The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1861-04-18
Ohituary..John Mclean. l.. l.. ID.
From the Chicago Trihuue.l

his residence in Cincinnati, aged 76
years. This eminent jurist was born in
Morris county, New Jersey, March Ii,
1855. His father, q poor man with a
large family, migrated to the West when
the subject of this narrative was oaly four
years of age, settling first in Virginia,
afterwards in Kentucky, and finally, in
1899, in Warren county, Ohio, where he
cultivated farm until his death in 1889.
His son went to Cincinnati at the age Of
1S and commenced the study of law in
the office of the eminent counselor Arth-
ur St. Clair, supporting himself mean
while by writing in the Office of the
County Clerk. Ia 1907 he was admitted
to the bar and commenced the practice Of
his profession in the town of Lebanon,
near his fathers farm. In 1872 he was
elected to Congress in the Lebanon dis
trict. (Which then included Cincinnat),
as a supporter of President Msdison's war
policy. In 1914 he was re elected with
out opposition, receiving every vote cast
in the district IN the following wear he
was rendered by his party, which was
then in power, "a scat in the United States
Senate, which he declined. In 1917 the
Legislature of Ohio unanimously elected
him Judge of the Supreme Court of the
State-a position which he held until
1922, VIXEN President Monroe appointed
him Commissioner of the General Land
Office In the following yc%r he was ap-
pointed postmaster General The viror
aud efficiency which he infused into this
department of the public service, then in
a terribly disordcrcd condition, rendered
him one Of the most popular men in the
nation. So great We the public applause
for his conduct Of tn postal system, and
so conspicuous were lis services, that
Congress raised the salary Of the Office
from 1000 to $4,000 per annum. In
1929, President Jackson rendered him
successfully the Departments of war and
the navy. The President then rendered
him a seat on the Supreme Bench, which
he assumed in January 1880, and which
he has filled uniutcrruptcdly till the pres
ent time. Judge Mclean was three
times prominently brought forward for
the Presidency by the frec-soil and Re-
publican partics-frst at the Buffalo Con.
vcntion in lSlS, next at the Philadelphia
Convention of 1856, and again at the
Chicago Convention Of 1860. In the
Philadelphia Convention he received l4G
votes against $50 for Col Fremont.
Judge McLean's Circuit was the lar
gcst and its duiies BY far the most labor
ious in the present organization Of the
Supreme Court, including the States Of
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois -
One session was held annually in Chica-
90, and his frequent presence here gave
him large acquaintance among cur citi-
zcns, by whom he was universally loved
and respected.
Among laws ers; Judge Mclean had a
reputation which will be enduring. He
was not so much distinguished for pro
fundity and cop;ousness Of legal knowl-
edge as for that strong moral grasp and
acute sense which ized upon and
brought to light the essential equities Of
the cases which came before him. Hun
dreds of men belonging to the profession,
in less conspicuous positions, were his
superiors in the tcchnjcaities of the
books and the ancient absurdities of the
practice; but perhaps n man who ever
filed place on an American Bench ever
had, in a more notable degr c, that Keen
insight into the sometimes subtle dis
tinctions between right and wrong, or
ever pursued the one and coutonnCd the
other with the zeal for which Judge Me
Lean was distinguished And herein
was his hold upon the popular heart.
His thorough and rcsolutc honesty, not
alone the honesty which made his daily
walk and conversation an example to all
younger and less favored men, but his
intellectual honesty, which raised him
above the tricks Of his trade and made
the reasoning and conscientious man al
ways superior to, the quirks and qulddi-
ties Of the Bar and the Bench, was every
where patent; aud though bis decision
have always been carpel at as lacking
the mustiness which one smells in Black
stone and Coke, the people have never
beer ready to believe that, if not always
the Legitimate deductions from the law in
the books and the Courts. they did not
embody the full measure ofjustlce which
mortals may attain. The most serious
blow ever given to his popularity among
lawyers of the highest grade, and among
the people at large, was inflicted by the
Judge himself in bis decisions touching
the atroeious Fugitive Slave Law. That
other and higher authority will judge
them to be erroneous, and that men will
hereafter wonder how he, cast in so no
bic mould, endowed as he was with ha-
tired of oppression, Of legal shame and Of
wrong, could have failed to see that the
act which had his endorsement was de,
fiance of all law, we devoutly believe
But that he sincerely entertained the
opinions on that subject which he has
left on record, no man will ever haze
room to doubt. HIS subsequent thor
ough and overwhelming refutation..of the
monstrous doctrine avowed by the ma
iority of the judges of the Supreme
Court in the case of bred Scott-a refu-
tation which can never be successfully
assailed-did much toward restoring him
to his old place in the affections of the
people and perhaps nothing but his ad-
vanced age prevented them from calling
him in 1856 and again in 1860, to take
the highest place i'll their gift.
Emancipation in Russia.
The 18th of March will henceforth
form an epoch in the history of Russia.