Noah Haynes Swayne
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Noah Haynes Swayne
(b. Frederick County, Va., 7 Dec. 1804; d. New York City, 8 June 1884; interred Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.), associate justice, 1862–1881. Born in Virginia in 1804, Noah Swayne read law in the offices of two Virginia lawyers and was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen. By this time, however, his antislavery views induced him to move west into Ohio, a free state. He began a practice of law and was an active Jacksonian Democrat. Indeed in 1830, President Andrew Jackson appointed Swayne U.S. attorney, a post he occupied until 1841. He built up a successful law practice, including involvement as counsel in several Ohio fugitive slave cases.
His continued opposition to slavery led Swayne to join the Republican party and to support the presidential candidacy of John Fremont in 1856. When his friend Justice John McLean suddenly died in April 1861, Swayne quickly enlisted the support of his friends ranging from the entire Ohio congressional delegation including Senators John Sherman and Benjamin Wade, to New York attorney Samuel Tilden. He even traveled to Washington and helped to orchestrate a campaign aimed at educating President Abraham Lincoln about his suitability for the post. Lincoln was convinced; he nominated Swayne on 22 January 1862. Senate confirmation followed two days later with only one dissent.
Unfortunately, Swayne's potential greatness as a jurist did not materialize. He was in fact both the first and the weakest of Lincoln's five appointments to the Court. His only major claim to any sort of distinction was his staunch judicial support of Lincoln's war measures. These included the Union blockade, issuance of paper money (greenbacks), and the legitimacy of martial law. On the other hand, in Gelpcke v. Dubuque (1864) he supported with equal vigor the contractual rights of railroad bond holders, even in the face of repudiation sanctioned both by the Iowa state legislature and state supreme court. Obligations sacred to law are not to be destroyed simply because “a state tribunal has erected the altar and decreed the sacrifice.”
As a justice, Swayne had no inclination to withdraw from politics. He eagerly schemed to replace Roger Taney as chief justice in 1864. And when Lincoln's ultimate choice, Salmon Chase, died in 1873, Swayne willingly joined the resulting scramble for the post again—even though he was almost sixty‐nine years old. Passed over for the appointment, Swayne lingered on the bench until 1881. Only after pressure from his fellow Ohioan President Rutherford B. Hayes and the presidential promise that a close friend, Stanley Matthews, would be appointed in his place did he finally resign, ending a judicial career that had promised much, but produced little.
— Jonathan Lurie
Oxford Guide to the US Government:
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Noah H. Swayne, Associate Justice, 1862–81
• Born: Dec. 7, 1804, Frederick County, Va.
• Education: studied law privately
• Previous government service: Coshocton County, Va., prosecuting attorney, 1826–29; Ohio House of Representatives, 1830, 1836; U.S. attorney for Ohio, 1830–41; Columbus City councilman, Ohio, 1834
• Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln Jan. 22, 1862; replaced John Mc-Lean, who died
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Jan. 24, 1862, by a 38–1 vote; retired Jan. 24, 1881
• Died: June 8, 1884, New York, N.Y.
Noah H. Swayne was a zealous foe of slavery, which led him to join the Republican party and support Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. He became President Lincoln's first Supreme Court appointment.
Justice Swayne readily supported Lincoln's Civil War policies. For example, he backed the President's blockade of southern ports in the Prize Cases (1863), and he sustained the use of military trials for civilian defendants in Ex parte Vallandigham (1864). After the war, Justice Swayne continued to back Republican party programs.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law:
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Swayne, Noah Haynes
Noah Haynes Swayne served as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1862 to 1881. A prominent Ohio attorney for almost forty years before becoming a judge, Swayne was President Abraham Lincoln's first Supreme Court appointment. His tenure on the Court was relatively undistinguished.
Swayne was born on December 7, 1804, in Frederick County, Virginia. He studied law with two Virginia attorneys and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1823. His antislavery views proved troublesome, however, and he moved his law practice to Coshocton, Ohio. Appointed county attorney in 1826, Swayne soon became involved in Democratic party politics. An ardent supporter of President Andrew Jackson, Swayne was elected to the Ohio state legislature in 1829. In 1830 Jackson named him U.S. district attorney, a position he held for almost ten years. He moved to Columbus, Ohio, to administer his office.
By 1840 Swayne had returned to private practice, but he served on many public commissions in Ohio, including a commission to arbitrate a boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan. He left the Democratic party in 1856 because he disagreed with the party's support of slavery and joined the newly formed Republican party. As a lawyer, he represented several runaway slaves in legal proceedings in which slaveholders sought to reclaim their property.
In 1862 Justice John McLean, an Ohio native and friend of Swayne, died suddenly. Swayne used his Ohio political connections to lobby for an appointment to the Supreme Court. President Lincoln nominated Swayne in January 1862. He was confirmed two days later.
Though Swayne spent almost twenty years on the Supreme Court, he left no mark on the institution. An inveterate politician, he lobbied for the position of chief justice in 1864 and 1873. During the Civil War, he was a consistent supporter of Lincoln's emergency war measures, including the imposition of martial law and the issuance of paper money called "greenbacks," which were not redeemable for gold or silver. In addition, he upheld the constitutionality of a federal income tax imposed during the Civil War (Springer v. United States, 102 U.S. (12 Otto) 586, 26 L. Ed. 253 [1881]).
Swayne retired from the Court in 1881. He died on June 8, 1884, in New York City.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Noah Haynes Swayne
| Noah Haynes Swayne | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court | |
| In office January 24, 1862[1] – January 24, 1881 |
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| Nominated by | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | John McLean |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Stanley Matthews |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 7, 1804 Frederick County, Virginia |
| Died | June 8, 1884 (aged 79) New York City, New York |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Ann Swayne |
| Religion | Quaker |
Noah Haynes Swayne (December 7, 1804 – June 8, 1884) was an American jurist and politician. He was the first Republican appointed as a justice to the United States Supreme Court.
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Birth and early life
Swayne was born in Frederick County, Virginia in the uppermost reaches of the Shenandoah Valley, approximately 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Washington D.C. He was the youngest of nine children of Joshua Swayne and Rebecca (Smith) Swayne.[2] He was a descendant of Francis Swayne, who emigrated from England in 1710 and settled near Philadelphia.[3] After his father died in 1809, Noah was educated locally until enrolling in Jacob Mendendhall's Academy in Waterford, Virginia, a respected Quaker school 1817-18. He began to study medicine in Alexandria, Virginia, but abandoned this pursuit after his teacher Dr. George Thornton died in 1819. Despite his family having no money to support his continued education, he read law under John Scott and Francis Brooks in Warrenton, Virginia, and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1823.[4] A devout Quaker (and to date the only Quaker to serve on the Supreme Court), Swayne was deeply opposed to slavery, and in 1824 he left Virginia for the free state of Ohio. His abolitionist sentiments caused him to move to Ohio.[5]
He began a private practice in Coshocton and, in 1825, was elected Coshocton County Attorney. Four years later he was elected to the Ohio state legislature. In 1830 he was appointed U.S. Attorney for Ohio by Andrew Jackson, and moved to Columbus to take up the new position.
While serving as U.S. Attorney, Swayne was elected in 1834 to the Columbus city council, and in 1836 to the state legislature. As U.S. Attorney, Swayne became close friends with Supreme Court justice John McLean. McLean, by the end of his career, was a strong Republican, and when the party was formed in 1855 Swayne had become an early member and political organizer.
In 1835, as escalating tensions in the boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan Territory (the Toledo War) threatened to erupt into violent conflict, Ohio Governor Robert Lucas dispatched Swayne, along with former Congressman William Allen and David T. Disney, to Washington D.C. to confer with President Andrew Jackson. The delegation presented Ohio's case and urged the President to act swiftly to address the situation.[6] [7] [8]
Supreme Court service
McLean was one of two dissenters in the Dred Scott case. He sought the Republican nomination for President in 1860, losing to Abraham Lincoln. However, he recommended to Lincoln on a number of occasions that Swayne be nominated to replace him on the court. This proved timely; McLean died shortly after Lincoln's inauguration, in April 1861. As the American Civil War began, Swayne campaigned for the vacant seat, lobbying several Ohio members of Congress for their support. As the Supreme Court media itself notes: "Swayne satisfied Lincoln's criteria for appointment: commitment to the Union, slavery opponent, geographically correct."[9]
It is also believed that Swayne had also represented fugitive slaves in court. So eight months after McLean's death, Swayne was nominated in January 1862.[10]
In the Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873) -- a pivotal decision on the meaning of Section 1 of the relatively new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution -- Swayne dissented with Justices Stephen J. Field and Joseph Bradley. Field's dissent was important, and presaged later decisions broadening the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, four years later Swayne joined the majority in Munn v. Illinois, with Field and Bradley still dissenting.[10]
Swayne's potential judicial greatness failed to materialize. He was first of President Lincoln's five appointments to the Supreme Court: Noah Hayes Swayne – 1862; Samuel Freeman Miller – 1862; David Davis – 1862; Stephen Johnson Field – 1863; and Salmon P. Chase – Chief Justice – 1864. He is also said to have been "the weakest".[11] [12] His main distinction was his staunch judicial support of the president's war measures: the Union blockade (Prize Cases, 67 U.S. 635 (1862)); issuance of paper money (i.e., greenbacks); and support for the presidential prerogative to declare martial law (Ex Parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866)).[13]
He is most famous for his majority opinion in Springer v. United States, 102 U.S. 586 (1881), which upheld the Federal income tax imposed under the Revenue Act of 1864.[14]
In Gelpcke v. Dubuque 68 U.S. 175 (1864) Swayne wrote the majority opinion, repudiating a claim that the Iowa constitution could impair legal obligations to bondholders. When contracts are made on the basis of trust in past judicial decisions those contracts could not be impaired by any subsequent construction of the law. "We shall never immolate truth, justice, and the law, because a state tribunal has erected the altar and decreed the sacrifice." He strongly supported "the contractual rights of railroad bond holders, "even in the face of repudiation sanctioned both by the Iowa state legislature and state supreme court. Obligations sacred to law are not to be destroyed simply because 'a state tribunal has erected the altar and decreed the sacrifice.'”[13] [15] For a later decision on impairment of contracts, compare Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).
Swayne remained on the court until 1881, twice lobbying unsuccessfully to be elevated to the position of Chief Justice (after the death of Roger Taney in 1864 and Salmon Chase in 1873).[10]
After his retirement, Swayne returned to Ohio.
Retirement, death and legacy
Swayne is not regarded as a particularly distinguished justice. He wrote few opinions, usually signing on to opinions written by others, and remained on the court well past his physical prime, being quite infirm at his retirement. Under pressure from President Rutherford B. Hayes, he finally agreed to retire on the condition that his friend and fellow Ohio attorney Stanley Matthews replace him.[13]
His son, Wager Swayne, served in the American Civil War, rose to the rank of Major General, served as the military governor of Alabama after the Civil War, and subsequently founded law firms in Toledo, Ohio and New York City. Wager's son, named Noah Hayes Swayne after his grandfather, was president of Burns Brothers, the largest coal distributor in the U.S. when he retired in September 1932. Another of Wager's sons, Alfred Harris Swayne, was vice president of General Motors Corporation.[16]
Another of Justice Swayne's sons, Noah Swayne, was a lawyer in Toledo and donated the land for Swayne Field, the former field for the Toledo Mud Hens baseball team.[17]
Justice Swayne's remains were buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[18] The Georgetown graveyard overlooks Rock Creek, and is shared with: Chief Justice Edward Douglass White; and "almost-Justice" Edwin M. Stanton (President Ulysses S. Grant's nomination of him was confirmed by the Senate, but Stanton died before he could be sworn in). Also, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase was buried there, but his body was transferred after 14 years to Cincinnati, Ohio's Spring Grove Cemetery.[18][19]
The bulk of his legal papers are located at the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. Other papers are at: Detroit Public Library, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit, Michigan; Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois; Library of Congress, Manuscript and Prints & Photographs Divisions, Washington, D.C.; State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, Louisville, Kentucky; and University of Toledo, Canaday Center, Manuscripts: Politics & Government, Toledo, Ohio.[20]
See also
References
- Some data drawn in part from the Noah Haynes Swayne at Supreme Court Historical Society and Oyez Official Supreme Court media, Noah Haynes Swayne.
- ^ "Federal Judicial Center: Noah Haynes Swayne". 2009-12-11. http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2322. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
- ^ Stephenson, Donald Grier, Jr. (2003). The Waite Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO. pp. 63–69. ISBN 1-57607-829-9. http://books.google.com/?id=f-59Mj6m0dMC&printsec=frontcover.
- ^ Johnson, Rossiter; John Howard Brown (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. 10. Boston: The Biographical Society. pp. s.v. Swain. OCLC 16845677. http://books.google.com/?id=Ou4UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage.
- ^ Stephenson, p. 65
- ^ "Noah H. Swayne", Ohio Central History: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History
- ^ "American Law Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, Noah Hayes Swayne.". http://law.jrank.org/pages/10653/Swayne-Noah-Haynes.html.
- ^ Way, Willard V. (2005) [1869]. "The Toledo War". The facts and historical events of the Toledo war of 1835. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Library. p. 33. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;rgn=full%20text;idno=AFK4249.0001.001;didno=AFK4249.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000033. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ Galloway, Tod B. (1895). "The Ohio-Michigan Boundary Line Dispute". Ohio History (Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society) 4: 221. http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohstemplate.cfm?action=detail&Page=0004221.html&StartPage=199&EndPage=230&volume=4&newtitle=Volume%204%20Page%20199. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
- ^ Oyez: Noah Haynes Swayne Biography, U.S. Supreme Court Media
- ^ a b c "Ariens, Michael, Noah Swayne.". http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/swayne.htm.
- ^ Huebner, Timothy S. (2003). The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO Supreme Court Handbooks. ABC-CLIO. pp. 103–6. ISBN 1-57607-368-8. http://books.google.com/?id=Ng5Zwo7VgFkC&printsec=frontcover#PPA103,M1.
- ^ Silver, David Mayer (1998) [1956]. Lincoln's Supreme Court. University of Illinois Press. pp. 103–6. ISBN 0-252-06719-3. http://books.google.com/?id=dKUMpJOO_hoC. Details Swayne's appointment to the Supreme Court and his quests for the chief judgeship using the correspondence between Samuel J. Tilden and Lincoln.
- ^ a b c "Lurie, Jonathon, Noah Swayne at Answers.com.". http://www.answers.com/topic/noah-haynes-swayne.
- ^ Biography of Noah Hayes Swayne, Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals.
- ^ Oyez: Gelpcke v. Dubuque, U.S. Supreme Court Media
- ^ "Personnel", TIME, September 26, 1932, accessed March 1, 2009
- ^ "Swayne Field", Toledo's Attic, accessed March 1, 2009
- ^ a b Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook Supreme Court Historical Society at Internet Archive.
- ^ See also, 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.
- ^ Location of papers, Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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.
- Barnes, William Horatio. (1875) "Noah H. Swayne, Associate Justice. -- In The Supreme Court of the United States", by W. Barnes. Part II of Barnes's Illustrated Cyclopedia of the American Government.
- Bibliography, biography and location of papers, Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
- Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1-56802-126-7.
- 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 0-7910-1377-4.
- Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505835-6.
- Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
- Simon, James F. (2006). Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 336. ISBN 0-7432-9846-2.
- Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John McLean |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States January 24, 1862 – January 24, 1881 |
Succeeded by Thomas Stanley Matthews |
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Oxford Companion to the US Supreme Court
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Copyright © 1992, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Guide to the US Government
The Oxford Guide to the United States Government. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2002 by John J. Patrick, Richard M. Pious, Donald M. Ritchie. All rights reserved.
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West's Encyclopedia of American Law
West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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