The Green Bag.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL McKENNA.
CALIFORNIA, in its relation to the Union as a State, dominates the Federal department of justice in the adminisration of President McKinley; and for the second time the attorney-generalship locally leaves the section of the Union east of the Rocky Mountains. Hitherto several States have monopolized the office: Virginia, during four presidential terms, with Edmund Randolph, Charles Lee, William Wirt and John Y. Mason; Pennsylvania, seven times with William Bradford, Richard Rush, Henry D. Gilpin, Jeremiah T. Black, Titian J. Coffee, Wayne McVeagh and Benjamin H. Brewster; Massachusetts, six times with Theophilus Parsons, Levi Lincoln, Caleb Cushing, Ebenezer R. Hoar, Charles Devens and Richard Olney; Maryland, the same number with Robert Smith (who under Jefferson held the office only a few months and then joined the large army of totally forgotten Smiths), William Pinkney, Roger B. Taney and Reverdy Johnson, whose legal fame will ever remain green, and John Nelson, who made as inconsiderable a figure in office as did his President, John Tyler; Kentucky boasted possession of the office during four presidential terms: twice with John J. Crittenden, with John Breckenridge and James Speed; New York thrice with Benjamin F. Butler the great, William M. Evarts and Edwards Pierrepont; Ohio, also four times with Henry Stanbery, Edwin M. Stanton, Alphonso Taft and Judson Harmon; Georgia twice with John M. Berrient, Amos T. Ackerman; and, only once, Maine with Nathan Clifford; Delaware with Caesar A. Rodney; Tennessee with Felix Grundy; South Carolina with Hugh S. Legaré; Connecticut with Isaac Toucey; Missouri with Edward Bates; Indiana with William H. Miller; Arkansas with Augustus H. Garland, and Oregon with George H. Williams. Rhode Island remains the only New England State never represented in any Federal Cabinet and in company with Florida and Texas among Southern States. The early and less known attorney generals were the hardest worked of all, because during the first quarter century of the Federal government all legal questions that concerned the government were embarrassing by reason of their novelty.
Attorney-General Joseph McKenna was born of parents of Irish descent, in Philadelphia, fifty-four years ago, and was brought by them to California when he was twelve years old and there educated. It was the initial wish of his parents that he should embrace the priesthood, as the family were of the church of Rome, but young McKenna carried his pious rectitude into the legal profession and with that quality of soul has thus far illustrated it. His home was in the interior County of Solona. He had only been at its bar five years when he was elected its district attorney, and for a second term—so popularly had he discharged his office with desirable tact and proof of high legal ability. “I tried to vindicate what learning I had,” he once remarked to an intimate, “because my County of Solona bore the revered name of Solon, the lawgiver, who ameliorated the harsh statutes of Draco.” With an intellectual cast of countenance of Hibernian type and eloquent eyes, Attorney-General McKenna at times shows as pretty bits of wit as belong to the land of Philpot Curran. “Joe McKenna,” as his townsmen of Suisin—the county seat
