John McLean

(b. Morris County, N.J., 11 Mar. 1785; d. Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 Apr. 1861; interred Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati), associate justice, 1830–1861. The son of Ulsterman Fergus McLean (originally McLain) and Sophia Blackford, McLean grew up in a succession of frontier communities before settling in Warren County, Ohio, in 1797. Despite highly irregular schooling, he studied law with John S. Gano and Arthur St. Clair in Cincinnati in 1804. He established a Democratic newspaper at Lebanon, Ohio, after admission to the bar, and by 1811 was examiner in the United States Land Office in Cincinnati.

Elected as a War Hawk to the United States House of Representatives in 1812 and reelected in 1814, he actively promoted the presidential candidacy of James Monroe. He returned to Ohio and served on the state supreme court until 1822 when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the General Land Office. Made postmaster general in 1823, he oversaw a tremendous expansion in westward routes and the elevation of the office to cabinet status. McLean remained in office under President John Quincy Adams.

Although an early supporter of John C. Calhoun, he adroitly courted Andrew Jackson but kept Adams from finding grounds to dismiss him. After Jackson's victory in 1828, McLean's reward was appointment to the Supreme Court.

Known as the “Politician on the Supreme Court” during his thirty‐year coquettish quest for the presidency, McLean flirted successively with Jackson Democrats, anti‐Jackson Democrats, Antimasons, Whigs, Free Soilers, and Republicans (see Extrajudicial Activities). McLean saw nothing injudicious in his quest, or as a devout Methodist, any conflict between politics and religion. He did not participate in Smith v. Swormstedt (1853), occasioned by the sectional division of the Methodist church, but agreed that Stephen Girard lawfully could ban clergy from his academy (Vidal etal v. Philadelphia, 1844).

McLean began his judicial career as a nationalist, concurring with Marshall in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832) (see Cherokee Cases). He favored state banking, dissented in Craig v. Missouri (1830) and convinced the court that state bank notes were not bills of credit in *Briscoe v. Commonwealth Bank of Kentucky (1837). Another states' rights opinion was Ex parte Dorr (1845), where the court refused a writ of habeas corpus for the captured leader of Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion. McLean wanted to be chief justice, but his pro‐Indian decisions and opposition to Peggy Eaton severed his friendly relations with Jackson.

States' rights commercial issues bothered McLean. He supported the rulings of New York v. Miln (1837), the License Cases (1847), and the Passenger Cases (1849), but he rejected the doctrine of “selective exclusiveness” announced in *Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1852). His claim for exclusive federal authority led Justice Curtis to label Justices McLean and Wayne “the most high‐toned federalists on the bench.” Federalism marked McLean's decision in Piqua Branch of State Bank of Ohio v. Knoop (1854), where he protected a bank charter from state modification. But McLean disallowed claims for a federal common law of copyright in Wheaton v. Peters (1834).

McLean declined President John Tyler's offer to become of secretary of war, and began looking first to the Whigs and then the Free Soilers. His abhorrence of slavery was deeply rooted, and in an 1848 open letter he proclaimed that slavery existed only where established by law. He was outvoted in Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), where the Court permitted the kidnapping from a free state of an alleged runaway, but he rejected the claim of attorney William H. Seward in Jones v. Van Zandt (1847) that a “higher law” permitted a man to harbor fugitive slaves.

McLean has been blamed, perhaps unfairly, for precipitating the Dred Scott decision (see Scott v. Sandford, 1857). After Justices McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis announced plans to file dissents to Justice Samuel Nelson's initial hands‐off decision, the majority changed its mind and agreed to tackle the controverted issues. McLean's dissent read well, although in research and argument Justice Curtis's had the edge.

The case made McLean a possible presidential contender despite his advancing age. His name was mentioned in 1860 at the Constitutional Union convention, and he received twelve votes on the first ballot at the Republican convention. In early 1861 his health failed, and he died in Cincinnati on 4 April 1861.

McLean's persistent quest for the presidency prejudiced both contemporary and historical opinion against him. In 1848 Senator Henry S. Foote charged McLean violated judicial ethics, but there is little to suggest that partisan considerations influenced McLean's decisions. Forcing Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to commit the court's worst “self‐inflicted wound” may have been his greatest contribution to American history.

Bibliography

• Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (1978).
• Frank Otto Gatel, John McLean, in The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789–1969, edited by Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, vol. 1 (1969), pp. 535–570

— Michael B. Dougan

• Born: Mar. 11, 1785, Morris County, N.J.
• Education: studied at home with private tutors; read law in the office of Arthur St. Clair, Jr., in Cincinnati
• Previous government service: examiner, U.S. Land Office, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1811–12; U.S. representative from Ohio, 1813–16; judge, Ohio Supreme Court, 1816–22; commissioner, General Land Office, 1822–23; U.S. postmaster general, 1823–29
• Appointed by President Andrew Jackson Mar. 6, 1829; replaced Robert Trimble, who died
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Mar. 7, 1829, by a voice vote; served until Apr. 4, 1861
• Died: Apr. 4, 1861, Cincinnati, Ohio

John McLean was President Andrew Jackson's first appointment to the Supreme Court. During his 32 years on the Court, however, Justice McLean moved away from Jacksonian views, which favored states' rights, to support nationalism and the federal government's power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce.

Justice McLean's dislike of slavery and states' rights was expressed in his famous dissent in the Dred Scott case (Scott v. Sandford, 1857). In opposition to the Court's majority, he argued that Congress could ban slavery in the territories of the United States, that blacks could be citizens, and that Dred Scott was a free man because he had lived in a free state and a free territory. This dissent was vindicated by ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments, which overturned the Dred Scott decision.

See also Scott v. Sandford

Sources

• Francis P. Weisenburger, The Life of John McLean (1937; reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1971)

John McLean served as associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court for thirty-two years, one of the longest tenures in the history of the Court.

McLean was born on March 11, 1785, in New Jersey but was raised primarily near Lebanon, Ohio, where his father staked out land that later became the family farm. McLean attended a county school and later was tutored by two schoolmasters, Presbyterian ministers, and paid them with money he earned working as a farm hand. In 1804, at the age of nineteen, he began working as an apprentice to the clerk of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas in Cincinnati and also studied law with Arthur St. Clair and John S. Gano, two distinguished Cincinnati lawyers.

In 1807 McLean was admitted to the bar, married, and returned to Lebanon to open a printing office. He began publishing the Lebanon Western Star, a partisan journal supporting the Jeffersonian party. Three years later McLean gave his newspaper and printing business to his brother to concentrate full-time on the practice of law. At the same time, McLean, who had been raised Presbyterian, converted to Methodism, an experience that would have a strong impact throughout his life. He was active in church affairs and wrote articles about the Bible, and in 1849 he was named honorary president of the American Sunday School Union.

In 1812, after a year serving as examiner in the U.S. Land Office in Cincinnati, McLean was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of twenty-seven and was reelected two years later. During his two terms in the House, McLean was a staunch supporter of President James Madison and his efforts to wage the War of 1812. McLean, unhappy with the salary paid to members of Congress and wanting to be closer to his wife and children, chose not to run again in 1816 and returned home. Back in Ohio, McLean easily won election to one of four judgeships on the Ohio Supreme Court, a demanding position that required him to "ride the circuit," or hear cases throughout the state.

In 1822 McLean was again drawn to politics and made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. Shortly after McLean lost the election, President James Monroe appointed him commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington, a direct result of McLean's earlier hard work to secure Monroe's nomination for the presidency. The position meant a large increase in salary and led to McLean's appointment the next year to the position of postmaster general. During his six years as postmaster general, McLean expanded the number of routes and deliveries, established thousands of new post offices, and increased the size of the U.S. Postal Service to almost 27,000 employees.

Though he served as postmaster under John Quincy Adams, McLean used his considerable political skills to establish ties with Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams for the presidency in 1828. As a result, McLean was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, winning confirmation easily.

McLean remained interested in politics during his tenure on the Supreme Court and was even seriously considered as a nominee for the presidency at several national conventions, though his name was withdrawn from consideration each time. His last bid came in 1860, a year before his death, when he was one of the Republican party's candidates. The nomination instead went to AbrahamLincoln.

While an associate justice on the High Court, McLean wrote a number of significant opinions, including a strong dissent in the Dred Scott case of 1857 (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (Mem), 19 How. 393, 15 L. Ed. 691). In Dred Scott, a slave sued his master for freedom after he had been taken to live on free soil for several years. The Supreme Court held that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens and that Congress could not pass legislation preventing slavery. McLean, however, who had long opposed slavery, argued that Congress could exclude slavery from the territories and could also liberate slaves living in "free" states. McLean's most significant majority opinion came in 1834 in Wheaton v. Peters, a dispute between two of the Court's reporters of decisions (33 U.S. 591, 8 Pet. 591, 8 L. Ed. 1055 (Mem.) (U.S. Pa., Jan. Term 1834)). Richard Peters sought to republish decisions that had previously been published by Henry Wheaton, his predecessor. Wheaton, worried that he would sell fewer opinions and thus lose profits, sued Peters, alleging copyright infringement. McLean, writing for the Court, held that the opinions were in the public domain and thus no copyright had been violated.

Though McLean enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a jurist, his personal life was less happy. Three of his four daughters died young, as did a brother, and he also lost his first wife in 1840. He and his second wife had one son who died only a few weeks after birth. Though McLean's own health began to fail as early as 1859, he continued to serve on the Court until his death from pneumonia April 4, 1861.

For other persons named John McLean, see John McLean (disambiguation).

John McLean
United States Senator from Illinois
In office 1824 - 1825 1829 - 1830
Preceded by	Ninian Edwards Jesse B. Thomas
Succeeded by	Elias K. Kane David J. Baker
Born	February 4, 1791(1791-02-04) Greensboro, North Carolina
Died	October 14, 1830 (aged 39) Shawneetown, Illinois
Profession	lawyer

John McLean (February 4, 1791 – October 14, 1830) was a United States Representative and a Senator from Illinois.

Born near Guilford Court House (now Greensboro), Guilford County, North Carolina, February 4, 1791, McLean moved with his parents to Logan County, Kentucky in 1795. He moved to Illinois Territory in 1815. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois. When Illinois was admitted as a State into the Union, McLean was elected to the Fifteenth Congress and served from December 3, 1818, to March 3, 1819. He failed to be re-elected in 1818 to the Sixteenth Congress. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for congress in the 1820 and 1822 elections. He was elected to the Illinois State House of Representatives in 1820, 1826, and 1828, and served as speaker.

In 1824, McLean was elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Ninian Edwards and served from November 23, 1824 to March 3, 1825. He did not stand for reelection, but resumed the practice of law.

He was again elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1829, until his death, aged 39, in Shawneetown, Illinois in 1830. He was interred in Westwood Cemetery, near Shawneetown.

Legacy

McLean County, Illinois is named after him.

External links

• John McLean (Illinois politician) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by State entered union	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's At-large congressional district December 3, 1818, to March 3, 1819	Succeeded by Daniel P. Cook
United States Senate
Preceded by Ninian Edwards	United States Senator (Class 3) from Illinois 1824 – 1825 Served alongside: Jesse B. Thomas	Succeeded by Elias K. Kane
Preceded by Jesse B. Thomas	United States Senator (Class 2) from Illinois 1829 – 1830 Served alongside: Elias K. Kane	Succeeded by David J. Baker

v • d • e United States Senators from Illinois Class 2: Thomas • McLean • Baker • Robinson • McRoberts • Semple • S. Douglas • Browning • Richardson • Yates • Logan • Davis • Cullom • Lewis • McCormick • Deneen • Lewis • Slattery • Brooks • P. Douglas • Percy • Simon • Durbin Class 3: Edwards • McLean • Kane • Ewing • Young • Breese • Shields • Trumbull • Oglesby • Logan • Farwell • Palmer • Mason • Hopkins • Lorimer • Sherman • McKinley • Glenn • Dieterich • Lucas • Dirksen • Smith • Stevenson III • Dixon • Moseley Braun • Fitzgerald • Obama • Burris

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