Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) was lawyer, governor of New
York, Supreme Court Justice, presidential candidate in 1916,
Secretary of State in the Harding and Coolidge administrations, a
member of the World Court, and Chief Justice of the United States
from 1930 until his retirement in 1941. To some, Hughes appeared
larger than life. Robert H. Jackson once said of him, " He] looks
like God and talks like God." But to those who knew him well, he
was quite human, extraordinarily gifted, but human nonetheless. His
"Autobiographical Notes" portray him as no biography could and
provide comment on almost a century of American history as seen by
one who played a part in shaping its course.
Hughes's notes reveal two sides of his personality--a serious
side when he was at work, and a genial, sometimes humorous, side
when he was relaxing or with friends and family. When he writes of
unofficial life--especially his boyhood, college years, and early
years at the bar--he is raconteur telling his story with a certain
amount of humor; when he writes of his official life he tends to be
matter-of-fact. The early chapters describe the formative influence
which shaped his character: his loving but intellectually demanding
parents and deeply religious training; his unusual early education,
which took place mostly at home and gave full scope to his
precocity. Hughes's accounts of college life in the 1870s at
Madison (now Colgate) and Brown University and of his career as a
young lawyer in the New York City of the 1880s and 1890s are
valuable portraits of an era.
Brought up to a high sense of duty, Hughes, from the start of
his career, felt bound to take worthy legal cases and it was his
reputation for integrity and thoroughness that led to his selection
as counsel in the gas and insurance investigations of 1905-1906.
This was the turn of events that precipitated him into the public
eye and, subsequently, into politics. The culmination of his career
came in 1937 when he led the Supreme Court through a constitutional
crisis and confronted Franklin Roosevelt in the Court packing
battle. In the intervening thirty years, Hughes was a major figure
in American political and legal circles. His "Notes" record his
impressions of presidents, statesmen, and justices. His reflections
on the diplomacy of the 1920s and on the causes leading up to the
Second World War are of immense historical importance.
The editors have supplied an introduction to the "Notes,"
commenting on Hughes's personality and public image, his political
style and rise to fame. They have remained unobtrusive throughout,
intervening only to clarify references and provide necessary
details. For the rest, they let Hughes speak for himself in the
crisp and clear style that reveals his unusual intelligence and the
retentive and analytical mind that distinguished his conduct of
affairs.
Justice Felix Frankfurther wrote of Hughes: "I have known or
know about most of the leading men of my time both here and in
England enough to justify me in forming a judgment. There isn't the
slightest doubt that C.E.H. is among the few really sizable figures
of my lifetime. He is three-dimensional and has impact." Here, in
these "Notes," is this great man drawn in life-size
proportions.
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