VOL XV.
No. n.
BOSTON.
NOVEMBER. 1903.
TIMOTHY OTIS HOWE, BY DUANE MOWRY. A MAN who has "seen" more than a quar ter of a century of continuous public service, and who has, during most of that service, been a conspicuous figure in his country's affairs,—who had been a United States Senator from his adopted State for a longer period than any of his con temporaries from that State; who had been on intimate personal and official relations with at least two Presidents of the Uni.ed States, and who held the implicit con fidence of one, who declined office, when to accept it involved the sacrifice of principles dear to his heart and vital, as he believed, to the best interests of his country, who dis charged, in an acceptable manner, the duties of a judge of the highest court of the State, who declined the offer of an appointment to the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for what ap pealed to him as cogent political reasons, although greatly desiring to accept the high and honorable position, who was an impor tant member of an international monetary conference, and who died "in the harness," holding a cabinet position,— such a man, law yer, jurist, statesman, diplomat, deserves more than a passing notice or a brief en comium. The career of such a man is, es sentially, public property, and it is fitting that an examination of the qualities which have given this country such a notable char acter he made. Such a man was the late Timothy Otis Howe of Wisconsin. The subject of this article was born in Liver-
more, Maine, February 24, 1816; he received an academic and professional education in his native State and was admitted to the bar there; he was a member of the Maine Legis lature in 1845, nl the latter part of which year he removed to Wisconsin; he was elected a judge of the Circuit Court in 1850, and by virtue thereof became a member of the Su preme Court of Wisconsin, and held the of fice until he resigned in 1855; he was elected a United States Senator from Wisconsin for three full terms, first taking his seat in 1861, and serving continuously for the following eighteen years; he was one of the commis sioners from the United States to the Inter national Monetary Conference, which met in Paris in April, 1881; he was named post master-general, by President Arthur in 1882; he died, while holding that office, at Kenosha, Wisconsin, March 25. 1883. Judge Howe was yet a young man when he set foot on the soil of the recently erected Territory of Wisconsin in 1845. Indeed, he was scarcely forty-five years old when he took his seat in the National Legislature in 1861. The intervening period represented, largely, the time which he gave to the prac tice of his profession, including a five-year sitting on the bench. In a State which had been so recently admitted into the Union— Wisconsin became a State in 1848—its liti gation must have been slight, and the cases tried of minor importance, both in the char acter of the legal questions, and in the amount of money involved; the jurispru
