The Public Career of Joseph McKenna
Graduation Date
Fall 1941
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
To present a permanent record of Joseph McKenna, as a great Californian, as others have been lauded unduly, a noteworthy jurist, and Catholic layman, is the purpose of this thesis. As a Westerner, the name of Joseph McKenna has not left its permanent mark on the public mind. In truth, he is given but scant recognition. His own people and his colleagues of the California Bench and Bar begrudged him the honors of the Supreme Court of the United States. A few months previous, however, when he was given the post of Attorney General in President McKinley's cabinet, he was hailed as "the pride of the West", California's favored son.
A storm of opposition and adverse criticism arose from all sides, more particularly so, in the West when the President sent his nomination as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to the Senate. However, neither the Bench that he served so long, nor those with whom he previously lived and worked, seemed to take further notice of him after the Senate had confirmed his appointment to the Supreme Court. The California Catholic press has recognized other great civic leaders of our faith, but hardly "an honorable mention" Is accorded the Honorable Joseph McKenna.
Indeed, so little is recorded of his personal life, while great tribute was paid him by his colleagues of the Supreme Court of the United States when he resigned in 1925, that it would seem that Californians would be animated, at least, to claim him as an adopted son. This privilege that had been accorded his predecessor, the Honorable Stephen J. field, and others who had been honored by the California electorate after his time, seems to have been denied him.
It is, of course Justice McKenna’s public career with which I am chiefly concerned. I endeavored to trace the life of his public servant from an obscure country lawyer, struggling for recognition in California’s wild political world following the Civil War, through appointment to and resignation from the United States Supreme Court. His public career thereby terminated, he received no more publicity until the newspapers announced his serious illness and his death in Washington D.C., November 22, 1926.