Choate
Choate names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Choate JOSEPH HODGES, an American lawyer and statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOSEPH HODGES, an American lawyer and statesman; born in Salem, Mass., Jan. 24, 1832. He was a descendant of John Choate, who came from England in 1640. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1852; admitted to the bar in Boston in 1855; re- JOSEPH H. CHOATE moved in 1856 to New York, where he became a partner in the law firm of Evarts, Choate and Beaman. His ability as a lawyer and public speaker soon gave 1 him a reputation which had seldom been equaled among the leaders of the New York bar. Although he never sought public office, he, at times, took an active RUFUS CHOATE interest in politics with the aim of raising their standard. On Jan. 12, 1899, he was appointed by President McKinley ambassador to England. The appointment was promptly co confirmed by the Senate and gave great satisfaction throughout the country and in England. He served with great success until 1905, received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's Universities, and was made a Bencher of the Middle Temple, being the first American to receive this honor. In 1907 he was United States delegate to the International Peace Conference at The Hague. In the World War his sympathies were with the Allied cause from the beginning. He was a member and, at times, an officer of many legal and patriotic societies, and the recipient of honorary degrees from numerous universities in this country and Canada. His addresses and orations were published (2 vols., 1910-1911). He died in New York, May 14, 1917. American
Choate RUFUS, an lawyer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RUFUS, an lawyer; born in Essex, Mass., Oct. 1, 1799. In 1830 and 1832 he was elected to Congress. In 1841 he succeeded Daniel Webster as United States senator from Massachusetts, serving until 1845. In many respects he was the most scholarly of American public men, and among the greatest forensic advocates the United States has produced. He died in Halifax, N. S., July 13, 1859. 12
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both men were long dead when Collier's compiled these notes in 1921 dash Rufus Choate in 1859 and Joseph Hodges Choate in 1917 dash and the biographical facts stand as printed. What has shifted is which part of Joseph Choate's career is remembered: Collier's dwells on his London embassy of 1899 dash 1905, while modern accounts lead with his 1895 argument in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., in which he persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down the federal income tax dash a victory undone by the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913. Rufus Choate's reputation as "among the greatest forensic advocates the United States has produced" has faded with the taste for florid courtroom oratory, and he is now read mainly by legal historians. To most Americans today the surname signals neither man but Choate Rosemary Hall, the Connecticut boarding school, endowed by the judge William Gardner Choate and merged with Rosemary Hall in 1971.
Written for this edition, 2026.