The Lady Became a Lawyer (Article 84)
“I saw a path and I decided to take it, despite the many obstacles I knew would be in my way. I would be delayed, but never deterred.” - Myra Colby Bradwell on her drive to become a lawyer.
Those who held the keys to the gates of law schools did not want to let her in. The powers in charge of licensing lawyers to practice in Illinois refused to admit her to the bar; but other states were no better. Even Federal judges stood in her way. They just did not understand with whom they were dealing! And, along the way, she became a confidant and advocate for Mary Todd Lincoln, after the assassination of the President.
Myra Bradwell was not the first woman lawyer nor the first woman to graduate from law school, but she was a leader in the movement to permit women to actually practice the profession. Anabelle Mansfield was the first woman admitted to any state’s bar. She did not attend law school, but apprenticed with an experienced lawyer, passed the Iowa Bar Examination in 1869, and was admitted to that state’s bar; but decided to teach rather than practice law. Ada Keply, in 1870, was the first woman to graduate with a law degree, in her case, from the University of Chicago Law School. However, she was initially denied admission to the Illinois bar. She chose to devote her energies to other reform issues and did not re-apply for ten years, but was subsequently admitted to the Illinois bar in 1881.
While not the first woman to break these barriers, Myra Colby Bradwell continuously fought the legal and judicial system for years and was a vocal critic of what she called “The Men’s Club” of lawyers and judges in Illinois and almost all other states.
Myra was born in 1831 into a family that encouraged her education. Although her early childhood was spent in New England, her family moved to Illinois when she twelve. She continued her education at the Elgin Female Seminary and prepared to become a teacher; a “respectable” and accepted profession for a young lady. At twenty-one, she married James Bradwell who had trained to be a lawyer, but instead became the headmaster of a private school in Memphis, Tennessee; where Myra also taught. Over the next two years, James continued to study legal reference books at the school and his interest in a law career was rekindled. Myra later recalled that the couple often discussed, and sometimes debated, legal theory and actual cases as a normal part of their conversations between husband and wife. She once said, “In our home, the law was a subject as often as the weather.” James decided that he would prefer to practice in the Chicago area, where he was well known, and the couple moved back to Illinois. James quickly passed the bar exam, was admitted to the Illinois bar, and soon had a thriving practice. He also had a bright and energetic assistant he trusted; his wife, Myra.
Myra was fascinated by the law and, with her husband’s encouragement, began to seriously consider becoming a lawyer. At the time, no state permitted a woman to become a lawyer, and most even prohibited married women to sign contracts. For the time being, however, she became a valuable asset to the firm by assisting with research and frequently wrote drafts of briefs which James would then re-write in his own hand and sign. They were a great team! But both Myra and her husband were prepared to fight “the powers that be” until she won the right to practice law; however, even they must not have imagined how long it would take.
Myra’s husband was active in Illinois politics and he knew Abraham Lincoln before he became President; and it is presumed that Myra had met the President as well. James and Myra were both ardent supporters of the Union and contributed both time and money to various Union political organizations and charities. During the Civil War, Myra served as a medical volunteer and as an active member of the region’s chapter of the Sanitary Commission. This privately funded organization had been authorized by President Lincoln to advance the level of medical care for wounded soldiers, with the primary goal of improving survival rates. Letters have survived in which Mr. Bradwell informed President Lincoln of the progress of the Sanitary Commission in the Chicago area and included other political news from the state.
After the Civil War ended, Myra formed the Chicago Legal News, a newspaper devoted to all issues of law, which was an immediate financial success and a staple in law offices throughout the mid-west. In the meantime, she continued her battle to be recognized as a lawyer. She lost an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court and, in 1873, lost an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. That ruling, in a 7 to 1 vote seemed to, once and for all, keep women out of “The Men’s Club.” The decision gave several reasons for the denial, among them: (1) it would open the floodgates and too many women would apply, (2) brutal cases would not be appropriate for women’s involvement, (3) women’s responsibilities to care for family were paramount; and concluded with the statement, which seems so absurd today, that, “God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action.” But not one word about qualifications!
Myra’s husband had become a State Congressman in Illinois and, with Myra’s help in drafting the legislation, he introduced, and was able to get enacted, several new laws expanding women’s rights. One granted the right of women to singularly sign contracts, and another new law prohibited the denial of women to any profession (except the military). But after the 1873 Supreme Court decision, Myra lost her zeal to keep fighting for her own right to practice law. She remained, however, a strong advocate for other young women to get law degrees and supported the growing movement in other states to admit qualified women to the bar.
To push her agendas, which also included women’s suffrage, the right for women to unilaterally sign contacts, and improving the labor conditions for women in the workforce, Myra found a new voice. She became a lobbyist, and a very effective one!
She had a talent for bringing injustices to the public mind, and then pressuring state legislators and U.S. congressmen who resisted her reforms. She also gained on her side, a bevy of men, in addition to her husband, who were powerful lawyers and judges in both state and federal courts, and who were willing to represent her causes.
One of the famous cases she championed was that of Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln. In 1875, after Mary was involved in a series of bizarre incidents, Robert Lincoln, her son, took her to court where a judge deemed her insane and ordered her committed to the Bellevue Mental hospital, near Chicago. Mary Lincoln was humiliated and wrote letters to newspaper editors, lawyers, and politicians, pleading for help, claiming she was not insane and was capable of managing her own affairs. Myra Bradwell believed Mrs. Lincoln needed support, not incarceration, and her husband promptly petitioned for a new court hearing. In the meantime, Myra, a master at public relations, began a withering campaign in newspapers, and in the numerous ladies’ periodicals, framing Robert as a greedy and uncaring son. (He was neither.)
Their dual approach of his legal maneuvers, combined with her public relations juggernaut, was successful and a judge ordered that Mrs. Lincoln be released. However, Myra was not finished with Mary’s case. First, Myra’s husband petitioned, and then convinced, the court to actually declare Mrs. Lincoln legally sane, a step further than just ordering her release. Robert Lincoln, who had, in fact, been paying many of his mother’s expenses since his father’s death, was embarrassed by the situation and did not object to the new court proceedings, or to the verdict. Next, Myra began a campaign to assist Mary financially. Abraham Lincoln did not die a wealthy man and Mary’s unusual behavior was often a matter of money; or rather the fear of lack of money. At that time, neither former Presidents, nor their widows, were granted pensions. Mrs. Lincoln worried that she could not afford to live in the manner to which she was accustomed when her husband was alive and earning a substantial income as a lawyer and then as President. Myra subsequently lobbied the U.S. Congress to grant a pension to Mrs. Lincoln to assure her financial well-being, and a few years later, successfully argued for an increase. Mary Lincoln praised Myra’s efforts on her behalf, but she never forgave Robert for initiating the sanity hearing and her confinement.
When Myra was sixty years old, in 1890, the United States Supreme Court, in an unusual move, acting without a pending case, voted unanimously to accept Myra’s original application to practice in federal court, which had been submitted in 1869. And, in another rare move, directed that the effective date of her approval be back-dated to the date of her application. While the largely symbolic decision was intended to expedite her admission to the Illinois Bar, it had no immediate effect and it would take “The Men’s Club” two more years, until 1892, to finally permit her to practice law by admitting her to the Illinois Bar Association.
Unfortunately, she never got the opportunity to actually try a case in court and died on February 14, 1894. Her husband and daughter wanted to continue her legacy, so they assumed the roles of publisher and editor of her Chicago Legal News; and insisted that every edition contain an article about women’s rights, including championing the right of women to vote. A privilege Myra never received.
Shortly before her death, Myra Bradwell told her daughter, “I would not change anything about my life. My husband is my best friend, my children are content, and my struggle to become a lawyer was not in vain; and I believe I served a good purpose.”
Those comments seem to capture a life well lived.