Background
George G. Wright was born on March 24, 1820, in Bloomington, Indiana, the fifth son of John Wright and Rachel Seaman.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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George G. Wright was born on March 24, 1820, in Bloomington, Indiana, the fifth son of John Wright and Rachel Seaman.
Though left fatherless at an early age, he was able to enter the state college (later Indiana University) in his native town at fifteen. After graduating in 1839 he studied law in the office of his brother, Joseph Albert Wright.
In September 1840, having been admitted to the bar, he began practice at Keosauqua in Iowa Territory. After 1865, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa. Wright soon became active in politics. He was prosecuting attorney for Van Buren County (1846 - 1848), served as state senator in the second and third General Assemblies, and on January 5, 1855, was elected by the General Assembly chief justice of the state supreme court. He was not a candidate for reëlection in 1859, when judges were chosen by popular election, but in 1860 he was appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy, and his selection was later confirmed by election. He was reëlected in 1865 and served until August 1870, after he had been elected United States senator. Almost continuously for fifteen years during the formative period of Iowa government and jurisprudence, Wright exercised a dominant influence upon the attitude of the supreme court. Rigorous in basing decisions upon principles rather than political expediency, he helped to establish precedents on many vital questions. Though he favored temperance and a majority of the voters had supported a statute prohibiting liquor traffic in 1855, he argued in a dissenting opinion that the whole act was unconstitutional because it had been referred to the electorate, which was contrary to the regular legislative process. On another occasion the supreme court decided that the Iowa General Assembly had given counties authority to borrow money to aid railroads. Wright contended that the state legislature could confer such power specifically, but had not done so; later cases sustained his view. He was not, however, a chronic dissenter. He wrote many important opinions and formulated the Iowa interpretation of legal rules pertaining to domestic relations, libel, contracts, and technicalities of procedure. One who knew all the judges of the Iowa supreme court during the first seventy years considered Wright "entitled to rank first in the importance and value of his services to the jurisprudence of Iowa. " As a United States senator from 1871 to 1877, Wright succeeded in representing the interests of his constituents without sacrificing his judicial attitude to partisan exigencies. He opposed resumption of specie payments and favored expansion of paper currency based entirely upon the credit of the government because the growing West needed more money. He voted against the salary grab act, worked futilely for prohibition of the liquor traffic in territories, tried to reform senatorial procedure, and proposed judicial settlement of presidential election contests. He was not a candidate for reelection. He returned to the practice of law in Des Moines with two of his sons, but devoted his attention chiefly to his business interests. Though no longer engaged in active practice, he served as president of the American Bar Association in 1887 and 1888. Lecturing on professional ethics and other subjects in the law school of the state university (1881 - 1896), which he had helped to found in 1865, was among the most pleasant experiences of his later years.
George Grover Wright died on January 11, 1896, in Des Moines and was interred in Woodland Cemetery.
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George Wright served on the court first as a Whig and then as a Republican until 1870.
On October 19, 1843, George G. Wright married Hannah Mary Dibble, by whom he had seven children.
Joseph Albert Wright was the tenth Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from December 5, 1849 to January 12, 1857, most noted for his opposition to banking.