Morrison Remick "Mott" Waite (November 29, 1816 – March 23, 1888) was an American attorney, jurist, and politician from
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
who served as the seventh
chief justice of the United States
The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution g ...
from 1874 until his death in 1888. During his tenure, the
Waite Court
The Waite Court was the Supreme Court of the United States from 1874 to 1888, when Morrison Waite served as the seventh Chief Justice of the United States. Waite succeeded Salmon P. Chase as Chief Justice after the latter's death. Waite served as ...
took a narrow interpretation of federal authority related to laws and amendments that were enacted during the
Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
to expand the rights of
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
and protect them from attacks by
white supremacy
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
.
Born in
Lyme, Connecticut
Lyme is a New England town, town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States, situated on the eastern side of the Connecticut River. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Conn ...
, Waite established a legal practice in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
, after graduating from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. As a member of the
Whig Party, Waite won election to the
Ohio House of Representatives
The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate.
The House of Representatives first met in ...
. An opponent of
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, he helped establish the
Ohio Republican Party
The Ohio Republican Party is the Ohio affiliate of the Republican Party. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1854.
It currently holds the bulk of the state's political power, controlling 10 of Ohio's 15 U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. S ...
. He served as a counsel in the
Alabama Claims
The ''Alabama'' Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by the government of the United States from the United Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks upon Union merchant ships by Confederate Navy commerce raiders built in British shipyard ...
and presided over the
1873 Ohio constitutional convention.
After the May 1873 death of Chief Justice
Salmon P. Chase, President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
underwent a prolonged search for Chase's successor. With the backing of
Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano (June 4, 1809 – October 23, 1896) was an American lawyer, rancher, banker, statesman, and a member of the prominent Delano family. Forced to live on his own at an early age, Delano struggled to become a self-made man. Delano ...
, Grant nominated Waite in January 1874. The nomination of the relatively obscure Waite was poorly received by some prominent politicians, but the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
unanimously confirmed Waite and he took office in March 1874. Despite some support for his nomination, he declined to run for president in the
1876 election, arguing that the Supreme Court should not serve as a mere stepping stone to higher office. He served on the court until his death of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
in 1888.
Waite did not emerge as an important intellectual force on the Supreme Court, but he was well regarded as an administrator and conciliator. He sought a balance between federal and state power and joined with most other Justices in narrowly interpreting the
Reconstruction Amendments
The , or the , are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. The amendments were a part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South which oc ...
. His majority opinion in ''
Munn v. Illinois
''Munn v. Illinois'', 94 U.S. 113 (1876), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the power of state governments to regulate private industries that affect "the common good."
Facts
The case was developed because in 1871, ...
'' upheld government regulation of grain elevators and railroads and influenced constitutional understandings of government regulation. He also helped establish the legal concept of
corporate personhood
Corporate personhood or juridical personality is the legal notion that a juridical person such as a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and respon ...
in the United States. However in the ''
Civil Rights Cases
The ''Civil Rights Cases'', 109 U.S. 3 (1883), were a group of five landmark cases in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by ...
'' he sided with a majority to strike down the
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875, sometimes called the Enforcement Act or the Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction era in response to civil rights violations against African Americans. The bill was passed by the ...
, which had prohibited discrimination in access to public services, that was not restored until the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
.
Early life and education
Morrison Remick Waite was born on November 29, 1816, at
Lyme, Connecticut
Lyme is a New England town, town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States, situated on the eastern side of the Connecticut River. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Conn ...
, the son of
Henry Matson Waite, an attorney, and his wife Maria Selden. His father later was appointed as a judge of the Superior Court and associate judge of the
Supreme Court of Connecticut, serving 1834–1854; and appointed as chief justice of the latter from 1854 to 1857. Morrison had a brother Richard, with whom he later practiced law. His ancestors hailed from England and were New Englanders.
Waite attended
Bacon Academy in
Colchester, Connecticut
Colchester is a New England town, town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 15,555 at the 20 ...
, where one of his classmates was
Lyman Trumbull. He graduated from
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
in 1837, the same class that included
Samuel J. Tilden, the 1876 Democratic presidential nominee. As a student at Yale, Waite became a member of the
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones (also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death) is an undergraduate senior Secret society#Colleges and universities, secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior-class ...
and
Brothers in Unity societies, and was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
society in 1837. Shortly after graduating, Waite became a law clerk for his father in 1837.
Soon afterward Waite moved to
Maumee, Ohio
Maumee ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Maumee River, it is a suburb about southwest of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. The population was 13,896 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Maumee was declared an Al ...
, where he
read law
Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...
in the office of Samuel L. Young. He was
admitted to the bar
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
in 1839, and went into practice with Young. The law firm became prominent in business and property law.
[ p. 17] Waite was elected mayor of Maumee, and served from 1846 to 1847.
Marriage and family
He married Amelia Champlin Warner on September 21, 1840 in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
. They had three sons together: Henry Seldon, Christopher Champlin, and Edward Tinker; and a daughter Mary Frances Waite.
Political and legal career
In 1850, Waite and his family moved to
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
, where he set up a branch office of his law firm with Young. Waite soon came to be recognized as a leader of the state bar. When Young retired in 1856, Waite built a prosperous new firm with his brother Richard Waite.
One of his partners in Toledo was
George P. Estey, a man from New Hampshire who served as a
Union Army general during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
.
An active member of the
Whig Party, Waite was elected to a term in the
Ohio House of Representatives
The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate.
The House of Representatives first met in ...
in 1849–1850. He made two unsuccessful bids for the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
, and was offered (but declined) a seat on the
Ohio Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...
. In the mid-1850s, because of his opposition to
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, Waite joined the fledgling
Republican Party and helped to organize it in his home state. By 1870, he was known as one of the best lawyers in Ohio.
[ p.18]
In 1871, Waite received an invitation to represent the United States (along with
William M. Evarts and
Caleb Cushing) as counsel before the
Alabama Tribunal at
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
. In his first national role, he gained acclaim when he won a $15 million award from the tribunal.
In 1872, he was unanimously selected to preside over the
1873 Ohio constitutional convention.
Chief Justice of the United States, 1874–1888
Nomination

President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
nominated Waite as Chief Justice on January 19, 1874, after a political circus related to the appointment. Chief Justice
Salmon P. Chase died in May 1873, and Grant waited six months before first offering the seat in November to the powerful
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling (October 30, 1829April 18, 1888) was an American lawyer and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who represented New York (state), New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Se ...
of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, who declined.
After ruling out a promotion of a sitting
Associate Justice
An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...
to Chief (despite much lobbying from the legal community for Justice
Samuel Freeman Miller
Samuel Freeman Miller (April 5, 1816 – October 13, 1890) was an American lawyer and physician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme ...
), Grant was determined to appoint an outsider as Chief Justice and offered the Chief Justiceship to senators
Oliver Morton of
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and
Timothy Howe of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, then to his
Secretary of State,
Hamilton Fish. He finally submitted his nomination of
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
George H. Williams to the Senate on December 1. A month later, however, Grant withdrew the nomination, at Williams' request, after charges of corruption made his confirmation all but certain to fail. One day after withdrawing Williams, Grant nominated
Democrat and former Attorney General
Caleb Cushing, but withdrew it after Republican Senators alleged Civil War-era connections between Cushing and the
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
President
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...
. Finally, after persistent lobbying from Ohioans, including
Interior Secretary Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano (June 4, 1809 – October 23, 1896) was an American lawyer, rancher, banker, statesman, and a member of the prominent Delano family. Forced to live on his own at an early age, Delano struggled to become a self-made man. Delano ...
, on January 19, 1874, Grant nominated the little-known Waite. He was notified of his nomination by a telegram.
The nomination was not well received in political circles. The former
Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On March 25, 2025, John Phelan was confirm ...
,
Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878) was an American government official who was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Althou ...
, remarked of Waite that, "It is a wonder that Grant did not pick up some old acquaintance, who was a
stage driver or
bartender
A bartender (also known as a barkeep or barman or barmaid or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the Bar (establishment), bar, usually in a licensed bar (establishment), establishment as ...
, for the place," and the political journal ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
,'' said "Mr Waite stands in the front-rank of second-rank lawyers." Nationwide sentiment, however, was relief that a non-divisive and competent choice had been made, and Waite was confirmed unanimously as Chief Justice on January 21, 1874, receiving his commission the same day.
Waite took the oaths of office on March 4, 1874.
Tenure
As Chief Justice, Waite never became a significant intellectual force on the Supreme Court. But his managerial and social skill, "especially his good humor and sensitivity to others, helped him to maintain a remarkably harmonious and productive court."
During Waite's tenure, the Court decided some 3,470 cases. In part, the large number of cases decided and the variety of issues confronted reflected the lack of discretion the Court had at the time in hearing appeals from lower federal and state courts. However, Waite demonstrated an ability to get his brethren to reach decisions and write opinions without delay. His own work habits and output were formidable: he drafted one-third of these opinions.
In matters of regulation over economic activity, he supported broad national authority, stating his opinion that federal commerce powers must "keep pace with the progress of the country." In the same vein, a primary theme in his opinions was the balance of federal and state authority.
These opinions influenced Supreme Court jurisprudence well into the 20th century.
In the cases that grew out of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
, and especially in those that involved the interpretation of the
Reconstruction Amendments
The , or the , are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. The amendments were a part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South which oc ...
, i.e. the
Thirteenth
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is most commonly major or minor .
A thirteenth chord is th ...
,
Fourteenth and
Fifteenth amendments, Waite sympathized with the court's general tendency to interpret these amendments narrowly. In ''
United States v. Cruikshank
''United States v. Cruikshank'', 92 U.S. 542 (1876), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. Bill of Rights did not limit the power of private actors or state governments despite the adoption of the Fo ...
'', the court struck down the
Enforcement Act, ruling that the states had to be relied on to protect citizens from attack by other private citizens.
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."
Thus, the court overturned the convictions of three men accused of massacring at least 105 blacks in the
Colfax massacre at the
Grant Parish, Louisiana, courthouse on Easter 1873. Their convictions under the
Enforcement Act were thrown out not because the statutes were unconstitutional, but because the indictments under which the men were charged were infirm because they failed to allege specifically that the murders were committed on account of the victims' race.
Waite believed that white moderates should set the rules of racial relations in the South. But, in reality, those states were not prepared to protect African Americans. They did not prosecute most
lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...
s or
paramilitary
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
attacks against blacks. The majority of the Court and the people outside the South were tired of the bitter racial strife related to Reconstruction. In the 1870s, white Democrats regained power in southern legislatures; they passed
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...
suppressing blacks as second-class citizens. After years of elections surrounded by fraud and violence to suppress black voting, from 1890 to 1908 (after Waite's death) all the Democrat-dominated southern state legislatures passed new constitutions or amendments that
disfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites in the South. Well into the 1960s, these laws excluded those groups from the political system.
Waite's social and political orientation was also apparent in the Court's response to claims by other groups. In ''
Minor v. Happersett
''Minor v. Happersett'', 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that citizenship does not confer a right to vote, and therefore state laws barring women from voting are constitutionally vali ...
'' (1875), using the restricted definition of national citizenship and the 14th Amendment as set forth in the
Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), Waite upheld the states' right to deny women the
franchise. Nonetheless, Waite sympathized with the women's rights movement and supported the admission of women to the Supreme Court bar.
In his opinion in ''
Munn v. Illinois
''Munn v. Illinois'', 94 U.S. 113 (1876), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the power of state governments to regulate private industries that affect "the common good."
Facts
The case was developed because in 1871, ...
'' (1877), one of six
Granger cases involving Populist-inspired state legislation to fix maximum rates chargeable by grain elevators and railroads, Waite wrote that when a business or private property was "affected with a public interest", it was subject to governmental regulation. Thus, the Court ruled against charges that Granger laws encroached upon private property rights without due process of law and conflicted with the Fourteenth Amendment. Later, this opinion was often regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation.
In particular,
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
ers in the Franklin Roosevelt administration looked to ''Munn v. Illinois'' for guidance in interpreting due process, as well as the 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
The ''Civil Rights Cases'', 109 U.S. 3 (1883), were a group of five landmark cases in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by ...
(1883), ''
Pace v. Alabama'' (1883), and the
Legal Tender Cases
The ''Legal Tender Cases'' were two 1871 United States Supreme Court cases that affirmed the constitutionality of paper money. The two cases were '' Knox v. Lee'' and '' Parker v. Davis''.
The U.S. federal government had issued paper money known ...
(including ''
Juilliard v. Greenman'') (1883). Among the most important opinions he personally wrote were the
Enforcement Act Cases (1875), the
Sinking Fund Cases (1878), the
Railroad Commission Cases (1886) and the
Telephone Cases (1887).
In 1876, amid speculation about a third term for President Grant, who had been tainted by scandals, some Republicans turned to Waite. They believed he was a better presidential nominee for the Republican Party. However, Waite refused, announcing "my duty
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, Waite refused to sit on the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
that decided the electoral votes of
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
because of his close friendship with GOP presidential nominee
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881.
Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch Abolitionism in the Un ...
as well as being a Yale College classmate of Democratic presidential nominee
Samuel J. Tilden.
As Chief Justice, Waite swore in Presidents
Rutherford Hayes,
James Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until Assassination of James A. Garfield, his death in September that year after being shot two months ea ...
,
Chester A. Arthur and
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
. After suffering a breakdown, probably due to overwork, Waite refused to retire. Almost to the moment of his death, he continued to draft opinions and lead the Court.
Role in corporate personhood controversy
In 1885, S. W. Sanderson, who was the Chief Legal Advisor for the Southern Pacific Railroad, decided to sue Santa Clara County in California because it was trying to regulate the railroad's activity. His claim, in part, was that because a railroad was a '
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
' under the Constitution, local governments couldn't '
discriminate' against it by having different laws and taxes in different places.
When ''
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company'', , came before the Court, Sanderson asserted that '
corporate persons' should be treated the same as 'natural (or human) persons.' and although the Court specifically did not rule on it, the Reporter of Decisions,
John Chandler Bancroft Davis, inserted the following
dictum
In legal writing, a (Latin 'something that has been said'; plural ) is a statement made by a court. It may or may not be binding as a precedent.
United States
In United States legal terminology, a ''dictum'' is a statement of opinion consid ...
in the headnotes:
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.
Before publication, Davis wrote a letter to Waite, dated May 26, 1886, to make sure his headnote was correct, to which Waite replied:
I think your mem. in the California Railroad Tax cases expresses with sufficient accuracy what was said before the argument began. I leave it with you to determine whether anything need be said about it in the report inasmuch as we avoided meeting the constitutional question in the decision. ">/sup>
Hence this ''dictum'' in the headnote and the Waite reply changed the course of history and how
corporations came to have the legal rights of a human person.
Thomas Hartmann, in his book ''Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and Theft of Human Rights'', has the following to say:
In these two sentences (according to the conventional wisdom), Waite weakened the kind of democratic republic the original authors of the Constitution had envisioned, and set the stage for the future worldwide damage of our environmental, governmental, and cultural commons. The plutocracy that had arisen with the East India Company in 1600, and been fought back by America's Founders, had gained a tool that was to allow them, in the coming decades, to once again gain control of most of North America, and then the world. Ironically, of the 307 Fourteenth Amendment cases brought before the Supreme Court in the years between his proclamation and 1910, only 19 dealt with African Americans: 288 were suits brought by corporations seeking the rights of natural persons.
Death
Waite died unexpectedly of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
on March 23, 1888. This created a stir in Washington, as there had been no hint that his illness was serious. His condition had been treated as confidential, in part to avoid alarming his wife who was in California. The ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' devoted its entire front page to his demise. Large crowds joined in the mourning. Except for Justices
Bradley and
Matthews, all the justices accompanied his body on the special train that went to
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
. Mrs. Waite traveled by train from California, arriving just in time for the funeral.
Published reports indicated the Chief Justice would be buried in a family plot he had purchased in Forest Hill Cemetery, but he was not interred there.
[ ]Supreme Court Historical Society
The Supreme Court Historical Society (SCHS) describes itself as "a Washington, D.C.–based private, nonpartisan, not for profit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to preserving and communicating the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, in ...
. Instead, he was buried in
Woodlawn Cemetery, in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
.
Waite, who had financial difficulties during his service as Chief Justice, left a very small estate that was insufficient to support his widow and daughters. Members of the organized Bar in Washington and New York raised money to create two funds for the benefit of Waite's family members.
On March 28, 1888 a House Funeral in the capitol building was held for the passing of Morrison Waite. In attendance at the funeral were President Grover Cleveland, First Lady
Frances Cleveland
Frances Clara Cleveland Preston (, christened Frank Clara; July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was the first lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 until 1897, as the wife of President Grover Cleveland. She was the ...
, the Cabinet, and fellow Supreme Court justices.
Legacy
Supreme Court Justice
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint.
Born in Vienna, Frankfurter im ...
said of Waite:
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.
Waite High School in Toledo, Ohio is named in his honor.
See also
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Corporate personality
Corporate personality is a concept in Christian theology that was articulated by H. Wheeler Robinson. As originally formulated, it dealt with areas of the Old Testament where the relationships between individuals and the groups that they were par ...
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Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
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List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices, any six of ...
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List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
A total of 116 people have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial body in the United States, since it was established in 1789. Supreme Court justices have life tenure, meaning that they serve until they die, resig ...
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List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Waite Court
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List of Skull and Bones members
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
*
Supreme Court Historical Society
The Supreme Court Historical Society (SCHS) describes itself as "a Washington, D.C.–based private, nonpartisan, not for profit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to preserving and communicating the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, in ...
:
Morrison R. Waite, 1874-1888
The Waite Court, 1874–1888.
Morrison R. Waite Biography, official Supreme Court media Oyez
Oyez (, , ; more rarely with the word stress at the beginning) is a traditional interjection said two or three times in succession to introduce the opening of a court of law. The interjection was also traditionally used by town criers to attract ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waite, Morrison
1816 births
1888 deaths
19th-century American Episcopalians
Chief justices of the United States
Deaths from pneumonia in Washington, D.C.
Mayors of places in Ohio
Ohio Constitutional Convention (1873)
Ohio lawyers
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Ohio Whigs
Politicians from Toledo, Ohio
United States federal judges appointed by Ulysses S. Grant
Waite Court
Yale University alumni
People from Maumee, Ohio
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Members of Skull and Bones
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Toledo, Ohio)
19th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly