Early Political Career
Altgeld's name, according to historian Philip Dray, “is synonymous with the dawn of the Progressive era.” In 1874, he was elected District Attorney of Andrew County. A year later resigned and moved to Chicago to go back into the private sector. He wouldn't run for public office again for another 10 years.
Altgeld decided to run for congress in 1884 against incumbent George Adams of Illinois's 4th congressional district. That year, he published an essay on penal reform entitled, Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims. His essay argued that rather than reform criminals, incarceration produced hardened criminals. Although this district was heavily Republican, Adams defeated him by just 8 points (54%-46%), a better showing than well-known Democrat Lambert Tree had made two years earlier. As a Republican leader recalled, “He (Altgeld) was not elected, but our executive committee was pretty badly frightened by the strong canvass he made.”
In 1886, he was elected as a Cook County Superior Court Justice and served on the bench until 1891.
Read more about this topic: John Peter Altgeld
Famous quotes containing the words early, political and/or career:
“Three early risings make an extra day.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We assume that politicians are without honor. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandals of their politics: not so much that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political lie.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)