Amaro Cavalcanti, Brazil’s Justice of the Supreme Court and Minister of the Interior
HISTORY
B Y R O B E R T E M E R Y, R E F E R E N C E L I B R A R I A N
Amaro Cavalcanti (1849-1922) is one of Albany Law’s more eminent alumni. Born in Caico, Brazil, and educated in Sao Luis, Cavalcanti began his career as an educator, having won a public competition to serve as Amaro Cavalcanti professor of Latin in the educational system of the city of Baturite. He qualified as an advocate while working as a teacher. In 1879, the President of the state of Cerara sent him on a mission to the United States to study public education there, with an eye toward reforming Cerara’s system of primary instruction. While in the United States, Cavalcanti enrolled in Albany Law School for the 1880-1881 session, graduating with an LL.B. degree. At graduation, Dean Smith of the law school requested that Cavalcanti deliver a speech on “American Education,” contrasting U.S. forms of primary education with those of foreign countries. In 1881 Cavalcanti returned to Brazil, was formally admitted to the Cerara bar, and was appointed inspector general of public education and director of secondary schools for the state.
In 1884 he was elected deputy to the national General Assembly and thereafter lieutenant governor of Cerara. In the next 20 years he successively served as national senator, minister plenipotentiary to Paraguay, Minister of Justice and of the Interior, legal advisor to the Department of Foreign Affairs, in 1906 justice of the Supreme Court (until 1914), and in 1917 governor of the Federal District (the seat of national government). Cavalcanti maintained an active law practice while pursuing his political career, with a particular emphasis on international law. While minister to Paraguay in 1894 he engineered the “Cavalcanti Coup” which overthrew the president of Paraguay and prevented Argentina from assuming control over that country. Cavalcanti later served as delegate to the Third International American Congress, delegate to the 1915 Pan American Financial Congress, and member of the Hague Permanent Court of International Arbitration (1917-1922). Cavalcanti was a prolific author, in the fields of international and comparative law, national and international finance and the Portuguese language.
Converse, Class of 1861, Wrote “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
Law School Founder’s Daughter and Step-Son With Lincoln when Shot
Charles Crozat Converse, born in 1834 in Warren, Mass., attended the academy at Elmira, N.Y., and studied music in Leipzig, Germany before returning to Massachuetts in 1857 and attending Albany Law in 1861. He worked as an attorney in Erie, Pa., and wrote musical compositions under pseudonyms. He wrote “Musical Bouquet” in 1859, “The Hundred and Twenty-sixth Psalm” in 1860, and “Sweet Singer,” “Church Singer,” and “Sayings of Sages” in 1863. In 1868, he wrote his most noted work, setting to music the poem “Pray Without Ceasing” by Joseph M. Scriven, which he called “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” the classic gospel sung all over the world. He died at age 84 in 1918 in Highwood, N.J.
In the Fall of 1863, co-founder of Albany Law School, Ira Harris, was a dinner guest of President and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln in the White House. Harris and Lincoln were old friends. During the evening, N.Y. Senator Harris chastised the President because his eldest son had not joined the Union Army forces. Sen. Harris declared that if he had 20 sons, all would be “fighting to suppress the rebellion.” Mrs. Lincoln’s half-sister, Emily, whose husband had just been killed fighting for the Confederacy, told Sen. Harris, “...and if I had 20 sons, they would be fighting all 20 of yours.” In April of 1865, Ira Harris’ daughter, Clara, with her fiancé who was also Harris’ step-son, Major Henry Rathbone, were seated in the Presidential box at Ford’s Theater when the President was shot. The abundance of blood, believed to be Lincoln’s, was Rathbone’s, who was stabbed in the melee.
The Crummey Bakery and 3 Generations of Graduates Edward Crummey, class of 1910, delivered baked goods for the family business by horse and carriage while a student at Christian Brothers Academy before attending Georgetown University and Albany Law School. The Crummey bakeries, founded by Edward’s grandfather in the latter half of the 1800s, supplied the Albany area for more than 50 years, eventually going out of business when no one wanted to take it on. After law school, Edward went to a firm in Brooklyn, then New York’s City Hall, working on utility regulation. He eventually retired from the Long Island Lighting Company as secretary and chief counsel. Edward’s grandson is Colonie Judge Peter Crummey ’81, who has 74
MAGAZINE Summer 2014
practiced law for the past 25-plus years 200 feet from the family bakery location in downtown Albany. “I guess the Crummeys don’t fall far from the oven,” Judge Crummey quipped. His daughter Carol graduated from Albany Law School in 2013 and now works for the Albany firm O’Connor, O’Connor, Bresee & First P.C.