Index

Iowa Historical Record 
v1-18; 1885-1902

W

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Richard Barton.

Oziah Phelps Waters died at his home in Burlington, Iowa, on the 28th of last June, aged fifty-eight years. He was Past Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, and Past Grand Commander of Knights Templar, and was a most worthy exponent of this beneficent Order. At the time of his death he was the chief representative in Iowa of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States.

George Grover Wright

"The stock of materials by which any nation is rendered flourishing and prosperous are its industry, its knowledge or skill, its morals, its execution of justice, its courage, and the national union in directing these powers to one point and making them all center in the public benefit." - Burke

"The worth of a State in the long run is the worth of the individuals composing it." - John Stuart Mill

Iowa has been exceedingly fortunate in the "stock of materials" which her builders have used. "One by one" these builders have been gathered home after some glimpses of the worth of the State into the structure of which their individual lives have entered.

Few survive to glory in the steady prosperity for which their early labors laid the foundation and toward the superstructure of which their life long efforts have so signally contributed. Most have rested from their labors, but their works do follow them.

Many have builded their lives into the lives of the later generation and so continue with us in the influence of noble living.

To no one of the band of pioneers has been given so grand an opportunity of molding the character of the State, as to him who for a quarter of a century was in direct touch with the young men of the State into whose hands are committed her destinies.

George Grover Wright was the fifth son of John Wright and Rachel Seamen.

The Wrights came originally from Wales and the Seamens from England. John Wright was a mason by trade, starting in life in New Jersey, removing to Pennsylvania and thence to Bloomington, Indiana, where George G. Wright was born March 24, 1820.

His opportunities for obtaining an education were meagre, as he was left fatherless at five years of age, but were so faithfully improved that at the age of fifteen he was prepared to enter the State University of Indiana in his native town, from which institution he graduated in 1839.

An older brother, Joseph A. Wright, a practicing attorney, received him immediately after graduation as a student in his office. This brother was a man of prominence in his State, who was chosen Governor, and then United States Senator, and in 1867 was appointed United States Minister to Germany, where he died while in service.

In 1840 George G. Wright was admitted to the bar and in September of the same year, he entered upon the practice of his profession in Keosauqua in the Territory of Iowa.

On October 19, 1843, he was united in marriage with Hannah Mary Dibble, daughter of Thomas M. and Ruth Gates Dibble, who resided upon a farm near Keosauqua, to which place they removed from Saratoga county, New York, where their daughter, Hannah (Mrs. G. G. Wright), was born in the month of August, 1820.

It was their privilege nearly three years since to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. The occasion was most memorable in the fact that the silver anniversary of the wedding of their eldest son, Thomas S., and Mary E. Tuttle Wright, was celebrated at the same time. Children and grandchildren of the elder couple were all present, together with a large company of warm personal friends. Over the pleasant memories of this joyous occasion soon fell the deed shadow caused by the sudden death of the son in the city of New York.

In response to the congratulations of his friends, Judge Wright spoke most feelingly of the years past.

"On that very early morning of October 19th, 1843, in the historic county of Van Buren, in the old farm house, most comfortable and quite pretentious for those early days, but now would be counted not quite up to Iowa's improvement and development, in that happy home of Judge Thomas Dibble - among the best and truest men ever of this or any State - I took those vows which made one of two willing and loving hearts. If I had possibly looked forward to this date, I should have said, counting the years, not my surroundings, nor the occasion - How long the time!

"On this happy day, in this new Iowa, surrounded by so many friends, thinking of the many changes, of how blest we have been in home, family, friends, and all that can make life desirable and happy, I now look back and say - How short the time!

"Taking a young wife from a well-provided home to new duties, and to possible, if not actual, poor and scanty surroundings, but recognizing and sincerely emphasizing how much she has done for all - blessed with a family of which I can say with just pride, they have never brought pain to our hearts, nor reproach to themselves, nor incurred just censure for misconduct, or failure of duty - whether useful and helpful to others or otherwise - I repeat, how short the time!"

Turning then to the old settlers about him and recalling the achievements wrought by them and the many who had passed beyond present activities he says:

"Not a few of you and of those you represent, have taken a large part in giving us a State so proud, laws so just and essential to our greatness and strength. Thinking of this and of the duty of every citizen to magnify and uphold these laws, I am led to say that we do this in proportion as we stand by the law and all its sacred mandates.

"'Sovereign Law, the State's collected will Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.'

"This thought has been the supreme dream and hope of my life. And now as the years come upon me, and when more than ever I fear dangers confront us, it is my constant prayer and aspiration."

In the first year of Iowa's statehood Mr. Wright was elected prosecuting attorney of Van Buren county.

From this position he entered the State Senate in 1848, as a Whig, having defeated his father-in-law, Judge Dibble, who was the Democratic candidate.

At the Congressional election of 1850, he was the Whig candidate for the district, comprising the southern half of the State. Although leading his ticket largely, his personal popularity could not overcome the waning strength of his party, and he suffered defeat.

Five years later his legal ability was so conspicuous as to secure for him, at the age of thirty-five years, an election to the Supreme Bench as Chief Justice, a place which he retained by successive reelections and appointment until 1870, when he was elected to the Senate of the United States. His competitor was Hon. W. B. Allison whose promotion from the House was deferred only two years.

His term on the Iowa Supreme Bench includes the time of all the important formulations and changes in the fundamental, judicial and law systems of the State. His opinions are scattered through the first thirty volumes of the State Reports.

In 1865 Judge Wright removed his family to Des Moines.

Declining a reelection at the close of his Senatorial term, Judge Wright resumed practice as a member of the law firm of Wright, Gatch & Wright - Col. C. H. Gatch, and his son, Thomas S. Wright, constituting the other members of the firm.

Soon after his removal to Des Moines, in company with Judge C. C. Cole he established the Iowa Law School, retaining the services as instructor of the late Dr. W. G. Hammond. After the graduation of its third class, the school was removed to Iowa City and became the Law Department of the State University of Iowa under the Chancellorship of Judge Hammond.

Up to the time of Judge Wright's death he continued as lecturer at the University.

For the last ten years of his life Judge Wright retired from active practice in his profession, but retained his hold upon practical affairs in the Presidency of the Polk County Savings Bank, to which position he was elected in 1882.

For two years, 1887-8, he was President of the American Bar Association.

For several years he acted as President of the State Agricultural Society, in the work of which he took a deep interest.

Judge Wright was specially happy upon festal occasions charming all by his brilliancy and his wit.

Judge Wright was one of three civilians admitted to membership in the Loyal Legion of America.

In public as in private life he was ever the same affable and courteous gentleman.

As for many years he made annual visits to the State University, he was so well known and so universally esteemed by the citizens of Iowa City that the recognition of his worth came unbidden, and was voiced in addresses which constitute a part of this sketch.

Judge Wright's death occurred January 11th, 1896.

He leaves a wife, three sons, and two daughters. Two sons, his eldest and his youngest preceded his departure.

Few men have lived who have touched the world at so many points as did Judge Wright. Every point touched was left brighter for the contact.

His character was so perfectly rounded as to present the same surface from whatever side it was viewed. His associates in senate halls or at the bar, upon the bench or in the business office found him ever the same courteous gentleman, as wise in counsel as he was ready to respect the counsel of others.

No one who has met him in social circles will ever forget the cheer which his bright smile, and his ready flow of conversation imparted.

To all whom he met, in whatever station in life, the hand was extended in friendly grasp and its warmth reached the heart of the man privileged with even the briefest recognition.

We are permitted to record here the tributes of those best fitted to speak of his worth from long and intimate acquaintance.

Upon the twentieth day of February at a memorial service held in Iowa City Judge Rothrock, of the Supreme Court, paid the following tribute, here given entire, as it evidently comes from the heart of one well qualified to speak of his deceased friend:

"The presence of this large audience in the former capital of the State, to do honor to the memory of a distinguished man, strikingly manifests the love and affection entertained for him by the instructors and students of the State University and the people of this city.

"George G. Wright was so well known to all classes of people in this State, that the announcement of his death caused a sense of personal bereavement to thousands who remembered him not only as an illustrious citizen of the commonwealth, but as a true and sincere friend. He was a prominent figure in public affairs more than fifty years ago. He commenced his career in the Territory of Iowa, in the year 1840, when what is now a rich, prosperous, powerful and influential State of more than two millions of inhabitants, contained a population of about forth thousand. He entered the practice of the profession of the law with others who became distinguished at the bar in what was a mere frontier settlement. The whole Territory of Iowa did not then contain a population equal to that of each of a number of the counties of the State at the present time. He was not the heir of fortune, he had no other capital than his brain. By reason of a physical infirmity he was incapacitated for the manual labor of a pioneer. He practiced his profession for some fifteen years, and attained high standing as a lawyer, and in the year 1855 he was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He continued a member of that tribunal with an interval of a few months until September, 1870. His opinions while a member of that Court are to be found in twenty-nine volumes of the official reports. In 1870 he was elected to the high office of Senator of the United States, and, after serving with honor to himself and the State, for a term of six years, he voluntarily retired from public official life, and returned to the practice of his profession, which he pursued for several years with marked distinction in the highest court of the State, and in the Supreme Court of the United States. later on he retired from the practice of law, but he took an active interest in public affairs down to within a short time before his death.

"He was for a time President of the National Bar Association, and was always present and an active participant at the reunions of old settlers and other public assemblies of the people. After he had passed his three score years and ten, he continued in constant touch with present events. He was not content with living in the past. He was intensely interested in the present, and he associated with the young and the old. Generations come and go with the average lives of men, but he belonged not only to the generations with which he commenced his career, but was a prominent man of affairs in the present, so that no one thought of him as an old man. I cannot close this general review of his public career without reference to the warm friendship and constant interest which he manifested in behalf of the welfare of this University. His visits here as a lecturer in the Law Department were always a source of pleasure to him, which he frequently expressed to his acquaintances and friends. The upbuilding and development of that Department and its present standing was a constant source of gratification to him.

"The practice and administration of law, was really his life work. His other public work was temporary. But he was well equipped by nature, education, and learning to adorn any public station. It has been said that the law is a jealous mistress. It is true that it requires the closest application, and the earnest study and untiring efforts of the life time of most men to become distinguished lawyers. But Judge Wright was an exception to that rule. He was a man of diversified acquirements. Some men succeed at the bar who cannot acquire distinction upon the bench. Others, who fail as trial lawyers, may become acceptable, and even great jurists. Judge Wright, in all the varied pursuits of life, as lawyer, judge, statesman or in business affairs, was eminently successful. He was a master workman in every calling or position to which he devoted his attention. The young man of to-day who is in course of preparation for the bar has the aid of the law school and access to vast law libraries. Judge Wright had none of these advantages. I do not think it is extravagant to say that there are now in the State private law libraries which contain more volumes than were to be found in all the Territory of Iowa when Judge Wright made his beginning in the profession in 1840. In those days more reliance was had upon the reasoning faculties - the power to analyze and apply the law by logical lines of thought, and the application of the principles underlying the issues involved in the controversy, than the resort to current opinions of others contained in text-books and reports. I have sometimes thought that while it was more difficult then than now to rise to distinction at the bar, yet when eminence was once attained, it was far greater than it is in this generation. The pioneers in the law were the men who laid the foundations of the structure. The present jurisprudence of this country rests upon that ground work. In other words the formative period of our jurisprudence has passed away, and much of the modern practice consists of a search for current decisions of courts, which, when examined, are found to be based mainly upon opinions pronounced in the years which have long since passed away. It is not to be denied that new questions arise upon new conditions founded upon new inventions, and the march of civilization to a higher degree of perfection. But while the conditions are new and modern, and the questions appear to be novel, they are nearly all determined by the same rules, and founded upon the same principles of justice, which the law had long since settled and made lasting and permanent. George G. Wright did not grow old or antiquated in the law. He was fully abreast with the profession, when he was seventy years of age.

"In the private walks of life, as a citizen, neighbor and friend, no man excelled him in all that goes to make up purity of character and true nobility of manhood. to young and old, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, he was the same kind considerate and helpful adviser, counselor and friend. He was endowed by nature with that unselfish consideration for others which endeared him to all who came within the range of his influence. The pleasant and cordial greeting, the kindly smile, and the manifestations of a pure heart were a benediction to the old and an inspiration to the young.

I became personally acquainted with him in the year 1861, and through all the years from that time until the close of his life I am proud to say our relations were those of the closest friendship. I was often a guest at his home. For a number of years after he returned to the practice of law, he attended every term of the Supreme Court at Council Bluffs, Davenport and Dubuque. I saw much of his private and domestic life. The home life and the every day walk and conversation of a great man outline phases of character which are always interesting to the public. Much has been written upon the private lives of Washington, Lincoln, Grant and other conspicuous men whose services to the country have made their names famous for all time. It is not inappropriate that something should be said of George G. Wright in this presence as a man apart from his public character. It is not given to us to divine the thoughts, intents and purposes of even those with whom we are most intimately associated. We do, however, make up correct estimates of character by judging the motives and the hearts of men by a standard based upon their acts and conduct. It is not difficult to discover and unmask the dissembler and the hypocrite. And the associates of a true and upright man know of his nobility of character with unerring certainty. George G. Wright in his every day life was an exemplification of all the graces of a refined, cultured and true gentleman - a noble type of disinterested and devoted friendship. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion, and for many years publicly professed his faith in its doctrines.

"I stood with him by the open casket of departed friends, and heard his voice uplifted in paying the last tribute of love and respect for the dead. At the funeral of the late Judge Seevers less than a year ago, he made a short address abounding in the strongest expressions of love and sympathy. He followed the singing of the verses beginning with the words, 'They are gathered homeward from every land, one by one.' He named many of the mutual friends of the deceased and himself who had gone before, and his repetition of the words 'one by one' after the mention of each name was a rare specimen of the most touching, affecting and thrilling eloquence. And at the funeral of Samuel J. Kirkwood in the city he made an address in which he manifested his faith in this language: 'Standing upon the deck of his princely steamer, pacing back and forth, was the proud commander; in the very top mast was the son, the apple of his eye, proud of his courage and of his daring. The son whispered down to him 'Father I grow dizzy and shall fall.' The father answered back, 'Look up and you shall not fall.' And so it is. Whatever may be around us, or whatever the dangers or besetments, look up, and there by the side of the Great Weaver, in time we shall stand, and there by the side of the Great Weaver stands our friend to-day; if we shall live as he lived, in time we shall stand by his side.'

"And on the occasion of the memorial services in the Supreme Court upon the death of L. D. Stockton, a Judge of that Court, more than thirty years ago, in closing his address Judge Wright said, 'Such was his life and such his death. Others who with him assisted in fashioning the laws and institutions of our young commonwealth have gone before him. Some of us remember Rich, Gray and Gilbert and Carlton and Reeves, and Cole, and Whicher and other noble spirits, who with him, whose death we are now called upon to mourn, braved the trials and vicissitudes incident to a new country; men devoted to their profession and who have left the impress of their genius and learning upon the history of our State. Life to them is no more. We still live, but must son follow. Be it ours to so discharge every duty, that we can be prepared as was our friend for a happy admission in to the courts of the Great Judge of the quick and the dead.'

"Judge Wright was a model husband and father. For many years, it was not ordered that he should be called upon to mourn the loss of a member of his family. But that event came to him at last, and but a short time before his own death, in the death of his eldest son, Thomas S. Wright, one of the ablest lawyers and best men that this State has ever produced. That was a crushing blow to the father and mother, and I know something of how he was bereaved by that great loss. In a conversation with him we talked of death as a great mystery. I requested a statement of his belief in a future state of existence by asking the question, 'If a man die shall he live again?' His answer was 'Yes, yes,' and he repeated the words of the great apostle: 'This body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.' These declarations of his belief abundantly show that he accepted the Christian faith without doubt or hesitation.

"Socrates said to the judges who condemned him, 'Death is either a dreamless sleep that knows no waking, or it carries me where I can converse with the spirits of the illustrious dead. I go to death, you go to life; but which of us is going the better way God only knows.' And the hope of immortality was as doubtfully expressed by another eminent Greek philosopher, who when about to yield up his life was asked by one dear to him if they would meet again. His response was 'I have asked of the hills that look eternal; of the clear streams that flow forever; of the stars among whose azure fields the raised spirits walk in glory.' Helpless we stand at the close of the life of George G. Wright and with feeble imperfect words attempt to tell the story of his long and illustrious career. But we rest in the full belief that 'earth never pillowed upon her bosom a truer son nor heaven opened wide its portals to receive a manlier spirit.'"

The following tribute was at the same time rendered from the affectionate heart of a former pupil, Judge Ryan, who recalled most feelingly the characteristics of a beloved instructor and friend:

"To our late lamented and departed friend, Judge Wright, should be accorded the honor that he was the Father of the Law Department of the State University of Iowa.

"It is true in the beginning, a permanent organization of a law school was not contemplated; subsequent events developed the possibilities that brought this about.

"Near thirty years since at the suggestion of Judge Wright, prompted by the desire of his eldest son to study law, a number of young men in the city of Des Moines associated themselves together as a law class. Judge Wright, then on the Supreme bench of the State, aided by Judge Cole, one of the Associate Justices, were the instructors of this class. As this class progressed during the first year, new students in such numbers so urgently applied as made it not only possible, but almost imperative to organize a second class for the coming year. About this time our late lamented Chancellor Hammond was added to the corps of professors. It was during the year of this second class that the idea of a permanent organization took definite form. The first and second classes each began their year in the month of January; the third class, with increased numbers, held its first term beginning in September, so that the terms of the law school might correspond with those of the University. After the first, second and third classes were graduated, the Iowa Law School was transplanted, or transferred, to and became the Law Department of the State University of Iowa.

"Because my name was upon the rolls of one of those classes of this early day of which I speak, and because Judge Wright was one of our instructors, I have now public leave to speak of him in that capacity.

"It is scarcely necessary to remind you that the date to which we have referred is at the close of the great Rebellion.

'Grim visaged was has smoothed his wrinkled front.'

"The young citizen soldiers were returning to again take up the vocations of peace. Striplings who had left college walls to take their places in the ranks of war, that duty done, returned as ambitious to stand in the front rank in time of peace as they had been to march there in time of war. A large per cent. of these, your elder brothers comprising these three classes were composed of this material. Of them, 'Tom Wright' deserves the chief distinction, for he was not only a soldier but was the first student enrolled in the first class and the greatest lawyer the school has yet produced. It was through his instrumentality that his father took the initial step that resulted in and eventually developed the Law Department of the State University.

"When I speak to you of Judge Wright on this memorial occasion, standing as it were by two new made graves, there rises before me side by side, the vision of two great lawyers, two grand men, two beautiful characters, two lovely lives, the father and the son, inseparable when associated with the early days of the law school, inseparable in life, inseparable in grandeur of character, inseparable in death. 'Tom' went home first; when tidings came of his sudden and untimely end, the blow fell upon his father with such crushing force as to forbid a long separation. From that hour he steadfastly contemplated his dissolution. He died in the fullness of years, at the end of an active life, 'full of honors blushing thick upon him.'

'Like one that wraps the draperies of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.'

"My friends, what can I say to you of Judge Wright as an instructor that is not already known to every member of the Law Department, and perhaps to all of you? I need not speak of his superior learning; he has left behind him in the archives of the State testimonials that stand now and will so stand through all time as fixed monuments upon which future judicial reckonings will depend. These are more eloquent than words of eulogy; when we speak of him in the limited sphere of a professor or instructor in the class room, we are not unmindful of his honorable career at the bar, nor his more brilliant record on the bench, where lay his chief excellence, nor yet of his record, when called to the highest place in the gift of the people of this State in national councils, and yet we, his students, his boys, admire him most in this narrower circle of the class room, where he was more exclusively our own. Whatever else there was grand in his character or his career, outside of the class room, were but rays reflected through windows in our temple in whose light he stood. They brought out his grand characteristics in bolder relief.

"In class he was always intensely earnest and not infrequently became so absorbed in the recitations that the hour sometimes lengthened indefinitely, and himself absorbed in the subject his class was none the less so, and so every year from the first to the close, his very life was built into and became a part of the institution of which he was the founder. That structure will remain a monument to his memory when monumental piles have crumbled to dust. Great truths and legal principles partially comprehended from a study of the books, under his tutelage and magic touch grew and unfolded till they took on a profounder meaning, new beauties. He brought order out of chaos, harmony out of discord. He smoothed out and made straight what which otherwise would have been a hopeless tangle. He taught the law in its broadest, highest and purest sense; the science of government, the precedents, the surest record of the history of the past; the store house in which the advancement of civilization for all ages had been garnered; beautiful in every feature, grand in all its attributes, suppressing vice, guarding virtue, affording a remedy for every wrong. Thus there arose before the eye the magnificent temple of law, symmetrical and beautiful, justice and truth blazoned on every stone in its structure; so broad and comprehensive in its proportions that it included all classes and conditions of men, in all possible relations to each other, both as to persons and property.

"Chief among memory's treasures we cherish that ever genial and kind consideration manifested towards us. He called us 'my boys' and gave us a place in his regard, akin to that accorded to his own sons. Who of us can ever forget his kindly greetings, either in class or out of it? Who ever knew him to be so engaged that he had not time for a friendly word? Or who can recall a single unkind act, look or word that could now in the least mar his memory?

"For nearly thirty years he has kept a warm corner for us in his great heart, exclusively our own. The organization of the first class was a labor of love, and his connection with the school continued to be so to the end. Shortly after his last visit to the University, he spoke feelingly of your marked and kind attentions to him, and the honors accorded him on that occasion. He spoke of the great pleasure that this and similar occasions gave him, running back over his whole course, and a tear-drop stood in his eye when he added, that he feared he had met 'his boys' for the last time.

"I close by saying that his friends marked with great comfort that so many from the University attended his burial. It touched a chord that the presence of all the dignitaries, State and National, could not sound. To us he was and in memory we will ever cherish him, the 'grand old man of Iowa.'"

"He needs no statute or inscription to reveal his greatness;
He needs no columns pointing to the heaven to tell us of his home."

Brief extracts are made from other addresses. From the glowing tribute of Mr. O'Connell, a chosen representative of the students of the Law Department of the University, are given a few words indicating the hold which Judge Wright has upon his students and the source of his power as an instructor:

"His students loved him with a tenderness that is rarely exhibited in the ordinary relations of this life; and I do not believe we ever left his presence without a higher and nobler conception of our duties, socially, morally and professionally.

"If I were asked in what capacity he most impressed me - what elements in his great and varied character predominatingly manifested themselves to me - in a word, in what consisted that magic charm by which he won the hearts of men in every walk and position of life - I would say that above and beyond all others were those rugged and clean cut principles so prominently stamped upon his every lineament, conveying to every observer, in nature's sweetest and choicest language, manly honor and Christian virtue.

* * * * * *

"In spirit and sentiment I can see him still, as he was wont to appear in our midst, typifying in the dignity of his personality those exterior evidences so characteristic of interior greatness; the unsullied snows of three-quarters of a century resting lightly upon his venerable brow, while in his voice there was an eloquence which elevated the majesty of law and the dignity of citizenship to a higher plane and a clearer view. It seems but yesterday he was with us, and as we gazed upon his splendid presence, nearing, as it was, the hallowed twilight of a glorious day, the lusty shouts of buoyant youth which his coming always awakened, became suddenly subdued, and deep down in the sacred privacy of two hundred hearts were registered two hundred holy vows to make the peerless example of his life the gauge and standard of our own most ambitious future."

Professor McBride, whose boyhood days were passed in the neighborhood of the home of Judge Wright's early manhood, presents another view of his many sided character:

"Before the men of the Collegiate Faculty Judge Wright came, not as instructor, not as statesman, not as the maker and moulder of laws, although we knew that he had been and was all of these; rather, I think, we knew him in those more charming if less notable fields of life's activity where we claimed him as companion and as friend. The citizen, the pioneer, the philosopher, the man of wide and generous sympathy, of gentle manner, and of cultivated speech, such he was to us, nor less the statesman, orator and teacher. Nor was he less great on this his purely social, human side. No man had readier repartee or greater wealth of pleasant anecdote. His long residence in Iowa effected to make the history of Iowa simply the memory of his active years, and none more fully understood, more highly prized that wonderful experience.

"Greatly as Judge Wright valued those gifts of political preferment which along his life fell to his share, still, if I mistake not to him the dearest possession of his heart was the memory of those early years when to the woods and prairies of Iowa he brought the enthusiasm of his youth. When, not many months ago, if personal allusions may be pardoned here, I chanced to meet Judge Wright for a moment's conversation, I thought to call out some of his Washington experiences and asked about some of the men distinguished in their time in court, and senate. Our dear old friend replied indeed, but forthwith changed the subject and said, "You lived once in Van Buren did you not?" - and then old times came back like memories of yesterday. We walked together as man and boy beneath primeval woods, we traversed the unfurrowed prairie, we knocked at many a settler's cabin door and called the roll of those who in silence built the broad foundations of the State, whose sons have since to fame and honor come and wealth though the fathers know it not. We saw again the pellucid waters of the great Des Moines, clear then as any spring, unvexed as yet by silt of cultivated fields, though stirred betimes by the paddles of many a puffing boat bringing to those shaded banks, to seats unused, new household gods. Again we heard the music of song and psalm, from that elder day breathing in worship when church and temple there was none. We saw the merriment of the marriage feast, and stood in silence about the rude plank coffin where in some lonely cabin far apart grim death had claimed his own. These were the cherished memories of Judge Wright. In such warm experiences the nobility of his character found root and rich nutrition.

* * * * * *

"We are sometimes told that the rude conditions under which our social fabric took its rise preclude refinement; that Americans are 'the most generous indeed, but least cultivated people in the world.' As if refinement, cultivation, culture were matters of form and dress and not the rich outgoings of the life and heart. What is the true type of manhood? If in brave deeds to bear a manly part, to meet one's neighbor as he is and love his excellence, to bear prosperity with wisdom; to meet the lot of ordinary man, its joy, its sorrow, its tragedy and disappointment, with spirit unperturbed, and over all to lift a sunny face that helps and comforts others, - if this be manhood, then let America, let Iowa, call the long roll of her pioneers and meet the world. Such was the manhood of our friend so lately moving here among us.

"'And thus he bore without abuse The grand old name of gentleman.'"

Judge Wade representing the later Alumni of the University, emphasized the tribute of Judge Ryan and presented the qualities of Judge Wright as shown in his contact with men of all conditions in life:

"As he walked about the street, he met his friends by the score, and they were always greeted with a smiling face which showed the radiance of a pure, unsullied soul. No one was too poorly clad to receive a bow of recognition and a sunny smile."

* * * * * *

Judge Wade closed his address introducing a quotation from a recent address of Judge Wright in affectionate remembrance of associates of his earlier years:

"He was one of that gallant band who braved the dangers of the forest unfelled, the streams unbridged, the prairies uninhabited, to lay the foundation of a great State. He saw the growth of western civilization, he saw the struggle of the early settlers, and with willing hand performed his share. He saw the wigwam give place to the log cabin, and the log cabin to the modern home. The ranks of the pioneers are thinning day by day - they are laying down their burdens and their work is well done. He was one of the 'old guard.' And how he loved to talk of the 'old guard.' It seems I can yet hear his magic voice as at the last meeting of the State Bar Association he delivered the report of the committee on Legal Biography, of which he was chairman. He said: 'I love to think of the old guard; to look back upon their old camp grounds, the fires there, and the figures moving and sitting around.

"'I love to think of the stately marches of the old column, and would forget the unfaithful soldier here, the deserter of the true path there. I admire them because I look over our constitutions and statutes and there see the impress of their minds. I turn the leaves of journals, the tomes innumerable found in the inferior, intermediate, and appellate tribunals of the State, examine the records, filling vast alcoves and receptacles, and there see the results of their labors, the evidences of their industry. I look abroad and see our school houses, our churches, and public buildings of every description, and find in them noble monuments of their liberality, their public spirit, their aid in the religious and educational upbuilding of the State. I inquire for the master spirits who pioneered us through the early days, and find the old guard ever in the van and doing their whole duty. I look to Iowa's more than eighty thousand men as they defiled from their hearthstones in defence of their country; think of the proud name of Iowa in military annals, and rejoice to know that the Reids, Caldwell, Belknap, Baker, O'Connor, Smythe, Dewey, Weaver, Curtis, Leffingwell, the Rices, Crocker, and scores of others, who, while honoring their profession, were the synonym for all that is true and patriotic, brave, devoted, honorable, and deserving. And I look to the proud position Iowa occupies to-day in the sisterhood of States; her freedom from debt; the wisdom of her laws; the excellence of her institutions; her advancement and progress, and rejoice that I can, without disparaging others, justly attribute much of all this glory and success to the untiring energy, active cooperation, and public zeal of those to whom I have referred, to say nothing of others whose names are found on almost every page of her high judicial, legislative, and political history. For all these things, and because of such a record, I therefore do honor the 'old guard,' love to think of the old column and of the early days, and of their influence upon our present prosperity and greatness.

"'But the column, as we have seen, has been sadly broken, and it is for the survivors of those composing it, and those who have since entered the arena, to maintain and extend the ground already gained. Those gone, as well as many of those living amid discouragements, 'tossed by hope, or sunk by care,' oft in debt or weighed down by sickness, or a hope of business deferred, performed a noble part in upbuilding here a proud, happy, prosperous and free State, with institutions in their excellence unsurpassed and a name which challenges the admiration of men everywhere.'

"Such were his words and how truly do they portray the achievement of the noble pioneers of Iowa, of whom Judge Wright was one of the oldest and the noblest."

Chancellor McClain portrayed the public life of Judge Wright as he was familiar with it during the period of his service in the United States Senate:

"My recollection of him goes back twenty years to the beginning of his last two years as Senator when I became the clerk of the committee on claims of which he was chairman, and therefore also his private secretary.

"It was already settled in accordance with his determination to retire from public life and devote his energies to the practice of his profession and the accumulation of a modest competency for his declining years, that he would not be a candidate for reelection, and he had no object save to discharge faithfully and creditably the duties of his office, and yet he gave to those duties patient and painstaking care which could not have been greater had he been an anxious candidate for reelection. I will not say that he did not at times feel a natural regret that his public career of more than twenty-five years was drawing to a close, but when he was urged by those who had long been his friends and whose wishes and judgment had great weight with him, to reconsider his determination and allow his name to come before the Legislature of Iowa in connection with the succession to the Senatorship, he had but one unhesitating answer. His pledge was already given and there could be no reconsideration.

* * * * * *

"It was under these circumstances, then, that he settled down at the beginning of the session of 1875-6 in very modest apartments in an unpretentious house of Four and one-half street a quiet little 'place,' as it would be called in Boston, though near the center of the area of official and business activity of the city. His rooms, which would hardly be considered luxurious either in extent or furnishings for a couple of collegiate seniors, consisted of parlor, reception room, study, and dining room, all in one, and that not a large one, and a chamber adjoining, into which he frequently was compelled to take a fellow Senator who called for a private consultation, because the study was occupied by some Iowa friend who had dropped in to read the home papers, with which the floor was usually covered. I may say in passing that his surroundings during the next session were more cheerful, for he had Mrs. Wright with him, and their younger daughter, and a niece; so there were more commodious quarters and a more homelike life, though the program as to disposition of time was not materially different.

"The place on Four and one-half street was convenient to the line of bob-tailed horse cars on F street which used to run to the Capitol in one direction and to the department buildings flanking the White House in the other, and by this means of transit he was usually by nine o'clock either at the Capitol to attend a meeting of some committee or at one of the departments soliciting positions for some of his constituents; for the latter duty was then and still is imposed by public sentiment upon the State's Representatives in the Senate, as well as upon those in the House, and its faithful discharge was, and still is, insisted upon with greater rigor than that of participation in the making of laws. The sessions of the Senate, commencing at noon, extended until four or five o'clock. Then after dinner came the writing of letters, the preparation of reports in connection with committee work, and the investigation of such questions coming up in the Senate as required attention.

"It was a busy, and in many respects a wearing life. Callers after dinner were often those who were seeking places for themselves or others, with a persistence that made a negative answer inconclusive unless couched in stern and unfriendly tones. Judge Wright's position as chairman of the claims committee subjected him to special importunities, for the claims which come before Congress are those which have been rejected by the various tribunals specially constituted to consider the legitimate demands against the government, and are urged on other grounds than those which could be properly urged before a court.

"Among these applications for position or relief were many which appealed very strongly to a man of tender heart, a man who felt that he owed a duty to his suffering and needy fellowman not measured or limited by his self interest, and yet there was the constant realization of a danger that the interest or even the necessities of the individual might be inconsistent with public good, and that private or public fraud might be seeking to profit by an ingenious appeal to disinterested benevolence.

"The first session of the Forty-fourth Congress was protracted to an unprecedented length by the impeachment trial of Gen. Belknap and when the members reassembled in December they had to face the paralyzing apprehension of civil strife by reason of the contest between the supporters respectively of Hayes and Tilden, as to which was lawfully elected to the presidency. Judge Wright introduced early in the session a bill to provide a court for the trial of such contests and made a vigorous appeal for the adoption of some measure which should secure a peaceful settlement of the controversy. When the plan for the appointment of the electoral commission was proposed he gave it hearty and earnest support in which Senator Allison joined. But the Republicans of Iowa were impatient of a measure which from their point of view would render doubtful a victory already won, and both by public protests and private appeals sought to prevent the adoption of what they considered a compromise. But those in Congress who loved country better than party faced partisan denunciation on either side and helped to furnish perhaps the strongest proof to be found in our national history that the people of the United States are entitled to enjoy the blessings of freedom and union.

"Judge Wright stands to me and I think to all who have known him well, as representing the highest type of American citizenship in both public and private life. As a public servant he was a judge zealous to do justice and yet fully imbued with that conservatism which sees in uniformity and certainty of administration the highest justice; a statesman with profound veneration for our institutions, deeming that loyalty to them was above loyalty to mere party, while at the same time he found in party organization the best means for promoting the general good. As a friend he was warm-hearted and faithful. AS a man he was true to every duty. His sympathies were as broad as humanity, as deep as sorrow sinks, as high as aspiration soars. He was grave with the experience of a long life, but hopeful too, with perennial youth."