Summary
Overview
Hays, Arthur Garfield, 1881-1954.
Arthur Garfield Hays Papers
18.02 linear feet, 41 archival boxes, 1 photograph box
Abstract
The Arthur Garfield Hays Papers consist of correspondence, case files, speeches, articles, books, news clippings, and photos which document his career as a New York City lawyer and general counsel for the ACLU.
Description
Description
Consists of correspondence, case files, speeches, articles, books, news clippings, and photographs which document Hays's career as a New York City lawyer and general counsel for the ACLU beginning in 1920. Case files comprise the single largest series of this collection and include correspondence, court papers, legal briefs, and other items related to particular court cases in which Hays was a participant. The bulk of this material concerns the numerous legal motions filed in many high-profile cases involving Hays, such as labor disputes in the coal mining districts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia (1922-1935), including the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1922; right to strike cases taken against Jersey City, NJ, mayor Frank “Boss” Hague; John Strachey's deportation case; the Emerson Jennings vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania conspiracy case; the Jehovah's Witnesses and the right not to salute the American flag; the case of Stanley E. Faithful vs. the DAILY MIRROR and other newspapers on charges of libel conerning the circumstances of his daughter's death (much of the material collected by Hays's brother Alan); and cases relating to communism and sedition in the 1940s.
Collection Creator
Biography
Arthur Garfield Hays was born in Rochester, New York on December 12, 1881. His father and mother, both of German descent, belonged to prospering families in the clothing manufacturing industry. After graduating from City College of New York in 1902 and going on to receive his law degree from Columbia in 1905, Hays formed a law firm with two of his former classmates that gained prominence representing German interests in World War I.
Hays was active in civil liberties issues before becoming general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. From this point one can recognize the emergence of what many have called Hays's “dual personality,” in which he became a wealthy lawyer who represented the interests of power and fame (his more prominent clients ranged from Wall Street brokers and best-selling authors to notorious gamblers and the Dionne quintuplets)--while at the same time rigorously defending the individual liberty of victims of discriminatory laws.
The list of famous cases in which Hays took part is lengthy, including the Scopes trial (often called the “monkey trial”) in 1925 in which a school teacher in Tennessee was tried for teaching evolution; the Sacco and Vanzetti case in which two Italian anarchists in Boston were put to death in 1927 for a murder they denied committing; and the Scottsboro case where eight black men from Alabama were condemned to die in 1931 for allegedly attacking two white women. Hays also attended the Reichstag trial in Berlin on behalf of Georgi Dmitrov, a Bulgarian Communist tried by Nazis in 1933 for burning the Reichstag.
In addition to his work as a lawyer, Hays wrote an astounding number of books and articles. As a gifted writer and eloquent debater, he added his perspective to virtually every individual rights issue of his day. His autobiography, entitled City Lawyer: the Autobiography of a Law Practice (1942), provides a colorful account of his more noteworthy cases, and his articles and book reviews demonstrate his wide-ranging knowledge of a nation and a world experiencing dramatic change in the way individual rights were perceived.
Hays married Blanche Marks in 1908 and divorced her in 1924. They had one daughter, Mrs. Lora Spindell. He married Aline Davis Fleisher in 1924, who died in 1944. They also had a daughter, Mrs. Jane Butler. After more than four decades at the center of the individual rights debate, Hays died of a heart attack on December 14, 1954.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Curator of the Public Policy Papers. The Hays family retains rights in his unpublished work which will continue under current copyright law through December 14, 2004. Researchers are responsible for determining any question of copyright.
Preferred Citation
Arthur Garfield Hays Papers; 1915-1955, Public Policy Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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