Document Group: DG 010

Provenance: Donated by Julien Cornell

Size: 3.25 linear feet

Restrictions: Yes

Microfilm: None

Finding Aid: Original checklist prepared in 1966; collection re-processed and checklist revised by Anne

Yoder, June 2001

 
This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

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Historical Introduction
Julien Cornell (1910-1994) was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, and a 1930 graduate of Swarthmore College. He practiced law in New York City, with a special interest in civil liberties. During World War II, he handled many cases for conscientious objectors, as well as advising many other COs about their various problems with the legal system. He served as Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Committee on Conscientious Objection (NCCO), and chaired the Lawyers Committee of the Metropolitan Board for Conscientious Objectors. He was the author of The Conscientious Objector and the Law (1943) and a supplement entitled Conscience and the State (1945). He was considered an expert on legal issues regarding conscientious objection and Civilian Public Service, and was consulted by many lawyers throughout the country for his opinions.

[photo from a flyer in vol. 10 of "The Papers of Julien Cornell" in SCPC book collection]

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Scope and Content of Collection
It is probable that this collection was arranged by Cornell before he donated his papers to the Peace Collection; for the most part, his arrangement has been adhered to. This collection includes files about many cases handled by Cornell during WWII. He divided them between "Cases Handled" and "Habeas Corpus Cases Handled," though there are some Habeas Corpus cases which were not separated by Cornell out of the "Cases Handled" section for some reason. Habeas Corpus cases were civil suits instituted by the appellant after all avenues had been tried via the court system of appeals. The cases handled by Cornell were for COs released from military prisons because they were illegally inducted despite their refusal to take the oath of induction [see p. 70-71 of Conscience and the State by Julien Cornell]. It should be noted that the General Correspondence files include many letters to/from conscientious objectors and others concerned with them, and some of these refer to COs who have individual folders further on in the collection.

Notes following the names in the "Cases Handled" files were written by Cornell.

Correspondents include Ernest Angell, Roger Baldwin, A.J. Muste, Rosika Schwimmer, Agnes Young, and many others.

In 1968, Cornell donated 10 bound volumes of court records showing the legal treatment of conscientious objectors (1940-1948). Included in some of the volumes are newsclippings about the COs or their cases. Of particular note is volume five which includes reviews of Cornell's books, as well as 1943 correspondence about The Conscientious Objector and the Law from Evan Thomas, A.J. Muste, Clarence Pickett, Julius Eichel, Allen Barr, Roger Barr, Oswald Garrison Villard, John Steinbugler, Judge Edward F. Waite, Eugene Sherpick, John Nevin Sayre, Theodore Neumann and Harrop Freeman. These bound volumes are in the SCPC's book collection [called Legal Papers of Julien Cornell].

The records of this collection are restricted until the year 2020, in that anyone making reference to personal information from this collection must disguise it so that the identity of the individual/s concerned will not be disclosed. Researchers wishing to use the collection must sign a form agreeing to this stipulation.

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Contents of Collection
Box 1
General
Service (as Treasurer & CO lawyer) for Metropolitan Board for Conscientious Objectors [see also

correspondence files]

Work (as legal counsel) for NCCO [see also correspondence files]
Writings (published & unpublished) / Letters to the Editor

General Correspondence

Correspondence, 1940-1943

Box 2
General Correspondence

Correspondence, 1944 - 1945 (July-Sept.)

Box 3 (1/2 box)
General Correspondence

Correspondence, 1945 (Oct.-Dec.) - 1947 (Jan.; 1 letter from June), n.d.

Box 4
Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, court records, etc.]
John E. Abbott [CO who refused induction; later consented to go into CPS & the prosecution was

dropped]

Mathew Karl Amberg [re: interpretation of the law on "religious training & belief"]
Edward Annunziata [CO who refused induction; paroled at time of sentencing]
Jerome Atkins / Donald Woolnaugh / Hal Lasky / et.al. [re: interpretation of the law on "religious training

& belief"]

Morris Basuk [re: draft classification]
Arthur J. Berkowitz [paroled at time of sentencing]
Herman Berman
Shirley F. Bodenstein [2 folders] [re: dependency classification on grounds of "hardship" for a CO while

in CPS]

Whitney Bowles [judicial review of obvious error by draft board]
Ralph Calvin Bowman [3 folders] [appeal after refusal of induction, on grounds of obvious misclass-

ification by draft board]

Arthur Abraham Brandon [2 folders] [Habeas Corpus case re: correction of draft board classification]

Box 5
Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, court records, etc.]
Charles Butcher [re: legality of CPS]
Antonio G. Catavolo [Habeas Corpus case re: legality of induction when CO refused to take the oath]
Cedric Comstock [re: draft classification]
Boyd B. Davis [CO who refused induction]
Ralph Di Gia [CO who refused induction]
Charles Dimino [CO who refused induction]
Daniel Birmeli Dingman
Ronald C. Doll [re: draft classification for a CO]
Daniel Donchian [re: draft classification for a CO]
Lee W. Durling [CO who refused induction]
Julius Eichel [includes letters re: brother Albert] [CO who refused induction]
Stuart Thomas Fagan [CO who refused induction]
Nick Falbo
Henry Robert Fischer [CO who refused induction]
James Louis Girouard
David M. Glixon [CO who refused induction; "this is the first, and I believe the only case, of a CO

receiving a suspended sentence in New York City, although California judges suspended sentences in many cases. Glixon was sent by Judge Knox to work in a hospital for the duration of his sentence, and thus received treatment similar to that which he would have gotten in a CPS camp if he had been able to secure IV-E classification. See p. 17 of Conscience and the State ."].

Arthur E. Gundlach [CO who refused induction]
Horace J. Haase [CO who refused induction]
Thomas Hall [CO who refused induction]
Allen Harvey [CO who refused induction]
Albert Herling / Francis Hall / William Allen Winslow / Howard Schoenfeld / Stanley Rappeport
Nathan Horwitz [CO who refused induction]
Roman J. Janicki [CO who sought reclassification after he'd been inducted]
Paul B. Johnson & Robert B. Jager [COs who sought reclassification after they'd been inducted]
Joseph Louis Kalch [CO who refused induction]
Max Kampelman
Alexander Kaslowitz [CO who refused induction]
Sander Katz [CO who refused induction]
Mathias Kauten [CO who refused induction]

Box 6
Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, court records, etc.]
Mathias Kauten (cont.)
Robert W. Lane [CO who refused induction]
Fred John Lawrence [CO who refused induction]
Henry T. Mady [folder originally included file for Robert Adams McKelvey] [CO who refused induction]
A.J. Manoukian [re: legality of CPS]
Nicholas Marcantonio [CO who refused induction]
Robert Adams McKelvey [originally in Henry T. Mady file] [2 folders] [CO who refused induction]
James J. McManus [CO who refused induction]
John P. McManus [CO who refused induction]
Leonard Mehr [CO who refused induction; "Mehr had been discharged from service with the military

forces on medical grounds, and was serving with the Merchant Marine when he refused to go into the Army under a second induction notice from his draft board. Although a discharged veteran, who subsequently became a CO, he received no leniency from the sentencing judge."]

David Metcalf [re: legality of CPS]
Stanley Casimir Mulowski & Edward J. Mulowski [COs who refused induction]
Stanley Murphy & Louis Taylor: correspondence, 1943 (Aug.) - 1944 (June) [Habeas Corpus case to

correct abuse of prisoners at Springfield (MO) facility]

Stanley Murphy & Louis Taylor: correspondence, 1944 (July) - 1945 (Oct.)
Stanley Murphy & Louis Taylor: notes / background information / legal briefs
Herbert Lee Nichols [CO who refused induction]
Homer Nichols [CO who refused induction]
Ralph Norton [CO who refused induction]

Box 7
Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, court records, etc.]
James Peck [CO who refused induction]
Randolph Phillips [Habeas Corpus case re: interpretation of the law on "religious training & belief";

Phillips was reclassified IV-E by order of the appellate court after the draft board classified him as I-A]

Marco Piattelli [CO who refused induction]
Nathan Pressman [CO who refused induction]
Bruno Quero [CO who refused induction]
Edward Rogg [re: interpretation of the law on "religious training & belief"]
Donald Royer [CO who refused induction]
Charles F. Saltzsieder & Frank Schiavone [COs who refused induction]
Irving Schwartz [re: interpretation of the law on "religious training & belief"]
Edward O. Schweitzer [schoolteacher who was discharged because he was a CO; case was not taken to the

U.S. Supreme Court because the trial lawyer failed to establish a proper record & raise the issue of freedom of religion]

Ernest Allyn Smith [CO who refused induction]
Norman & John Steinhilber [re: interpretation of the law on "religious training & belief"]
William E. Stockdale
Oliver B. Stone
Richard H. Strachen [CO who refused induction]
Clyde Wilson Summers: correspondence, 1943-1945

Box 8 (1/2 box)
Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, court records, etc.]
Clyde Wilson Summers: notes re: case
Clyde Wilson Summers: legal briefs / court cases
Denny Wilcher [re: legality of CPS]
Sidney Zernit
Jack Wolf Zucker
Albert Zussman

Box 9
Habeas Corpus Cases Handled by Cornell [includes correspondence, notes, legal briefs, etc.]
General
Burnell Clark
Robert E. Doyle Jr.
Denver Dutton
Roy H. Gustafson
Vernon Hart
Franklin W. Hosmer
Herbert Inlay
William Kofler
Karl Korell
Jesse Lamb
Matthew Lapkiewicz
Richard Muttersbaugh
Ralph Ponti
Irving A. Ravin
Francis M. Rhome
William Ronda
Raymond Rupp
Robert & Waldemar Schultze
Ray Weiland
Reference / Reading Material
Re: conscientious objection / objectors, etc.
Legal briefs of CO court cases

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To find other SCPC collections that include Julien Cornell or conscientious objector material, use the PICO search engine. For other resources, including books by Cornell, see the college's online library catalog (Tripod). For more information, contact Wendy Chmielewski, Curator, at wchmiel@ swarthmore.edu or call 610-328-8557.

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