Call All the Lawyers.
Parties and parties to the Parties suss out whether Swift won and if the Dems are stuck in City Hall
Saturday, March 30, 2024. Good morning.
Last week, we left Chicago’s Democratic aldermen meeting inside the City Council chamber and its Republicans meeting outside of it. Reporters had been in the Republicans’ meeting, and told the Dems the plan was to retake the chamber after the Dems left. The Dems couldn't leave the chamber even if they wanted to. The departing Republicans had also brought with them the quorum necessary to vote on anything - including an adjournment.
I had no idea that issues over parliamentary procedure could be suspenseful in any way ("Anatomy of a Fall" notwithstanding) until I read these accounts. I've tried to draw the characters and the situation in a way that it's interesting to others as well. (If the email open rate is an accurate gauge, then people are still reading! Thanks! Also thanks to a friend who reported that he was amused to find himself reading an installment while sitting through parliamentary procedure in a legislative chamber. Target audience right there.)
For those who have not been reading weekly:
Where were we?
Here is a link to the home page to read past issues.
• Saturday night, October 28: Mayor of Chicago Carter Harrison is assassinated. A process to succeed the mayor does not exist.
• October 29: Newspapers start promoting mayoral candidates.
• Monday, October 30: The World’s Fair closes. The City Council meets to prepare for the mayor’s funeral.
• Tuesday, October 31: Newspapers and politicians plan for a fight over the mayor’s seat. Attorneys continue to look for a succession plan.
• Wednesday, November 1: Harrison’s funeral. Lawyers adopt a succession plan: Aldermen will elect a temporary mayor to serve until a special election is held in December.
• Thursday, November 2: Republican aldermen nominate George B. Swift over Martin Madden. Alderman Epstean casts a blank ballot. Republicans call for a special meeting on Saturday morning to vote for mayor pro tem.
• Friday, November 3. The Democrats nominate John McGillen, Chair of the Democratic Campaign Committee. Democrat Johnny Powers plans to pay five Republica aldermen to vote for McGillen.
• Saturday, November 4: The City Council meeting. Democratic nominee McGillen uses parliamentary procedure to chair the meeting and ensure a secret ballot. A blank ballot leaves Swift without a majority of total votes. When a second ballot begins, the Republicans leave the chamber, leaving the Dems without a quorum. McGillen summons legal counsel.
November 4. The Conclusion.
There were two issues to settle, legally and politically. First: Was Swift legally elected? Second: Could Democrats adjourn the meeting without a quorum? (You may recall recent stories of legislative caucuses leaving town to avoid a vote.)
The first attorney whom McGillen consulted was Corporation Counsel Adolf Kraus. As you might recall, Kraus was BFF to the Harrison family and had met with Swift the night of the murder. Kraus didn't have far to go. He'd been in a room nearby, “awaiting the outcome of the struggle,” according to the Herald.
Before Kraus could issue a public opinion (i.e., one recorded by newspaper reporters), Republican Martin Madden returned to the chamber. At least he did according to two newspapers, the Republican Inter Ocean and the Democratic Herald. The exchange went unreported in the Tribune, Times, and Daily News.
The Inter Ocean and Herald had entirely differing assessments as to the result of Madden’s discussion with McGillen.
According to the Inter Ocean, McGillen said the following:
“Alderman Madden, this is a serious matter, “ said Chairman McGillen, “and I appeal to your good sense. I want you to bring in your friends and see if we could not agree to something. I want to adjourn until Monday, by which time the legal bearings of the case will be fully ascertained.”
According to the paper, Madden left without committing to returning with the rest of the Republicans.
The Herald, by contrast, reported the following scene:
“Go out there, Madden, and induce the Republicans to come back. Let us have an adjournment by consent until Monday, and in the meantime this legal question can be settled.
“…Let us avoid, if possible, throwing the city’s affairs into confusion. I am sure that I do not want to do anything except what is right.”
“I believe that, John,” Madden replied, “and I will go out and have a talk with my fellow-republicans and see what they will do.”
Both papers quote McGillen - using quotation marks - yet it’s impossible that both statements were made verbatim. It seemed to be common to use this type of political wordplay. Indeed, the other papers didn’t complain about the way either paper characterized McGillen’s exchange with Madden. The premier Republican and Democratic papers (The Trib and Times) excluded this scene.
Bring in the Lawyers. And John Smyth.
After Madden had left the room, several attorneys—and others—entered the chamber. First came City Attorney George Trude and City Prosecutor Asay. Shortly after they arrived, McGillen sent for A.S. Trude. A.S. was George’s older brother, an attorney in his own right and more involved in politics than his brother. (He would soon be named lead prosecutor in the murder trial of Harrison’s assassin, Patrick Eugene Prendergast.)
A.S. Trude insisted that John M. Smyth accompany him into the conference. If one was looking for another legal opinion, this was ridiculous. Smyth was the owner of a very successful furniture store (that only closed in 1994). He was no lawyer. But he was, as Trude and the others well knew, the chair of the Republican Cook County Central Committee. In this role, he directed most of the Republican political campaigns in Chicago.
McGillen allowed it. (If you had any doubts before now as to whether this was more a political matter than a legal one, that one act should resolve them.)
According to the Inter Ocean:
Mr. Smyth said the good name and fame of the city were involved. He said all party rancor should be laid aside and that the will of the Council should be obeyed. He gave it as his opinion that Alderman Swift was duly elected. He held that Alderman Swift had received a majority of the votes, as a blank ballot was not a vote.
The Herald reported:
Mr. Smyth was very positive that Swift had been elected, while Mr. Trude was equally positive that there had been no election. Finally Mr. Smyth left, saying in a good-humored way that he was no match for Mr. Trude in a legal controversy.
After Smyth had conceded the legal arguments to Trude and the Dems, he turned to the role for which he was truly suited and for which he’d originally been summoned by Swift. Smyth went into the room where the Republicans had just sworn Swift into office. As the top party official in the room, Smyth signed the bond, which had been provided by Martin Madden, Swift’s erstwhile competition for the nomination.
The Times has an amusing account of what happened when Swift’s swearing-in became public knowledge.
In the excitement of the moment he probably overlooked the fact that the oath is not worth the paper it’s written upon. Worse still, Mr. Swift seems to have even forgotten that he took an oath, for half an hour later he was back in the council chamber vigorously denying that he had done so.
“Do you take me for an idiot,” he said, “that I would do such a thing! I cannot be qualified until my bond is approved by the council, and that cannot be done until Monday. Of course I have not taken any oath.”
As every paper reported, Swift had indeed taken the oath of office. He must have been flustered indeed; it’s one of the only times he ever made a public claim that was so easily disproved.
The Republicans then went back down the hall to the Council chamber, presumably to vote to approve the bond and thus allow Swift to take the Mayor’s chair. But McGillen and the Democrats weren’t having any of it. With the Republicans back in the chamber, McGillen could take action. As the Trib reported:
Somebody had informed McGillen what had transpired, and as soon as he saw the Republican aldermen reentering the chamber, he rushed to the chair and said excitedly:
“Gentlemen, this chaos must cease. Let us have order. Let us have order.”
Then Ald. Gosselin moved an adjournment. The motion was hastily seconded by Ald. Brennan. The chair put it in haste and it was declared carried.
The Democrats and Republicans were thus free to go. They’d return to the chamber Monday morning.
The Herald interviewed Swift at his home later that night. He said:
“I was amused at a statement in an evening paper, which is probably true, that the council chamber is being guarded by policemen because it is feared I might try to break in. I see no sense in it at all. How could I act as mayor before I had qualified? … It is ridiculous. They are guarding the council chamber with armed policemen, while I am sitting here quietly at home.
“There is no doubt whatever that I was lawfully elected mayor to-day. I told Trude he knew I was elected and he only said there were ‘technicalities.’ I asked him how it would be if he were running for an office and got 500 votes and there were 1000 blank ballots in the box. I wanted to know if they would count.
“…The law-abiding citizens of Chicago, irrespective of party, will, I believe, condemn the arbitrary acts of the democrats in the council today when the facts become known. It was the most barefaced robbery I ever saw or knew of. I was surprised to see McGillen, who had been named as the candidate for mayor in the Democratic caucus, called upon to preside in the meeting. I supposed they had got him to do anything they wanted him to do. A sense of decency would have led him to decline to act as chairman, I should have thought.”
The alders would have to wait till Monday for the next chance to debate the issue, but they wouldn't be sitting on their hands till then. The Democrats needed to make sure they got what they paid for from the Republicans they’d bribed. The Republicans needed to either find a law that proved that Swift had won, or compel the bribed Republicans to vote for Swift. And both parties had to contend with whoever cast that pesky blank ballot, which would keep any future vote at a stalemate.
You’ll have to wait till well past Monday. I will continue the story in two weeks because I’m going out of town next week. I’ll post something from the Morgue for next week.
Thanks for reading!
Jen