Howard

ly in research and writing, and in 1904 published
a monumental History of Matrimonial Institu-
tions Chiefly in England and the United States.
This three-volume work gave to him at once an
international reputation as a student of institu-
tions, one whose point of view was no longer
narrowly national but comprehended the wide
realms of anthropology and sociology. His Pre-
liminaries of the American Revolution, a volume
in the American Nation series, appeared in 1905.
After some service as professorial lecturer in
history at the University of Chicago, he returned
to the University of Nebraska in 1904 as pro-
fessor of institutional history, and from 1906 as
head of the newly organized department of po-
litical science and sociology. Once more he had
an opportunity to build academic foundations and
direct the course of a young and growing de-
partment. He did not retire altogether from
teaching until 1924, at which time he presented
to the University a large library of history and
social science. The presidency of the American
Sociological Society (1917) and an honorary
vice-presidency of the Institut International de
Sociologie testified to the esteem in which he was
held by his colleagues both at home and abroad.
Howard's work as teacher and investigator was
inspired by a consuming zeal for social better-
ment. Such causes as race equality, woman's
suffrage, child labor, prohibition, and interna-
tional peace had in him a sturdy public champion.
An idealist and a democrat, as well as a scientist,
he always emphasized the contributions which
sociology, as it developed, might make to human
welfare.

Howard married, Jan. i, 1880, a classmate,
Alice May Frost, of Lincoln, Nebr. They had no
children.

[Who's Who in America, 1928-29; Rev. of Revs.
(N. Y.), Aug. 1928; Am. Jour, of Sociology, Jan. 1929;
Sociology and Social Research, Sept-Oct., Nov.-Dec.
1928, and Jan,-Feb. 1929; Omaha Bee-News, June
10, 1928; Nebraska State Jour. (Lincoln), June u,
*9a8J H.W—r.

HOWARD, JACOB MERRITT (July 10,
i8o5~Apn 2, 1871), congressman and senator
from Michigan, was bora in Shaftsbury, Vt, the
son of Otis and Polly (Millington) Howard. His
education was obtained in the district school at
Shaftsbury, the academies in Bennington and
Bratdeboro, and Williams College, from which
he graduated in 1830. He began the study of
law in Ware, Mass., and was admitted to the bar
in 1833 fo Detroit, Mich., to which place he had
moved In the preceding year. Although he soon
became one of the leaders of the bar of Michigan,
his chief interest lay in politics. He supported
the Whig party until 1854, when he became a

Howard

Republican. From 1838 to 1871 he held public
office almost continuously while his party was in
power. In 1838 he was elected to the state legis-
lature as a representative from Wayne County
and was active in the enactment of the Revised
Laws of that year, in railroad legislation, and in
the legislative examination of the state's wildcat
banks. He served as a member of Congress from
1841 to 1843.

In 1854 he was one of the leaders of the move-
ment that led to the organization of the Repub-
lican party at Jackson on July 6, and was the
author of the resolutions that were adopted at
that time. In the same year the party nominated
and elected him attorney general of Michigan, a
position which he held until 1861. From 1862 to
1871 he was a member of the United States Sen-
ate. Here he distinguished himself as a radical
and outspoken leader. During his first term, he
held influential positions on the important com-
mittees on the judiciary and on military affairs;
as a member of the former committee he drafted
the first clause of the Thirteenth Amendment,
During the stormy period following the Civil
War, he was an outspoken opponent of executive
reconstruction and favored extreme punishment
for the South. He served during the session of
1865-66 on the joint committee on reconstruc-
tion and was assigned to investigate conditions
in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Caro-
lina. He drew up the report of the committee
on military affairs on the removal of Stanton.
He also served as chairman of the committee on
the Pacific Railroad from the creation of the
committee, Jan. 6, 1864, until the end of his
term. President Grant offered him the presi-
dency of the Southern claims commission, but
this he refused. He died in Detroit as a result
of an apoplectic stroke within a month after the
expiration of his last term as senator.

Howard was an eloquent speaker, although his
style was somewhat ponderous. He appealed to
reason rather than to the emotions. He had a
wide reading knowledge not only of law and his-
tory, but also of literature. He is said to have
been an excellent classical scholar, and he knew
-both English and French literature. In 1848 he
published a translation, in two volumes, of M.
A. Le Normand's Historical and Secret Memoirs
of the Empress Josephine. He was married, Oct.
8, 1835, to Catharine A. Shaw, whom he had met
in Ware, Mass. She died in 1866. He was sur-
vived by two daughters and three sons.

[Published sources include : H. G. Howard, In Me-
moriam: Jacob M. Howard of Mich. (1906) and Civil-
War Echoes (1907) ; Calvin Durfee, WUliams Biog.

Annals (1871) ; Detroit Free Press t Apr. 3, 5, 1871;
editorials in the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, Apr.

278