Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/140

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin. lead was first found in a ravine of that name. opposing the extreme demands of the South. Here he entered upon practice and was suc He voted for the abolition of slavery in the cessful. A modest, unassuming manner, District of Columbia and for the admission little in keeping with the rudeness and of California; also, against the fugitive-slave boisterousness of those times in that section, law, because it was inhuman, against the did not obscure his talents, and he became a organization of the territories without the popular and prominent lawyer. The miners Wilmot Proviso, and against paying ten and settlers soon found that he was careful, millions to Texas. painstaking, conscientious, and always sober, On retiring from Congress in 1851, Mr. and that implicit confidence could be placed Cole again entered vigorously upon the in him, and they took his advancement in practice of law in Potosí, then a stirring their own hands, and conferred honors upon town and aspiring to rivalry with Dubuque. him of their own motion without even He was again put in nomination in 1853, stopping to consult him as to whether he without his knowledge, this time by the would be a candidate or not. consolidated Whig and Free-Soil party — In 1847, he was elected a delegate from which organized as the Republican party the Grant County to the second constitutional following year — as its candidate for attor convention. He was one of the youngest ney-general, but with the entire ticket he members of the body, and one of the most met defeat. In the winter of 1855, as Judge modest of men. But he soon took rank Crawford's term was about to expire, the anti-slavery element was opposed to his re among the ablest, clearest debaters. Cau tious and conservative, careful as to details, election, as his dissent from the decisions in it was admitted on all hands that he made a the fugitive-slave-law cases had gone against most valuable member. It is said by those the grain of the zealous Republicans of the who 'attended the debates and reported the State. A Republican caucus of the mem proceedings, that " he had taken prominent bers of the legislature was held to consider part in the shaping of all the more important the question; and it was decided to put up young Cole of Grant as a candidate for as articles of the constitution." In 1848, the Whig convention, held in sociate justice of the Supreme Court. He the western half of the State, put him in was at the time at home, several days' nomination as candidate for Congress. He journey overland, and had no knowledge of was not a seeker after the nomination, was what was going on at the State capital, and not present, and at first was quite incredulous it had never entered his thoughts that he was in believing the report of his nomination. to become one of the judges of the highest He accepted and made a vigorous canvass, court of the State. Judge Crawford was a speaking for " Old Zach Taylor" and Whig strong candidate, very popular in that por principles. The modest bearing, yet able tion of the State, and, in his modesty, Mr. arguments, of the young lawyer made him Cole insisted that he was not able to fill the friends, and he was elected. In the exciting high office. Against his own protest his sessions of the ßist Congress he upheld the friends almost compelled him to make the principles of the anti-slavery wing of the canvass, little expecting that he would be Whig party and voted against the fugitive- elected. But to their surprise the result was slave law. Not deeming it exactly proper in his favor, and he took his seat on the bench as one of the associate justices in for a new member, and having little sympa thy with the unending speech-making of June, 1855, and occupied it continuously that day, he took little part in the debates, until 1880, when he became chief justice. but was active and zealous in the wing then He was re-elected in 1861, 1867, 1873 and