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Henry Williams Blodgett was an American lawyer and judge. He also served as a director of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.
Background
Henry Blodgett was born on July 21, 1821, at Amherst, Massachussets, United States. He was of English ancestry, the paternal family having been founded in Massachusetts in 1630. His father, Israel Porter Blodgett, was a blacksmith; his mother, Avis (Dodge) Blodgett, is said to have been a woman of exceptional qualities and education. In 1831 the family removed to Illinois. His father was an abolitionist, whose house was a station on the underground railroad for escaped slaves. Many of his father's patrons were Indians, and many of his own early playmates were Indian boys.
Education
Henry Blodgett was educated in the common schools, spending also one year in Amherst Academy. Later he studied law.
Career
After graduation Henry Blodgett taught school. After his admission to the bar in 1844 he removed to Waukegan, Illinois, which thenceforth remained his home. He was a delegate in 1848 to the Free-Soil Democratic convention which nominated Martin Van Buren; was the Free-Soil candidate for Congress from his district in 1850; was elected in 1852 as an antislavery man to the Illinois state legislature; and helped to organize the Republican Party in the state. He remained a member of it from its beginning. From 1852 to 1854 he was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and from 1859 to 1863 a member of the state Senate. To him was largely due legislation giving married women independence in the control of their property. He was constantly in the front line of antislavery agitation in the decade before the Civil War. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention that nominated Lincoln. After this early dip into politics the law absorbed all his interest. He was associated, in particular, with the legal departments of several railroads, and of one, which became the important Chicago & Northwestern, he was the main promoter, attorney, director, and president.
In 1869 Blodgett was appointed United States district judge for the northern district of Illinois, and in 1891 was chosen as one member of the newly established circuit court of appeals, seventh circuit. It seems probable that the allowance of priority to receivers' certificates over a railroad first mortgage originated with him, though it was a fellow judge who first so held. Among the famous cases that came before him as a federal judge were the Whiskey Ring cases of 1876. He resigned his judicial offices in 1892 to act as one of the counsel for this country in the Bering Sea arbitration, an appointment amply justified by his great reputation as an admiralty lawyer.
One unfortunate episode marked his judicial career. In 1877, upon the initiative of certain individual members of the Chicago Bar Association, inquiries were made by a Congressional committee in contemplation of his impeachment. They found that the Judge had borrowed money from his referees but had repaid it all with interest; other charges were found unsupported. The committee acquitted him of dishonest intent and did not impeach him.
Blodgett had a keen, logical, acutely analytical mind, great experience in large business problems, unusual insight into men, sound judgment in both law and practical affairs. To these ideal judicial qualities he added patient industry in research and an encyclopedic memory. He took very voluminous notes of cases in his court, made up his record according to them and his memory, regardless of the records of these "nimble-fingered gentry, " and by his notes determined bills of exceptions and certificates of evidence. Such faults were compensated for by his ability, learning, conscientiousness in studying his cases, and abhorrence of subterfuges and delays in procedure. On the whole he was a unique personality and a very great judge.
Achievements
Henry Blodgett is best remembered for his service as federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which position he held from 1870 to 1892. He was a truly distinguished lawyer and judge. In common law, equity, criminal, patent, bankruptcy, and admiralty law he was equally a master.
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Religion
In religious views Blodgett was first a Congregationalist, and finally a Unitarian.
Politics
Henry Blodgett was a member of the Republican party. He was an Illinois state senator from 1858 to 1862.
Personality
Blodgett's face was strong and commanding. An injury to one of his legs gave him a peculiar and ungainly gait; possibly owing to the same injury he was irascible, and sometimes impatient with tyros. He was also characterized by some prejudices--including a dislike of stenographers. In his home surroundings Blodgett was a charming companion, in whom humor and a natural dignity, unconscious and never assertive, were strong characteristics.
Connections
Henry Blodgett married Althea Crocker of Hamilton, New York, by whom he had five children, of whom three daughters lived to maturity.
