Published June 20, 2021
By Kent Hull
On
July 24, 1908, The Daily Journal carried a photograph of Henry E.
Schmiedeskamp, not yet 30 years old, with his request for votes in the August 8th
Democratic Party primary election for State’s Attorney of Adams County. He told
voters that he “is a native of Quincy and descends from the sturdy conservative
German people from whom he inherits the conservatism and other good qualities
of that race.” His “well known traits of character”, he
said, “have made friends for him in every section of the county” and “thus make
him a strong candidate with the people.”
Born in Quincy July 11, 1879, he moved with his parents to a Concord Township
Farm, graduating from Maplewood High School in Camp Point at age 14. In 1900,
after “reading law” with attorney William Schlagenhauf, he entered the
University of Michigan law school, and, in 1902 joined the office of former
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joseph N. Carter in Quincy’s Blackstone
Building. He married Leanora Deege on June 15, 1905 in her parent’s farm home
in the Five Points community east of Quincy.
The voters did not elect him State’s Attorney in 1908. Almost 60 years
later the Herald Whig reported that Schmiedeskamp was “sometimes known as a
champion of unpopular or lost causes.” A 1967 headline—again
with a photograph—reported that on his 88th
birthday, he was at his law office desk.
One unpopular cause Schmiedeskamp
denounced, one month after he became old enough to vote, was “the menace of
imperialism.” On August 11, 1900, the Daily Herald prefaced his guest column
with a headline that a “prominent Republican”—referring to his initial political
persuasion– “deserts his party—Henry Schmiedeskamp of Camp Point tells the
Herald why he can no longer support” the foreign policy of President William
McKinley.
Schmiedeskamp was protesting United
States foreign policy after the Spanish American War of 1898. The historian and
future president of the University of Wisconsin, Fred Harvey Harrington, has
written, “The anti-imperialist movement…opposed the annexation of the
Philippines and the other islands placed within reach by American victories
over Spain. It sprang out of devotion to an abstract political principle. With
few exceptions, the anti-imperialists did not base their opposition to
expansion on commercial, constitutional, religious, or humanitarian grounds;
rather they set themselves against it in the sincere belief that annexation and
administration of backward tropical areas would mean the abandonment of
American ideals of self-government and isolation –ideals expressed in the
Declaration of Independence, Washington’s Farewell Address and Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address. This abandonment, they felt, would spell the doom of the
republic they had known and loved.”
Schmiedeskamp became and remained
an “independent Democrat”, following what he considered Thomas Jefferson’s
precept that those governments which govern least govern best. In 1924, he
pursued a second lost cause when he campaigned for Congress. He reminded voters
that 38 years had passed “since an Adams county man” had been elected to
Congress, and it was time to
“send an honest, capable, industrious native son” who had risen “from the
ranks” and achieved “success through his own unaided efforts” to stand as “a
watchdog in Washington.”
His platform included a promise to
pursue construction of a “free federal bridge” connecting Quincy to Missouri,
but Schmiedeskamp lost amid the overwhelming Republican victory of incumbent
President Calvin Coolidge. There was no bridge until 1930, which did not become
tollfree until 1945.
Before his 84th birthday
in 1963, he recounted a third lost cause, telling the Herald Whig that he—a
lifelong teetotaler– had been one of the authors of the Eighteenth Amendment
to the Constitution imposing Prohibition, He emphasized that he hoped “to live
long enough to do it again.” His claim of part-authorship is supported by a November
13, 1918 Daily Whig article identifying him as “a member of the National
Council of the Anti-Saloon League of America,” a group monitoring ratification
of the Amendment.
He remained hopeful about the
future, however. Having just returned from a 3600-mile trip through 12 states
with his wife and a niece and observing the emergence of the civil rights
movement in the South, he told the reporter that Black people would eventually
have “their day in the sun,” but “only if there is good will on both sides.”
Schmiedeskamp often represented
farmers, who, the Herald Whig wrote, admired “his hard-driving tactics and his
ability to capitalize on details overlooked by others.” Lawyers and judges who
knew him likely would have considered that description an understatement. According
to the newspaper in 1968, farmers said, “I want him on my side: I’d be scared
to have him against me.”
When the July 11, 1968 Herald Whig
deemed him the “dean of attorneys,” he reflected, “I have been around 89 years
of mornings,” and “I’ve got a nice day for a start on my 90th year.”
For years, this elder lawyer had instructed, guided, or influenced many Quincy
lawyers and judges. At Henry Schmiedeskamp’s death on Jan. 11, 1969, almost 70
years had passed since he first appeared in a courtroom as an advocate, knowing
lawyers who still practiced much as Abraham Lincoln did before the Civil War,
traveling by buggy to rural courthouses. Now lawyers’ practice with computers,
smartphones, video, and social media.
His contemporary colleagues would
probably have agreed that, as with the candidate in 1908, Henry Schmiedeskamp’s
“well known traits of character” would still make “friends for him in every
section of the county” and would “thus make him a strong candidate with the
people.”
Sources
“Democratic
Candidate For State’s Attorney.”
Quincy Daily Journal,
July 24, 1908, 7.
Harrington, Fred Harvey, “Literary Aspects of
American Anti-Imperialism 1898-1902,”
The New England Quarterly
, December
1937, pp. 650-51.
“Henry
Schmiedeskamp, Dean Of Attorneys, is 89.”
Quincy Herald Whig,
July 11,
1968, C8.
“Mrs. Henry
Schmiedeskamp Dies After Long Illness.”
Quincy Herald Whig,
January 22,
1967, A8.
“The Menace Of
Imperialism.”
Quincy Daily Herald,
August 11, 1900, 5.
Newkirk, Joseph, “Presidential Candidate John W.
Davis Held Huge 1924 Rally.”
Quincy Herald Whig,
October 25, 2020.
“Now is the
Opportunity.” [ad]
Quincy Whig-Journal,
November 3, 1924.
“Ratification To Be Complete By March.”
Quincy
Daily Whig,
November 13, 1918, 3.
“Services Wednesday For Dean Of Lawyers.”
Quincy
Herald Whig,
January 12, 1969, A10.
“Spends 88th
Birthday At Law Office Desk.”
Quincy Herald Whig,
July 11, 1967, B8.
Wilkey, Keith L.,
“Henry Schmiedeskamp Closely Identified With Ag Interests.”
Quincy Herald
Whig,
April 9, 1968, A8.
