Decius Wade - On The Montana Territorial Supreme Court

On The Montana Territorial Supreme Court

Though he had no previous experience in the west, Wade was appointed the third Chief Justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 14, 1871, and confirmed by the United States Senate on March 17. His sixteen-year tenure on that court was the longest served by any member. He was appointed to three more terms, serving on the court until 1887, when N. W. McConnell was appointed as his successor by President Cleveland.

Wade authored roughly thirty percent of the court’s output during its twenty-five year history, writing 192 majority opinions, along with fourteen concurrences and dissents. His opinions often did not cite precedents, but instead simply explained a rule based on an applicable statute or simply through elaborated reasoning.

Territorial Supreme Court justices also served as trial judges until 1886, and in this capacity Wade sentenced a reported 500 men to prison and sent twelve to the gallows. An anecdote relates how Wade, trying to rid Friday of its nickname of the "hangman’s day," sentenced a murderer to be hanged on a Thursday instead. He explained "I could not see but the fellow enjoyed it just as well as though Friday had been the day appointed, and I thought that poor abused Friday looked a little brighter the next morning."

While on the court, Wade authored a law-themed novel, Clare Lincoln, which was published in 1876 and achieved some popularity in the territory. In 1879, he wrote an article titled Self Government in the Territories, Int’l Rev. 229 (1879), in which he said that the territorial court's structure "made official life in the Territories" into "a personal warfare, which is neither pleasant to the officer nor beneficial to the people."