Judge James G. Day

James G. Day was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, June 28, 1832, and was the son of George and Sarah Day. The family was of English descent and was founded in the early history of the country. In his youth he attended the Richmond academy, and afterward entered the Cincinnati law school, from which he was graduated in the class of 1857. He came soon after graduating to Iowa and settled at Afton, Union county. He opened a law office and conducted a successful business until the fall of 1861, when he joined Company F, Fifteenth Iowa infantry, and went to the front with the rank of lieutenant. He soon won the admiration of the men under his command, attracted the attention of his superior officers, and was promoted to the rank of captain. He took a prominent part in many of the battles of the war, and at the historic battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, he received a gunshot wound in the hip which compelled him to resign his commission the September following. While in active service at Corinth, Captain Day was nominated by the republicans for the office of district judge, to which he was elected upon his return from the front The eminent ability with which he discharged the duties of the position caused his re-nomination and re-election, and he continued on the district bench until 1870, when he resigned to accept appointment to the supreme court of the state to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge George G. Wright, chief justice, who had been elected to the United States senate. Judge Day was nominated for the position at a convention held previous to his appointment, and was elected in the fall of 1870, and by recurring elections continued to occupy the office until January 1, 1884. The fall previous he had been a candidate for the election, but was defeated because of a celebrated opinion rendered by him relating to the prohibition amendment, then recently adopted, to the state constitution. Without regard to personal or political sentiment, Judge Day declared as a lawyer that the amendment had not received legal ratification, but held it could be properly established, and that the delay necessary to accomplish the end in view was a less evil than the violation of the organic law. He was sustained in the position taken by the best legal talent of the state, but popular sentiment was hostile to the principles expressed in the opinion and he was defeated for re-nomination.

The opinion on the above subject written by Judge Day has attracted wide attention and is acknowledged to be a masterly document. It concludes with these strong words:

The cause of temperance can sustain no injury from the loss of this amendment, which would be at all comparable to the injury to republican institutions which a violation of the constitution would inflict. That large and respectable class of moral reformers which so justly demands the observance and the enforcement of law, cannot afford to take its first reformatory step by a violation of the constitution. How can it consistently demand of others obedience to a constitution which it violates itself? The people can, in a short time, re-enact the amendment. In the matter of a great moral reform, the loss of a few years is nothing. The constitution is the palladium of republican freedom. The young men coming forward upon the stage of political action must be educated to venerate it; those already upon the stage must be taught to obey it. Whatever interest may be advanced or may suffer, whoever or whatever may be "voted up or voted down," no sacrilegious hand must be laid on the constitution.

That Judge Day was actuated by the most conscientious motives, that he stood like a rock for his honest conviction at a time when such conviction meant disaster to himself, there were none to deny. The highest integrity, the keenest moral sense have always been accorded him, nor has his eminence as a jurist ever been questioned. In the quiet walks of private life. Judge Day was a man whom to know was to respect and admire. Though reserved and dignified in bearing, he was nevertheless cordial to friends and genial to all. He was the sort of man before whom there could be no wrong-doing. His memory will long be treasured and his name held in deepest reverence in this city which has been the home of the family since 1884.

Judge Day was thirteen years on the supreme bench of the state, and was thrice chief justice.

After leaving Afton Judge Day, some time in the latter '70's, located at Tabor in Fremont county. It was while at Tabor that Judge Day, becoming interested in a youth whom he first discovered herding sheep, found and developed Fred Lehman, whose fame as a scholar and able lawyer afterward became as wide as the boundaries of the state and who has been for four or five years engaged in the practice of law in St. Louis. Retiring from judicial calling, Judge Day removed to Des Moines and formed a partnership with Judge William Phillips. About one year ago the firm was dissolved by the retirement of Judge Phillips and a new firm organized under the name of Day & Corry.

He first met his wife, then Miss Minerva C. Manley, in Jefferson county, Ohio, in May 1856, at a May party, in which she appeared in the role of Queen of May. December 1, 1857, he led her to the altar.

Seven children, six sons and a daughter, graced the union of Judge Day and his wife, while an infant son, the youngest born rests in Greenwood. Curtis L., the first born, was graduated from the Iowa City college and Law school, and is now a leading attorney of Omaha; George, who was graduated from Tabor college and from the law department of the State University, married Miss Sarah Brown and is engaged in the practice as a partner with Curtis; Mary, who is the only daughter, is also a graduate of Tabor college and is the wife of Edmond B. Edgar, now a prominent attorney of Minneapolis; Charles M., also a graduate of Tabor college, is a young man of a high order of literary ability and editor of the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader; Harry B., who was educated at the Ames Agricultural College, and who made a special study of electrical engineering, soon achieved success in his chosen field and is superintendent of the electric light plant at Hampton, Iowa; Edwin S. graduated from the Des Moines university and is practicing medicine at Earlham, Iowa, while James G. Jr., who also graduated from Des Moines university, is engaged in the practice of law, being a member of his father's firm.

The death of Judge James G. Day occurred Sunday afternoon, May 1st, 1898, between 1 and 2 o'clock, at his residence, 1305 Ninth street. Death was without warning of any kind, resulting from heart failure. He was talking to his son George a few minutes before his death and was apparently in good health. He was sitting in a chair and was leaning over to reach a book, when he gasped three or four times for breath and sank back in the chair dead. Restoratives were applied in vain He had gone to join his beloved wife, who had preceded him a few weeks.

SOURCE: Pioneer Lawmakers' Association of Iowa, Pioneer Lawmakers' Association of Iowa, Reunion of 1898, Held at Des Moines, February 9, 10 and 11, 1898, p. 174-6