The Income Tax. Opinions of Hon. John K. Shields ... Hon. Cordell Hull ... and Thurlow M. Gordon ... on the Proposed Income-Tax Provision of the Pending Tariff Bill ..
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John Knight Shields was an American jurist and Democratic senator.
Background
John was born on August 15, 1858 at "Clinchdale" near Bean's Station, Grainger County, Tennessee, United States, one of the ten sons of James T. Shields and his second wife, Elizabeth (Simpson) Shields. He was a descendant of William Shields of County Armagh, Ireland, who emigrated to America in 1737 and settled in Maryland; his son, James, moved to Tennessee.
Education
John Shields was educated by private tutors and studied law under his father, a prominent attorney of East Tennessee.
Career
Admitted to the bar in 1879, he was in partnership with his father until the latter's retirement in 1890. He then formed a partnership with R. E. L. Mountcastle, which lasted through the periods 1890-92 and 1894-1902.
Shields's public career began with his service as chancellor of the twelfth division, Tennessee, from 1892 to 1894. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1896 and of that held in 1904. He was elected associate justice of the Tennessee supreme court in 1902 for an eight-year term. The opinions which he delivered during his years on the court dealt largely with matters of relatively little public interest. They were clear, usually concise, but appear somewhat legalistic to the lay mind.
The one outstanding case (Cooper vs. State, 15 Cates, 37), in which he spoke for the court, was that which upheld a lower court in convicting Duncan B. Cooper of the murder of a former United States senator, Edward W. Carmack. This decision undoubtedly affected Shields's future career. The case grew out of an acrid conflict between Senator Carmack and Gov. Malcolm R. Patterson for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1908, in which statewide prohibition was the dominant issue. Carmack, following his defeat, continued newspaper attacks upon his opponents - Cooper among them.
The result was an altercation in which Carmack, Cooper, and the latter's son, Robin, were involved, and as a result of which Carmack was shot and killed. Governor Patterson pardoned Cooper immediately after the supreme court had acted. The judicial elections of 1910 followed by a few months the final disposition of the Cooper case. Shields, with two of his associates on the court, refused to seek nomination by the Democratic party.
Shields thereupon became chief justice. In 1913 the legislature, through an alliance of Republicans with Independent or Carmack Democrats, elected Shields to the United States Senate. Reelected to the Senate in 1918, he lost support in Tennessee, and his public career ended with his defeat for Democratic renomination in 1924.
He spent his remaining years at stock raising on his large ancestral estate "Clinchdale. " Obituary dispatches stated that President Harding, thinking Shields younger than he was, had selected him for appointment to the United States Supreme Court. They further stated that he had rejected an offer by President Coolidge in September 1926 to appoint him to the Federal Trade Commission.
He died at his home following his wife's sudden death.
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Politics
He strongly favored the development of power sites by private enterprise, with resultant public revenues going to the states in which the sites were located. Through 1918 he supported in general President Wilson's policies, except on the Panama tolls issue.
An irreconcilable isolationist, he later opposed ratification of the Washington Four Power Treaty. He opposed woman's suffrage and the soldiers' bonus, but voted to uphold President Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act.
Connections
In June 1883 he married Mary Fulkerson, who died four months later. Twenty-nine years later, December 7, 1912, he married Jeanette (Dodson) Cowan, widow of James D. Cowan of Knoxville; her death preceded that of her husband by twelve days.