776 



UNITED STATES. 



admitted to the bar in 1865. In 1874 he was 

 Deputy Attorney-General of New York, and 

 in 1876 was elected to the attorney-general- 

 ship. He served in that capacity for two 



CHARLES STEBBINS FAIRCHILD. 



years, and then spent some time in travel 

 abroad. From 1880 till 1885 he was engaged 

 in the practice of his profession in New York 

 city. Upon the entrance of President Cleve- 

 land into office, he was appointed Assistant 

 Secretary of the Treasury. Owing to the ill- 

 ness of Secretary Manning, he had been Act- 

 ing Secretary for some time before his pro- 

 motion. 



The death of Justice Woods of the Supreme 

 Court in May (see page 621) left a vacancy on 

 the bench. No nomination of a successor was 

 made till December, when Secretary L. Q. C. 

 Lamar, of the Interior Department, was se- 

 lected by the President. This appointment 

 was followed by the transfer of Postmaster- 

 General Vilas to the Interior Department, and 

 the nomination of Don M. Dickinson, of Mich- 

 igan, to be Postmaster-General. These nomi- 

 nations were not acted upon by the Senate till 

 early in 1888, when they were confirmed. 



Donald McDonald Dickinson was born in Port 

 Ontario, Oswego County, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1846. 

 He was graduated at the University of Michi- 

 gan in 1867, studied law, and in the same year 

 was admitted to the bar. Among the impor- 

 tant cases with which he has been connected 

 professionally are the Ward and Campan will 

 cases, the ship-canal case, the telephone cases 

 (in which he made the leading argument for 

 Drawbaugh), the Paris, Allen & Co. liquor 

 case, and a series of cases that resulted in the 

 setting aside of the claim and exercise of juris- 

 diction by the Federal nisi-prius courts under 

 the bankruptcy laws to enjoin proceedings in 

 State courts. He was chairman of the Demo- 

 cratic State Committee in 1876, and in 1880 

 was a delegate-at-large and chairman of the 

 Michigan delegation in the Democratic Na- 

 tional Convention. Since 1884 he has repre- 

 sented Michigan on the Democratic National 



Committee. He was nominated for Postmas- 

 ter-General on Dec. 6, 1887, and confirmed by 

 the Senate on Jan. 17, 1888. He has been 

 noted for his personal devotion to President 

 Cleveland ; and in the Michigan Democratic 

 Convention of 1886, when the chaplain in his 

 opening prayer failed to mention Mr. Cleve- 

 land, Mr. Dickinson rose at once to protet 

 against the omission, and thereupon offered a 

 supplementary prayer in which he invoked a 

 blessing for the President considered as a 

 "Democrat of Democrats, the noblest of them 

 all." 



Five new appointive offices were created 

 early in the year by Congress, under the pro- 

 visions of the interstate commerce bill, passed 

 in January. These offices, constituting the In- 

 terstate Commerce Commission, were filled 

 late in March by the appointment of Thomas 

 M. Cooley, of Michigan, for the term of six 

 years; William R. Morrison, of Illinois, for 

 five years ; August Schoonrnaker, of New York, 

 for four years ; Aldace F. Walker, of Vermont, 

 for three years ; and Walter A. Bragg, of Ala- 

 bama, for two years. Two members of the 

 commission, Messrs. Cooley and Walker, were 

 Republicans. (See INTERSTATE COMMERCE 

 COMMISSION.) The more important appoint- 

 ments of subordinate administrative officials 

 during the year were the following: James S. 

 Rives, of New York, to be Assistant Secre- 

 tary of State, vice James D. Porter, resigned ; 

 Hugh S. Thompson, of South Carolina, to suc- 

 ceed Mr. Fairchild as Assistant Secretary of 

 the Treasury; James W. Hyatt, of Connecti- 

 cut, to be Treasurer, vice Conrad N. Jordan, 

 resigned ; Sigourney Butler, of Massachusetts, 

 to be Second Comptroller; Benton J. Hall to 



DONALD M DONALD DICKINSON. 



be Commissioner of Patents, vice M. V. Mont- 

 gomery ; and Lieut. A. W. Greely to be briga- 

 dier-general and chief signal officer, succeeding 

 Gen. W. B. Hazen, deceased. Early in February 

 the Senate took action upon the second nomi- 

 nation of James C. Matthews, of New York, to 

 be Recorder of Deeds in the District of Colum- 



