Existing comment:
Changing Faces:
The Civil War period was one of transition among the Court's membership. President Lincoln made five appointments to the Court, contributing a legacy in the law that long outlived him.
The Replacements:
At the start of the war, there were three vacancies on the Court. President Lincoln waited while Congress worked on legislation to reorganize the judicial circuits, but the undermanned Court needed help and in January 1862 he nominated Noah H. Swayne. The Judicial Reorganization Act passed in July, and he appointed Samuel F. Miller and David Dais returning the Cort to nine Justices during the December 1862 Term.
Noah H. Swayne -- appointed from Ohio in 1862.
Samuel F. Miller -- appointed from Iowa in 1862.
David Davis -- appointed from Illinois in 1862.
A Tenth Justice!
In 1863, Congress passed an Act that created a tenth seat on the Court to represent the west coast states of California and Oregon. President Lincoln appointed Stephen J. Field to this position, and for the first time there ten Justices. Following the war, Congress decreased the number of Justices to nine, where it has remained since 1869.
Stephen J. Field -- appointed from California.
Chief Justice Chase:
In October 1864, Chief Justice Robert B. Taney died at the age of 87. Lincoln nominated his former Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who was confirmed by the Senate the same day. Chase, a leading abolitionist, was a symbolic choice to assume the seat of the author of the Dred Scott opinion. One of Chase's first acts was to allow the admission of the first African-American member of the Court's Bar, John S. Rock of Massachusetts.
Salmon P. Chase -- appointed from Ohio.
Lincoln's Lasting Legacy:
The Lincoln appointees provided support for the Administration's policies during the war, but they also affected the decisions of the Court for many more decades. Justices Samuel F. Miller and Stephen J. Field, the two most influential members of the post-Civil War Court, served into the 1890s. These Justices played important roles as they interpreted the new amendments to the Constitution that resulted from the war; the 13th Amendment (1865) which abolished slavery; the 14th Amendment (1868) which provided citizenship for all people born or naturalized in the United States, in effect overturning the Dred Scott decision; and the 15th Amendment (1870) which extended the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. |