Background
William DeWitt Mitchell was born on September 9, 1874, in Winona, Minnesota. He was the son of William and Frances Merritt Mitchell. His father was a lawyer who eventually became a state supreme court justice.
William DeWitt Mitchell was born on September 9, 1874, in Winona, Minnesota. He was the son of William and Frances Merritt Mitchell. His father was a lawyer who eventually became a state supreme court justice.
After receiving his early education in Winona schools and the Lawrenceville School (1889 - 1891), he enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1891. Two years later, his interest having shifted to law, he transferred to the University of Minnesota. Living with an increasingly close to his recently widowed father, Mitchell was soon immersed in discussion and study of legal issues. Taking night law courses to make up for lost time, he received the A. B. in 1895. He obtained the LL. B. and was admitted to the bar in 1896.
Mitchell immediately began practicing law in St. Paul. After serving in several firms, including practice with his father until the latter's death in 1900, in 1902 he joined two well-established lawyers to form How, Taylor and Mitchell. This firm, flourishing on the rapid growth of city and state, soon became one of the largest and most important in the upper Midwest. Pierce Butler, a future United States Supreme Court justice, became a partner in 1905 and began a long and close relationship with Mitchell. By 1925, Mitchell described himself as "in a rut, " and accepted the position of solicitor general when offered it by President Calvin Coolidge. He found it his most interesting professional experience and performed so capable that the justices of the Supreme Court took the unusual step of urging President Herbert Hoover to appoint him attorney general. When Mitchell reluctantly accepted that position in 1929, he was for the first time in his life in the midst of intensely controversial issues of broad national concern. Those issues principally prohibition and the Great Depression made it virtually impossible for him to accomplish his objectives. Mitchell wanted to improve the administration of justice and modify the judicial structure of the government. He was able to achieve some of his goals, but only after leaving office. Instead, he was swamped with what he called the "miserable task" of enforcing prohibition. It kept him from more important matters and also reflected, he believed, a decline in state responsibility that troubled him for the rest of his life.
Mitchell felt that the central enforcement obligation lay with the states; under no circumstances did he want a large federal police force created to ensure compliance. The growing reluctance of some states, however, especially those on the East Coast, made compliance even more unlikely and increased the burdens on Mitchell's already understaffed department. Nevertheless, Mitchell saw to it, in his careful, unflamboyant way, that enforcement grew increasingly efficient. His success had ironic consequences. First, the federal prisons were soon overflowing, so that Mitchell was forced to lobby for new prisons. Second, the very efficiency of his enforcement may have helped convince people to repeal a policy he supported. The Great Depression also affected Mitchell's career as attorney general. It meant reduced budgets and also lay at the root of probably the single most controversial event in his career as a public servant: the expulsion of the Bonus Army in July 1932.
Although Mitchell did not order the use of federal troops, he was responsible for a widely publicized report on the matter. His defense of the government was so sweeping that even some law enforcement officials objected; perhaps most surprising was the occasional note of shrillness in his concern about criminal and communist influence, so out of character in a man customarily reserved in manner and statement. Quite in character, on the other hand, was his aversion to enforcing antitrust legislation. Big business, unlike big government, never particularly concerned Mitchell. When pressed to move against corporate consolidation, he found the Great Depression a good reason for not doing so. He explained that economic conditions were already bad enough without Justice Department prosecutions making them worse. In any event, few attorneys general did less in this area. The contrast with his approach to prohibition enforcement is significant. The New York period of Mitchell's life began in 1933, when he left Washington for the comparative quiet of a Wall Street law practice. His greatest service during that period was the revision of the federal rules of civil procedure, which he undertook at the request of the Supreme Court. Finally adopted in 1938, the new rules rank as a major reform in the administration of justice. In 1945, Mitchell's high standing in the legal profession and his moderate political posture made him an excellent choice for chief counsel of the congressional investigation of the Pearl Harbor disaster. So rancorous and unproductive did the hearings become, however, that Mitchell soon resigned.
Although a Democrat like his father, Mitchell never was politically active, nor did he develop any sustained interest in the public and cultural life of St. Paul. The only serious rival for his almost single-minded interest in the law was his family.
Throughout his later years, Mitchell worried about the growth of government bureaucracy resulting, as he believed, from the inability of Congress to administer the welfare functions it increasingly assumed. The behavior of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and an increasingly flexible Supreme Court also saddened him deeply. He died at his home in Syosset, New York.
a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, a member of the American and New York State Bar Associations, a member of the New York County Lawyers Association, a member of the American Judicature Society, a member of the Spanish War Veterans and the American Legion, a member of the Central
Committee of the American Red Cross
Not a colorful personality, either in or out of the courtroom, Mitchell was repeatedly involved in dramatic, even tumultuous, events.
Mr. Mitchell was an ardent amateur golfer. For a time he played in the low 70’s, and he was a member of a team of senior golfers which represented the United States in a series of international matches. His clubs included the University Club, Century Association and Down Town Association, of New York; the Piping Rock Club and the Garden City Golf Club, of Long Island; the Metropolitan Club and the Burning Tree, of Washington; also the Somerset Club, University Club and White Bear Yacht Club, of St. Paul.
On June 27, 1901, Mitchell married Gertrude Bancroft; they had two children.
