Background
James was born on May 12, 1806 in Altmore, County Tyrone, Ireland, the son of Charles and Katherine (McDonnell) Shields.
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James was born on May 12, 1806 in Altmore, County Tyrone, Ireland, the son of Charles and Katherine (McDonnell) Shields.
Trained in a hedge school and later in an academy and by a retired priest from Maynooth, he received a good classical education, supplemented by some teaching in tactics and swords play.
Probably in 1822 Shields sailed by way of Liverpool for Quebec and was wrecked on the Scottish coast with only two other survivors. As a tutor, he earned a livelihood in Scotland until he obtained a berth on a merchantman and about 1826 arrived in New York harbor. He settled in Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he taught French, read law, fought in the Black Hawk War, and practised Democratic politics and law.
In 1836 he was elected a member of the legislature. As state auditor, he helped correct the disordered finances of the state brought to the verge of bankruptcy by the panic and canal building, but not without sharp criticism in the Whig press. As a result of anonymous charges in the newspaper, traced to the Misses Todd and Jayne, later the wives of Abraham Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull, he challenged to a duel Lincoln, who shouldered some responsibility. The matter was compromised on explanations from the latter, and the principals became permanent friends.
In 1843 Shields was named to the supreme court by Gov. Thomas Ford, whose manuscript History of Illinois he edited and published later, in 1854. He was renamed by the legislature for a full term in 1845, but he resigned soon to accept President Polk's appointment to the commissionership of the general land office in Washington.
With the outbreak of the Mexican War he resigned and was commissioned brigadier-general of Illinois volunteers on July 1, 1846. At Cerro Gordo he was dangerously wounded, was brevetted a major-general, and cited by General Scott for his gallant conduct there. At Churubusco he led the charge of New York Irish and South Carolina volunteers that is commemorated in the painting in the national Capitol. In July 1848 his brigade was disbanded, and he returned to Kaskaskia and Belleville to build up his law practice, but he was soon appointed governor of Oregon Territory.
This position he resigned immediately to accept an election to the federal Senate. A Whig Senate found a technicality in that he had not been a citizen the required number of years and declared his election void. He, however, was reelected for the same term and served from October 27, 1849, to March 3, 1855.
In 1855 he was defeated for reelection by Lyman Trumbull in a legislature in deadlock between himself and Lincoln. A Douglas appointee to distribute Sioux halfbreed scrip, he went to Minnesota Territory, where he settled down on his land grant.
Elected to the federal Senate, on the admission of Minnesota, he drew the short term that expired March 3, 1859, and a Republican legislature failed to reelect him. He went to San Francisco. Settled in Mazatlan, Mexico, as manager and part owner of a mine, he sold his interest and offered his services to Lincoln, when he learned that Fort Sumter had surrendered.
Appointed as a brigadier-general on August 19, 1861, he campaigned in the Shenandoah Valley. He resigned his commission on March 28, 1863, and retired to San Francisco, where he was appointed a state railroad commissioner.
In 1866, he was in Carrollton, Missouri. There he entered politics again, campaigning against the "ironclad oath, " losing an election to Congress when a canvassing board cast out the votes of two counties, and supporting the Liberal-Republican candidates of 1872. He lectured for religious, Irish, and charitable causes such as Southern relief during the cholera epidemic. Serving in the legislature, he promoted an act for a railroad commission to which he was afterward appointed. He was elected to fill out an unexpired term in the federal Senate from January 27, 1879, to March 3, 1879, but lack of health forced him to decline being a candidate for reelection.
He died at Ottumwa, Iowa, while on a lecture tour.
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A strict party man, he had the courage to disagree with fanatics on either side of the slavery issue and to fight for a free California, land grants for veterans, railroad construction, and agricultural education.
Martial in carriage, scrupulously neat, urbane and courteous of manner, graceful and humorous in debate, he was well informed because of his ability, experiences, and his command of Latin, French, and Spanish. In temper he was sharp and somewhat arrogantly independent. Something of a demagogue, he was intentionally candid.
As a jurist, he was honest, industrious, and surprisingly detached in delivering decisions that were marked by common sense and some legal erudition.
In 1861 he married Mary Ann Carr, by whom he had three surviving children.