office of Governor Underwood, at Burlington, then attended a course at the Dane Law School, at Cambridge, laying the foundation for the broad culture in jurisprudence which characterized his subsequent career, and was admitted to the bar. In 1853 he settled in Chicago, he was admitted to the Illinois bar, and practiced his profession in his adopted State until 1865, when he was honored with an election as a judge of the Superior Court of Chicago. Under the new State Constitution of 1870 the Court became the Superior Court of Cook County, with jurisdiction therein co-ordinate with the Circuit Court. This position he ably filled for about eighteen years through repeated re-elections. He retired from the bench in 1883, and resumed the practice of law in Chicago, in which he continued actively engaged from thence until shortly before his death, when impaired health compelled him to abandon active business duties. He was, however, so enthusiastically devoted to the science of law, that after retiring from practice he occupied a considerable part of each day in the library of the Law Institute in examining authorities, or discussing legal principles with his brethren of the profession. Suddenly, on a bright day in June, his life faded and he passed away at his home in Hyde Park, loved and lamented. The career of Judge Jameson was not confined to the routine of professional and judicial duties. He was also a writer of recognized ability. While on the bench he published a standard, comprehensive work, The Constitutional Convention, its Powers and Modes of Proceeding. This work was the result of vast labor and research. It alone would establish the reputation of its author as a man of profound learning in Constitutional law and Constitution making. During the period covering volumes 3 to 13 (N. S.) inclusive of THE AMERICAN Law Register, namely, from November, 1863, to December, 1874, thirteen years, Judge Jameson was one of the editors of this magazine. In that time he contributed to the Register many of the ablest and most interesting articles and reviews to be found in its pages. Upon reference to volume 3, page 332, will be found his note to The People, etc., v. The Auditor, etc., decided by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1864, a case which, from its novelty and importance at that period, attracted general attention in this country, involving as it did the authority of Richard Yates, the War Governor of the State, to prorogue the legislature upon a disagreement between the two houses as to the time of ad. journment. In the note prepared by Judge Jameson, he ably pre sented the arguments and authorities pro and con, upon the questions considered by the Court. In this he evinced his familiarity with constitutional principles, and displayed wonderful research and industry. In Pilmer v. Branch Bank of Des Moines, decided by the Iowa Supreme Court, Judge Jameson prepared an exhaustive and elaborate note of review, which was published with the case in Vol. 4 Am. L. Reg. (N. S.) 343. A question in the case was the extent the courts would admit in evidence in an action on a written contract, contemporaneous conversations and agreements for the purpose of showing the intention of the parties. The review will be found to contain an extensive and valuable collation of the leading authorities upon an important and interesting branch in the law of evidence, and to evince the reviewer's careful research and familiarity with the subject. As a relic of the period of reconstruction, the note to Williamson v. Jones, 4 Am. Law Reg. (N. S.) 654, may be now read again with interest. In that case the Supreme Court of Tennessee upheld a provision in the New Constitution of that State declaring slavery abolished. An illustration of the scholarly style and vigorous judicial mind of Judge Jameson is found in an opinion delivered by him from the bench of the Superior Court of Chicago in the case of The Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Hall, reported at length in 7 Am. Law Reg. (N. S.) 606. He there decided that a mortgagee of land could not by a decree of foreclosure and sale under the mortgage obtained against the mortgagor whilst the latter was a citizen of and residing in a State in insurrection, and thereby cut off his right to redeem although the statutory period of redemption had passed. This subject aroused considerable interest at that time, and the Courts entertained conflicting opinions upon it, as shown by published reports. About this time Judge Jameson decided the case of Sibley v. Mixer, involving the same question, the same way, which was appealed to the Supreme Court, where it was reversed (53 Ill. R. 61), the Court declaring with some severity that no case could be found in the books sustaining the decision of the Superior Court and refused to adopt in support of the ruling, the case of The Rapid, 8 Cranch 155, upon which Judge Jameson had relied in arriving at the conclusion announced in the cases decided by him above mentioned. It was a source of gratification to Judge Jameson that the Supreme Court of the United States in the well-considered case of Dean v. Nelson, 10 Am. Law Reg. (N. S.) 221; s. c. 10 Wallace 158, unanimously decided that the mortgagor's equity of redemption was not extinguished by proceedings to foreclose the mortgage during the war when such proceedings were taken within the Union lines whilst the defendents were absent in the Confederate lines, and were prohibited from entering the Union lines. To this case, when published in the AMERICAN LAW REGISTER, Judge Jameson appended a note in which he furnished, in an able and exhaustive review of the subject, a full collection of the authorities. The decision in Dean v. Nelson was regarded as a complete and powerful vindication of his views as announced in the cases decided by him in the Superior Court. This is modestly but pointedly indicated in his note. It is doubtless the truth that he maintained his position as judge of one of the most important and influential nisi prius courts in this country by force of his recognized standing as an able and honest jurist. Such qualities and accomplishments as this lay hold upon the popular heart. He was not skilled as a politician. His elevation to judicial honors was not secured through the arts of the place-hunter or the schemes of a political manager. He was unfriendly to monopolies. In this he was probably open to a suggestion of personal impolicy, in view of the circumstance that it is an open secret that monopolies aspire to be and not infrequently become the "power behind the throne" when the question upon whom shall the honor fall, is up for determination. This consideration had no weight with him. In the Chicago Legal News soon after his death, appeared this paragraph: "When he once made up his mind on any question, his convictions were so strong and so forcibly uttered that some regarded him as a man of strong prejudices. Judge Jameson delivered, while on the bench, in January, 1882, a paper before the Illinois State Bar Association, upon the interference by law with the accumulation and use of capital, which attracted attention both far and wide. It was published in the proceedings of the Association for that year, pages 92-113. It was claimed by many that this able paper against monopolies drove Judge Jameson from the bench. He is dead, but this paper will still exercise an influence where the questions discussed therein are considered." Judge Jameson extended his investigations beyond the lines of jurisprudence. He was at home in the broad fields of literature and science. On all subjects of interest he was abreast of the times. A man of rare culture and deep learning upon most sub jects of human knowledge, he was never pedantic. His manner was, in simplicity, like a child. He was dignified and reserved, yet his friendships were ardent and lasting. He deserved well of his generation, he was honored in his life and lamented in his death. His reputation as an honest man, a conscientious and capable lawyer, and an eminent, faithful, and just judge will long survive the years of his labors. Chicago. FRANK J. CRAWFORD. [The following extract from a biographical sketch in The Chicago Law Times for October, 1888, relates to Judge Jameson's work, The Constitutional Convention; its History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding," a work evincing much research, and containing a mass of information of the utmost practical value. Judge Jameson in thus, for the first time, digesting, arranging, and methodizing all the facts connected with the history of constitutional conventions in this country, has given the profession a work of inestimable value. This work was received with much favor both in this country and abroad as the first and a successful attempt to grapple with the subject of the nature of the American constitutional system as a whole. The New York Nation declared that the work 'filled a complete vacancy in our legal literature; that it was very well written in a dignified but easy style;' that it was very far from being dry or tedious;' that 'to a lawyer, it was almost as entertaining as light reading.' The North American Review maintåined that the plan of reconstruction pointed out by the author in his first edition [1866] as that which was liable to the least legal objection, was the plan adopted by Congress in its legislation of 1867. In England, the Spectator, premising that jurisprudence had been the science in which America had accomplished the most solid and enduring success, declared the author's treatise 'to be not unworthy of his country's reputation,' and the French publicist, M. Edouard Laboulaye, in an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, said of it, that 'for its historical documents, and the solidity of its conclusions, it might sustain a comparison with Story's Commentary on the Constitution of the United States.'"] HIRED LABORERS are another class of operatives consisting of those whose mental qualifications do not recommend them as associates, but whose bodily strength is equal to hard labor: these sell the use of their strength and call the price of it hire.-Repub. Plato, ii, 371. THE GREEN BAG has fallen from grace, as witness these two stories : (From The Current Comment of July, (From the Green Bag of October, 1890.) Mr. Isham related an anecdote connected with the early lawyers of the Maumee Valley: He stated that one cold night John C. Spink, Judge Way, the late Chief Justice Waite, and a number of other lawyers of that day, who were attending court at Maumee, were at the hotel kept by Mr. Kingsbury, an uncle of Colonel Henry D. Kingsbury, bailiff for the Circuit Court. A man rode up to the hotel on horseback, dismounted, stripped off his overcoat, leggings, leather overshoes, and was escorted, before fairly warm, into the dining-room for supper. After eating his supper, the stranger, who had the appearance of being a well-to-do farmer, was invited into the sitting-room adjoining the bar-room, where the lawyers were seated around the fire. The man was cold, fairly chilled through from riding, but there was no move on the part of the lawyers to make room for him near the glowing logs in the fireplace; but they were otherwise quite cordial in their greeting, and evidently thought to have a little sport at the expense of the stranger. One asked the man where he hailed from. "Chicago," was his reply. Then another inquired as to the condition of the roads there. "They are horrible," he said, and, continuing, remarked, that "the roads through the swamps between here and Chicago are the worst I ever saw-worse than H-11," This last remark struck Judge Way as an opening for the fun to begin, so he turned toward the stranger and said: "My dear sir, you speak like one familiar with h-ll. How are things down there?" To this the stranger replied: "Oh! it is there just as it is everywhere else, the lawyers are always nearest the fire." That circle opened at once, and made room for the shivering stranger. -Toledo Commercial. 1890.) A county court was sitting awhile ago; it was not far from winter-cold weather, anyhow-and a knot of law. yers had collected around the old stove in the bar-room. The fire blazed, and mugs of flip were passing away without a groan, when who should come in but a rough, gaunt-looking babe of the woods, knapsack on shoulder and staff in hand. He looked cold, and half perambulated the circle that hemmed in the fire, looking for a chance to warm his shins. Nobody moved, however, and unable to sit down for lack of a chair, he did the next best thingleaned against the wall, and listened to the discussion on the proper way of serving a referee on a warrant deed, as if he were the judge to decide the matter. Soon he attracted the attention of the company, and a young sprig spoke to him: "You look like a traveler ?" "Wall, I s'pose I am; I came from Wisconsin afoot, 't any rate." "From Wisconsin! That is a distance to go on one pair of legs! I say, did you ever pass through the lower regions in your travels ?" 'Yes, sir,” he answered, a kind of a wicked look stealing over his ugly phiz, "I've been through the outskirts." "I thought it likely. Well, what are the manners and customs there? Some of us would like to know.” “Oh !” said the pilgrim, deliberately, half shutting his eyes and drawing around the corners of his mouth till two rows of yellow teeth, with a mass of masticated pig-tail appeared through the slit in his cheek, "You'll find them much the same as in this region-the lawyers sit nighest the fire." |