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Joseph Medill (April 6, 1823 – March 16, 1899) was a Canadian-American newspaper editor, publisher, and Republican Party politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, and he was Mayor of Chicago from after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 until 1873.
Early lifeEdit
Joseph Medill was born April 6, 1823, in Saint John, New Brunswick, British North America, to Margaret and William Medill. His parents were Scots-Irish. In 1832, the family moved to Massillon, Ohio. He grew up on a farm and was taught English grammar, Latin, logic and philosophy from Reverend Hawkins, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canton. He graduated from the Massillon Academy in 1843. He read law under Hiram Griswold and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1846.<ref name="McKinney">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="bio">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Open access</ref>
Early careerEdit
After joining the bar, he started a law practice with George W. McIlvaine. They dissolved their practice after three years.<ref name="bio" />
Publishing careerEdit
In 1855, Medill sold his interest in the Leader to Cowles and bought the Tribune in partnership with Dr. Ray and Alfred Cowles (Edwin's brother).<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
Political activityEdit
Medill was a leading Republican in Chicago.<ref name="RRRS">Template:Cite book</ref> Under Medill, the Tribune became the leading Republican newspaper in Chicago. Medill was strongly anti-slavery, supporting both the Free-Soil cause and Abolitionism. Medill was a major supporter of Abraham Lincoln in the 1850s. Medill and the Tribune were instrumental in Lincoln's presidential nomination, and were equally supportive of the Union cause during the American Civil War. The TribuneTemplate:`s chief adversary through this period was the Chicago Times, which supported the Democrats.
Medill was among Chicago's Protestant elites (see, WASP). His rabid anti-Irish sentiment was published daily in The Chicago Tribune. He regularly dismissed the Irish as lazy and shiftless. “Who does not know that the most depraved, debased, worthless and irredeemable drunkards and sots which curse the community are Irish Catholics?” This came even as Irish laborers worked feverishly to complete Chicago's stately St. Patrick's church at Adams and Desplaines Streets in the mid-1850s.<ref name=gambler/>
In 1864, Medill left the Tribune editorship for political activity, which occupied him for the next ten years. He was appointed by President Grant to the first Civil Service Commission. In 1870, he was elected as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional convention.<ref name="McKinney" />
Medill joined with Samuel Snowden Hayes and Rosell Hough (prominent Chicago Democrats) in order to oppose conditions of military draft laws during the American Civil War, feeling that the government was demanding too many troops to be drafted out of Cook County. On February 23, 1865, they met with President Lincoln. On February 27, they had a meeting with both Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton rejected their concerns. Lincoln castigated them, particularly chewing-out Medill. Lincoln argued that Chicagoans and Medill's newspaper had been most uncompromising in their opposition to the south's stance on slavery, and therefore should muster the men demanded of them to supply the Union with troops.<ref name="RRRS"/>
MayoraltyEdit
In 1871, after the Great Chicago Fire, Medill was elected mayor of Chicago as the candidate of the emergency fusion "Union Fireproof" party, defeating Charles C. P. Holden, and served as mayor for two years.
Medill was sworn in as mayor on December 4, 1871.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As mayor, Medill gained more power for the mayor's office, created Chicago's first public library, enforced blue laws, and reformed the police and fire departments.<ref name="McKinney" /><ref name="themayors">Template:Cite book</ref>
During his mayoralty, Medill worked successfully to have the Illinois General Assembly modify the city charter to increase mayoral authority.<ref name=themayors/> As mayor-elect, on December 4, 1871, he tapped Judge Murray F. Tuley to draft a "Mayor's Bill" to be submitted to the General Assembly in its next session.<ref name=themayors/> After successful lobbying by Medill and Tuley, the bill passed on March 9, 1872.<ref name=themayors/> It went into effect July 1, 1872,<ref name=themayors/> and provided the mayor with the new authority to,
- Serve as presiding officer of the Chicago City Council; to appoint all unelected city officials with the advice and consent of the City Council<ref name=themayors/>
- Remove all unelected city officials, with only the requirement that they provide the City Council with reasons for such a removal<ref name=themayors/>
- Appoint the standing committees of the City Council and serve as an ex officio member of those committees<ref name=themayors/>
- Veto any ordinance, including all or part of an appropriations ordinance, with a two-thirds vote of the City Council required to override such as veto<ref name=themayors/>
- Exercise special police powers<ref name=themayors/>
In his first year as mayor, Medill received very little legislative resistance from the Chicago City Council.<ref name=themayors/> While he vetoed what was an unprecedented eleven City Council ordinances that year, most narrowly were involved with specific financial practices considered wasteful and none of the vetoes were overridden.<ref name=themayors/> He used his new powers to appoint the members of the newly constituted Chicago Board of Education and the commissioners of its constituted public library. His appointments were approved unanimously by the City Council.<ref name=themayors/>
Medill sought funding for the recovery of Chicago.<ref name=themayors/> Medill had strongly lobbied on behalf of the city to receive state financial aid, taking advantage of his connections with state legislators in the state capitol of Springfield, Illinois.<ref name=themayors/> While, at the time, state law prohibited the direct appropriation of state funds to the city, Medill was able to get the legislature to pass a special act reimbursing the city for $2.9 million the city had expended on the state-owned Illinois and Michigan Canal.<ref name=themayors/> Medill also sought federal financial help.<ref name=themayors/> Medill took advantage of his connections in Washington, D.C., to seek such aid.<ref name=themayors/> In his third month in office, he wrote Vice President Schuyler Colfax to urge the passage of a tariff rebate that would help increase the supply of inexpensive material for the reconstruction of the city.<ref name=themayors/> Despite strong opposition from lumber interests, the legislation succeeded in passing.<ref name=themayors/> Medill also convinced President Grant to give a personal $1,000 contribution to aid the city's reconstruction.<ref name=themayors/> More than $5 million in gifts and loans were collected from people and cities across the world.<ref name=themayors/>
Taking Medill's lead, on February 12, 1872, the City Council approved 26-6 an ordinance that prohibited the construction of wood frame buildings in city limits.<ref name=themayors/>
Medill was a strong Republican loyalist who supported President Grant for re-election in 1872. This caused a breach with Tribune editor, Horace White after White supported the breakaway Liberal Republicans, reformists who nominated Horace Greeley for president.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In his second year as mayor, tensions arose as he began to further utilize the new powers given to the mayor.<ref name=themayors/> At the first 1873 meeting of the City Council, Medill announced that he would be using the power to select the chairmen of members of the council committees. He appointed his loyalists to lead most important committees, while aldermen of wards consisting of immigrant populations received lesser consideration for appointments.<ref name=themayors/> In the first three months of 1873 alone, Medill practiced his veto power on five City Council ordinances.<ref name=themayors/>
Medill and his police superintendent Elmer Washburn cracked down on gambling.<ref name=gambler/>
Medill met not only resistance from a City Council divided over his exercise of power and aspects of his agenda, but also resistance from citizens.<ref name=themayors/> Anton C. Hesing derided him as "Joseph I, Dictator".<ref name="gambler">Template:Cite book</ref>
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The stress of the job of mayor impaired Medill's health. In August 1873, he appointed Lester L. Bond as Acting Mayor for the remaining 3½ months of his term, and went to Europe on a convalescent tour.<ref name="McKinney" /><ref name=themayors/>
Personal lifeEdit
Medill married Katherine "Kitty" Patrick on September 2, 1852, and they had three daughters, Katherine, Elinor and Josephine.<ref name="McKinney" /> Medill died on March 16, 1899, at the age of 75 in San Antonio, Texas.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Legacy and honorsEdit
During World War II, the Liberty ship Template:SS was built in Panama City, and named in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University is also named in his honor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
RelationsEdit
Template:Medill Chicago family tree
The family tree omits Medill's third daughter, Josephine, who died in 1892.<ref name="McKinney" />
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
External linksEdit
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