Samuel Blatchford

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Samuel Blatchford

Samuel M. Blatchford (* 9. March 1820 in New York City ; † 7. July 1893 in Newport , Rhode Iceland ) was an American lawyer , the last judge on the Supreme Court of the United States ( US Supreme Court was).

Life

Lawyer

Blatchford's father Richard Milford Blatchford was a lawyer and at times ambassador to the Holy See . He studied himself after attending the Grammar School at Columbia College , which he graduated in 1837. Between 1839 and 1841 he was the private secretary of the then New York Governor William H. Seward , who later was also the US Senator for New York and Secretary of State of the United States .

In addition to this activity, he studied law and, after being admitted to the bar in New York State , joined his father's law office in 1842 . In 1854 he settled in New York City and founded the law firm Blatchford, Seward & Griswold as a partner , which today still operates under the name Cravath, Swaine & Moore and is one of the world's most respected law firms . During his activity there, which lasted until 1867, he acquired a reputation as a specialist in trade and maritime law . Meanwhile, Blatchford, who was a fan of Freemasonry, was also a trustee of Columbia University .

Federal judge

In 1867, Blatchford was appointed judge at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by US President Andrew Johnson , the federal district court for the southern district of New York, and thus the successor to Samuel Rossiter Betts , who held that judicial office for more than 40 years had dressed.

After eleven years in this office, US President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him on March 4, 1878 as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the second judicial district. There he succeeded the late judge Alexander S. Johnson .

After the resignation of Ward Hunt , US President Chester A. Arthur finally appointed him on April 3, 1882 as an associate judge at the US Supreme Court . Previously, the US Senator from Vermont George F. Edmunds and the former New York US Senator Roscoe Conkling had rejected an appeal to associate justice. He held the office of associate judge until his death. He was succeeded by Edward Douglass White junior . During his eleven years at the Supreme Court, he drafted 430 reasons for judgments and only held dissenting views twice.

Blatchford was practically the first lawyer to serve as a judge on all three levels of federal jurisdiction ( US District Court , US Court of Appeals and US Supreme Court ). Since the court system was organized differently at the time, Charles Evans Whittaker was the first to work in succession on all three hierarchical levels of the US federal judiciary .

Others

Samuel Blatchford was a member of the Masonic League . After his death, Blatchford was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery .

Publications

  • Reports of cases argued and determined in the district court of the United States for the southern district of New-York , 1855
  • Reports of cases in prize , 1866
  • Verification of invoices , 1869

Background literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wisdom Lodge List of Famous Freemasons . Wisdom Lodge # 202 Pasadena, CA. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 20, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wisdomlodge202.org
personal data
SURNAME Blatchford, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blatchford, Samuel M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1893
Place of death Newport , Rhode Island