Iowa Historical Record - 1885-1902 - L

Index

Iowa Historical Record 
v1-18; 1885-1902

L


Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Richard Barton.

JUDGE JAMES M. LOVE

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JAMES MADISON LOVE, son of John and Mary Vermillion Love, was born at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, March 4th, 1820.

His father died while he was a mere lad. His widowed mother removed to Zanesville, Ohio, when the subject of this sketch was twelve years of age. His opportunities for obtaining as education were limited and his school days ended at the age of fifteen.

From his earliest boyhood he was a devourer of books and libraries were his delight. His habits of study were such that he attained by himself a thorough mastery of English Grammar and of Rhetoric, for to become a skilled writer and speaker was his ambition. Without a teacher he mastered the first six books of Euclid. English Classics in prose and verse were his constant study. For a brief period he pursued the study of Latin and Mathematics at the Zanesville Academy. His study of Mathematics led him to engage in Civil Engineering under the late General Samuel R. Curtis, then in charge of government improvements of the Muskingum river. Returning to Virginia he began the study of Law in the office of an older brother, Thomas R. Love, with whom he remained one year, and then completed his course in the office of Judge Stillwell, of Zanesville, Ohio.

After entering upon the practice of his profession he entered the volunteer service in the Mexican War, was chosen captain of a company, and used often laughingly to say that in teaching military tactics, he was constantly reminded of the lines:

"She taught so well,
That she herself by teaching learned to spell."

At the close of the war he resumed his practice, but in 1850 removed to Keokuk, Iowa, and was soon associated with the late Justice Samuel F. Miller and the late John W. Rankin, sinning for himself immediate and distinguished success. His merit won for him election to the State Senate, where he served, 1852-1854, with conspicuous ability as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

But office sought again the man and by President Pierce he was appointed District Judge for Iowa, in 1855, as office which he honored for thirty-six years and until the time of his death, July 2, 1891.

Judge Love was a man whose personal presence would always attract attention. Of commanding stature with a large and well poised head, with a full black eye shaded, but never obscured, by projecting eyebrows, quiet and reserved in large companies, but to intimate friends singularly attractive by his remarkable conversational powers, he was one of a thousand. By close reading and thorough study in fields of literature, history and politics, he had a vast fund upon which to draw when in social intercourse with those who could sympathize with him in his views, or could give good reasons for differing when opposite views were held. While his own views were firmly maintained, he was always courteous to those who had reached different conclusions, listening patiently to an opponent until his best word was said, and then pleasantly replying and often with convincing power.

Judge Love was twice married. His first wife was Miss M. P. Thomasson, of Louisville, Kentucky. Upon the second day of January, 1864, he married Miss Mary Milburn, of St. Louis, Missouri, who survives him.

In his estimable wife Judge Love ever found a help-meet, who contributed much to his prosperity and to his renown. When a friend attempted to dissuade him from labors outside those which were required in his judicial position, he pleasantly remarked, "I am a very highly favored man. I have no work to do except what you see. My wife attends to everything about the home. She governs and educates the children, and does it a great deal better than I could. She is much more economical and competent to manage pecuniary affairs than I am, and so you see I have all my time to myself."

An intimate personal friend, Judge Hubbard, before the United States Circuit Court at Des Moines, said: "The nuggets of his knowledge did not lie on the surface, it was a mine to be worked. If you had his confidence and esteem, or if you had anything to give in return, he would literally load you down with jewels from his store-house of knowledge on all subjects. I have gone away from his room in the small hours of the morning feeling that I had held communion with the sages of the earth for all past time, not only in the law, but in literature, in poetry, in philosophy, in science."

Several years ago he published in The Forum, a state paper comparing the form of government of Great Britain with that of the United States with their respective checks and balances,, arriving at the conclusion, after a masterly demonstration that the government of the United States is far the most stable and least liable to be overturned by a turbulent democracy.

Upon the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, he prepared an essay in two parts, which has never been published. No one can read it without being impressed with the wide range of poetic, historic and literary knowledge which its production required. Those who have been fortunate enough to hear his lecture upon "A Review from a Lawyer's standpoint of the Case of Shylock against Antonio," can never forget its keen analysis, its sparkling wit, and its profound knowledge of literature." Not less remarkable is his lecture upon "Portia as a Lawyer," recently published in the American Law Review. During the first fourteen years of his service upon the bench, judicial duties were less onerous than at the later years, so that he had more frequent opportunities for indulging his taste for reading. After the burden of his office were greatly increased, that he failed to secure in time for outside study was more than made up in the intensity with which he pursued his search after knowledge, an intensity made possible through his previously formed habits of concentrated thought: these habits were the source of his great success as a Judge. His table at his boarding-house when away from home, and his satchel as he journeyed, held some book worthy his perusal, which served him as recreation when wearied by the earnest study of cases brought before him for decision.

In the year 1875, Judge Love accepted a position in the Law Department of the State University of Iowa, as Professor of Commercial Law and the Law of Persons and Personal Rights. This professorship he held till the time of his death. For three years after the resignation of Chancellor Ross, he acted as Chancellor of the Department. For one year also he lectured upon Medical Jurisprudence before the Medical Department of the University. To his lectures he gave the same conscientious preparation that marked his judicial decisions, decisions so just that during a service of thirty-six years not more than three times were they reversed by the U. S. Supreme Court on appeal.

It need not therefore be said that his instructions were invaluable to nearly twelve hundred students who graduated from the Law Department of the University during his connection therewith. He was greatly beloved by students to whom he gave much valuable counsel outside the lecture room. Their devotion to him was touching during his last course of lectures given in his enfeebled condition of body. Their attention to his comfort in the class-room was specially gratifying to him. During his lecture term he gave himself no rest. Cases were argued before him in the presence of his classes. Briefs previously submitted were studied at his rooms. His power of abstraction was so great that he could lay down the study of an important case, pass at once to his lecture as if its subject had been his immediate study, and at the close of the lecture resume his case as if no interruption had occurred.

But his chief work remains to be considered. Here his most intimate acquaintances, who are best fitted to speak, must be heard.

Judge John F. Dillon, at one time Circuit Judge, in whose circuit Judge Love's district was placed, says:

"Judge Love leaves a name and memory which are priceless to his family and friends. I do not think there exists a man who believes that it were possible that Judge Love would do an intentional wrong or omit a known duty. For ten years he was my associate, and I never heard him utter a word that was unfit to be said to one's wife or daughter, or in any presence. He was not gentle because he had no strong feelings or strong passions. He had his passions and his natural impulsiveness under strict discipline, but they broke loose, as they ought, whenever he had to deal with the fraud or moral wrong-doing of either suitor or counsel. His nature was loyal, and capable, as I know, of the strongest, most disinterested, and faithful friendships. My highest ideal of a gentleman, in the true sense of the word, I find in Judge Love. By gentleman I mean not mere polish of outward manners but an ever-counscious, instinctive sense of propriety, of what is exactly the right thing to do or to say, and a willing subordination of self to the pleasure or welfare of others. Like Sidney he would not simply have shared, but would have passed the only cup of water to the unknown and dying soldier who lay beside him.

"Turning to my friend as a Judge I need not enlarge upon his acknowledged excellencies. I am weighing my words when I say that in my opinion Judge Love was the best nisi prius Judge I have ever seen. He was a delightful as well as useful associate on the bench. Justice Miller has often said to me, 'What a satisfaction it is to sit on a trial with Love. He never obtrudes his opinion; but when you ask it, he gives it without hesitation, coming at once to the point and expressing himself with clearness and decision.' How justly he merited the praise none can fully know, save those who, like myself, have had the good fortune to sit with him and to be aided by him. He was so thoroughly grounded in the principles and fundamentals of the law that his logical and clear mind made him feel that he was not dependent upon mere cases to guide him in his judgments. He carried in his hand the torch of justice lighted from on high, and he walked in the illumination of its steady and constant flame.

"His fine judicial instincts were almost unerring. He struck at once for the heart and justice of the matter.

"I have spoken of his excellence as a trial judge, because it was chiefly as snch a judge that his life was passed. But I think that his real place would have been on an appellate bench. He was, what every judge must be, a natural dialectician. He was, moreover, a master of strong English and of forcible expression. His judgments on any high bench of judicature would have given him high fame. He wrote comparatively few opinions that are published but closely examined they will be found to be work of the first order. I have often heard him read an opinion and then he would fold it up, put it in his pocket, and decline to consent to its publication.

"He must have been conscious of his powers, but he seems to have been not thoroughly self-confident and assured of them. He appeared at times to feel that he had fallen short of what he might have accomplished. One day he came into my room and abruptly exclaimed 'Judge, my life has been a failure, I am now past my meridian and I have neither riches nor fame.' But in his calmer moments he must have realized that this was an outburst of impatience. He must have known how deep-rooted he was in the esteem of all his fellow-citizens and of the entire bar, and this is the most priceless reward any man can have. His life so far from being in any respect a failure was in the truest estimate a splendid success."

Another writes, "The qualities which distinguished him at the bar, ripened and matured by the exercise of the functions of a judge into a more complete acquisition of the reason and the philosophy of the law, and he is distinguished notably in his rulings upon the evidence in a case, for his acute insight into its true bearing, and his convincing reasons for the law, by which the evidence should be admitted or rejected. The analytical power of his mind had fair play, not in advocacy of one side of a question, but, as truth is many sided, it was utilized impartially to present the whole truth in its various forms and colors, and to concentrate its entire light upon the point to be elucidated. He was not a case lawyer. It may truly be said of him, in the words of a recent biographer of Marshall, that 'the original bias of his mind was to general principles and comprehensive views, rather than to technical or recondite learning. He loved to expatiate upon the theory of equity, to elucidate the expansive doctrines of commercial jurisprudence, and to give a rational cast, even to the most subtle dogmas of the common law.' His even temper, gentle manner, and unwearied patience in hearing arguments, his modest suggestion of doubt and difficulty, which courts argument, indeed demands it, his quiet comprehension of the decisive points of a case, his clear, simple, concise, and impartial statement of the facts of a case, especially in charging juries, rendered him deservedly popular with counsel practicing in his court, and who, though, as sometimes happens, not convinced by his decision, yet felt that a difficult task was imposed upon them in attempting to secure its reversal.

"Though his judicial career comprised the years in which war raged, when vindictive feeling and great political excitement were engendered, he ever held the scales justly poised, and no tincture of prejudice or undue bias can be found to have stained his decisions, or to have warped his judgment. This tribute his political opponents have ever been ready to accord him."

Judge Hubbard, previously quoted, says of him in this connection, "Though himself a Democrat, he took no part whatever in politics after his appointment as federal judge. His whole energies were devoted to equip himself for the brilliant career which followed. Until the passage of the bankrupt law in 1868, the business of the federal court in Iowa was comparatively light and Judge Love improved all his spare time not only in a deep study of the law in all its branches, but in the study of history, literature, poetry, and political economy. He had studied with great care the administration of bankrupt laws both in England and America, and was thus prepared to construe and apply all the provisions of the bankrupt law of 1868 in the spirit of fairness and of justice to the unfortunate debtor for whose relief it was intended. Before the volume of business brought into his court under this law was reduced, foreign railway corporations brought a large number of personal injury and other cases into the federal court. Corporation law, and especially the law of personal injury, was new and just fairly before the court for solution and settlement. A large number of Iowa Railways went into bankruptcy and mortgages were foreclosed upon more than half the mileage of the state. Judge Dillon, Circuit Judge for seven states, was compelled to leave Iowa cases almost entirely in the hands of Judge Love. He came to the work thoroughly prepared by long study, by the aid of a retentive memory, with a mind powerful and quick in analysis, and with the pure and quickened conscience of a great equity judge. His anxiety was so great lest justice should be delayed, that he literally worked day and night to keep the business of his court closely finished. He was almost a stranger to his own family during his vacations and frequently took his meals in his large office room at home." A large part of his vacations was given to his University Professorship, and there, as has been before stated, he devoted his hours out of the lecture hall to study of the cases which had been argued before him at the previous term. This incessant labor without doubt shortened his life. Resuming Judge Hubbard's statement, "Every case had his most careful and painstaking study. In cases of importance he took copious notes. He listened to the arguments on both sides with the intentness of a client. When he summed up, his instructions were so clear, so concise, and the questions involved pointed out so distinctly that the jury could seldom go wrong. Lawyers who had spent weeks and months in preparing their cases for trial were frequently amazed when Judge Love had concluded his charge to the jury to find that he had stated the material facts and the law in a more logical and forcible way than they had been able to conceive or express them.

"He had the keenest sense of humor, but the solemn responsibility of his work so impressed him that very little of it escaped him from the bench. Many years ago no rule existed limiting arguments to the jury. A very fine orator once occupied two days in addressing the jury in his court in a case of no very great importance. The next morning on opening court the judge, in a very pleasant manner, and with a twinkle in his eye, remarked that he had handed down to the clerk a rule limiting arguments to the jury to two hours on each side, but he hoped the bar would not regard it as a rule for the suppression of oratory.

"Most judges have special knowledge in some one or more branches of the law, he had special knowledge of all branches. Admiralty, patents, commercial, real estate, torts, and domestic relations as administered by the common law and equity courts of Great Britain, were all at his command. He had studied deeply the civil law and was as familiar with Justinian and the Code Napoleon, as with Coke or Blackstone. Constitutional law had received his most careful study. He had studied Pan Slavic law, and was familiar with the laws, domestic institutions, customs and condition of the common people of Russia."

At a reunion of the Pioneer Law Makers, Judge Wright presented a series of resolutions touching the life and services of Judge Love from which the following extracts are taken:

" He lived and died 'without a stain upon the lustre of his name, as free from reproach as from fear.' It is but just and merited praise that as a lawyer, he ranked among the ablest of the great west; as a legislator he was the peer of any of his colleagues; as a judge he was ever honest, painstaking, laborious, courteous, learned and strong; as a citizen he was honorable, prompt and true to every engagement; as a husband and father he was a model worthy of all imitation. 'The thinker dies but thoughts live forever;' how blest the world that his many thoughts and utterances from the bench and from other spheres of his active life still live as guides and aids in the years to follow.

"This outline of the duties and labors of Judge Love throughout a period the most eventful in our State and Nation, in an official position above all exposed to the public gaze, to the scrutiny of brother judges, and to the criticism of an intelligent bar, affords, if anything can, a test of character, of learning, of fidelity, and of judicial integrity. It is safe to say that through this critical test he passed unscathed, and that never has a reflection, from any source entitled to respect, been cast upon his purity as a man, or his fitness or his integrity as a judge.

"Throughout his judicial career his characteristics have been a modesty of demeanor almost shrinking, an entire absence of all parade and ostentation, and a simple dignity born of innate virtue and self-respect.

"Those to whom he revealed his real-self in the quiet of familiar intercourse, cherish his memory with warmest affection.

"It is a laudable ambition to leave the world the better for our having lived in it; that we shall have added something to the world's stock of knowledge, and to its surplus wealth; and above all that we shall leave a life worthy of all emulation. Judge Love accomplished all these things. His life and character are pure and spotless."