John H. Mitchell

John Hipple Mitchell (born John Mitchell Hipple; June 23, 1835 –December 8, 1905) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a RepublicanUnited States senator from Oregon on three occasions between 1873 and 1905. He also served as president of the state senate, did the initial legal work involved in the dispute that led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Pennoyer v. Neff, and later was involved with the Oregon land fraud scandal, for which he was indicted and convicted. He is one of twelve U.S. Senators indicted while in office, and one of six convicted.^[1][2]

John Mitchell Hipple was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He moved with his parents to Butler County, Pennsylvania, at the age of two. He attended public schools during much of his childhood, but also attended some private schools including the Witherspoon Institute. As a young man he was a schoolteacher. He seduced a 15-year-old female student, and, due to the resulting scandal, was forced to marry her.

In 1859, Mitchell stopped teaching and decided to become a lawyer. He built a successful law practice in Pennsylvania. However, in 1860, he decided to leave his community and family, and moved to California with a local schoolteacher with whom he was having an affair. After arriving in California, he abandoned her and moved to Portland, Oregon. It was then that he decided to change his name to John Hipple Mitchell, using his middle name as his last name, and attempted to start a completely new life in Oregon. Mitchell remarried in Oregon, without divorcing his first wife.^[3] Almost immediately, he started to become a successful lawyer and build political connections. Mitchell was not an intellectual man, but he was very ambitious and knew how to develop business and political friendships with important people. In 1867, he was hired as a professor at Willamette University School of Medicine to teach medical jurisprudence. Mitchell remained as professor for almost four years.^[4]

تصف ويندي كولينز بيردو ، عميدة كلية الحقوق في ريتشموند ، ميتشل بأنه محامٍ غير أخلاقي وغير كفؤ، استغل جاذبيته الكبيرة لتحقيق النجاح، سواء في مهنة المحاماة أو لاحقًا في مسيرته السياسية. لم يتردد ميتشل في الاحتيال على موكليه. ففي إحدى القضايا، تولى منصب الوصي على أرملة، حيث سعى لبيع جزء من أرضها ظاهريًا لتغطية نفقات الوصاية، ثم اشترى الأرض لنفسه بسعر زهيد، وأعاد بيعها بسعر السوق محققًا ربحًا كبيرًا. وفي قضية أخرى، لجأ موكل إلى ميتشل طالبًا المساعدة في سداد ديونه. لكن ميتشل أبلغ الدائنين بمكان الموكل، وعُيّن محصلًا للديون. ثم ابتز ميتشل أموال موكله الذي وقع ضحيةً للاحتيال. ^{[ 3 ]}

بعد عامين من وصوله إلى ولاية أوريغون، في عام 1862، انتُخب لعضوية مجلس شيوخ ولاية أوريغون . ^{[ 5 ]} وفي عام 1864 أصبح رئيسًا لمجلس شيوخ الولاية، وشغل هذا المنصب حتى عام 1866. ^{[ 6 ]} ولأن أعضاء مجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي كانوا يُنتخبون من قبل المجالس التشريعية للولايات خلال حياته، ولأن هذا كان المنصب الوحيد الذي سعى إليه ميتشل، فإن هذا المنصب المبكر في مجلس شيوخ الولاية كان المنصب الوحيد المنتخب شعبيًا الذي سيترشح له أو يفوز به.

لم ينجح ميتشل في الترشح لمجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي عن ولاية أوريغون عام 1866، حيث خسر أمام هنري دبليو كوربيت . ثم ترشح مرة أخرى عام 1872 وفاز هذه المرة، وتولى منصبه عام 1873. وقدّم التماسًا لتغيير اسمه رسميًا بعد انتخابه. ^{[ 7 ]} وأسفرت حملته الانتخابية لمجلس الشيوخ عن تحقيق في قضايا فساد. وكعادته، أفلت ميتشل من المزيد من التحقيقات برشوة المدعي العام آنذاك، جورج هنري ويليامز . ^{[ 3 ]}

On the topic of names, during Mitchell's second period of Senate service (from November 18, 1885, to March 3, 1897), he concurrently served alongside two other different individuals named "John Mitchell", from other states. From November 18, 1885, to March 3, 1887, Mitchell served alongside Sen.John I. Mitchell from Pennsylvania; and from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897, Mitchell served alongside Sen.John L. Mitchell from Wisconsin.

By this time, he had married again, but had not divorced the woman he had married in Pennsylvania. His opponents tried to block him from becoming a senator by asking a Senate committee to expel him for what he had done in the past, charging him with bigamy, desertion and living under an assumed name. Though these charges were certainly true, the Senate Committee decided they were not relevant. Mitchell served in the Senate from 1873 to 1879, and was defeated for reelection. He ran for reelection to the Senate in 1882 but lost. In 1885, however, he was elected again to the Senate, and reelected in 1890.

Mitchell sought reelection by the Oregon Legislature in 1897, but his candidacy proved to be highly divisive: the resulting scandal prevented the 19th Oregon Legislative Assembly from organizing and, consequently, left Oregon with a vacant U.S. Senate seat for nearly two years.^[8]Joseph Simon was ultimately chosen for the seat.

While not in the Senate, Mitchell practiced law. Mitchell's last term in the Senate began in 1901 and was to last until 1907, but Mitchell died before it expired.

Mitchell was devoted to business interests and was against the populists and their political reforms. In the Senate, he was interested in transportation issues. He was chairman of the committee on railroads from 1877 to 1879 and from 1889 to 1893, and chairman of several committees related to coastlines and the ocean, specifically the Committee on Coast Defenses (from 1901 to 1903) and the Committee on Interoceanic Canals (from 1904 to 1905), and also the Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (from 1876 to 1877) when it was still a Select Committee (prior to becoming a Standing Committee), during his terms in the Senate. He was also chairman of the committee on claims from 1891 to 1893 and chairman of the committee of elections and privileges from 1895 to 1897.

In 1905, Mitchell was indicted in the Oregon land fraud scandal, involving his use of political influence in the federal government to help clients with their land claims. He was convicted.^[9] An appeal of the conviction was under way and the Senate was beginning proceedings to expel him when Mitchell died of an illness in Portland, Oregon.^[10]

He was buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.^[11]

The town of Mitchell, Oregon, was named after him.

His daughter, Mattie Elizabeth Mitchell, married François XVI Alfred Gaston, 5th Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Duc de Liancourt, Prince de Marcillac, Duc d'Anville, in 1892.^[12] His eldest daughter, Margaret Mitchell Griffin, died at age 41 in New York City, from shock following a surgical procedure.^[13][14] His daughter, Jennie M. Mitchell, married Jacob P. Fawcett, mayor of Mount Union, Ohio (later Alliance), and judge.^[15]

• List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes
• List of federal political scandals in the United States
• List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1900–1949)
• List of United States senators expelled or censured

• جون إتش. ميتشل - مشروع تاريخ ولاية أوريغون، مؤرشف بتاريخ 25 أغسطس 2015