13th Nevada Attorney General
Term: January
5, 1903 - January 7, 1907
Biography
James G. Sweeney, born in Carson City, Nevada, on January 24, 1877, and
educated in the public schools of Carson City, graduated from St. Mary's
College, Oakland, California, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He returned
to Carson City; studied law; and at the age of 21, gained admittance to the
Nevada State Bar on July 30, 1898. He entered Columbia Law University at
Washington, D. C., and graduated with high honors.
In 1900, at the age of 24, voters elected Sweeney as a member of the
Nevada State Assembly to represent Ormsby County in the 20th Nevada State
Legislative Session, 1901.
On December 14, 1902, Sweeney married Miss Mable Trembath, the
accomplished daughter of Hugh Trembath, of Virginia City, Nevada.[1]
After his service as Nevada Attorney General, voters elected Sweeney as
a Nevada Supreme Court Associate Justice on November 6, 1906. Sweeney
later served as Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court until illness forced
him to retire in 1913.
Election of 1902
Elected as Nevada’s thirteenth Attorney General on November 4, 1902,
Sweeney (Silver-Democrat[2])
received 6,268 (56.6%) votes of the 12,338 votes cast, and Samuel Platt
(Republican) received 4,797 (43.4%) votes.
Office Administration and Duties
During Sweeney’s term, the 1905 Nevada State Legislature authorized the
Nevada Attorney General’s Office to hire its first full-time staff employee at
the annual salary of $1,800 per year.
[3]
Margaret Sweeney, who happened
to be Mr. Sweeney’s younger sister by three years, served as his stenographer.
The Attorney General of Nevada is hereby authorized to employ a
stenographic clerk, whose compensation shall be seventy-five dollars per month .
. . this act shall take effect immediately [approved February 9, 1905]
(1905 Statutes of Nevada, Chapter V, Section 1, Page 19).
Except for the stenographer’s salary, Sweeney had no deputies according
to the Attorney General’s budgets for the 1903–1905 and 1905–1907 state fiscal
biennial periods:
1903–1905 Budget
|
$4,000
|
|
$4,000
|
Attorney General’s Salary
|
|
|
For current expenses for telegraph, postal, and contingent
expenses for the State officers, Supreme Court, and State Library, and
for transportation of State property, $3,600
|
1905–1907 Budget
|
$5,800
|
|
$4,000
|
Attorney General’s Salary
|
|
$1,800
|
Stenographer Salary
|
|
|
For current expenses for telegraph, postal, and contingent
expenses for the State officers, Supreme Court, and State Library, and
for transportation of State property, $4,000
|
Although the Attorney General was not given an additional duties by the
1903 Nevada State Legislature, the 1905 Legislature did add one additional duty:
-
The Attorney general is to approve the title of the land purchased
by the state for an, “. . . Agricultural Experimental Farm in the
Southeastern part of this State . . .”
(Statutes of Nevada 1905, Chapter XXXIX, Page 59).
[1]
A History of the State of Nevada, Lewis
Publishing, 1904, pp. 380–384.
[2]
Democrat–Silver or Silver–Democrats,
terms used at various times after 1878, referred to those members of the
Democratic Party who advocated replacing the gold standard with a policy
of bimetallism. The Silver Democrats believed that the free
coinage of silver at a ratio of sixteen to one would inflate prices and
thus relieve the burden on the nation's depressed farmers. More
general use of the term "Silver Democrats" followed the 1893
inauguration of President Grover Cleveland, a Gold Democrat, and his
support for repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.
[3]
Mrs. Sweeney’s salary remained at $75 per
month, from the time of the enactment of this legislation, February 9,
1905, until the general appropriations’ bill, on July 1, 1905, increased
her stenographer’s salary to $1,800 per year.