The Autobiographical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes

Published by Harvard University Press 1973

The Autobiographical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes

Edited by: David J. Danelski and Joseph S. Tulchin

Volume 5 in the series Studies in Legal History

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674183414

Overview
Contents

About this book

Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) was lawyer, governor of New York, Supreme Court Justice, presidential candidate in 1916, Secretary of State in the Harding and Coolidge administrations, a member of the World Court, and Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 until his retirement in 1941. To some, Hughes appeared larger than life. Robert H. Jackson once said of him, "[He] looks like God and talks like God." But to those who knew him well, he was quite human, extraordinarily gifted, but human nonetheless. His Autobiographical Notes portray him as no biography could and provide comment on almost a century of American history as seen by one who played a part in shaping its course.

Hughes's notes reveal two sides of his personality--a serious side when he was at work, and a genial, sometimes humorous, side when he was relaxing or with friends and family. When he writes of unofficial life--especially his boyhood, college years, and early years at the bar--he is raconteur telling his story with a certain amount of humor; when he writes of his official life he tends to be matter-of-fact. The early chapters describe the formative influence which shaped his character: his loving but intellectually demanding parents and deeply religious training; his unusual early education, which took place mostly at home and gave full scope to his precocity. Hughes's accounts of college life in the 1870s at Madison (now Colgate) and Brown University and of his career as a young lawyer in the New York City of the 1880s and 1890s are valuable portraits of an era.

Brought up to a high sense of duty, Hughes, from the start of his career, felt bound to take worthy legal cases and it was his reputation for integrity and thoroughness that led to his selection as counsel in the gas and insurance investigations of 1905-1906. This was the turn of events that precipitated him into the public eye and, subsequently, into politics. The culmination of his career came in 1937 when he led the Supreme Court through a constitutional crisis and confronted Franklin Roosevelt in the Court packing battle. In the intervening thirty years, Hughes was a major figure in American political and legal circles. His Notes record his impressions of presidents, statesmen, and justices. His reflections on the diplomacy of the 1920s and on the causes leading up to the Second World War are of immense historical importance.

The editors have supplied an introduction to the Notes, commenting on Hughes's personality and public image, his political style and rise to fame. They have remained unobtrusive throughout, intervening only to clarify references and provide necessary details. For the rest, they let Hughes speak for himself in the crisp and clear style that reveals his unusual intelligence and the retentive and analytical mind that distinguished his conduct of affairs.

Justice Felix Frankfurther wrote of Hughes: "I have known or know about most of the leading men of my time both here and in England enough to justify me in forming a judgment. There isn't the slightest doubt that C.E.H. is among the few really sizable figures of my lifetime. He is three-dimensional and has impact." Here, in these Notes, is this great man drawn in life-size proportions.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments and a Note on Editing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	viii
Charles Evans Hughes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Editors’ Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Prefatory Note Charles Evans Hughes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
Chapter I. My Father and Mother Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Chapter II. Childhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
Chapter III. College Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter IV. Teaching and Studying Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Chapter V. Early Experiences at the Bar 1884–1887 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Chapter VI. First Firms 1888–1891 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Chapter VII. Teaching Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Chapter VIII. Practice Again 1893–1905 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
Chapter IX. The Gas and Insurance Investigations 1905–1906 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter Χ. The Governorship 1907–1910 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Chapter XI. The Supreme Court 1910–1916 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Chapter XII. 1916 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Chapter XIII. 1917–1921 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Chapter XIV. Secretary of State 1921–1925 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Chapter XV. Foreign Policy Problems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Chapter XVI. The Open Door and Other Issues Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Chapter XVII. Practice Again 1925–1930 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Chapter XVIII. Chief Justice 1930–1941 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	290
Appendix I. Ancestry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
Appendix II. Speeches–Methods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Appendix III. Memorandum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Appendix IV. Hughes as Governor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1973
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 29
- Main content: 363
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 19
- Other: 19 halftones
Keywords: LAW / General; Hughes, Charles Evans, 1862-1948.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674183414

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1973
ISBN: 9780674183407