TJie Supreme Courf of Wisconsin. penter, in 1879. Of his record as a senator, and his part in the eventful period, they are a part of national history, and outside of the range of this sketch. It need not here be said that he took rank among the foremost and ablest senators of his time. He was appointed by President Garfield commissioner to the international monetary conference, held in Paris in the summer of 1881, and served with fidelity and distinction in the meetings of that body. In January, 1882, he became Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Arthur. While serving in this office, he came on private business to Wisconsin in the spring of 1883. The weather was raw and the change of climate brought on pneumonia, of which he died at Racine, March 25th. His judicial work on the bench of the Su preme Court is reported in the third volume of Pinney's Reports. His most elaborate opin ion is in the case of State ex rel. Resley v. Harwell, governor, on the question whether the courts can control by mandamus the ac tion of the executive of the state. His style of argument at the Bar is found in the 4th Wisconsin Reports (p. 625), in the report of his argument in the quo warranta c-a&z against Governor Barstow. His broader career as a statesman cannot be considered within the space here allotted.
MORTIMER MELVILLE JACKSON was born in Rensselaersville, Albany County, New York, of Puritan stock. He received a good education in common schools, in boarding schools, and a collegiate institution in the city of New York. He then entered a counting-house in New York, and, while a merchant clerk, became an active member of the Mercantile Library Association, of which he was first a director, then vicepresident. Preferring the study of law to mercantile pursuits, he first pursued a course of reading as a preparative, then entered the office of the distinguished David Graham and read law.
Early in life he took an active part in politics, and, in 1834, sat as delegate in the convention of Young Whigs of New York, who first nominated William H. Seward for governor. After his admission to the Bar, he came to Wisconsin in 1838, and, in the spring of the following year, he settled in Mineral Point. He soon became prominent at the Bar and had a considerable practice. He prosecuted or defended some of the leading murder trials in the Territory. He attracted attention in the defense of Du Charme, indicted for a murder committed in the Stockbridge settlement. Mr. Jackson visited various portions of the territory, became acquainted with its resources, and wrote a series of articles over the signature of " Wisconsin," setting forth desirable features of the Territory to those seeking homes in the West. He was a Whig, and the party was then in the minori ty, but he was soon recognized as one of its leading members and able speakers. In 1841, President Tyler removed Gov ernor Doty, the Democratic governor, and appointed Judge Doty in his place. Doty, soon after, tendered the office of attorneygeneral to Jackson, who served five years and then resigned, when the Democrats came again into power. During his term he conducted many important cases, adding to his reputation as an able jurist. He took a deep interest in popular educa tion, and, in an educational convention in 1846, he reported as chairman of a com mittee a plan or scheme of a system of common schools and educational organixation, which, in its essential features, was afterwards incorporated into the State consti tution. He was also prominent in having the mineral lands brought into market, which aided and hastened the development of the southwestern part of the State. When the State came into the Union, Jackson was elected circuit judge of the fifth circuit, which took in the southwest and western part of the State — about one
