Charles Austin Tweed (December 24, 1813 – July 22, 1887) was an American

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

. During his early career he was elected to the

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and

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature (the lower house being the California State Assembly). The state senate convenes, along with the state assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

. Tweed then moved to

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...

and was appointed to serve two terms as an associate justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court.

Background

Tweed was born in South Reading, Massachusetts, to Joshua and Elizabet (Pratt) Tweed on December 24, 1813, the youngest of four sons. His father was a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

and influential member of the community. He received a

liberal education A liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free () human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment. It has been d ...

that included a study of the law. Shortly after he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, he moved to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in the hope it would help his first wife's health. There in 1848, as a member of the Whig Party, he was elected to a single term in the

California

In late 1849 Tweed joined the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, traveling in a group that crossed from

Veracruz, Veracruz Veracruz (), also known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico and the most populous city in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located along the c ...

to San Blas Atempa before continuing north to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. After setting up a legal practice in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, he was elected a member of the city council on April 1, 1850. Following Sacramento, Tweed moved and lived for a time in Auburn, Dutch Flat, and Nevada City. In 1859, he moved to

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Also called Mishawum by the Massachusett, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Bost ...

but returned to Nevada City in 1862. Running as a Republican, Tweed was elected

district Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Placer County Placer County ( ; ''Placer'', Spanish language, Spanish for "sand deposit"), officially the County of Placer, is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was ...

in 1863. In 1867 he was a delegate to the California Republican Convention. Later that year, Tweed won election to the

, representing Placer County for two consecutive terms. There he became a leader of the

Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They ca ...

. Tweed was also an advocate of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

. On January 10, 1870, the Republican senator introduced a bill that would allow the state to hire women for the same wages offered to their male coworkers. The bill was defeated in a senate vote of 15–21. Later that session Tweed submitted a petition to amend the state constitution to grant

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. He was appointed chairman of a

special committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

established to investigate the possibility. Although the committee reported favorably, the proposal was defeated by a vote of 23–47.

Arizona Territory

On April 14, 1870, following Judge John Titus' promotion to Chief Justice, Tweed was appointed an Associate Justice to the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court. The new justice moved to

Prescott Prescott may refer to: People Given name * Prescott E. Bloom, American lawyer and politician * Prescott Bush, American banker and politician * Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist * Prescott F. Hall, American lawyer, author and eugenicist ...

and took his oath of office on August 12, 1870. He presided over his first district court session on October 3, 1870. Press reports of the new justice's performance were favorable with one newspaper reporting, "Judge Tweed has gained the confidence of the people ... by giving the law a literal construction and showing a disposition to get at the rights of matters, irrespective of technicalities." On October 2, 1871, Tweed's first wife, Ruth G., died. The 1871 session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature created

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

and placed it within Tweed's judicial district. Early in 1872, Tweed moved to the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

of the new county, Phoenix. There he purchased some land where members of his family grew

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

es, and operated a

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

. In addition to his judicial duties, Tweed became active in early efforts to use the Salt River for irrigation. On March 31, 1875, Tweed married Minnie A. Jackson. The marriage ended with her death on March 14, 1877. Judge Tweed's third marriage came on March 20, 1878 when he wed Marcia C. Lewis of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. In Phoenix, Judge Tweed remained as popular as he had been in Prescott. As a result, he was appointed to a second term in March 1874. This term saw charges raised against the judge, possibly by unhappy litigants, that Tweed drank to excess and had become old and feeble. Territorial Governors Anson P.K. Safford,

John Philo Hoyt John Philo Hoyt (October 6, 1841 – August 27, 1926) was an American politician and jurist. He served as the fourth Governor of Arizona Territory and was nominated to become Governor of Idaho Territory but declined the position. In his later l ...

, Chief Justice C. G. W. French, and Edmund W. Wells were among Tweed's defenders and the charges were dismissed in 1876. The claims may however have influenced President

Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch Abolitionism in the Un ...

to not appoint Tweed to a third term in 1878. After leaving the bench, Tweed moved to Mineral Park and served as counsel for a mining company. In November 1878 he was elected

Mohave County Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 counties in the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is th ...

attorney beginning in January the next year. Tweed resigned in mid-1880 to return to Phoenix. There he made unsuccessful runs to become Maricopa County attorney in 1880 and 1882. The judge's later years were spent in a law partnership with William A. Hancock. Tweed had been in declining health for years. In early 1887, he traveled to

to seek medical treatment. The treatment was unable to reverse his problems and Tweed died on July 22, 1887.

References

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External links

Charles A. Tweed
- JoinCalifornia Election Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Tweed, Charles Austin 1813 births 1887 deaths Arizona pioneers Justices of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court California state senators Florida state senators Massachusetts lawyers People from Reading, Massachusetts People of the California Gold Rush Sacramento City Council members 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century members of the California State Legislature 19th-century members of the Florida Legislature