PARKER, Alton Brooks, jurist: b. Cortland, N. Y., 14 May 1852. He was educated at the Cortland Normal School, taught school for a time and then began the study of law. He was graduated from the Albany Law School, was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his profession at Kingston. In 1877 he was elected surrogate of Ulster County and in 1883 was re-elected. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and in 1885 President Cleveland offered him the office of First Assistant Postmaster-general, which, however, he declined. In 1885 he was chairman of the Democratic State Committee and in that same year was appointed a judge of the State Supreme Court to fill a vacancy, the next year being elected without opposition. In 1889 he was appointed to the Second Division of the Court of Appeals and when that court was dissolved was appointed a member of the General Term of the First Department, and in 1896 a member of the Appellate Division. In 1897 he was elected Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of his State. He wrote many of the important decisions of the Court of Appeals and served until his
in 1904. During the period of his service
on the bench he abstained from taking any
active part in practical politics and it was only
because the leaders respected his personal wish
that he did not become the candidate for
governor of his State upon the Democratic ticket
in 1902. The chosen candidate of that year
ran so close to victory that the party leaders
complained to him that his reluctance to run
had lost the election of the party which had
made him chief judge of the State. They then
drew from him the promise that should the
party throughout the nation in 1904 call upon
him to serve as its candidate for President he
would put aside his personal wishes. Having
obtained this promise, the party leaders at once
began to pave the way for his nomination on
the Democratic ticket for the presidency in
1904. Judge Parker, although taking no part
in the advancement of this campaign, adhered
to his promise and took no action to prevent
the nomination as he had done in 1902. The
efforts of the party leaders were successful
and Judge Parker was nominated for the presidency
by the Democratic Convention at Saint
Louis 9 July 1904. Immediately after the
receipt of the news of his nomination and of the
contest which had occurred in the Convention
over the money question plank in the platform, Judge Parker sent his famous “Gold Telegram” stating his position upon the money question and offering the Convention the opportunity before adjournment to substitute another candidate if dissatisfied with his position upon that question. The Convention reaffirmed the nomination of Judge Parker. The principal issue of the campaign arose upon Judge Parker's assertion of a heavy levy by the Republican Party upon the moneyed interests for campaign funds. He was defeated at the polls by Theodore Roosevelt. Judge Parker resigned from the Court of Appeals as soon as he and his associates could finish the writing of opinions in the undecided cases and before formally accepting the nomination of the Democratic Convention. After his defeat, Judge Parker went to New York City and in November 1904 opened an office and since that time has continued to practise law in New York City. He is one of the most prominent of the attorneys practising there and has handled many important cases. He appeared for the city of New York in its fight for 80-cent gas and was finally victorious in that case in the United States Supreme Court. He had charge of the litigation out of which grew the government suit against the Drug Trust under which it was dissolved in 1907 and also of the subsequent litigation as a result of which a large number of the New York wholesale houses who had been in the Trust, were compelled to pay heavy damages to the Parks firm in Cincinnati, which had been the principal foe of the Trust. He was counsel for Mayor McClellan throughout his fight against William R. Hearst, arising over the mayoralty election, in which Hearst sought to obtain a recount of the ballots. He was attorney for Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison in their great battle with Judge Silas Wright of Washington, in which the judge sought to punish the three labor leaders for contempt for an alleged violation of the court's injunction. In this case also Judge Parker was victorious in