USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. II > Part 19
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For nearly eighteen years Don M. Dickinson has been on one side or the other of nearly every im- portant case in or from Michigan, and his clientage has for a long term of years been the largest in the State, and one of the largest in the Northwest. The diversity and importance of his cases have taken him many times into the Supreme Courts of other States, and he has long been prominent at the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Among the many famous litigations in which he has been counsel there may be mentioned the great ship canal cases involving property now worth $20,000,000, and a series of suits lasting nearly a decade, involving a conflict of juris- diction between the Federal and State courts ; the Campau will case, the Ward case, the Mamie-Gar- land collision cases, the Pewabic Mine case, and the Bates case against the People's Savings Bank. All of these causes reached the Supreme Court of the United States, except some of the will cases, and Mr. Dickinson was signally successful in all of them. A great number of minor cases have been taken by him to the Supreme Court with marked success. In the famous case of Paris et al. vs. Wheeler et al., in the Supreme Court at Washing- ton, he defeated the Michigan Prohibitory law by a position originated by him, and which he clung to in the face of general professional opinion, until
success was achieved, with that tenacity which is one of the distinguishing characteristics of his life. In the State and Federal cases referred to most of the leaders of the bar were against him, and three- fourths of the Federal and the county circuits, the Federal courts, with a full bench, including Justice Swayne, were the other way. The United States Supreme Court, on the preliminary hearing, in which the brilliant Senator Matt. Carpenter was with Mr. Dickinson, clearly ruled against his posi- tion. He kept steadily on his way, however, and finally in the Le Roux case he triumphed with a unanimous bench and an opinion which itself ac- knowledged the courts' error at the earlier hearing, and the correctness of the fundamental principle for which Mr. Dickinson had contended in favor of the independence of the State courts of Federal control. His most widely known, and perhaps his greatest effort at the bar, up to the present time, was his brief and argument for Drawbaugh in the noted telephone cases. His oral argument is printed in full in 126th U. S. Supreme Court Re- ports. While the defense was overruled by a ma- jority of four to three, yet of the many defenses in the Supreme Court in these cases the Drawbaugh case was the only one not overruled by a unanimous bench, and for that defense Mr. Dickinson made the only brief. Senator Edmunds, also counsel for Drawbaugh, offered Mr. Dickinson a portion of his time on the argument, and afterwards many times complimented his effort in the highest terms. Asso- ciate Justices Field, Harlan and Bradley dissented, and their opinion is on the lines and theory of Mr. Dickinson's brief.
In the Palms will case-a cause célèbre in Detroit -Mr. Dickinson gave the will a rigid examination, and embodied his views in an elaborate written opinion to the contestant, in which he expressed the belief that the will was valid. After this the contest- ant insisted that he should proceed with the contest, offering a large retainer. He declined because of the opinion he entertained, and assured her that her suits would fail. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled substantially in accordance with Mr. Dickin- son's opinion, and the contestants wasted $50,000 in a suit that he advised against.
While Mr. Dickinson's services have always com- manded large retainers, and while he has built up a great business, he has not been counsel for great corporations and monopolies, and he is singularly free from legal associations with them. In many notable instances his services have been enlisted against them, and he has won a large number of important cases against corporations.
Mr. Dickinson has often tendered valuable ser- vices to deserving claimants who were not able to properly compensate him, won their just causes for
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them, and declining compensation, received in re- turn only the gratitude of his clients for his great- heartedness.
In the fall of 1889 he undertook the task of se- curing the rights of the homesteaders who had settled on the forfeited land grants of the Ontonagon & Brule railroad, in the Upper Peninsula, fought their cases gallantly through all the higher courts, and saved them from eviction from their humble homes, without rendering any bill for his services.
Mr. Dickinson, while yet a young man, made a close study of the Constitution, and formed strong political convictions before he attained his majority. His interest was enlisted in political affairs before he was 21, and as soon as he reached that age an active participation begun which has never since lagged. Profoundly believing in the fundamental principles of his party, Mr. Dickinson is a Democrat after the order of Thomas Jefferson, and his ideal living representative of the ancient and immortal principles of Democracy is Grover Cleveland. He cast his first vote for Horatio Seymour in 1868, and has been a sturdy, consistent, self-reliant and pro- gressive Democrat ever since. His elevation to prominence in public life was as rapid as his rise at the bar. In 1872, at the age of twenty-five, he was chosen by the Democratic State Convention a mem- ber of the State Central Committee for the First Congressional District, and was subsequently made Secretary of the committee. In this capacity he took a leading part in the Michigan campaign for Horace Greeley. He threw himself into the work of the canvass with ardor and energy, and did the hardest portion of the campaign work. While the Democratic party was conspicuously unsuccessful at the polls that year, the canvass laid the founda- tion for the remarkable growth which it showed in Michigan within a few years. The young Demo- crat, who is the subject of this sketch, had been personally devoted to Horace Greeley, and was so deeply grieved over the death of that distinguished man after the great disappointment of his life, that he resigned his position as Secretary of the State Central Committee, in a letter in which he criticised those members of his party who had not supported Greeley. This letter was long afterward sought to be used to show a lapse from the Democratic faith at that time, but the publication of his pathetic tribute to Greeley, and stirring and prophetic words about the future of his party, and the clear nega- tion of any thought of affiliation with the Republi- can party, only served to increase the number of his friends.
Instead of withdrawing from the party, he re-af- firmed his fealty to it, under the revivifying and progressive leadership of Tilden, and he continued to take higher rank among its leaders in the State.
Mr. Dickinson was chosen Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee of Michigan in the great campaign of 1876. He was then twenty- nine years old, and the youngest man ever elevated to this party eminence in the State. He conducted a brilliant campaign for Tilden that year. The Democratic party was for the first time thoroughly organized in the State, and the splendid canvass made by the young chairman resulted in almost doubling the Democratic vote cast at the preceding Presidential election, and in hammering the vast Republican majority of nearly 60,000 down to less than 15,000. The Democratic vote was 5,000 in excess of the highest vote ever before polled by the Republicans. From this time Michigan began to be considered a doubtful State, and from this time Mr. Dickinson was universally recognized as the leader of his party in the State. Before the cam- paign he became personally acquainted with the sage of Gramercy, and one of his trusted national lieuten- ants, and the warm friendship began between them which did not terminate until the death of the hero and martyr of the stupendous wrong of 1876, ten years afterward.
Mr. Dickinson was elected first delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention at Cincin- nati in 1880, and acted as Chairman of the Michi- gan delegation on the floor of the convention.
He strongly advocated the nomination of Gover- nor Cleveland for the Presidency in 1884, and was Chairman of the State Convention that elected the delegates to the National Convention of that year. At the convention he was unanimously chosen Michigan's representative upon the National Demo- cratic Committee. In this new post of party duty Mr. Dickinson rendered splendid service, and in the campaign of that year the Republican majority almost reached the vanishing point.
Michigan entered upon an era of unprecedented political importance in the spring of 1885, and for the next few years she reaped many more political rewards than had fallen to her lot in previous years, and became of much more importance politically than she had been for many years. These facts were due largely to the exercise of the growing influence of the Michigan member of the National Committee with the new administration. Mr. Dick- inson in every way merited the confidence reposed in him by the President when he accepted him as a special adviser and representative in Michigan. Not only were the offices within the State filled with representative men of ability and excellent reputation, but the State received an unusually large number of first-class Federal appointments general in their character. Among these may be mentioned the Mission to Russia, Governorship of Alaska, Supreme Justiceship of the District of
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Columbia, Inter-State Commerce Commissioner, Commissionership of Patents, Assistant Indian Commissionership, Mission to Belgium, British Treaty Commissioner, and a large number of other important places.
Mr. Dickinson had throughout his life persis- tently refused the use of his name for any elective or appointive public office. He had never asked or anticipated reward for his political services. What he did was done for the love of doing. He had a reputation as one of the finest political organizers in the United States, and - what was far more unique - of being a prominent politician, who would neither ask nor accept a public place.
The Legislature of 1885 was the closest politi- cally that the State had chosen for many years, and the campaign in 1886 was a very animated one. Many leading Democrats announced Mr. Dickinson as their choice for United States Senator in the event of the election of a Democratic Legislature, and he was accepted with pleasure by the party as its prospective Senator. All this, however, was without either his assent or approval, and in the middle of the campaign he clearly defined his posi- tion in a letter to the Democracy of the State, pub- lished in The Detroit Free Press, in which he said :
"Such a candidacy would be false to the wishes I have professed for the last twelve years-since the redemption of Michigan, and the election of a Democratic Senator have seemed to me probable. Since then I have never been conscious of any faltering in my hope, of any abatement in my trust, that when victory should come the party would adorn the House of Senators by placing there one of the Silver Greys who taught us and led us in the dark days of disaster and defeat, when the only light of the way was high principle, and the only reward of good fighting a clear conscience.'
His name was also several times considered by President Cleveland for important places, and their tender prevented only by Mr. Dickinson's assurance that he preferred private life.
In the fall of 1887 President Cleveland tendered Mr. Dickinson the position of Postmaster-General in his Cabinet. Mr. Dickinson was at first averse to accepting the trust and declined it. As one of the most distinguished men of Michigan has put it "he idealized President Cleveland as the living representative of all that he believed good for the people accordiug to his convictions on fundamental principles of government. But when the President tendered him this position he declined it, and only reconsidered the refusal and took the office when he became convinced that the President felt that he actually needed him." And even then he only ac- cepted it upon the assurance that he would not be called upon to continue in the service of the Presi- dent after the end of that term.
Mr. Dickinson's name was sent to the Senate as the successor of Gen. Wm. F. Vilas, as Postmaster- General, Dec. 5, 1887. After a delay of about six weeks, caused by the consideration of the Lamar case, he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on the motion of Thomas W. Palmer, then senior Senator from Michigan. He was the young- est member of President Cleveland's Cabinet, and the fourth citizen of Michigan to attain a seat at the great round table of a President of the United States. He was seven years younger than Gen. Lewis Cass when he entered the great Jackson's Cabinet as Secretary of War, and thirty-three years younger than the same ripe statesman and scholar when he became the premier of James Buchanan. Mr. Dickinson was also seven years younger than Governor Robert McClelland when he entered Pierce's Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, and twenty years younger than Zachariah Chandler, when he took his seat in the same capacity under President Grant.
In the dual capacity of member of the Presi- dent's privy council, and executive officer of one of the most important departments of the government, Mr. Dickinson became one of the chief figures of the strong, virile administration of President Cleve- land. In the larger field of duty as an adviser of the President upon great questions of national executive policy, he rendered distinguished public service.
A warm personal friendship existed between President Cleveland and Mr. Dickinson, and he served " the Great Chief " with entire devotion and singleness of purpose. No President ever received a more loyal and unselfish service than that ren- dered Grover Cleveland by Don M. Dickinson.
The Post-office department is one of infinite detail, but Mr. Dickinson thoroughly mastered its work. He did not depend on the machinery of Assistants Postmasters-General, Chiefs of Division, etc., etc., as had been the case with many of his predecessors. He was something more than a mere writer of autographs at the foot of official communications to Congress, formal reports and the other state papers of his department. His signature was attached to no official document until he was thoroughly familiar with it. He was un- doubtedly one of the most indefatigable workers in any of the modern Cabinets.
The Post-office department, under Mr. Dickin- son's administration made a better showing than ever before in its history. The business of the department not only greatly increased, but it was conducted at less expense. He made hundreds of influential friends throughout the country by his energetic and statesmanlike conduct of his high office. He was business-like, courageous and forci-
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ble. He was the first Postmaster-General to strike the mammoth mail subsidy jobs in Congress. Perhaps his strongest state paper was a letter against steamship subsidies which he'sent to the House of Representatives, and which carried a large Republican vote in the House against the bill, after it had passed the Republican Senate as a party measure. The bill failed in the House by a large majority and the Postmaster-General was universally credited with having caused its defeat.
During his term the great western strike of 1888 occurred, and while it was in progress Postmaster- General Dickinson established an important pre- cedent relative to the transportation of the mails by railway corporations. He took the position that the Postoffice department had nothing to do with the strike of the engineers, and that the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fé road was under contract for the transportation of the mails, and it was its duty to transport them. The railroad company sought with some adroitness, to transfer the contest from one between itself and its engineers to one between the engineers and the government. But in the corres- pondence between the department and the railroad officers, the Postmaster-General declined to become a party to the contest between the corporation and its striking employees.
Postmaster-General Dickinson simply declared that the mails must go. If the company did not move them the department would adopt other methods. But in any event the mails would go.
The striking engineers tendered their services to man the necessary engines to transport the mails, and the department signified its confidence in the striking workingmen by saying that it would use them.
The railroads were thus placed in a position where they could not decline to carry the mails. They then demanded extra compensation for trans- porting them on the ground that they were obliged to run trains especially for them. But this Post- master-General Dickinson declined to allow, hold- ing that the railroad company's contract required it to transport the mails " at the prices therein pro- vided."
The railroad corporation then unconditionally surrendered. It wisely concluded that it would ac- cept the services of its striking engineers and for- ward the mails. Thus the valuable precedent was established that the railroads of the country must carry out their contracts with the government, par- ticularly in connection with the transportation of the mails, under all circumstances, and that the strikes of the engineers or other employees of any company does not relieve them from the responsibil- ity. It also demonstrated that the government had confidence in the integrity of striking workmen.
As Postmaster-General, Mr. Dickinson was an earnest advocate of the postal telegraph, of gov- ernment proprietorship of public buildings as a means of stopping the wasteful rent system, op- posed the authorization of indemnity and guarantee corporations created under state laws to become sureties on official bonds required by Federal statutes, and favored many other decided reforms in the department, a large number of which were earried into effect during his administration.
Prior to the assembling of the Democratic na- tional convention of 1888 the name of the Post- master-General was widely discussed for the nomi- nation for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with President Cleveland. Chairman Barnum, of the Democratic National Committee, Hon. W. L. Scott, and many others of the most conspicuous Demo- crats in the country declared in favor of his nomi- nation. When the convention met there was a strong undercurrent favorable to his selection. But the Michigan delegation, which was devoted to him, did not present his name to the convention, thus serving him with more fidelity than if his name had been offered. The Michigan delegated voted for Allen G. Thurman, of whose nomination Mr. Dickinson had been one of the original and most carnest advocates.
During the campaign Mr. Dickinson visited Michigan for a short time, and made a few notable speeches, one of which-a peculiarly forcible review of James G. Blaine's public career-played an im- portant part in the canvass, and was credited with being one of the strongest speeches of the year.
Postmaster-General Dickinson retired from the Cabinet, March 5th, 1889, as he had intended to do in the event of the President's re-election. He soon afterward made a short trip to Cuba with President Cleveland and some of his late associates in the Cabinet, and then returned to his home in Detroit.
He refused several brilliant offers to engage in practice in New York, preferring to continue at the head of the old firm of Dickinson, Thurber & Stevenson, in Detroit, and to enjoy a great and constantly increasing business, the income of the firm being larger than ever before.
He has always taken a keen interest in the wel- fare of his city, and has been one of the most public- spirited of its citizens. No man in the city has warmer or a greater number of personal friends. He is closely identified with nearly every enterprise designed to promote the prosperity of Detroit, and has in addition to his fame as a statesman and great counselor, gained a reputation as a public-spirited, progressive citizen in all the extensive ramifications of his business.
Ten years ago a prominent Michigan man writ- ing of the subject of this sketch said: "He has
LA Chine Duffield,
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habits of patient, intelligent and thorough research, intense application and splendid judgment. His generosity leaves no room for jealousy ; his fairness, no cause for carping, and his inbred courtesy de- mands kind regard. The primary cause of his success is his unswerving integrity. The right never appeals to him in vain for a defender, and the wrong never finds in him an advocate. He has energy, clear judgment and personal magnetism. With his cultured mind, generous heart, unsullied reputation and masterful purpose, he is destined to stand among the guardians of the country."
What was true then is true now. It is even more true, for the things predicted of Don M. Dickinson have transpired. He has taken his place among the foremost citizens of the Republic. His reputation is national as a man of brilliant attain- ments, intellectual rectitude, convictions on funda- mental principles of government, fealty to the Gos- pel of the Constitution and abiding faith in the wis- dom of the people.
His political career is regarded by his friends in his state and throughout the country as having but just begun. F. H. H.
JULIAN G. DICKINSON, attorney and coun- sellor at law, was born at Hamburg, New York, November 20, 1843. His parents were William and Lois (Sturtevant) Dickinson, and of their family, Julian G. and Dr. J. C. Dickinson, of Detroit, are the only survivors. In 1852 the family removed from New York to Michigan; residing at Jonesville until 1857, and at Jackson until 1865.
Julian G. Dickinson received his rudimentary education in the Union Schools of Jonesville and Jackson. He enlisted July 10, 1862, as a volunteer in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, which joined the Army of the Cumberland near Louisville, Kentucky, in October, 1862. He served three years with that command in the field, and participated in eighty battles and in ten thousand miles of marching. He was appointed Sergeant-Major, and after the battle of Kingston, Georgia, upon recommendation of his commanding officer for "good fighting and attention to duty," was commissioned First Lieuten- ant and Adjutant of the regiment. He participated in General Wilson's campaign with the Cavalry Corps from Chickasaw, Alabama, to Macon, Georgia, and was commended for "bravery and efficiency." He was present on thestaff of General B. D. Pritchard at the capture of Jefferson Davis, and arrested that distinguished fugitive who was seeking to escape from his camp in female attire. For this service he was mentioned to the Secretary of War by General Pritchard and General J. H. Wilson, was commis- sioned Brevet Captain United States Volunteers, and was subsequently commissioned Captain of
Cavalry by Governor Crapo. At the close of the war on August 15, 1865, he was mustered out of service.
In October of the same year he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, and in 1866 came to Detroit, and entered the law office of Moore & Griffin, where he remained until 1868. He was admitted to the bar, upon examination before the Judges of the Supreme Court of Michigan at the October term of 1867. In 1868 he formed a law partnership with Horace E. Burt, under the firm name of Dickinson & Burt, and acquired a success- ful practice. In 1870 he became a partner with Don M. Dickinson, the firm name being Dickinson & Dickinson; dissolved in 1873. He was for some years interested in the banking business of E. K. Roberts & Co., of Detroit, having the largest interest in that house until 1877. In 1882 he was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of the United States, and conducted the first case on an appeal to that court from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Michigan. Besides his practice in the courts he is counsel for a large and important clientage. The record of his cases in the Supreme Court is highly creditable for the character and importance of the cases and for the honorable and successful manner in which they have been conducted.
A hard and close student and a careful observer, he is not disposed to lower the standard of his pro- fession, and his manifest aim is to do justly and to promote the real welfare of his clients. In disposi- tion, he is known by his friends to be warm-hearted and appreciative.
He was married June 25, 1878, to Clara M., daughter of H. R. Johnson, of Detroit. They have four children, William H., Alfred, Thornton, and Julian. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson are mem- bers of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church.
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