Benjamin Chew Howard

(b. Baltimore County, Md., 5 Nov. 1791; d. Baltimore, Md., 6 Mar. 1872), Supreme Court reporter of decisions, 1843–1861. One of the nominative reporters, Howard served the Court during the years preceding the Civil War. He published volumes 1 through 24 of Howard's Reports (42–65 of U.S. Reports). Howard's father, John Eager Howard, had been a Revolutionary officer. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Chew, was president of the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals before the Revolution. Howard earned his A.B. in 1809 and his A.M. in 1812, both from Princeton. His subsequent law studies were interrupted by the War of 1812, during which he organized troops and fought in battle against the British. He was admitted to the Maryland bar about 1816. A Democrat, Howard served at various times on the Baltimore City Council and in both chambers of the Maryland legislature. Elected to four terms in Congress, he chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee from 1835 to 1839.

Howard's long association with Chief Justice Roger Taney apparently gained him the reporter's position in 1843, although nothing suggests that he sought the job or intrigued before the summary discharge of his precedessor, Richard Peters. Howard's reports were praised as clear, thorough, and well written, although Justice Peter V. Daniel accurately complained on one occasion that his name had been omitted before a dissenting opinion.

After serving as a delegate to the Wartime Peace Conference in February 1861, Howard resigned between terms of the Court in 1861 to run, unsuccessfully, as Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland. In 1869, Princeton awarded him an LL.D.

See also Reporters, Supreme Court.

— Francis Helminski

Benjamin Chew Howard was a lawyer who served as the Supreme Court reporter of decisions from 1843 to 1861.

Howard, born November 5, 1791, in Baltimore, was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary War officer and the grandson of the president of the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals before the Revolution. Howard earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University). In 1812, he began the study of law, which was interrupted by military service during the War of 1812. Howard was a captain in the war and played a prominent role in the defense of Baltimore during the Battle of North Point, fought in September 1814.

Following the war, Howard resumed his legal studies. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1816. Active in the Maryland Democratic party, in 1820, he was elected to the Baltimore City Council, and in 1824, he won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates. In 1829, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served four terms. During his time in Congress, he was chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee for several years. In 1840, he left Congress to return to Maryland state politics, serving as a senator in the Maryland General Assembly. In January 1843, he resigned before the expiration of his term, to become reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court, a position created by Congress in 1816.

As reporter, Howard was primarily responsible for editing, publishing, and distributing the Court's opinions. He replaced Richard Peters, who was fired after he disagreed with several of the justices about whether their opinions should be published in the reports. Howard, though highly praised for publishing thorough and well-edited reports, did create a controversy of his own when he refused to include the complete arguments raised by both sides in a fugitive slave case decided by the Court, thus calling his impartiality into question.

In Howard's day, the reporter was paid a modest yearly salary and usually earned additional income selling copies of the bound volume in which an important case appeared or printing the opinion separately in a pamphlet for sale to the public. When the Dred Scott decision outlawing slavery was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, the U.S. Senate sought to publicize it as broadly as possible and printed twenty thousand copies for free distribution to the public (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. [19 How.] 393, 15 L. Ed. 691 [1856]). Howard protested strongly that his income from the sale of the opinion would suffer from the competition. As a result, the Senate voted to pay him $1,500 in compensation and agreed not to distribute its version until Howard's bound volume and pamphlet version were made available.

Howard, who edited twenty-four volumes of reports, remained active in politics while Supreme Court reporter. He resigned from the Court in 1861 to run as the Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland. Following his defeat, Howard retired from public life. He died March 6, 1872, in Baltimore.

Benjamin Chew Howard (November 5, 1791–March 6, 1872) was an American congressman and the fifth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1843 to 1861.

Howard was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, the son of John Eager Howard. He received an A.B. and an A.M. from Princeton University in 1809 and 1812, respectively. His study of law was interrupted by his service in the War of 1812 in which he reached the rank of brigadier general. A Democrat, he served on the city council of Baltimore in 1820 and both houses of the Maryland legislature. He was elected to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1833. In 1835, President Andrew Jackson named Richard Rush and Howard to arbitrate the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute.

He returned to Congress in the Twenty-fourth Congress and was re-elected to the Twenty-fifth, serving from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1839. During this service, he chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee for four years.

In 1861, he was one of the emissaries sent by President James Buchanan to try to secure a peace with the Confederacy. That year he unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Maryland. He died in Baltimore and is buried in Greenmount Cemetery.

See also

United States Army portal

References

• Benjamin Chew Howard at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-04-03

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by John Barney and Peter Little	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 5th congressional district 1829–1833	Succeeded by Isaac McKim
Preceded by James P. Heath	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 4th congressional district 1835–1839	Succeeded by James Carroll and Solomon Hillen
Legal offices
Preceded by Richard Peters	United States Supreme Court Reporter of Decisions 1843–1861	Succeeded by Jeremiah S. Black

Persondata
NAME	Howard, Benjamin C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	United States Army general
DATE OF BIRTH	November 5, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH	Baltimore County, Maryland
DATE OF DEATH	March 6, 1872
PLACE OF DEATH	Baltimore County, Maryland

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