Morrison Waite

For more information on Morrison Remick Waite, visit Britannica.com.

(b. Lyme, Conn., 29 Nov. 1816; d. Washington, D.C., 23 March 1888; interred Forest Cemetery, Toledo, Ohio), chief justice, 1874–1888. The eldest son of a lawyer who became chief justice of Connecticut, Morrison Remick Waite was destined for a career in law. After graduating from Yale in 1837, he read law with his father for a year, then joined the westward migration of enterprising Yankees, settling in Maumee, Ohio. After a further apprenticeship with a local lawyer, Waite was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1839, promptly entering into partnership with his former mentor. In 1840 Waite married his second cousin, Amelia C. Warner, also of Lyme, Connecticut, who trekked west to join him. Active in the Whig party, Waite was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1849. In 1850 he moved his family to Toledo, where he opened a branch office of his law firm. On the retirement of his senior partner in 1856, Waite established a firm with his younger brother Richard. At the same time the future chief justice abandoned the dying Whig party and helped organize the Republican party in Ohio.

Prosperous and respected in Ohio, Waite first attained national prominence in 1871 when he was appointed one of three United States counsel at the Geneva Arbitration Tribunal, convened to settle the Alabama claims. So unexpected was the appointment that Waite at first regarded the telegrams from Washington as a practical joke. When the tribunal ruled in favor of the Americans and awarded fifteen million dollars in damages, the counselors returned home covered in glory. On Chief Justice Salmon Chase's unexpected death in 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant cast about for a nominee, at first among his unscrupulous political cronies. When one after another refused or withdrew, the president was persuaded to reward a Geneva counselor, associated with one of the administration's few triumphs. Waite, who had never once argued before the Supreme Court, was suddenly raised to its head.

On first taking his seat, the new chief justice faced a restive and powerful set of associate justices, some of whom had actively sought the appointment for themselves. Rather unexpectedly, Waite took decisive control of the Court, thereafter showing himself a competent judicial administrator. (See Chief Justice, Office of the.) On the major constitutional issues of the day the new chief justice was a disciple of Roger Taney rather than John Marshall. While recording a few notable nationalizing opinions—such as in the Sinking‐Fund Cases (1879), permitting Congress to amend corporate charters in the public interest—Waite favored the states in the key areas of civil rights and economic regulation. In Minor v. Happersett (1875), he held that denying votes to women was no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment because suffrage was not a right of citizenship. The next year in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) and United States v. *Reese (1876), he wrote opinions that narrowed national protection of the newly freed slaves. At the same time, in Reynolds v. United States (1879), the first church‐state case to reach the Supreme Court, Waite upheld the conviction of a Mormon in a polygamous marriage. (See Religion.)

On the issue of regulation of the economy, Waite's leadership in favor of states' rights was vigorously challenged by Justice Stephen J. *Field. The leading case was Munn v. Illinois (1877), one of a set of related cases known collectively as the Granger Cases. Apparently taking his cue from Justice Joseph P. Bradley, Waite upheld state power to regulate businesses “affected with a public interest,” drawing the wrath of railroads and monied men. Waite's pedestrian writing style deprived Munn and much else that he wrote of public and scholarly recognition; as Felix Frankfurter later put it, “Even in his most famous opinion Waite lacked art.” In a later case, Stone v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. (1886), also upholding state power, he made a feeble attempt to improve on Chief Justice Marshall's famous dictum in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): “This power to regulate is not a power to destroy, and limitation is not the equivalent of confiscation” (p. 331).

The author of civil rights opinions unpopular in the late twentieth century, underrated for his defense of state power to regulate the economy, and unfairly associated with judicial restraints on national regulation that properly belong to a later generation, Waite lacks an outstanding judicial reputation.

Bibliography

• C. Peter Magrath, Morrison R. Waite (1963)

— John V. Orth

Morrison Remick Waite (1816-1888), seventh chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was a skillful administrator of the nation's highest bench.

Born in Lyme, Conn., on Nov. 29, 1816, Morrison R. Waite graduated from Yale in 1837, read law, and began to practice in Maumee, Ohio, moving later to Toledo. A lawyer rather than a politician, he served in the Ohio Legislature (1849-1850) as a Whig. Later he was a Republican but played no conspicuous role in the politics of the Civil War or the Reconstruction era.

Capable and noncontroversial, Waite was named by President Ulysses S. Grant to join Caleb Cushing and William M. Evarts as counsel before the tribunal hearing the Alabama Claims against England for Civil War damages. Waite helped prevent inflammatory peripheral issues from disrupting negotiations, and the United States was awarded $15,500,000 in a decision of major significance in the history of the settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

A prolonged competition for the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court followed the death of Salmon P. Chase in 1873. Bypassing other strong contenders, Grant in 1874 finally named Waite. Respectability and the need to end the leadership crisis won Waite swift confirmation.

On the Supreme Court, Waite's demeanor foreshad-owed the doctrine of judicial restraint. Unlike chief justices John Marshall and Roger B. Taney, he sought less to lead than to follow the thinking of the nation. Tired of the era's racial controversies and convinced that white moderates in the South should establish the racial rules for the region, the Waite Court weakened the concept of national citizenship based on the 14th Amendment. In cases involving violent interruption of a political meeting, refusal to allow a registered black American to vote, and a lynching, the Federal government was not sustained in efforts to protect black citizens. That responsibility was left to state governments. Similarly, the Civil Rights Cases (1883) permitted racial segregation in privately owned places of public accommodation. On the other hand, African Americans had been sustained in their right to serve on juries in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880).

Waite's most famous decision was Munn v. Illinois (1877), which upheld the right of state legislatures to enact granger laws, in this case the regulation of grain storage rates. Retrieving a 17th-century English decision, Waite held that legislators could regulate in a matter "affected with a public interest." Later, however, the countervailing interest of the railroads to avoid such regulation was established when Waite, while avoiding express disavowal of the Munn doctrine, permitted a broad reading of the 14th Amendment that limited the power of government to regulate business.

Waite was married in 1840 to Amelia Champlin Warner; of their five children, four lived beyond childhood. Waite died in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 1888.

Further Reading

An excellent biography of Waite is C. Peter Magrath, Morrison R. Waite: The Triumph of Character (1963).

Chief Justice, 1874–88

• Born: Nov. 29, 1816, Lyme, Conn.
• Education: Yale College, B.A., 1837
• Previous government service: Ohio House of Representatives, 1850–52; president, Ohio Constitutional Convention, 1873–74
• Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant Jan. 19, 1874; replaced Salmon P. Chase, who died
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Jan. 21, 1874, by a 63–0 vote; served until Mar. 23, 1888
• Died: Mar. 23, 1888, Washington, D.C.

Morrison R. Waite had no judicial experience before his appointment as chief justice, and he had never presented a case before the Supreme Court. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Waite to head the Supreme Court because of his effectiveness in representing the United States in an international arbitration case in Geneva.

At first, Chief Justice Waite was not respected by other members of the Supreme Court because of his lack of experience. He eventually won their acceptance and respect for his hard work and leadership of the Court.

Chief Justice Waite often decided in favor of the power and rights of state governments. For example, in his most notable opinion, Munn v. Illinois (1877), Chief Justice Waite upheld an Illinois law that set maximum rates that could be charged by grain elevator owners. He supported the power of the state of Illinois to regulate the use of private property “when such regulation becomes necessary for the public good."

In the Munn case, and similar cases involving state laws, Waite believed that the political process, not the Courts, was the correct avenue for opponents of the laws. In Munn v. Illinois, Waite wrote: “For protection against abuse by legislatures, the people must resort to the polls, not to the courts.” Waite believed that the legislative branch of government, not the judicial branch, should always take the lead in making public policy. The judiciary, he argued, should restrain itself to questions of legal interpretation.

Under Waite's leadership, the Court tended to narrowly interpret the rights of black Americans under the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Waite argued that most civil rights were associated with state citizenship, which should be guaranteed by the state governments, not the federal government. This viewpoint, which often prevailed on the Court at this time, meant that the civil rights of black Americans varied considerably depending upon the state in which they lived. In many states, their rights were not equal to those of white Americans, and the Supreme Court, under Waite, was reluctant to intervene into the states' affairs to secure these rights.

See also Judicial activism and judicial restraint; Munn v. Illinois

Sources

• Peter C. Magrath, Morrison R. Waite: The Triumph of Character (New York: Macmillan, 1963)

Morrison Remick Waite served as chief justice of the United States from 1874 to 1888. Waite's rise to national prominence came unexpectedly. Although a distinguished lawyer in Ohio, he had never argued before the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, in 1871 he was asked to represent the United States in post-Civil War claims against Great Britain, and his success brought him widespread acclaim. On the strength of this reputation, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Waite to lead the U.S. Supreme Court. His performance there, however, never won him the same praise. Waite's business decisions provoked the ire of powerful interests, and twentieth-century critics have condemned his limited view of civil rights.

Born on November 29, 1816, in Lyme, Connecticut, Waite was the son of a successful attorney and jurist who was the state court's chief justice. Educated at Yale University, Waite graduated in 1837, studied law under his father, and then was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1839. Over the next decade, he split his time between legal practice and politics. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1849 as a member of the Whig party, and later helped to form the state's branch of the Republican party.

By the late 1800s, Waite was quite successful. He had built two law firms and enjoyed prominence within Ohio. Yet because he had no significant national reputation, he was surprised when, in 1871, he was chosen for a task of national importance: representing the United States in its post-Civil War arbitration with Great Britain, better known as the Alabama claims. The United States charged that Great Britain had aided the Confederacy by supplying warships during the Civil War, and it sought to recover damages at the 1871 Geneva Arbitration Council. Waite and his two colleagues succeeded spectacularly, winning a $15 million settlement. At home, they were showered with acclaim. Two years later, Waite added to his growing reputation by serving as president of the Ohio Constitutional Convention.

Upon the sudden death of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, President Grant looked unsuccessfully for a replacement before turning to Waite. Grant's administration had not fared well; choosing one of the heroes of the Geneva victory appeared fortuitous. Although Waite had no experience before the Supreme Court, he accepted the appointment and overcame long odds against success. His status as an outsider and the presence of a strong-minded group of associate justices did not deter him from administering the Court effectively.

In outlook, Waite was a supporter of states' rights. He usually favored state power to regulate business and determine civil rights. Yet both in his time and afterward, his decisions have drawn condemnation. In Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 24 L. Ed. 77 (1876), he upheld an Illinois law that imposed charges on the owners of grain elevators, asserting that such regulation was proper in areas "affected with a public interest." This position provoked fierce criticism from powerful business interests. Waite's reputation also suffered posthumously in the wake of the twentieth century's embrace of civil rights. His decision in Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, 22 L. Ed. 627 (1874), allowed states to deny women the right to vote. Waite held that voting privileges were a right of U.S. citizenship and stated that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution did not confer additional privileges and immunities upon citizens.

In United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 23 L. Ed. 588 (1875), Waite set aside the convictions of white men who had taken part in the killing of more than one hundred black men in the 1873 Colfax Massacre, which followed a disputed election. Always concerned about the encroachment of federal power, Waite ruled that their indictment under federal law was faulty; such cases, he said, belonged in state courts. But state courts in the post-Civil War South were unlikely to prosecute such cases, and rather than leading to prosecutions, the decision only encouraged more bloodshed while dealing a blow to Congress's plan for Reconstruction in the South.

In appraising Waite's jurisprudence, twentieth-century critics have been harsh. They have criticized his narrow interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment as a repudiation of the intent of the amendment's framers. In defense, some observers have noted his valuation of state power to regulate the economy. He died on March 23, 1888, in Washington, D.C.

"Justice Waite" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Waite (disambiguation).

Morrison Remick Waite
7th Chief Justice of the United States
In office March 4, 1874 – March 23, 1888
Nominated by	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	Salmon P. Chase
Succeeded by	Melville Fuller
Born	November 29, 1816(1816-11-29) Lyme, Connecticut
Died	March 23, 1888 (aged 71) Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Yale University
Religion	Episcopalian
Signature

Morrison Remick Waite, nicknamed "Mott" (November 29, 1816 – March 23, 1888) was the Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to 1888.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Political and legal career 3 The Waite Court, 1874–1888 4 Champion of education opportunities for blacks 5 Frankfurter's view of Waite 6 Death and legacy 7 Quotations 8 Further reading 9 Notes 10 See also 11 External links

Early life and education

He was born at Lyme, Connecticut, the son of Henry Matson Waite, who was a judge of the Superior Court and associate judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut in 1834–1854 and chief justice of the latter in 1854–1857.

Morrison was a classmate of Lyman Trumbull at Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University in 1837 with the 1876 Democratic presidential nominee, Samuel J. Tilden. At Yale, he became a member of the Skull and Bones Society and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837,^[1] and soon afterwards moved to Maumee, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of Samuel L. Young. He was admitted to the bar in 1839. He served one term as mayor of Maumee. He married Amelia Warner in 1840. He had three sons with her — Henry Seldon, Christopher Champlin, Edward T, and one daughter Mary F. In 1850, he moved to Toledo, and he soon came to be recognized as a leader of the state bar.

Political and legal career

In politics, he was first a Whig and later a Republican, and, in 1849–1850, he was a member of the Ohio Senate.

Before the Civil War, Waite opposed slavery and the southern slave states withdrawal from the Union. In 1871, with William M. Evarts and Caleb Cushing, he represented the United States as counsel before the Alabama Tribunal at Geneva, and, in 1874, he presided over the Ohio constitutional convention. In the same year he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to succeed Judge Salmon P. Chase as Chief Justice of the United States, and he held this position until his death at March 23, 1888 in Washington, D.C. President Grant had offered the Chief Justiceship to among other United States Senator Roscoe Conkling and Democrat Caleb Cushing before he settled on Waite who learned of his nomination by a telegram.

The nomination was not well-received. Former Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles remarked of the nomination that "It is a wonder that Grant did not pick up some old acquaintance, who was a stage driver or bartender, for the place," and the political journal The Nation said "Mr Waite stands in the front-rank of second-rank lawyers."

The Waite Court, 1874–1888

See also: List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Waite Court

In the cases that grew out of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, and especially in those that involved the interpretation of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, he sympathized with the general tendency of the court to restrict the further extension of the powers of the Federal government. In a particularly notable ruling in United States v. Cruikshank, the court struck down the Enforcement Act, ruling that "The very highest duty of the States, when they entered into the Union under the Constitution, was to protect all persons within their boundaries in the enjoyment of these 'unalienable rights with which they were endowed by their Creator.' Sovereignty, for this purpose, rests alone with the States. It is no more the duty or within the power of the United States to punish for a conspiracy to falsely imprison or murder within a State, than it would be to punish for false imprisonment or murder itself." He concluded that "We may suspect that race was the cause of the hostility but is it not so averred" . His belief was that white moderates should set the rules of racial relations in the South, which reflected the majority of the Court and the people of the United States, who were tired of the bitter racial strife involved with the affairs of Reconstruction. This belief backfired when arch-segregationists in the South regained power and legislated the infamous Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised African-Americans in the South. These laws lasted well into the 20th century.

In his opinion of Munn v. Illinois (1877), which was one of a group of six Granger cases involving Populist-inspired state legislation to fix maximum rates chargeable by grain elevators and railroads, he said that when a business or private property was "affected with a public interest" it was subject to governmental regulation. Thus, the Court was ruling against charges that Granger laws constituted encroachment of private property without due process of law and conflicted with the Fourteenth Amendment. The ardent New Dealers in the Franklin Roosevelt administration looked to Munn v. Illinois to guide them in matters like due process, commerce and contract clauses .

Waite concurred with the majority in the Head Money Cases (1884), the Ku-Klux Case (United States v. Harris, 1883), the Civil Rights Cases (1883), Pace v. Alabama (1883), and the Legal Tender Cases (including Juillard v. Greenman) (1883). Among his own most important opinions were those in the Enforcement Act Cases (1875), the Sinking Fund Cases (1878), the Railroad Commission Cases (1886) and the Telephone Cases (1887).

In 1876 when there was talk about a third term for President Grant some Republicans turned to Waite as they believed he was a better presidential nominee for the Republican Party than the scandal-tainted Grant. Waite turned down the idea arguing "my duty was not to make it a stepping stone to someone else but to preserve its purity and make my own name as honorable as that of any of my predecessors" . In the aftermath of the presidential election of 1876 he refused to sit on the Electoral Commission that decided the electoral votes of Florida because of his close friendship of GOP presidential nominee Rutherford B. Hayes and his classmateship with the Democratic presidential nominee Samuel J. Tilden with whom Waite studied at Yale College.

As Chief Justice he swore in Presidents Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland.

Justice Waite's statement during a Fourteenth Amendment case may be the original basis for the recognition of corporations having the legal rights of a person: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does."

Champion of education opportunities for blacks

He was one of the Peabody Trustees of Southern Education and was a vocal advocate to aiding schools for the education of blacks in the south.

Frankfurter's view of Waite

Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter said of him:

"He did not confine the constitution within the limits of his own experience.... The disciplined and disinterested lawyer in him transcended the bounds of the environment within which he moved and the views of the client whom he served at the bar".

Death and legacy

His remains are interred in Woodlawn Cemetery, Plot: Section 42, by the river in Toledo, Ohio.^[2] His unexpected death generated considerable public shock. This was not where he was originally supposed to be buried.^[3]

Quotations

“

For protection against abuses by legislatures the People must resort to the polls, not the courts.

”

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3. 
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1568021267. 
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L.. eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0791013774. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058356. 
• Magrath, C. Peter, ed (1963). Morrison R. Waite: The Triumph of Character. New York: Macmillan. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0815311761. 

Notes

1. ^ Supreme Court Justices Who Are Phi Beta Kappa Members, Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed Oct 4, 2009
2. ^ Morrison Waite memorial at Find a Grave.
3. ^ See also, Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook. Supreme Court Historical Society. Christensen, George A., Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited, Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17 - 41 (19 Feb 2008), University of Alabama.

See also

Corporate personality Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of United States Chief Justices by time in office

List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office United States Supreme Court cases during the Waite Court

External links

• History of the Court, The Waite Court 1874-1888, Supreme Court Historical Society.
• Morrison Waite biography Supreme Court Historical Society
• Morrison R. Waite Biography, official Supreme Court media, Oyez

Legal offices
Preceded by Salmon P. Chase	Chief Justice of the United States 1874-1888	Succeeded by Melville Fuller

v • d • e Chief Justices of the United States Jay • Rutledge • Ellsworth • Marshall • Taney • Chase • Waite • Fuller • White • Taft • Hughes • Stone • Vinson • Warren • Burger • Rehnquist • Roberts

Supreme Court of the United States

The Waite Court Chief Justice: Morrison Remick Waite (1874–1888) 1874–1877: N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt 1877–1880: N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan 1881: N. Clifford | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan | Wm. B. Woods | S. Matthews 1882–1887: S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | Wm. B. Woods | S. Matthews | H. Gray | S. Blatchford 1888: S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | S. Matthews | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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