Articles on Wisconsin legal history
Madison Attorney Joseph A. Ranney authored 47 articles on Wisconsin's legal heritage in honor of the state's Sesquicentennial in 1998. The articles cover topics in Wisconsin history beginning in the 1700s, through the territorial days into statehood, the Civil War, World Wars, Industrialization, the Great Depression, and up to the present.
| No. | Title | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Jefferson and the Northwest Ordinance | The first important figure in Wisconsin's legal history was Thomas Jefferson. Among his many other achievements Jefferson, with the help of James Monroe, wrote the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which shaped the way Wisconsin grew to be a state. |
| 2 | Law and Wisconsin's Indians | White settlers began moving to Wisconsin in large numbers in the 1820s, and it soon became clear that one way or another the Indian tribes inhabiting Wisconsin—the Sauk and Fox, the Menominees, the Chippewas, the Winnebagoes (now known as the Ho-Chunk Nation) and the Potawatomis—would have to give up their lands to the whites. |
| 3 | James D. Doty: Wisconsin's first judge | James Duane Doty was born in upstate New York in 1799. After finishing school he migrated to the west and settled in the frontier community of Detroit where he was befriended by the governor of Michigan Territory, Lewis Cass. |
| 4 | Wisconsin's bank wars | Up to 1836 Wisconsin was part of Michigan Territory. In 1836, Michigan became a state and Congress made Wisconsin a separate territory. During the territorial period Wisconsin's population and economy grew rapidly, and the territory's growing pains gave birth to a number of political and legal battles. |
| 5 | The beginnings of Wisconsin's progressive tradition: The 1848 Constitution | Robert M. LaFollette, who was Wisconsin's governor from 1901 to 1906 and a U.S. senator from 1906 until his death in 1925, is usually credited with being the founder of Wisconsin's progressive tradition. Few people realize that tradition began long before LaFollette. |
| 6 | Great Wisconsin judges: Edward Whiton | As Wisconsin's first chief justice, Edward Vernon Whiton (1805-1859) played a crucial part in creating a solid foundation for the young state's legal system. Thanks to the great respect and prestige Whiton commanded, the Supreme Court was able to weather several challenges to its authority during its early years which might have overwhelmed other judges. |
| 7 | Wisconsin abolishes the death penalty | Today, Wisconsin is one of only 12 states which does not have the death penalty for murder and other serious crimes. Our dislike of the death penalty goes back a long way—to 1853, to be exact. |
| 8 | Byron Paine, Wisconsin's first civil rights leader | Byron Paine of Milwaukee was perhaps the most dramatic figure ever to sit on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He was the first great hero of the civil rights movement in Wisconsin. |
| 9 | Black Wisconsinites' struggle for the vote | When Wisconsin became a state very few blacks were allowed to vote anywhere in the United States. Wisconsin became one of the first states to give them the vote—but it did so in a most unusual manner. |
| 10 | The impeachment of Judge Hubbell | Wisconsin has had a reputation for effective, clean government for many years. But it was not always thus. The story of Levi Hubbell of Milwaukee, an early justice of the state Supreme Court, is one of the more colorful episodes of Wisconsin's early political history and shows that "lawyer bashing" has a long history in this state. |
| 11 | The war of the governors: Bashford vs. Barstow | William Barstow, a Democrat, was elected governor of Wisconsin governor in 1853. Barstow was elected largely because there was no effective opposition party in Wisconsin. But during the next two years there was a wide outcry in the north over the national Democratic party's efforts to enforce fugitive slave laws and allow slavery to be extended into new territories west of the Mississippi River. |
| 12 | Wisconsin's fight for fugitive slaves: The Booth Case | In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required northerners to help slave owners recapture runaway slaves. The Act set off waves of protest in the north, which deeply resented being forced to support a system it hated. |
| 13 | Chief Justice Dixon and the states right movement | In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required northerners to help slave owners recapture runaway slaves. The Act set off waves of protest in the north, which deeply resented being forced to support a system it hated. |
| 14 | Civil liberties and the Civil War | At the beginning of the Civil War the Union had no difficulty recruiting soldiers in Wisconsin and elsewhere. In fact, enthusiasm was so high that many young men had to be turned away. |
| 15 | Legislators for sale: The railroad scandal of 1856 | In the mid-19th century, railroads transformed Wisconsin from a frontier wilderness to a state. In 1847 Wisconsin was connected only by a few waterways and dirt and wooden roads. That year the state's first railroad, the Milwaukee & Waukesha, began construction. |