Asa Palmer French (January 29, 1860 – September 17, 1935)[3][4] was an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1906 to 1914.[1]
Asa P. French | |
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| United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | |
| In office 1906–1914 | |
| Preceded by | Melvin O. Adams |
| Succeeded by | George W. Anderson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 29, 1860[1] Braintree, Massachusetts United States |
| Died | September 17, 1935 (aged 75)[1] Wellesley, Massachusetts United States |
| Resting place | Central Cemetery, Randolph, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Elisabeth Ambrose Wales |
| Residence | Randolph, Massachusetts[2] |
| Alma mater | Yale University[2] |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Signature | .png) |
Early life
editFrench was born on January 29, 1860. His father was a Commissioner of the Court of Alabama Claims. In 1877 French began attending Thayer Academy as one of its first students and was a member of its first ever graduating class in 1878. In 1882 he graduated from Yale University, where he served on the tenth editorial board of The Yale Record[5] and was a member of Skull and Bones.[3] He subsequently studied law at Boston University.[2]
Career
editIn 1896, French came to prominence, with James E. Cotter, as court-appointed junior counsel for Thomas M. Bram, who was successfully prosecuted by Sherman Hoar, with Justice Edward Douglass White presiding, then sentenced to hang, for a triple axe-murder committed aboard the Herbert Fuller on the high seas. French and Cotter secured a second trial on writ of error, Bram v. United States,[6] but he was, again, found guilty. Bram maintained his innocence, was released from prison in 1913, became a successful restaurateur, and was pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson, in 1919.[4][7][8]
From 1901 to 1906, French was the district attorney for the Southeastern District of Massachusetts.[2] In 1905 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Massachusetts Attorney General.[9] In 1906, he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He was re-appointed by President William Howard Taft in 1910 and remained U.S. Attorney until November 1, 1914 when he resigned to enter private practice.[2]
In 1916, he testified before the United States Senate during the confirmation hearings of United States Supreme Court nominee Louis Brandeis. Of Brandeis, French said: "Mr. Brandeis has, in my experience, the reputation of being a man of integrity, a man of honor, a man who is conscientiously striving for what he believes to be right".[2]
French was elected to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917, representing the Massachusetts Fourteenth Congressional District. [10]
In 1920, French was a counsel for the complainants in a $150,000,000 suit against William Rockefeller and other former directors of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. He split a fee of more than $800,000 with four other lawyers.[4]
French died on November 17, 1935.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "French, Asa Palmer". PoliticalGraveyard.com. The Political Graveyard. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Nomination of Louis D. Brandeis: hearings before the subcommittee of the Committee on the judiciary, United States Senate, sixty-fourth Congress, first session, on the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis to be an associate justice of the Supreme court of the United States. 1916. pp. 769–770.
- ^ a b Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1935-1936, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1935–1936, pp. 23–4
- ^ a b c "Asa Palmer French, Leader of Bar, Dies" (PDF), The New York Times, New York, New York, September 18, 1935
- ^ "Record Editors". The Yale Banner. New Haven: Thomas Penney and G. D. Pettee. 1877. p. 182.
- ^ Bram v. United States, by Justice Edward Douglass White, Wikisource.
- ^ "Mutiny and Murder". The World. Halifax, Nova Scotia. July 22, 1896. p. 1. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "L. H. Monks' Death Recalls Sea Crime"; The Boston Globe; Boston, Massachusetts; September 13, 1927, p. 28
- ^ Speech of Dist. Atty. Asa P. French: candidate for the Republican nomination for attorney general, at the summer outing of the Norfolk Club, Hotel Pemberton, Hull, 15 July 1905. 1905.
- ^ Bridgman, Arthur Milnor (1919), A Souvenir of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, Boston, 1917-1919, Stoughton, MA: A. M. (Arthur Milnor) Bridgman, p. 72
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