Samuel Nelson

(b. Hebron, N.Y., 10 Nov. 1792; d. Cooperstown, N.Y., 13 Dec. 1873; interred Lakewood Cemetery, Cooperstown), associate justice, 1845–1872. Nelson was raised on the farm of his immigrant Scotch‐Irish parents and educated at a common school, private academies, and Middlebury College in Vermont. After the required legal apprenticeship in upstate New York, he was admitted to the bar (1817) and developed a successful practice that emphasized litigation and real estate and commercial law. Nelson was married twice, first to Pamela Woods in 1819 and then, after Pamela's death, to Catharine Ann Russell in 1825.

He was elected the youngest delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention (1821) and actively supported efforts to liberalize the state government, particularly by extending the franchise and restructuring the judiciary. He was appointed a New York circuit court judge in 1823, associate justice of the New York Supreme Court in 1831, and chief justice of the state supreme court in 1836. In 1845, President John Tyler, after failing several times to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, nominated Nelson, a Jacksonian Democrat, who was quickly confirmed by the Senate.

Nelson was an expert in admiralty and patent law. His significant admiralty opinions included New Jersey Steam Navigation Co. v. Merchants' Bank (1848) and Hough v. Western Transportation Co. (1866), dealing with admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts. In patent law, his opinion in Hotchkiss v. Greenwood (1850) was a leading application of the doctrine of nonobviousness of subject matter, still one of the three conditions for patentability.

Nelson's decisions characteristically reached practical, common‐sense results while adhering to established law. In Knox County v. Aspinwall (1859) he held county bonds enforceable though issued without full compliance with statutory requirements. The decision removed a potential obstacle to public acceptance and marketability of municipal bonds.

Nelson gave deference to the legislative branch. In Pennsylvania v. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Co. (1856), he upheld a congressional act that legalized a bridge the Court itself had declared illegal under prior law. He emphasized states' rights against delegated powers of the federal government. In Williamson v. Berry (1850), his dissent argued that state law should govern matters relating to real property, thus anticipating by many years the Court's decision in *Erie Railroad v. Tompkins (1938).

Slavery and the Civil War heightened the significance of his work. His concurring opinion in Scott v. Sandford (1857) would have affirmed the judgment of the lower court, deferring to state law on Dred Scott's citizenship and thus avoiding the inflammatory issue of the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, which mired the Court in the slavery debate. In the Prize Cases (1863), his minority opinion contended that an armed conflict did not become a war until it was declared by the Congress, not the president. Nelson's philosophy of judicial self‐restraint also informed his opinion for the Court in Georgia v. Stanton (1868), which dismissed efforts of two Southern states to attack Reconstruction. Nelson held that the case presented a political question and hence was not justiciable.

In 1871 President Ulysses S. Grant named Nelson as one of the U.S. representatives to the Alabama Claims Commission, which satisfactorily resolved serious differences with Great Britain arising out of its actions supporting the South's prosecution of the Civil War. Thereafter, because of age and declining health, he resigned his seat on the Court.

— Howard T. Sprow

• Born: Nov. 10, 1792, Hebron, N.Y.
• Education: Middlebury College, B.A, 1813
• Previous government service: postmaster, Cortland, N.Y., 1820–23; New York State Constitutional Convention, 1821; Presidential elector, 1820; judge, Sixth Circuit Court of New York, 1823–31; associate justice, New York Supreme Court, 1831–37; chief justice, New York Supreme Court, 1837–45
• Appointed by President John Tyler Feb. 4, 1845; replaced Smith Thompson, who died
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Feb. 14, 1845, by a voice vote; retired Nov. 28, 1872
• Died: Dec. 13, 1873, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Samuel Nelson was the son of Scotch-Irish parents who came to North America in the 1760s. After admission to the New York bar in 1817, he began a career in law and politics. In 1823 he was appointed to the position of judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of New York. For nearly the rest of his life, Nelson occupied judicial positions in the state of New York and on the U.S. Supreme Court.

During his 27 years on the Supreme Court, Nelson performed satisfactorily but without distinction. His decisions tended to favor states' rights and judicial self-restraint. In his opinion for the Court in Georgia v. Stanton (1868), Justice Nelson showed his strong belief in judicial restraint to the point of deciding against states' rights. He decided against the attempts of two Southern states to obstruct Reconstruction policies of the federal government. He held that the case presented by the Southern states should be dismissed because it involved “political questions” that the Supreme Court could not decide.

Samuel Nelson served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1845 to 1872. He brought to his position experience as a politician, lawyer, and judge, which included service as chief justice of the New York Supreme Court. His nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by a desperate President John Tyler came only after several prior nominees had declined or had been rejected by the U.S. Senate.

Nelson was born in Hebron, New York, on November 10, 1792. He entered Middlebury College, in Vermont, at the age of fifteen and graduated in 1813. Nelson chose a career in law, and in his twenties, he managed a successful private practice in real estate and commercial law that brought him political recognition. In 1821 he was the youngest delegate to serve in the New York state constitutional convention. His judicial career began in 1823 with his appointment as a judge to the Sixth Circuit. In 1831 he began a fourteen-year tenure on the New York Supreme Court, during the last four years of which he served as its chief justice, from 1836 to 1845. (Since 1847, New York's highest court has been called the New York Court of Appeals.) There Nelson developed a reputation for common sense and belief in the limits of judicial power.

In 1845 President Tyler turned to Nelson in desperation. The president's attempts to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court had produced more than half a dozen nominees, all of whom refused the nomination or failed to win Senate approval. Nelson, a last-minute substitution, sailed through the nomination process.

Nelson believed that the Court should move cautiously in matters where Congress expressed its will. He wrote the original majority opinion in the Dred Scott decision that upheld the institution of slavery (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. [19 How.] 393, 15 L. Ed. 691 [1857]). Nelson's opinion sought to avoid answering the highly controversial question of slavery. But under political pressure from Southern justices on the Court, his opinion was scrapped and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's inflammatory opinion was substituted. Taney's decision led to violent protest and deepened hostilities that ultimately led to the Civil War. Nelson died December 12, 1873.

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For the Northern Irish footballer, see Sammy Nelson.

Samuel Nelson
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office February 27, 1845 – November 28, 1872
Nominated by	John Tyler
Preceded by	Smith Thompson
Succeeded by	Ward Hunt
Born	November 10, 1792(1792-11-10) Hebron, New York
Died	December 13, 1873 (aged 81) Cooperstown, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Pamela Woods Catharine Russell
Religion	Protestant

Samuel Nelson (November 10, 1792–December 13, 1873) was an American attorney and an Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Nelson was born in Hebron, New York, in 1792. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont and was licensed to practice law in 1817. Nelson married Pamela Woods in 1819. In 1825, after Pamela's death, he married Catharine Ann Russell. He had two children from his first marriage and six from his second. His fourth child with Catharine, Rensselaer Nelson, was the first United States District Court Judge for the District of Minnesota.

Nelson served as a state circuit judge from 1823 until 1831, when he became associate justice of the Supreme Court of New York. In 1837, he was elevated to Chief Justice.

In 1845, he was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President John Tyler, succeeding Justice Smith Thompson. Nelson's confirmation in the last month of Tyler's presidency was a surprise. The unpopular Tyler had failed repeatedly to fill the vacancy left by Thompson, as the Whig-controlled Senate rejected his nominations of John Spencer, Ruben Walworth, Edward King (twice), and John Read. The Whigs found Nelson acceptable because, although he was a Democrat, he had a reputation as a careful and uncontroversial jurist.

Nelson served as a Justice for 27 years, until his retirement in 1872. His tenure was generally viewed as unremarkable.

In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Nelson to serve on the joint high commission to arbitrate the Alabama claims. During this time he took a leave of absence from the bench. Soon thereafter, Nelson became ill. He resigned from the commission in 1872, shortly before his death.

Samuel Nelson died in Cooperstown, New York, in 1873.

Legal offices
Preceded by Smith Thompson	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States February 27, 1845 – November 28, 1872	Succeeded by Ward Hunt

Supreme Court of the United States

The Taney Court Chief Justice: Roger Brooke Taney (1836–1864) 1845–1846: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | J. McKinley | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | L. Woodbury 1846–1851: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | J. McKinley | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | L. Woodbury | R.C. Grier 1851–1852: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | J. McKinley | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | B.R. Curtis 1853–1857: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | B.R. Curtis | J.A. Campbell 1858–1860: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | J.A. Campbell | N. Clifford 1860–1861: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | J.A. Campbell | N. Clifford 1862–1863: J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis 1863–1864: J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field The Chase Court Chief Justice: Salmon Portland Chase (1864–1873) 1864–1865: J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1865–1867: J.M. Wayne | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1867–1870: S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1870–1872: S. Nelson | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley

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