1844-1917
John Randolph Dos Passos was born in Philadelphia in 1844, the son of an immigrant from the Portuguese island of Madeira. He grew up in that city and studied law at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1863, he enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia and fought at the battle of Antietam.
In 1867, Dos Passos moved to New York City to practice law and became “very successful in criminal law.”[1] In 1872, he was a member of Edward “Ned” Stokes’s defense team in the fatal shooting of notorious Wall Street titan, James Fisk, Jr. After Stokes was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, Dos Passos participated in Stokes’s successful appeal to the Court of Appeals, which reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial (People v. Stokes, 53 N.Y. 164 [1873]).
As his reputation grew, Dos Passos shifted his attention to corporate and commercial law. One of his clients was H. O. Havemeyer, the industrialist and President of the American Sugar Refining Company. Havemeyer was responsible for forming the infamous “Sugar Trust,” a cartel of leading sugar refiners that conspired to stifle competition and control pricing. “Mr. Dos Passos was one of his right-hand men and was credited with much of the advice according to which the trust for many years was kept out of the reach of the law.”[2] Dos Passos became known as a leading trust lawyer, and in partnership with his brother, Benjamin F. Dos Passos, was associated with the formation of many large corporations and trusts.
In his later years, Dos Passos, a bold thinker, was sought out for his opinions on the “ways and habits of trusts,” and “what the Government should do to prevent the evils incident to their existence.”[3] He also became a noted author, publishing several books and treatises: “The Interstate Commerce Act;” “A Treatise on the Law of Stock Brokers and Stock Exchanges;” “Commercial Trusts;” and “The American Lawyer.” The latter work traced the history of the American legal system and the realities of its transformation after the Civil War and examined the broader societal role of lawyers, including their duty to uphold the law, serve the public and maintain the highest standards of professionalism.[4]
Dos Passos, known as the “The Commodore” for his love of yachting, had an affair with Lucy Madison, which led to the birth of his son and future author, John Roderigo Dos Passos, born in 1896. Dos Passos later married Lucy Madison after the death of his first wife in 1910, and he formally acknowledged his son two years later. Dos Passos the younger went on to write several major works of fiction, including the U.S.A. trilogy, which criticized the powerful influence of business conglomerates and capitalism on American society.
John R. Dos Passos died on January 27, 1917, at his Manhattan home.
[1] “John R. Dos Passos, Trust Lawyer, Dies,” New York Times, Jan. 28, 1917.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] John R. Dos Passos, The American Lawyer as He Was – as He Is – as He Can Be, Banks Law Pub. Co., 1907.