Matthew Deady

Matthew Paul Deady (May 12, 1824 – March 24, 1893) was a politician and jurist in the Oregon Territory and the state of Oregon of the United States. He served on the Oregon Supreme Court from 1853 to 1859, at which time he was appointed to the newly created federal court of the state. He served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland, as the sole Judge until his death in 1893. While on the court he presided over the trial that led to the United States Supreme Court decision of Pennoyer v. Neff concerning personal jurisdiction.

Prior to joining the court, Deady served in the legislature of the Oregon Territory, including time served as the President of the , and was elected as President of the Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857. A native of the state of Maryland, his first profession was as a blacksmith. He also spent time as a teacher in both Ohio and Oregon. Deady read law in Ohio and practiced law for a time in that state before immigrating to the Oregon Territory via the Oregon Trail. In Oregon, he helped codify the laws of the state and assisted in the foundation of the Multnomah County Library in Portland. He also was president of the University of Oregon's board of regents. The university renamed Deady Hall in his honor after his death.

Early life Matthew Paul Deady was born near Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, on May 12, 1824. His parents were Daniel and Mary Ann (McSweeny) Deady. Matthew was the oldest of five children in the family.

In Wheeling, his father was employed as a teacher and principal at the Lancasterian Academy. Taking the Oregon Trail, he arrived where Portland, Oregon, now stands on November 14, 1849.

While practicing law at Lafayette he represented Adam Wimple of neighboring Polk County after Wimple had been charged for murdering his wife. Deady represented him at trial and was to receive as payment Wimple's land claim via his will. Wimple was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, but was hanged only after being recaptured from a jail break. He attended the session held in Oregon City beginning in December, where he met James W. Nesmith and Asahel Bush for the first time. and the following session served as President of that chamber.

During the 1851 session he served as chairman of the council's judiciary committee. In all, Deady attended two regular sessions and one special session of the legislature from 1851 to 1853. Regardless, Pierce re-appointed Deady to the court in 1857.

At this time justices of the court also rode circuit, presiding over trials in designated counties in addition to serving as an appellate court judge for the Supreme Court. Deady was assigned to the southern counties of the territory, holding court in each county twice per year.

In 1857, Deady was elected as a delegate to the Oregon Constitutional Convention. The convention was held in the territorial capital of Salem to prepare the territory for statehood. He became president of the body and was influential in shaping the new state constitution, which outlawed slavery but excluded African Americans from settling in the new state.

Before Secession (Civil War), Deady held views that were racist and proslavery. Deady supported a constitutional provision that excluded free Blacks from the State of Oregon, a provision that won the approval of 89% percent of Oregon voters. He was paraphrased as approving the Dred Scott decision. He also reportedly advocated for discrimination towards Chinese immigrants. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 9, 1859, and received his commission the same day. He moved to Portland where he helped to found the Multnomah County Library. At first Portland did not have a courthouse for Deady to use, so he rented two rooms from Benjamin Stark on what is now Water Street until a federal courthouse was built beginning in 1869. That courthouse was first named the United States Building, and is now named the Pioneer Courthouse, with Deady moving into the building when it was finished in 1875. He also designed the university's seal, which is still used by the school.

In 1871, in McKay v. Campbell, Deady ruled in the suit brought by Dr. William Cameron McKay, who had born in 1824 in Astoria, in the Oregon Country. The United States and Great Britain had jointly held the Oregon Country until 1846, at which time Astoria became part of the United States. Deady wrote that McKay did not become a US citizen under the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause, because at birth, he had not been under the sole jurisdiction of United States. In response the following year, Oregon Senator Henry Corbett introduced legislation, ultimately successful, to reverse the debility that Deady had imposed. In a blogpost, Michael L. Rosin argues that the debates indicate that members believed the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" in the bill could not mean “not subject to any foreign power.” This was the first birthright citizenship legislation in the United States after the passage of the 14th Amendment.

In 1874, in a district court case, Deady ruled in favor of Marcus Neff in a lawsuit against Sylvester Pennoyer concerning unpaid legal fees to John H. Mitchell and a sheriff's auction of Neff's land to Pennoyer. The case became the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Pennoyer v. Neff that helped define the law of personal jurisdiction. Deady often drafted the legislation that led to state statutes, thus playing a crucial role in the lawmaking process in the state of Oregon between 1859 and 1872. The school later moved to the main campus in Eugene.

In a throwback to Pennoyer v. Neff, Deady had an outsized role in the 1885 election of Mitchell, the unethical lawyer who was a centerpoint of the case. Deady came into possession of Mitchell's love-letters from yet another affair, and exposed them to The Oregonian, who gleefully published them. Mitchell's re-election was decried by Deady.

From his work in California, the state bar in that state passed a resolution of thanks for Deady's work. He was also named as a regent to Stanford University by then United States Senator Leland Stanford. Matthew Paul Deady died in Portland on March 24, 1893, at the age of 68. On May 6, 2016, President of the , Michael H. Schill set forth a collection of criteria to determine Deady's potential denaming. In January, Schill sent a letter to the university community explaining why he would "not recommend to the Board of Trustees that it dename Deady Hall". The Board of Trustees received his report and the objections of the president of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon at its meeting on March 2, 2017. Three years later, however, on June 10, 2020, Schill sent a letter to the Board of Trustees, this time recommending the denaming of Deady Hall. On June 24, Deady's name was removed from the hall and University Hall was selected as an interim name.

Works The Code of Civil Procedure and Other General Statutes of Oregon: Enacted by the Legislative Assembly at the Session Commencing September 8, A.D. 1862. With A. C. Gibbs and James K. Kelly. Salem, OR: Asahel Bush, State Printer, 1863. The Organic and Other General Laws of Oregon, Together with the National Constitution and Other Public Acts and Statutes of the United States. 1845–1864. Portland, OR: H.L. Pittock, State Printer, 1866. Reports of Cases Determined in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States of Oregon and California. A.L. Bancroft: San Francisco, 1872. The Organic and Other General Laws of Oregon, Together with the National Constitution and Other Public Acts and Statutes of the United States: 1843–1872. With Lafayette Lane. Portland, OR: E. Semple, State Printer, 1874. History and Progress of Oregon After 1845: In Continuation of the History of Oregon Before 1845, as Given in Deady's Address to the Pioneers at Salem in 1875. With Hubert Howe Bancroft. Wallamet or Willamette. Portland: G.H. Himes, 1875. An Address to the Graduating Class of Wallamet University. Portland: Geo. H. Himes' Steam Printing Establishment, 1876. "Annual Address to the Oregon Pioneer Association." 1876. Oration Delivered at Roseburg. Roseburg, OR: Committee of Arrangements, 1877. An Address to the Graduating Class of the University of Oregon. Portland: G.H. Himes, 1878. The Dallas Methodist Mission Cases: Opinion of the Court. Portland: G.H. Himes, 1879. "To Be or To Have": 1879: An Address to the Graduating Class of the University of Oregon. Portland: Board of Regents, 1879. Commencement Address Delivered at St. Helen's Hall, Portland, Oregon. Portland: 1880. Oration Delivered at Portland by Matthew P. Deady ... July 4, 1885. Portland: A. G. Walling, 1885. "Towns and Cities": University of Oregon Commencement 1886 Address. Portland: Board of Regents, 1886. Addresses by Matthew P. Deady, U. S. District Judge: Centennial Celebration Washington's Inauguration, Portland, Oregon, April 30, 1889, and Fourth of July, Vancouver, Washington, 1889. Portland: Himes Printing Co., 1890. Pharisee Among Philistines: The Diary of Judge Matthew P. Deady, 1871–1892. In Two Volumes. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1975.