James McLean Hanna (October 25, 1816 – January 15, 1872)Minde C. Browning, Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt,
Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices
, ''

Indiana Law Review The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (IU McKinney) is located on the campus of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana, the urban campus of Indiana University. In the summer of 2 ...

'', Vol. 30, No. 1 (1997), section reproduced i
Indiana Courts Justice Biographies page
was an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solici ...

, and judge from the state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

who served in the

Indiana State Senate The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year terms ...

and as a Justice on the

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana Statehouse. In Dece ...

Biography

Early life and education

Born in

Franklin County, Indiana Franklin County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Indiana. In the 2020 United States Census, the county population was 22,785. The county seat is the town of Brookville. Franklin County is part of the Cincinnati, OH–KY ...

to a prominent local family, Hanna worked on the family farm throughout his childhood. Despite having only a few months of formal education, Hanna was a voracious reader. Following an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

in Brookville, Hanna gained his license to practice law in 1841 and moved to

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

Judicial service, political career, and later life

A Democrat, Hanna first became involved in Indiana politics after he was appointed

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

James Whitcomb James Whitcomb (December 1, 1795 – October 4, 1852) was a Democratic United States senator and the eighth governor of Indiana. As governor during the Mexican–American War, he oversaw the formation and deployment of the state's levies. He le ...

's personal

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

. Hanna served as a

prosecuting attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

in the state's Seventh Circuit Court from 1844 to 1846. Hanna ran for a seat in the

Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...

but was defeated. He was later elected to serve in the

Indiana Senate The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year terms ...

from 1849 to 1852, representing

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay part ...

Sullivan Sullivan may refer to: People Characters * Chloe Sullivan, from the television series ''Smallville'' * Colin Sullivan, a character in the film ''The Departed'', played by Matt Damon * Harry Sullivan (''Doctor Who''), from the British science f ...

, and

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

counties. After leaving the state senate, Hanna moved to

Terre Haute Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

in 1854 to set up a private law practice. In 1856, he was elected as a judge of the Vigo County Circuit Court. He left the position in 1857, when he was appointed to the

on December 10, 1857, by

Ashbel P. Willard Ashbel Parsons Willard (October 31, 1820 – October 4, 1860) was state senator, the 12th lieutenant governor, and the 11th governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. His terms in office were marked by increasingly severe partisanship leading to the ...

to succeed the retiring Justice Samuel Gookins. In 1858, Hanna was elected to serve a full term on the bench, defeating William D. Griswold (also from Terre Haute) in the election. Hanna's most notable

opinion An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with ...

came in the case of ''State ex rel. Board of Commissioners of Sinking Fund v. Ristine'', one of two cases concerning whether

Indiana State Auditor The Indiana State Auditor is a constitutional and elected office in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. State of Indiana. The Auditor of Indiana is elected to a four-year term and is subject to term limits where the officeholder is b ...

Joseph Ristine had the right to refuse orders from Governor

Oliver P. Morton Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (August 4, 1823 – November 1, 1877), commonly known as Oliver P. Morton, was a U.S. Republican Party politician from Indiana. He served as the 14th governor (the first native-born) of Indiana during the Ame ...

to make an

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is disti ...

payment on the

state debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt, or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit oc ...

in lieu of the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...

approving appropriations measures before adjourning. Following conflicting rulings in the Marion County Circuit Court, the Supreme Court sided with Ristine in both cases and affirmed his right to refuse Governor Morton's orders to make the payment. Hanna wrote the majority of opinion of the court in one case and Justice

Samuel E. Perkins Samuel Elliott Perkins (December 6, 1811 – December 17, 1879)Minde C. Browning, Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt,Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices, ''Indiana Law Review'', Vol. 30, No. 1 (1997), section reproduced ...

wrote the majority opinion in the other. In 1864, Hanna and other Democratic justices on the Supreme Court lost their races for re-election following an electoral sweep by Governor Morton and state

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...

. Hanna left the court in 1865, succeeded by Justice Robert Gregory. Following his time on the Supreme Court, Hanna served briefly as the political editor for the prominent Democratic

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...

, the ''

Indianapolis Sentinel ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianap ...

'' (today known as ''The Indianapolis Star''). During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

, Hanna was sympathetic to

the Confederacy The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

despite living in the North. Hanna returned to politics in 1868 when he was re-elected to the state senate, representing Sullivan and Clay counties. His return to the state senate was brief, however—he resigned in 1869 when senators began to debate over

ratification Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...

of the Fifteenth Amendment to the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nationa ...

, which gave

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

men the

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

Personal life and death

Hanna married Elizabeth Susan Burton while living in Bowling Green. They had three children together, one son and two daughters. Hanna spent much of his retirement on his large farm in Curryville, an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

near Terre Haute. Sullivan County's first underground

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

was opened on Hanna's land. Hanna died on his farm on January 15, 1872.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, James 1816 births 1872 deaths Democratic Party Indiana state senators American judges People from Franklin County, Indiana Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court