Early Political Career
Altgeld's name, according to historian Philip Dray, “is synonymous with the dawn of the Progressive era.” In 1874, he was elected District Attorney of Andrew County. A year later resigned and moved to Chicago to go back into the private sector. He wouldn't run for public office again for another 10 years.
Altgeld decided to run for congress in 1884 against incumbent George Adams of Illinois's 4th congressional district. That year, he published an essay on penal reform entitled, Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims. His essay argued that rather than reform criminals, incarceration produced hardened criminals. Although this district was heavily Republican, Adams defeated him by just 8 points (54%-46%), a better showing than well-known Democrat Lambert Tree had made two years earlier. As a Republican leader recalled, “He (Altgeld) was not elected, but our executive committee was pretty badly frightened by the strong canvass he made.”
In 1886, he was elected as a Cook County Superior Court Justice and served on the bench until 1891.
Read more about this topic: John Peter Altgeld
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