Levi Woodbury

(b. Francestown, N.H., 22 Dec. 1789; d. Portsmouth, N.H., 4 Sept. 1851; interred Harmony Grove Cemetery, Portsmouth), associate justice, 1845–1851. Levi Woodbury, son of Peter and Mary Woodbury, studied law with Judge Jeremiah Smith and at the Litchfield Law School. He was admitted to the bar and began practicing in Francestown, New Hampshire, in 1812. An ardent Jeffersonian Republican, Woodbury in 1817 was appointed associate justice of the state superior court, where in the same year he joined in a decision favoring the Republican takeover of his alma mater, Dartmouth College. In June 1819 he married Elizabeth Williams Clapp, daughter of a wealthy Republican merchant of Portsmouth, who would help him politically. In 1823 a faction of independent Republicans, with help from Federalists, elected Woodbury governor of New Hampshire.

Factional infighting accounted for Woodbury's unsuccessful bid for reelection, but in 1825 he was first elected to the legislature and then to the United States Senate. He began his senatorial career as a supporter of John Quincy Adams but rather quickly switched to the Jacksonians. In 1831, having chosen not to seek another term in the Senate, Woodbury was appointed secretary of the navy by President Andrew Jackson. In 1834 Jackson appointed Woodbury secretary of the treasury, a position he held, despite complaints about his competence, until 1841, Martin Van Buren having carried him over into his term as president. Woodbury returned to the United States Senate in 1841, having been elected by the New Hampshire legislature as a Democrat. President James K. Polk indicated on 20 September 1845 he would appoint Woodbury to the United States Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Joseph Story. On 23 December 1845, Polk submitted the nomination to the Senate, which confirmed Woodbury on 3 January 1846.

For the most part, Woodbury joined the mainstream of the Taney Court, although occasionally his penchant for states' rights prompted a dissenting opinion. For example in Waring v. Clarke (1847), he dissented from the Court's ruling that federal admiralty jurisdiction (see Admiralty and Maritime Law) extended to waters ninety‐five miles north of New Orleans. He likewise disagreed with the Court's decision in the Passenger Cases (1849), which ruled that state head taxes on incoming immigrants violated the federal Commerce Clause (see Commerce Power). His dissenting opinions expressed his fear that the majority's decision might lead to a future ruling that a state could not exclude emancipated slaves, a result that would outrage the South and disrupt the union. Earlier, Woodbury had made clear his proslavery views when he wrote the opinion for the Court in Jones v. Van Zandt (1847), which ruled in favor of a slaveowner who sued a Northerner for illegally harboring a fugitive slave. He generally supported the Taney Court's decisions on the contracts clause, writing for the majority in Planters' Bank v. Sharp (1848), which held that a state could not revoke a bank's right to transfer bills and notes that had been granted to it in its charter, and concurring in Cook v. Moffat (1847), which ruled that a state bankruptcy law could not discharge a resident's obligations under a contract made out of state.

All in all, Woodbury possessed an acute legal mind, but his brief tenure and his tendency to write overly long, convoluted opinions compromised his sojourn on the Supreme Court.

— Robert M. Ireland

1845–51

• Born: Dec. 22, 1789, Francestown, N.H.
• Education: Dartmouth College, B.A., 1809; Tapping Reeve Law School, 1810
• Previous government service: clerk, New Hampshire Senate, 1816; associate justice, New Hampshire Superior Court, 1817–23; governor of New Hampshire, 1823–24; Speaker, New Hampshire House of Representatives, 1825; U.S. senator from New Hampshire, 1825–31, 1841–45; U.S. secretary of the navy, 1831–34; U.S. secretary of the Treasury, 1834–41
• Appointed by President James K. Polk as a recess appointment Sept. 20, 1845; replaced Joseph Story, who died; nominated by Polk Dec. 23, 1845
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Jan. 3, 1846, by a voice vote; served until Sept. 4, 1851
• Died: Sept. 4, 1851, Portsmouth, N.H.

Levi Woodbury was a Jacksonian Democrat who served less than six years on the Supreme Court. During his brief term, he tended to side with the majority on the Taney Court. He especially favored the rights and powers of the states in cases regarding conflicts with the federal government. In general, Woodbury's judicial career lacked distinction.

Woodbury, Levi, 1789–1851, American cabinet officer and jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1845–51), b. Hillsboro, co., N.H. Important as a politician and jurist in New Hampshire, he served as governor (1823–24) and as U.S. Senator (1825–31). President Andrew Jackson, whom he firmly supported, appointed (1831) him Secretary of the Navy. In 1834 when Henry Clay obtained the Senate's rejection of Roger B. Taney, who had been appointed in 1833, Woodbury was chosen U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and inherited the difficult task of transferring the government deposits from the Bank of the United States to state banks (“pet banks”). Successfully fulfilling his duties he continued as Secretary until the end of President Van Buren's term (1841). Again a Senator (1841–45), Woodbury was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Polk, and on the bench he generally concurred with the decisions of Chief Justice Taney. Many of his speeches and his writings (3 vol., 1852) have been published.

Bibliography

See D. B. Cole, Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire (1970).

Levi Woodbury served on the U.S. Supreme Court as an associate justice from 1845 to 1851. Woodbury's career encompassed a range of positions in state and federal government. By the time of his nomination by President James K. Polk, he had served as a state judge, governor, U.S. senator, and as secretary of both the U.S. Navy and Treasury. A lifelong advocate of states' rights, this position guided him throughout his brief tenure on the Court. He rarely stood out except in the occasional instance when he dissented. A proponent of slavery, he worried about the Court's potential for exacerbating national tensions over the volatile issue.

Woodbury was born on December 22, 1789, in Francestown, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1809 and then studied at the Litchfield Law School. After his admission to the New Hampshire bar in 1812, he began practicing law while gradually preparing himself for politics. In 1816 he served as clerk of the state senate, and in 1817 entered the judiciary as associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court.

Woodbury was passionate about states' rights, the cause of the Jeffersonian Republicans. His marriage in 1819 to Elizabeth Clapp, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, helped advance his aspirations, and in 1823 he won election as governor of New Hampshire. In 1825 he became speaker of the state House of Representatives, and then served two terms as a U.S. senator, from 1825 to 1831 and from 1841 to 1845. During the interim, he served twice in the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson: first as U.S. secretary of the Navy (1831-1834) and then as U.S. secretary of the Treasury (1834-1841), a position he held for the first four years of Martin Van Buren's administration also.

In 1845 Polk chose Woodbury to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Joseph Story. The Court was led by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, whom Woodbury often joined in decisions. Notably, he generally agreed with the majority on the Taney Court in its reading of the U.S. Constitution's Contract Clause. The Contract Clause was an important subject of constitutional interpretation during the era, and the Court invoked it in order to limit the power of states to regulate business and economic matters.

Woodbury left no landmark opinions. However, he occasionally dissented when he thought the Court was trampling the rights of states: he dissented from the Court's decisions to extend the boundaries of federal jurisdiction over national waters and, in the so-called Passenger Cases of 1849, to strike down state laws that provided for taxing immigrants upon their arrival.

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