upon the other hand, either repealed or so modified as to be in consonance with the present state of public opinion in our community. A majority of our people, so overwhelming that it would be preposterous to designate their decision as a snap judgment, or to cavil at its meaning, has decided
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the question in favor of the latter alternative. It behooves all good citizens who believe the principles of our republi- can form of government to accept that popular decision, to which, following the advice of my predecessor in office, they have appealed. There is no reason to fear that those who conscientiously believe the existing ordinance upon the sub- ject to be dictated by a spirit of religious intolerance incom- patible with the spirit of our age, will, on their own part, defy the spirit of mutual toleration. If the Common Coun- cil, in its wisdom, and having undoubtedly full power upon the subject, should determine either to repeal or modify the Sunday prohibitions and Sunday clauses in the license law, or to fully secure the religious exercises of a portion of our citizens from all disturbance, without interfering with the harmless enjoyments of other citizens, it will do more than its duty toward the majority of the people of this city.
"Our police system should be conducted upon the prin- ciple of the prevention rather than the punishment of crime. Nor should the city seek to obtain revenue by means of any of the prevalent forms of vice. When it does, it becomes particeps criminis in the iniquity it professes to punish or suppress. My nature revolts against this barbarous and brutal practice, not pursued for the purpose of extirpating vice, but with the object of adding a few paltry dollars to the public revenue. It shall never receive my sanction. All that can usefully be accomplished in this direction is the mitigation of the more glaring, and demoralizing effects of that which in all ages and among all races has existed as an evil that may be mitigated, or, perhaps, regulated, but which has never yet been exterminated.
" Police officers should be made to understand and feel that laws are enacted as much to protect the unfortunate as to punish the wicked. In no case should a person be inhu- manly treated simply because he has been arrested for some petty offense or misdemeanor.
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"I am decidedly opposed to the practice of police officers receiving money, in the shape of rewards for services ren- dered, from any corporation or individual. Let them look to the city alone for remuneration. Such practice will, sooner or later, end in the force becoming merely the instru- ments of great corporations or wealthy individuals."
His Honor, having comprehensively referred to the con- dition of the city's finances, which was not very promising, suggested rigid economy as the only resort in the conclusion of his address, He said :--
"In conclusion, gentlemen, I would add that, in view of the prostrated condition of our city treasury, our fellow- citizens loudly call upon you for economical legislation. At the same time they look to me for a prompt interposition of my veto to any measure of wasteful, excessive, or corrupt expenditure. I hope and trust that neither will fail in the duties of our respective provinces. In the event that we do not, we shall acquit ourselves to our own and the public satisfaction, and receive the regard due to good and faithful servants."
123
DANIEL O'HARA.
DANIEL O'HARA.
Daniel O'Hara, City Treasurer of Chicago, filled a van- guard position on the People's ticket, having assumed the undertaking of opposing David A. Gage in a contest for the custodianship of the city's money. Successive terms as City Treasurer had made Mr. Gage's name the synonym of the loftiest character of official integrity ; and the fact that he had paid into the city's exchequer the interest on city deposits - which his predecessors pocketed - seemed to make his re-election a foregone conclusion. This last contest, too, as subsequent developments proved, was the battle of David A. Gage's life. In its result was staked everything that concerned his future welfare, and the standing forever afterwards of › his connections both public and private. A situation like this shrank from very few availibilities that could tend in the remotest manner to secure success. Against all of these resources, gathered together at suggestion, the People's Party was intrepid enough to present Daniel O'Hara, backed by a simple record for honesty and capability in the discharge of his official duties.
Daniel O'Hara is of Irish descent, as the name indicates, and carries as much of life's sunlight over to the shady side of fifty, as any of his most genial fellow-countrymen. It is his nature to look at the bright side of the picture; and his chief glory is to observe everybody else doing likewise. This cheerful disposition, maintained under all circum- stances, has, during the quarter of a century Mr. O'Hara
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has dwelt among us, contributed materially to his uniform success in public life.
There are a great many people whose comfort is much heightened by the conviction that others are suffering; while some people are trudging through a merciless rain- storm, that they are snugly esconced in a pair of blankets. A thought like this to a man of Mr. O'Hara's generous im- pulses, is a source of absolute pain. In a commercial point of view, this peculiarity of disposition very rarely enriches the possessor. Yet it has appeared, through the vagaries of circumstances, that Mr. O'Hara's good deeds have been remembered by at least a portion of the world; for to their influence is accredited a goodly proportion of his own pros- perity.
The early life of Mr. O'Hara was devoted to journalism, a field for which he was peculiarly adapted. Twenty years ago, he served as official reporter for the Chicago Tribune, and on two occasions he exhibited an ambition to see, prop- erly represented, the interests of the Western Catholics through the Detroit Vindicator and Western Tablet, both of which journals he founded, only to witness their failure, after he had severed his connection with them. In 1855, aban- doning journalism, he entered the Recorder's office, and was soon created chief clerk.
In 1859, the Legislature created a new court, built upon the then Court of Common Pleas, and christened it the Superior Court. Provision having been made under the new dispensation for additional judges and clerks, Mr. O'Hara, then chief clerk in the Recorder's office, was placed in the field by the Democratic Convention as a candidate for the clerkship. In the race, he was defeated by a trifling majority. He ran so far ahead of his ticket, however, that he sprung at once into the vanguard of his party, universally recog- nized as one of the strongest lions of the fold. This was Mr. O'Hara's first appearance in the political arena.
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DANIEL O'HARA.
In 1863, under the new charter, Mr. O'Hara was a candi- date for the clerkship of the Recorder's Court, on the ticket led by Hon. Francis C. Sherman, one of the old field-horses of the Democratic party, and one of Chicago's most illus- trious pioneers. The Republican party, at the previous election, elected its ticket by a majority of 4,600. But such was the standing of the men placed on the Democratic ticket, that the party made a clean sweep by a trifling majority. Hon. Evert Van Buren was elected Judge of the Recorder's Court on the same occasion.
In the spring of 1868, the Democratic Convention nom- inated Hon. W. K. McAllister for the Judgeship of the Recorder's Court, and Mr. O'Hara for the Clerkship. This was a very fierce fight; - judge and clerk being both staunch Democrats - and resulted in a magnificent victory.
In 1871, under the new constitution, the Recorder's Court became the Criminal Court. The jurisdiction of the Court was now extended to the county ; and the judicature was so altered as to require the Judges of the Superior and Cir- cuit Courts to sit therein in rotation. With this change, Hon. W. K. McAllister became a candidate for the Supreme Bench of the State, and was overwhelmingly elected Associate Justice, which distinguished office he yet fills, to the honor of the great State of Illinois and the satisfaction of the people at large.
Mr. O'Hara's term as Clerk of the Criminal Court expired in the fall of 1873, when the People's Party placed him in the field as a candidate for the City Treasurership of Chicago.
Throughout his career, Mr. O'Hara has been a stout Dem- ocrat, and will always revere the principles inculcated by Senator Douglas, whom he has esteemed as his political Gamaliel.
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JESSE O. NORTON.
The People's Party increased to a very considerable ex- tent the confidence of the public, by the selection of Jesse O. Norton for the responsible office of Corporation Counsel. The adaptability of Judge Norton for the thorough discharge of the manifold duties of the position was universally recog- nized at once by Press, Bench and Bar. The local press was singularly united in his favor as Corporation Counsel, and a portion of the outside press took early occasion to extol the appointment. The following extract in reference thereto is taken from a leading journal in Joliet (where Judge Norton passed many of his days) :
"The numerous friends of Hon. J. O. Norton, in this Congressional district, were pleased to learn of his appoint- ment as Corporation Counsel of Chicago, with an annual salary of six thousand dollars.
"We regard Mr. Norton as not only one of the ablest, but one of the purest public men of the times. For nearly a quarter of a century he was a resident of this city and filled numerous public offices, including that of County Judge, member of the Constitutional Convention, Judge of Circuit Court, member of Congress from this district three terms, and U. S. Attorney, in all of which positions it was never charged that he neglected a single duty or made use of a cent that he was not justly entitled to. His soul is unstained by Credit Mobilierism or official peculation. He is a man of fine ability, and his decisions while on the bench were characterized for their legal knowledge and adherence to correct principles."
Throughout his entire career, Mr. Norton has uniformly
JESSE O. NORTON.
commanded the unqualified confidence of those who have known him - confidence not alone in his ability as a jurist, but confidence in his sterling integrity. Very few men can point to more flattering testimonials in this behalf. Among his invaluable memories, the movement in 1862 to place him as one of the judges in the Court of Claims, is recalled dis- tinguishedly. On this occasion letters of the strongest char- acter, in his favor, were written to the President by such men as Schuyler Colfax, John Covode, O. H. Browning, Lyman Trumbull, Roscoe Conklin, Thaddeus Stevens, R. E. Fenton, and Erastus Corning. While the matter was pending, how- ever, Mr. Norton withdrew from the field, having been re- elected to a seat in Congress.
During his residence in Joliet, the admirers of our subject first introduced him into the arena of politics - a thoroughly unwilling candidate for the public honors vouchsafed to him at the time, it may be said. Filled with a laudable ambition to go to Congress before his brother graduates of Williams College, in Massachusetts, it is true Mr. Norton stepped into the ranks of the legal profession, bent upon becoming a Congressman. 3 This was his only political desire. Having once gratified it, he placed his whole soul in the practice of the profession he loves so sincerely.
Jesse O. Norton was born in Bennington, Vermont, and is about fifty-seven years of age. Having graduated quite early in life, in Williams College, Massachusetts, with high honors, he came West and settled in Joliet, Illinois. Here he was admitted to the Bar, and practiced for a period ex- ceeding twenty years.
In 1847, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention. While so serving, perhaps his most prominent attitude was taken on the question in reference to the exclusion of negroes from the State. He took a bold stand against the exclusion idea; contending that it was entirely
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unconstitutional. The arguments on which he based his position were conceded, on all hands, to be unanswerable.
In 1850, he was elected to the Legislature. In the delib- erations of that body he took a most prominent part. His principal efforts were chronicled in the question of the rail- road system of those days.
In 1852, he was elected to Congress, and in 1854, he was re-elected. During his first year he achieved a magnificent record; due principally to his telling speech against the Nebraska Bill. Senator Douglas paid him an eloquent com- pliment upon this occasion. He also assisted materially in that movement which gave about $2,000,000 worth of swamp lands to the State; and favored the appropriation of $5,000,- ooo for the deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, a measure which was lost in the Senate.
In 1857, he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court, and served up to the summer of 1861. He subsequently de- clined re-election.
In 1862, he was re-elected to Congress.
In 1866, Mr. Norton came to Chicago. In this year, he was appointed U. S. Attorney, and held the office up to the spring of 1869. While United States Attorney, the records showed more convictions and a greater amount of monies collected than in any other State, except New York.
S. S. HAYES.
129
SAMUEL S. HAYES.
Samuel Snowden Hayes, the Comptroller of the City of Chicago, was born Dec. 25, 1820, in Nashville, Tennessee, where his father, Dr. R. P. Hayes, settled soon after his re- tirement from the Surgeonship of a New York regiment, engaged in the last conflict between the United States and Great Britain. Having acquired all the educational advan- tages a solicitous father could procure for his son, Mr. Hayes began active life as a store boy in a drug store ; was soon made a prescription clerk, and rose so rapidly subsequently, as, in a brief interval, to decline the entire charge of, and a partnership in, a drug store in Indiana. In August, 1838, he went into the drug business on his own account in Shaw- neetown, Illinois. The occupation proving incongenial, however, he abandoned it soon after for the legal profession. In the practice of law- he was admitted to the bar in 1842 - Mr. Hayes remained up to 1852, when, having caused the wilds of Mount Vernon and Carmi, Illinois, to ring with the music of his forensic efforts, he removed to Chicago. This was a sensible project.
Very early in life Mr. Hayes gave good promise of success in the political arena. The first demonstration, perhaps, was in 1843, when he took the stump in favor of the Demo- cratic Party. In 1845, at the Memphis Convention, called for the promotion of Western and Southern interests, his speech for the coalition of parties elicited a high compli- ment from John C. Calhoun, whose expressions he con-
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demned; in 1846 he was sent to the Legislature ; in 1847 he was selected a delegate to a Convention for the Revision of the Constitution ; and in 1848 he was constantly on the stump in Southern Illinois.
On his removal to Chicago, Mr. Hayes was employed by the City as Counsellor and City Solicitor. Senator Douglas, however, soon brought him from his seclusion, by proposing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This measure he opposed vehemently. His action brought forward Senator Douglas in 1855, when that statesman paid particular atten- tion to Mr. Hayes and others. This fact to the contrary, notwithstanding, in obedience to the Democratic principle, no better supporter of Douglas, it is said, was afterwards found than Mr. Hayes. From this period up to and during the war of the Rebellion, the voice of our present Comptrol- ler was always heard plainly in open convention.
The position assumed by Mr. Hayes when appointed Comptroller of Chicago, in 1862, was in the interest of econ- omy and regularity so emphatically that the Council, on his withdrawal in 1865, gave him an unanimous vote of com- mendation. Shortly after, he was appointed one of the three members of the United States Revenue Commission. Messrs. Wells and Colwell were taken from the Republican Party, and Mr. Hayes from the Democratic. The financial report of Mr. Hayes, in this connection, elicited an editorial from the London Times. His reply ended as follows: "As far as the liabilities of the United States are concerned, they seem to me quite within our means of payment, without impoverishing our people, and without wronging our cred- itors."
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131
EGBERT JAMIESON.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EGBERT JAMIESON .*
" Crede quod habes, et habes."
It may not be unnecessary to inform the reader that the following autobiography had its origin in a conversation between the author and the publisher, who did him the honor of calling several times upon him.
It appeared to me a favorable opportunity to undertake the task, and enriching myself with all the necessary material. I accordingly took advantage of it. I regret, however, that the very general curiosity of the public, with regard to the particulars of my history, could not have been satisfied at an earlier date - say on yesterday,- but its importance required rather a more detailed consideration than at that time I had any leisure to bestow upon it. Besides, the original memoirs in Spanish, prepared soon after my return from Europe, early last spring, were destroyed in the great fire of October, 1871, and hence it has been with no little difficulty that a correct recital of facts and occurrences has been prepared.
To begin, then. I had two parents - one of each kind - both "poor, but honest," and I have good reason to believe, and do most solemnly assert, that I was not ushered into this life on the European Plan. Consequently, my cra- dle was not surrounded by those prejudices and ideas of
*Note .- The city attorney having repeatedly declined to be interviewed, wrote his autobiography, at the request of the author of this work. It would not be fair to leave the gentleman out. - THE AUTHOR.
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superiority with which pride and flattery always seek to intoxicate the minds of the privileged classes.
It is a most extraordinary circumstance that the earliest ancestor our family has any record of, superintended, with the assistance of the princes of the line of the Pharoahs, the building of those wonderful structures, the Pyramids. Having completed this job, he next turned his attention to life insurance, but in this he met with little or no success, (the family cheek having then not sufficiently developed itself,) and we next hear of him as a sutler in the army of Cambyses Second, King of Persia, in his raid against the Egyptians. During this campaign he was shot by his com- mander, there being at that time a great surplus of warriors, and the railroad facilities for transporting them greatly obstructed. This painful incident took place some five hundred years before Christ, and none of the descendants have felt like doing much since.
Coming down a trifle later, say about the fifteenth cen- tury, our family tree blossoms profusely with celebrated musicians, with an occasional literary bud. It is related of Claudin Gaimeisen, (an Italian, in the direct line), that in 1475, while playing an engagement in a horse car in Jersey City, he caused a very spirited air to be sung, accompanying himself with the accordion, which so animated a gentleman who was present, that he clapped his hands on the person of my ancestor,- a struggle ensued - and my deceased relative was buried from the hospital on the next day.
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