Stanley Matthews | |
|---|---|
 Stanley Matthews, byMathew Brady,c. 1870-80 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office May 17, 1881[1] – March 22, 1889[1] | |
| Nominated by | James Garfield |
| Preceded by | Noah Haynes Swayne |
| Succeeded by | David J. Brewer |
| United States Senator fromOhio | |
| In office March 21, 1877 – March 3, 1879 | |
| Preceded by | John Sherman |
| Succeeded by | George H. Pendleton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Stanley Matthews (1824-07-21)July 21, 1824 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | March 22, 1889(1889-03-22) (aged 64) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 10, includingPaul |
| Relatives | T. S. Matthews (grandson) |
| Education | Kenyon College (BA) |
| Signature | .png) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | .svg) The Union |
| Branch/service | Union Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1863 |
| Rank | .svg) Colonel |
| Commands |  23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel, July 1861–October 26, 1861)51st Ohio Infantry Regiment (Colonel, October 26, 1861–1862)Army of the Ohio/Army of the Cumberland (Colonel, 1862–1863) |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War
|
Thomas Stanley Matthews (July 21, 1824 – March 22, 1889), known asStanley Matthews in adulthood,[2] was an Americanattorney, soldier, judge andRepublicansenator fromOhio who became anassociate justice of theUnited States Supreme Court, serving from May 1881 to his death in 1889. Aprogressive justice,[citation needed] he was the author of the landmark rulingsYick Wo v. Hopkins andEx parte Crow Dog.
Matthews was born July 21, 1824, inCincinnati, Ohio.[a] He was the oldest of 11 children born to Thomas J. Matthews and Isabella Brown Matthews (his second wife).[2]
He graduated fromKenyon College in 1840. While there he met futurepresident of the United StatesRutherford B. Hayes and close friendJohn Celivergos Zachos. Matthews moved to his hometown Cincinnati with Zachos. Zachos and Matthews were roommates. In Cincinnati Matthews studied law underSalmon P. Chase but he moved toColumbia, Tennessee, where he practiced law and edited the local newspaper from 1842 and 1844. Matthews returned to Cincinnati in 1844, and was admitted to the bar the following year.[2] In Cincinnati Matthews edited the antislavery newspaperCincinnati Morning Herald and practiced law from 1853 to 1858.[4][5]
In 1849, Stanley Matthews,John Celivergos Zachos,Ainsworth Rand Spofford and 9 others founded theLiterary Club of Cincinnati. One year later Rutherford B. Hayes became a member. Other prominent members included future PresidentWilliam Howard Taft and notable club guestsRalph Waldo Emerson,Booker T. Washington,Mark Twain,Charles Dickens,Oscar Wilde andRobert Frost.[6]
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Matthews was selected to serve as the clerk of theOhio House of Representatives in 1848, and afterward served as a county judge inHamilton County, Ohio. He was then elected to theOhio State Senate for the 1st district, where he served from 1856 to 1858. He was then appointed asUnited States Attorney for theSouthern District of Ohio, serving from 1858 to 1861.
At the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War, Matthews resigned as U.S. Attorney and accepted a commission aslieutenant colonel with the23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment of theUnion Army.[7] His superior officers includedColonel William S. Rosecrans andMajor Rutherford B. Hayes, who would later becomePresident of the United States.[8][9] The regiment also included futurePresident William McKinley, who served as aprivate and later rose to the rank ofmajor.[8][9]
Matthews served with the 23rd Ohio Infantry during the early campaigns in West Virginia and fought at theBattle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861.[8][9][10] But Matthews did not enjoy the respect of his troops, and within a year he resigned from the 23rd Ohio Infantry.[8]
After leaving the 23rd Ohio Infantry, Matthews was appointedcolonel of the51st Ohio Infantry Regiment in 1862.[11] He commanded a brigade in theArmy of the Ohio, which later became known as theArmy of the Cumberland.[7]
In 1863, Matthews resigned from the Union Army and returned to Ohio, where he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati.[7] Two years later, he returned to private practice. During the post-warreconstruction era, Matthews represented therailroad industry. His clients includedJay Gould.[12]
He ran for theUnited States House of Representatives in1876, but was defeated. Then, in early 1877, he represented Rutherford B. Hayes before theelectoral commission that Congress created to resolve the disputed1876 presidential election.[12] That same year Matthews won aspecial election to the Senate to fill a vacancy created by the resignation ofJohn Sherman. He did not seek reelection.
Matthews was initiallynominated anassociate justice of theUnited States Supreme Court on January 26, 1881, by President Hayes[13] in the last weeks ofHayes's presidency. The nomination ran into opposition in theU.S. Senate because of Matthews's close ties to railroad interests and due to his close long-term friendship with Hayes. Consequently, theJudiciary Committee took no action on the nomination during the remainder of the46th Congress.[14][15]
On March 14, 1881, 10 days aftertaking office, PresidentJames A. Garfield re-nominated Matthews to the Court.[13] Though a new nomination from a new president, earlier concerns about Matthews's suitability for the Court persisted, and Garfield was widely criticized for re-submitting Matthews's name.[14] In spite of the opposition, and, although the Judiciary Committee made a recommendation to the Senate that it reject the nomination,[16] on May 12, the Senate voted 24–23 to confirm Matthews. The vote was the closest for any successful Supreme Court nominee in U.S. Senate history;[b] no other justice has been confirmed by a single vote.[13][15][18]
Matthews's tenure as a member of the Supreme Court began on May 17, 1881, when he took the judicial oath, and ended March 22, 1889, upon his death.[1][12] He was regarded as one of the moreprogressive justices on the Court at the time.[18]
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In 1880, the city ofSan Francisco, California passed an ordinance that persons could not operate a laundry in a wooden building without a permit from theBoard of Supervisors. The ordinance conferred upon the Board of Supervisors the discretion to grant or withhold the permits. At the time, about 95% of the city's 320 laundries were operated in wooden buildings. Approximately two-thirds of those laundries were owned by Chinese persons. Although most of the city's wooden building laundry owners applied for a permit, none were granted to any Chinese owner, while virtually all non-Chinese applicants were granted a permit. Yick Wo (益和, Pinyin: Yì Hé, Americanization: Lee Yick), who had lived in California and had operated a laundry in the same wooden building for many years and held a valid license to operate his laundry issued by the Board of Fire-Wardens, continued to operate his laundry and was convicted and fined $10.00 for violating the ordinance. He sued for a writ of habeas corpus after he was imprisoned in default for having refused to pay the fine.
The Court, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Matthews, found that the administration of the statute in question was discriminatory and that there was therefore no need to even consider whether the ordinance itself was lawful. Even though the Chinese laundry owners were usually not American citizens, the court ruled they were still entitled to equal protection under theFourteenth Amendment. Justice Matthews also noted that the court had previously ruled that it was acceptable to hold administrators of the law liable when they abused their authority. He denounced the law as a blatant attempt to exclude Chinese from the laundry trade in San Francisco, and the court struck down the law, ordering dismissal of all charges against other laundry owners who had been jailed.
In 1843, Matthews married Mary Ann "Minnie" Black. They had 10 children, four of whom died during an outbreak ofscarlet fever in 1859.[2] Over a three-week period, the outbreak claimed the lives of their three eldest sons (nine-year-old Morrison, six-year-old Stanley, and four-year-old Thomas) as well as younger daughter Mary (age two-and-a-half). Oldest daughter Isabella (seven at the time) and baby William Mortimer survived the devastating outbreak, although Isabella would die in 1868 at the age of sixteen. Their four younger children (Grace,Eva, Jane, and another son named Stanley, later calledPaul) were born after the scarlet fever outbreak.[19]
"Minnie" died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1885, at age 63.[20] Matthews married Mary Frances Theaker née Kellogg, widow ofThomas Clarke Theaker, on June 23, 1886, in New York.[21]
Matthews's health declined precipitously during 1888; he died in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 1889.[22][23] He was survived by second wife Mary, as well as five of his children with Minnie: Mortimer, Grace,Eva, Jane, andPaul.[24] He is interred atSpring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.[25][26]
Daughter Jane Matthews married her late father's colleague on the Court, Associate JusticeHorace Gray, on June 4, 1889.[27] Daughter Eva Lee Matthews became a schoolteacher and monastic, founding the Community of the Transfiguration, which engaged in charity work in Ohio, Hawaii and in China, leading to her liturgical commemoration in the Episcopal Church.[28] SonPaul Clement was bishop of theEpiscopal Diocese of New Jersey from 1915 to 1937. His son, Justice Matthews's grandson,Thomas Stanley, was editor ofTime magazine from 1949 to 1953.[29][30]
A collection of Justice Matthews's correspondence and other papers is located at theRutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center library inFremont, Ohio and open for research. Additional papers and collections are at:Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio;Library of Congress, Manuscript and Prints & Photographs Divisions,Washington, D.C.;Ohio Historical Society,Columbus, Ohio;Pierpont Morgan Library,New York,New York;State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Archives Division,Madison, Wisconsin; andMississippi State Department of Archives and History,Jackson, Mississippi.[31]
| Ohio Senate | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theOhio Senate from the 1st district 1856–1858 Served alongside:George Holmes, William Converse | Succeeded by William Hatch A. B. Langdon Charles Thomas |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 3) from Ohio 1877–1879 Served alongside:Allen Thurman | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1881–1889 | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
