Hughes

Democrat, but won a place as a judge of the
local circuit court against the Democratic in-
cumbent on the ground that the judiciary should
be rescued from politics. He was an able but
opinionated judge, who won the respect of the
lawyers that rode the circuit with him, though
they resented his arbitrary methods. While serv-
ing as judge he taught classes in and directed the
law school of Indiana University. In 1856 he
was elected to Congress and served a single term,
failing of reelection in 1858. With plenty of con-
fidence in himself, he was very active through-
out both sessions. He did not hesitate to enter
into debate with any member and rose to "object"
so often that his colleagues expected him to pro-
test at every opportunity. He supported Presi-
dent Buchanan in opposition to Douglas on the
Lecompton Bill. In Indiana politics, he was
aligned with the proslavery faction of his party
led by Senator Jesse D. Bright. In 1860 he sup-
ported Breckinridge, rather than Douglas, but
was not active during the campaign. On the
death of Judge Isaac Blackford of the United
States Court of Claims in December 1859, Presi-
dent Buchanan appointed Hughes to the bench.
When the Confederacy was formed, Hughes be-
came a vehement Union man, and was later no
less extreme as a Republican than he had been
as a Democrat. After resigning from the Court
of Claims in 1864, he practised law in Washing-
ton, D. C, and also served as cotton agent for
the Treasury Department.

Although Hughes had maintained only a nomi-
nal residence in Indiana for a few years, in 1866
he sought and obtained the Republican nomina-
tion as representative from Monroe County in
the state legislature. After a whirlwind cam-
paign he was elected. His party was in the ma-
jority, and he became the recognized leader of
the House during the session of 1867. la 1868
he was elected to the state Senate* He now as-
pired to a seat in the United States Senate, but
he failed to secure the united support of his
party. He then returned to Washington and re-
sumed his law practice. It has been said of him
that he kept a fine stock of liquors and was so
generous with political friends who visited him
that some were overcome by his hospitality. His
death occurred in Bladensburg, Md, in 1873.
His remains were interred in the Rose Hill
Cemetery at Bloomington, Ind.

[The best treatment of Hughes is & biographical
sketch by H. C. Duncan, in the Ind. Quart. Mag. of
#Mk, Sept, 1009. See also Biog. DiV. Am. Cong.
(i$*$); and the Evening Star (Washington, D. C),
Octal, 1873.3 W.O.L.

HUGHES, JOHN JOSEPH (June 24,1797-
1864), Roman Catholic prelate, was born

Hughes

at Annaloghan, County Tyrone, Ireland, to Pat-
rick and Margaret (McKenna) Hughes, small
farmers and linen weavers. Ruined by the Na-
poleonic wars, the family withdrew John from
school, despite his call to the priesthood, and
apprenticed him to a gardener. In 1816 the fa-
ther and a son, Patrick, emigrated to Cham-
bersburg, Pa.; a year later, they sent for John ;
and in another year their combined savings
brought out the mother and the remainder of
the family. John found work as a laborer on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland and in Emmitsburg,
where he boarded with an Irish schoolmaster
through whom he won the friendship of Samuel
Cooper, a distinguished convert-priest. With
their indorsement, he was hired as a gardener
at Mount St. Mary's College. He studied Latin
and in 1820 was admitted as a seminarian by Dr.
John Dubois [#.z>.], although he continued to
earn his way by supervision of the gardens. Not
until he commenced studying theology under
Simon W. G. Brute [q.v.~\ did he give evidence
of marked ability. Ordained a priest, Oct 15,
1826, he was temporarily assigned to St. Augus-
tine's Church, Philadelphia, where he was further
trained by Michael Hurley, O.S.A., a noted
preacher.

After brief periods at Bedford, Pa., and at St.
Joseph's, Philadelphia, Hughes was named pas-
tor of old St. Mary's Church in that city, then
passing through a schism arising out of the trus-
tee system. Despite temporary difficulties in
parochial readjustment, he seized the oppor-
tunity of defending Catholicism against nativist
charges; to enter the lists with prominent Protes-
tant clergymen in controversies carried on in
periodicals; to promote a tract society; and to
write a novelette, The Conversion and Edify-
ing Death of Andrew Dunn (1828). Although
Bishop Henry Conwell [q.v.] favored the selec-
tion of Hughes as his successor in Philadelphia,
Rome named F. P. Kenricfc [#,*>.] coadjutor. As
Kenrick's secretary, founder of St. John's or-
phanage (1829), a theologian at the First Pro-
vincial Council of Baltimore, builder of St John's
Church, conqueror of trusteeism, founder of the
Catholic Herald (1833), and author of anti-
Catholic canards under the pseudonym of Cran-
mer, which were printed by the deluded editor
of the Protestant (Feb. 13 to Mar. 13, 1830),
Hughes, despite an irregular education, was
easily the leading priest in the diocese. In 1833
he entered into a series of debates with Rev.
John Breckinridge [q.v.]9 a Presbyterian po-
lemical writer, carried on in a series of letters
in the Presbyterian and in the Catholic Herald,
and abounding in caustic recriminations and

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