Academic and Career Accomplishments
An 1866 graduate of Ravenna High School and a graduate from the University of Michigan in 1870. He was admitted to the bar in 1872 and commenced practice in Canton, Ohio. He was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1886 to 1890. He was appointed United States Judge for the Northern District of Ohio in 1889, but because of ill health resigned before taking office. He served as Secretary of State in President William Mckinley’s Cabinet in 1898. As Secretary of State, he secured the neutrality of the nations of Western Europe during the Spanish-American War and signed the Protocol of 1898 for the cessation of hostilities. He was chairman of the United States Commission that negotiated and signed the treaty of peace with Spain in 1898. He was Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1899 through 1903 and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1903 through 1922. His career also included being Umpire in the Mixed Claims Commission of United States and Germany in 1922 and 1923. He died at his summer home at Macinac Island, Michigan, on July 9, 1923.