Posted By: Johnny Reb on: 02/01/2010 10:42:05 EDTSubject: RE: 54th Pa. Prisoners-Judge Jeremiah S. Black
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Posted By: Johnny Reb on: 02/01/2010 10:42:05 EDT Subject: RE: 54th Pa. Prisoners-Judge Jeremiah S. Black |
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US Supreme Court: Jeremiah Sullivan Black Sponsored LinksJeremiah Black Cheap Best Value on Jeremiah Black. Find NexTag Sellers' Lowest Price! www.NexTag.com Home > Library > Law & Legal Issues > US Supreme Court(b. Stony Creek, Pa., 10 Jan. 1810; d. York, Pa., 19 Aug. 1883), U.S. attorney general, unconfirmed nominee to the Supreme Court, and Supreme Court reporter. Black studied law with Chauncey Forward and was admitted to the bar on 3 December 1830. In 1842 he was appointed president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania. In 1851 Black was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and by lot was chosen chief justice. In 1854 he was reelected to the Supreme Court. His principal contribution on the bench lay in the construction of corporate charters. In 1857 President James Buchanan appointed Black U.S. attorney general. While in that office Black prosecuted frauds associated with California land titles, causing the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse many district court decisions. Black consistently enforced federal laws relating to the slave trade and the return of fugitive slaves. He also helped establish the administration position on secession and enforcement of federal laws. Late in Buchanan's term Black served briefly as secretary of state. On 5 February 1861 Buchanan nominated Black to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, but on 21 February the Senate rejected the nomination. Between late 1861 and 1864 Black served as Supreme Court reporter and prepared the well‐respected Black's Reports (two volumes). He then resumed private practice, arguing against the federal government's violations of civil rights in Ex parte Milligan (1866) and Ex parte McCardle (1869). He also served as Samuel Tilden's counsel before the commission that investigated the 1876 presidential election. See also Nominees, Rejection of; Reporters, Supreme Court. — Elizabeth B. Monroe English▼ English▼ Deutsch Español Français Italiano Tagalog Search unanswered questions...
Columbia Encyclopedia: Jeremiah Sullivan Black See P. G. Auchampaugh, James Buchanan and His Cabinet on the Eve of Secession (1926); biography by W. N. Brigance (1934, repr. 1971). Jeremiah Sullivan Black was a prominent lawyer, judge, and U.S. attorney general, and also an unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Black was born January 10, 1810, in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and was largely self-educated through his own reading and study of Shakespeare, the Bible, and other works of literature. He originally planned a career in medicine, but his father arranged for him to study law with Chauncey Forward, a prominent local attorney and politician. After three years with Forward, Black was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, in late 1830. Forward then left his practice to take a seat in the U.S. Congress and turned over his clients to Black, enabling Black to develop a lucrative law practice of his own. Black married Forward's daughter in 1836, and they had two children. Black soon became active in Democratic politics and was appointed deputy attorney general for his county. In 1842 he was appointed judge of the district court, and nine years later, he was elected to the state supreme court. He won reelection to the state high court in 1854, and served as chief justice for three years. While an appellate judge, Black was best known for his opinions defining and construing the meaning of corporate charters. A longtime supporter of President James Buchanan, Black was appointed U.S. attorney general by Buchanan in 1857. While attorney general, Black gained recognition for launching a vigorous prosecution of fraudulent land schemes in California. The investigation, headed by Edwin M. Stanton, Black's eventual successor, resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's reversing many district court cases involving land fraud. Black also enforced federal laws concerning the slave trade and the return of fugitive slaves. In addition, Black helped establish the Buchanan administration's position on secession, urging the president to maintain a strong Unionist stance. In a shuffle of cabinet offices in December 1860, Black served for a short time as secretary of state. During his brief tenure, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, and Black was a key adviser to Buchanan in handling the crisis. In January 1861, with only a few weeks left in his own term as president, Buchanan named Black to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court that had been vacant for eight months. Republican senators, anxious to give the incoming president, Abraham Lincoln, his first appointment to the Court, opposed Black. Furthermore, although Black was a strong supporter of the Union, he was not an abolitionist. As a result, his nomination was harshly criticized by the Northern antislavery press and by Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, who had just lost the election to Lincoln. Also, Southern senators who might have supported Black were resigning from the Senate to join the Confederacy. Had Buchanan acted earlier to fill the seat, Black could have been easily confirmed. Instead, he was rejected 26-25. Deeply disappointed at his narrow defeat, Black returned to his home in York, Pennsylvania. He then suffered a number of personal setbacks, including the loss of his life savings, which he had entrusted to a relative for investment, and a rapid decline in health. In late 1861, Black's health gradually started to improve and he resumed practicing law. In December of that year, he was appointed reporter of decisions for the U.S. Supreme Court, a position created by Congress in 1816. As reporter, Black was primarily responsible for editing, publishing, and distributing the Court's opinions. The reporter was paid a modest yearly salary and usually earned additional income selling copies of the bound volume in which an important case appeared or printing and selling a significant opinion separately in a pamphlet. In those days, the volumes produced by a particular reporter usually bore the reporter's name on the spine. Black served as reporter for three years and produced Black's Reports, two volumes of opinions that earned him high praise. In 1864, Black left the Court and returned to private practice in Pennsylvania. He handled several important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2, 18 L. Ed. 281 (1866). In Milligan, the Court held that the president lacked the power to authorize military tribunals to try civilians when they could be tried in civil courts. See also Milligan, ex parte. Black also remained involved in the continuing litigation over California land titles, and earned high fees for his services. Black was a close friend of President Andrew Johnson, who assumed the presidency after Lincoln was assassinated. Black was initially engaged to represent Johnson in his impeachment trial but withdrew after disagreements with Johnson's other lawyers arose. He also served as counsel to Samuel J. Tilden, an unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate, in an investigation of the disputed results of the 1876 presidential election. Black continued to practice law and remain active in civic affairs until 1883, when he died at the age of seventy-three.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25th United States Attorney General -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23rd United States Secretary of State -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6th United States Supreme Court Reporter of Decisions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He was largely self-educated, and before he was of age was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He gradually became one of the leading American lawyers, and from 1851 to 1857 was a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, serving as chief justice from 1851 to 1854. In 1857 he entered the Cabinet of President James Buchanan as Attorney General. In this capacity he successfully contested the validity of the California land claims to about 19,000 square miles (49,000 km²) of land, fraudulently alleged to have been granted to land-grabbers and others by the Mexican government prior to the close of the Mexican–American War. From December 17, 1860 to March 4, 1861 he was Secretary of State. Perhaps the most influential of President Buchanan's official advisers, he denied the constitutionality of secession, and urged that Fort Sumter be properly reinforced and defended. However, he also argued that a state could not be legally coerced by the federal government.
President Buchanan and his Cabinet After the American Civil War he vigorously opposed the Congressional plan of Reconstruction and drafted President Andrew Johnson's message vetoing the Reconstruction Act of the March 2, 1867. Black was also, for a short time, counsel for President Johnson in his trial on his Article of Impeachment before the United States Senate, and for William W. Belknap, United States Secretary of War from 1869 to 1876, who in 1876 was impeached on a charge of corruption; he also represented Samuel J. Tilden during the contest for the presidency between Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. He died at Brockie, York, Pennsylvania, in 1883 at the age of 73. Further reading |
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