Hayes, Walter I.

HAYES

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Date: 2/18/2003 at 09:52:57

Walter I. Hayes was highly distinguished both as a lawyer and judge. He was widely known, and for a time, perhaps one of the most talked of men in the State, on account of his decision in a case pending before him, that the constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture and sale of liquor in the State, was unconstitutional. He was denounced by the extremists--after the manner of all extremists through history--for this decision; but he was triumphantly vindicated in its affirmance by the Supreme Court of Iowa. My personal acquaintance with him began about this time and continued until my removal from the State, in 1886. His personality highly interested me and I closely followed his career.
He was born at Marshall, Michigan, December, 1841. His father was a physician, a native of New Hampshire, and a scion of the New England family of Hayes. He early removed to Michigan and became a distinguished public man of that state. Walter was well educated, at an early age commenced the study of law at his native place, was subsequently graduated at the law school of Ann Arbor, was admitted to the bar in Michigan in 1863, and entered upon the practice at Marshall, which he continued until 1866, when he removed to Clinton, Iowa, to become a partner of Gen. Nathaniel B. Baker. This partnership continued under the firm name of Baker & Hayes until General Baker's permanent removal to Des Moines. He then became associated as a partner with Judge George B. Young, who had resigned his position on the bench to resume the practice. The firm of Hayes & Young continued until August, 1875, when upon the almost unanimous recommendation Page 946 and without regard to party, of the bar of the Seventh Judicial District, he was, though a staunch Democrat, appointed by the Republican Governor, Cyrus C. Carpenter, to fill a vacancy on the bench caused by the resignation of Judge William F. Brannan. In the October following he was elected to that position by the people, without opposition. Through repeated re-elections he served in that capacity for a period of twelve years, and became distinguished as being one of the ablest trial judges that had ever graced the bench of the State. He would, doubtless, have been indefinitely continued on the bench but for his nomination and election to Congress, in 1886. He was three times re-elected to this position as a Democrat and served with great credit to himself and the country in the Fiftieth, Fifty-First, Fifty-Second and Fifty-Third Congresses.
He received many other evidences of public favor and private esteem. Before his removal to Iowa he was, in 1864, a delegate to the Democratic State Convention of Michigan. He was three times elected City Solicitor of Clinton. He was twice a Democratic candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1897 he was elected to the Legislature to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Nathaniel A. Merrell. He took his seat at the extra session of 1897--one of the most important of all recent years, as it adopted and provided for the publication of the Code of 1897.
While Mr. Hayes came into the House after the general course of legislation had been definitely settled, he was recognized as one of its leading members. He was greatly distinguished as a lawyer, judge and legislator. He pursued a liberal course toward the soldiers of the Civil War. Of 180 bills introduced by members from Iowa during the time he served in Congress, nearly one-third were offered by Judge Hayes. He was also an able supporter of the Hennepin canal, which was carried through Congress while he was a member in that body. He was a man of large ability, greatly esteemed in his county and throughout the State, and prominently identified with questions of the highest importance wherever he served the people.(**)
He died suddenly at his old home at Marshall, Michigan, on March 4, 1901, while he was attending the funeral of his distinguished uncle, Hon. Charles T. Gorham. He had acted as pall bearer at the funeral and, after returning home, was suddenly stricken with fatal illness and sank into unconsciousness, which finally terminated in death. His sudden demise was a shock to the people throughout the State in which he had been uniquely prominent for so many years that his name had become a very familiar one. The press throughout the State teemed with articles concerning him. In the different counties comprising his old judicial district, bar meetings were held to honor his memory. I have spoken of him in a comparatively general manner. Respecting his more minute characteristics, I shall let others who knew him more intimately than myself, speak, and for this purpose, present the following extracts:
Rev. J. K. Fowler, of the First Presbyterian Church, who conducted the services, threw this fine light on the character of Judge Hayes:
If I were to characterize in the manner most satisfactory to myself the impression made by Judge Hayes upon those with whom he came in contact, I would say that he seemed to clear the atmosphere of sham and humbug and even if you had to differ from his views you left him with the sense of a refreshed and invigorated intellectuality.
In the resolutions of the Jackson County Bar, following the death of Judge Hayes, the following expression was given:
He was an able, fearless, honorable, upright Judge, a faithful, able, honorable and loyal representative of the people, and a brilliant, bold, aggressive, and successful practitioner in his profession. Of engaging presence, quick of perception, with a faculty of solving complicated questions almost intuitively, his presence before a court or jury always commanded attention and respect.
Of him, Judge Patrick B. Wolf says:
So faithfully and well did he perform his duties that he was again and again called upon by the Bar and the people of the Seventh Judicial District to continue as its administrator of justice, and he was such until the year 1886, when he voluntarily laid down the robes of the judiciary, to take up that of a representative of the people in the Congress of the United States; and how faithful his services as a Judge must have been is attested when we know that it was practically the same people who called him to the halls of Congress, for his Congressional District embraced his entire Judicial District.
Of him, D. A. Wyncoop, an old member of the Jackson County Bar, says:
I became acquainted with Judge Hayes soon after he came to our State; from that time until his death (save the few years he served on the bench) I was often employed in opposition to him in the trial of causes in this and in other courts; while a formidable antagonist, quick and ready, full of expedients for every emergency demanded by any new turn in his case, he was the personification of honor, the embodiment of fairness and truth; his word to opposing counsel was to him a sacred obligation. I believe I can truthfully say of Judge Hayes he never violated any agreement entered into with counsel pitted against him; he was a past master in the science of attack, an adept in the foiling those of the enemy; he was learned in the science of the law; a good thinker, a profound reasoner, a forceful, persuasive advocate.
He was a man who had many admirers; of the same political faith, together we canvassed our political counties and others in the district he represented ably and well in the Councils of the Nation; speaking often from the same rostrum, meeting and conversing with the same people, I can testify to the confidence and esteem in which he was held by them, amounting I often have thought to the ecstasy of devotion; with all the talent he possessed, there still was a supremacy of heart over brain. It has been said by another, "What the intellect can forge the heart must realize." This I have so often thought of our deceased brother; the impulses of his heart were fuel for his intellect; like divine enthusiasm they descended upon it and baptized it with heroic action, undying zeal.
W. C. Gregory, of the Jackson County Bar, of Judge Hayes, says:
It has been our good fortune to be intimately acquainted with him, and associated with him for over a quarter of a century. As a lawyer, probably no one excelled him in quickness of comprehension and breadth or reach of judgment. Analysis with him was an instinctive mental operation. He did not go to the books to find principles; with the principles already in mind, it was his custom to look for the authorities. That which ought to be the law as he saw it, almost invariably turned out to be the law. These qualities made him easily a master of all classes of questions, and equipped him for practice in the highest courts, as in the lower courts. They made him equally formidable before a jury or a judge.
In the argument, in the heat of the conflict, he was scrupulously observant of the amenities due the jury, opposing counsel, and the presiding Judge. His deportment to the latter was so respectful that while wrestling against an adverse opinion he was never known to have been the occasion of a scene in court. He was earnest in what he thought right, but never insolent or angry. In course of speech, speaking of the facts he elicited, he kept himself carefully within the record. In the closing argument, opposing counsel never found it necessary to interrupt. If not eloquent, he was always logical. He despised attempts at dramatic effect. His figures of speech were always clothed in the simplest words, so that he was entertaining to everybody who heard him, and easily understood. The secret of his power was in the fact that he never failed to make himself understood. He was one of the most companionable of men. He was always cheerful, met his friends with hearty salutation, and entertained them with bright, sparkling expressions. He was fond of a joke, but never perpetrated one on a friend that caused a sting. The high and the lowly were alike to him. He was no respecter of persons from the standpoint of wealth or position. He lived in touch with the common people. He sleeps amidst the benedictions of the poor and lowly. 
G. L. Johnson, of this same bar, says of Judge Hayes:
In all positions of life, public and private, he was utterly regardless of public opinion in the sense that he did not cater to it, nor was he influenced by its manifestations. He formed his own ideas of duty, his own measure of public rights; solved for himself public problems; he never posed for effect, or adopted the low artifices of the demagogue. In all his relations, both in public and private life, he abhorred and despised any and everything that was tainted with hypocrisy, sham or cant.
No individual in any walk of life ever asked bread of him and received a stone. Generous, genial, brave; such was his private and professional life, as I knew it.
The following graphic summary of Judge Hayes is from his old professional associate, P. H. Judge, of the Clinton County Bar, who knew him long and intimately:
Judge Hayes was throughout his long service in the law a strong advocate, a just, capable and fearless Judge. No stain, or hint of stain rests upon his personal, professional, judicial or legislative career. I can truthfully say, that by nature he was a logician, a good orator, and a consummate lawyer. Judge Hayes was a great respecter of the rights of the people, and at all times lent his voice and influence in their behalf to right and remedy their grievances. He was in full sympathy with the men who labor and toil; he was a lover of liberty, a friend of the oppressed, and a strong advocate of universal freedom. He was an ardent and a tireless worker; was industrious, indefatigable and enthusiastic. His pen or brain was hardly ever idle. With such indomitable industry, it was no wonder he accomplished so much and triumphed over every obstacle. His whole object in life seemed to be the betterment of mankind, especially those around him, and those with whom he came in contact. No one can point to a dishonorable political act of his whole life without falsifying the record. It can be truthfully said of him that he continued in the pursuance of the same course he had mapped out from the beginning of his career, until death brought to a close the busy scenes of an active life. It may also be truthfully said that when his lips were sealed in death many of those who in life had unjustly pursued and criticized him hastened to extol his greatness and admit the unjustness of their assaults and criticisms made upon him in life.
He was ever ready and willing to aid and assist everyone in every way and manner that he could, especially the young lawyers, and through his whole life this was one of his characteristics. Even when on the bench, he never permitted their rights to be jeopardized by the older and more experienced members of the bar. 
The following tribute is from the able and beloved Judge William F. Brannan, of Muscatine, whose death occurred not very long ago:
My acquaintance with Judge Hayes commenced when I first went on the bench, about twenty-nine years ago. I found him to be, in social life, one of the most genial and companionable of men, possessed of a keen and lively sense of humor and quickness of wit. As a practicing lawyer I found him possessed of an unusually high order of legal ability, and in trying cases to a jury he was unsurpassed. He never went into the trial of a case without full preparation. He was master of the facts, and if it was a question of law, he had authority in support of his position.
But it was in his capacity as a Judge that he became most widely known. On the bench he was patient, pleasant, with perfect command of his temper, and his rulings on legal questions were terse, short and incisive, and his reasons in support of his rulings carried conviction. In my long experience, I never saw a judge who was his superior on the bench of the District Court.
He was a man of positive character and fixed convictions. There was nothing half-way about him. No consideration could move him to conceal his opinions when his opinion was sought. He never courted popular applause, nor did the fear of losing it tempt him to curry favor by pandering to its demands. The Supreme Court rarely reversed him on any appeal, and this is the best evidence of the confidence that tribunal had in the soundness of his ruling. 
The foregoing extracts, combined with my own expressions, will give a pretty clear idea of Judge Walter I. Hayes. In his death the State lost one of its most remarkable men in the history of his time. 
(**) Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. 5, 77.
Source: Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa. Author: Edward H. Stiles. Des Moines. The Homestead Publishing Co.,1916