Hitchcock

ery, he voted for Lincoln and was elected on the
"unconditional union" ticket a delegate to the
state convention which met in February 1861,
authorized by the legislature "to consider the
relation of Missouri to the union." He was an
active and somewhat radical member of the ma-
jority group opposed to secession which even-
tually assumed quasi-revolutionary powers when
the governor and legislature defied federal au-
thority. Hitchcock remained a trained lawyer
in the convention until it finally adjourned in
July 1863. Later, appointed assistant adjutant-
general with rank of major, but actually legal
adviser, he served on the staff of General Sher-
man, who was his friend in St. Louis before the
war, during the march to the sea and the cam-
paign resulting in the surrender of Johnston.
Returning to St. Louis, as a director of Wash-
ington University Hitchcock organized the uni-
versity's law school, being dean for seven years
without compensation and permitting his wife to
give money for the school's endowment. At the
same time he was engaged until his death in a
constantly increasing private practice, confined
entirely to civil, as distinguished from criminal,
law. In 1889-90 he was president of the Amer-
ican Bar Association.

Hitchcock's publications show scholarship, in-
dustry, idealism, and shrewd appreciation of cur-
rent events. His pro-Union speech in the state
convention, Mar. 15, 1861, is a plausible argu-
ment for what is now the orthodox view of
American federalism (Journal and Proceedings
of the Missouri State Convention, 1861). A more
literary quality appears in his address, "The Su-
preme Court and the Constitution," at the cele-
bration of the centennial of the United States
Supreme Court (Hampton L. Carson, The Su-
preme Court of the United States, vol. I, 1891),
His American Bar Association address on cor-
porations (published in the Association's Report,
1887) embodies a protest against the use of "emi-
nent domain" for "private gain," quoted with
approval in Bryce's American Commonwealth
(1888), which also contains a quotation from
Hitchcock's American State Constitution (1887).
The posthumous Marching with Sherman
(1927), based upon campaign letters and diaries,
ably edited by M, A. DeWolfe Howe, is vividly
relevant to a controversial subject. Through
Hitchcock's effort the notable library on al-
chemy collected by his uncle, Gen. Ethan Allen
Hitchcock, on the latter's death was acquired by
the Mercantile Library, St. Louis.

[In addition to references above, see: A. J. D. Stew-
art, The Hist, of the Bench and Bar of Mo. (1898);
Wm. Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyc. of the Hist, of
St. Louis (1899), voL II; Who's Who in America,

Hitchcock

1901-02; H. M. Colton, Statistics of the Class of 1848
of Yale College (1869) ; sketch by John Green, in Proc.
Am. Antiq. Soc., n.s., XVII (1907) ; Report . . . Am.
Bar Asso. . . . 1002 (1902) ; M. L. J. Hitchcock, The
Geneal of the Hitchcock Family ^(1894); St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Republic, Mar. 19, 1902;
unpublished data at Washington Univ. and Mercantile
Lib., St. Louis.] T. W.

HITCHCOCK, JAMES RIPLEY WELL-
MAN (July 3, i857-May 4, 1918), art-critic,
journalist, author, a descendant of Luke Hitch-
cock of New Haven and Wethersfield, Conn.,
was born at Fitchburg, Mass., the son of Dr. Al-
fred Hitchcock and Aurilla Phebe (Wellman)
Hitchcock. He graduated (A.B.) from Harvard
in 1877, and spent another year there in the
study of art and philosophy. He next went to
New York for a year's work in medicine and
surgery, thinking to give his father's profession
a trial. His taste did not run in that direction,
however, and he began writing volunteer articles
for newspapers and.magazines, achieving such
success that in 1882 he joined the staff of the
New York Tribune as art-critic. He filled this
place with distinction for eight years, during
which time he also made extended tours through
the Northwest and in New Mexico, Arizona,
California, and Mexico as staff correspondent of
the Tribune. His letters were signed J. R. W. H.
and were very nearly the last of his writings to
bear his full name. Finding it too cumbersome,
he dropped part of it, and was known thereafter
only as Ripley Hitchcock. During this middle
period of his life he lived for a number of years
at Nutley, N. J,, and was conspicuous among
those who made that place a noteworthy center
of literature and art. He was a man of compel-
ling charm, both in his personal manner and in
his writings, and had always a circle of friends
and co-workers about him. At one time he or-
ganized a historical pageant at Nutley—one of
the first affairs of the kind in the United States
—which comprised among other things jousting
with lances by knights in armor. In 1890 he left
the Tribune to become literary adviser for the
publishing house of D. Appleton & Company,
and there served for twelve years, during which
time he was instrumental in introducing the writ-
ings of Rudyard Kipling to the American public.
In 1906 he became literary adviser and director
for Harper & Brothers, then undergoing reor-
ganization, and had much to do with restoring
that company to its former high degree of pros-
perity. He held this place until his death.
Meanwhile he did much lecturing on literary
and artistic subjects, took a large part in various
reform movements in New York City, and wrote
and edited many books. His works on art in-
clude Etching in America (1886); Notable

76