Matthew Deady

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Matthew Paul Deady (1824-05-12 – 1893-03-24) was a politician and jurist. He was born in Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, USA and died in Portland, Oregon. He was one of Oregon's leading citizens in the 19th century and became its first federal judge.

He attended public schools in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), and apprenticed as a blacksmith while studying at Barnesville Academy in Ohio. After passing the bar, Deady came to Oregon in 1849 where he taught and practiced law at Lafayette before being elected to the territorial legislature in 1851.

He was then appointed an associate judge of the Territorial Supreme Court, where he served from 1853 to 1859. During this time he moved south to a farm in the Umpqua River valley. Elected as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1857, he became president of the body and was influential shaping the new state constitution, which excluded African-Americans from settling in the new state Deady successfully advocated for provisions in law to set six year terms for judges, four year terms for state officers, and biennial sessions for the legislature.

In 1859 he was appointed U.S. District Judge for the District of Oregon. He moved to Portland, and founded the Multnomah County Library. Deady served as president of the Board of Regents of the State University (later University of Oregon) from 1873 to 1893.

He was a popular public speaker and a prolific writer on the law and other subjects. Among his work is the General Laws of Oregon, which he compiled and annotated in 1866. He also worked to thwart acts of violence and reject discriminatory laws that were aimed at Chinese-Americans. Deady Hall on the University of Oregon campus was built in 1876 and named in his honor.