Edward Douglass White
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| Edward Douglass White, Jr. | |
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| In office December 19, 1910 – May 19, 1921 |
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| Nominated by | William Howard Taft |
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| Preceded by | Melville Fuller |
| Succeeded by | William Howard Taft |
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| In office March 12, 1894 – December 18, 1910 |
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| Nominated by | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Samuel Blatchford |
| Succeeded by | Willis Van Devanter |
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| Born | November 3, 1845 Lafourche Parish, Louisiana |
| Died | May 19, 1921 (aged 75) Washington, DC |
| Spouse | Virginia Montgomery Kent |
| Alma mater | Mount Saint Mary's College, Jesuit College, Georgetown University |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Edward Douglass White, Jr. (November 3, 1845 – May 19, 1921), American politician and jurist, was a United States senator, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court and the ninth Chief Justice of the United States. He was best known for formulating the Rule of Reason standard of antitrust law.
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[edit] Early life and education
White was born on his parents' plantation near the town of Thibodeauxville (now Thibodaux) in Lafourche Parish in south Louisiana. He was the son of Edward Douglass White, Sr., a former governor of Louisiana, and grandson of Dr. James White, a U.S. representative, physician, and judge. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of U.S. Marshal Tench Ringgold, and related to the famous Lee family of Virginia. The White family's large plantation cultivated sugar cane and refined it into a finished product.
White's paternal ancestors were of Irish descent, and he was a devout Roman Catholic his entire life. He studied at Mount St. Mary’s College, near Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the Jesuit College in New Orleans before attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
[edit] American Civil War service
White's studies at Georgetown were interrupted by the American Civil War. It has been suggested that he returned to Bayou Lafourche, where he supposedly enlisted as an infantryman in the Confederate States Army under General Richard Taylor (son of Zachary Taylor) and eventually attained the rank of lieutenant. This is questionable, as his widowed mother had remarried and was living with the rest of the family in New Orleans at the time. When he returned to Louisiana, it was probably to his home in New Orleans. An apocryphal account states that White was almost captured by General Godfrey Weitzel's Union army when they invaded Bayou Lafourche in October 1862, but that he evaded capture by hiding beneath hay in a barn. It is conceivable that White may have enlisted in the Lafourche militia, as its muster rolls are not complete. There is no actual documentation, however, that White served in any Confederate volunteer unit or militia unit engaged in campaigns in the Lafourche area.
Another account suggests that he was assigned as an aide to General W. N. R. Beall and accompanied him to Port Hudson. Port Hudson had a garrison of 18,000 Confederate soldiers, but a numerically superior Union force surrounded it. After a siege lasting from May 21 to July 8, 1863 (the longest siege in North American history), the Confederate forces unconditionally surrendered after learning of the fall of Vicksburg. White's presence at Port Hudson is supported by a secondhand account of a postwar dinner conversation he had with Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, a Union veteran of Port Hudson, and another with Admiral George Dewey (a Federal naval officer at Port Hudson), in both of which White mentioned his presence during the siege. However, White's name does not appear on any list of prisoners captured at Port Hudson. According to yet another account of questionable reliability, White was supposedly sent to a Mississippi prisoner of war camp. (As practically all Confederate soldiers of enlisted rank of the Port Hudson garrison were paroled, and officers sent to prison in New Orleans before exchange, this account is probably untrue.) When he was paroled, he supposedly returned to the family plantation, but it was abandoned, the canefields were barren, and most of the former slaves had left.
The only "hard" evidence of White's Confederate service consists of the account of his capture in March 1865 in an action in Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish contained in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, and his service records in the National Archives, documenting his subsequent imprisonment in New Orleans and parole in April 1865. These records confirm his service as a lieutenant in Barrow's Company of a regiment of Louisiana cavalry, for all practical purposes a loosely-organized band of irregulars or guerrillas. One officer in this regiment, sometimes called the "9th Louisiana Cavalry Regiment," was Major Robert Pruyn. Pruyn (a postwar mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana) served as courier relaying messages from Port Hudson's commander, General Franklin Gardner, to General Joseph Johnston, crossing the Union siege lines by swimming the Mississippi. Pruyn escaped from Port Hudson prior to its surrender in the same manner. It is interesting to speculate that perhaps White accompanied Pruyn during that escape, which would explain White's absence from Port Hudson prisoner rolls and later service in Pruyn's regiment.
White's Civil War service was a matter of common knowledge at the time of his initial nomination to the United States Supreme Court, and the Confederate Veteran periodical, published for the United Confederate Veterans, congratulated him upon his affirmation. White was the only ex-Confederate soldier to serve on the Supreme Court.
[edit] Political career
While living on the abandoned plantation, White began his legal studies. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New Orleans in 1868. He briefly served in the Louisiana State Senate in 1874 and as an Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1879 to 1880. He was politically affiliated with Governor Francis T. Nicholls, a former Confederate general.
He became famous in Louisiana for helping to abolish the Louisiana Lottery, a hotbed of corruption the fate of which was taken before the state's Supreme Court which ordered it discontinued in 1894.
The state's legislature appointed White to the United States Senate in 1891 to succeed James B. Eustis. He served until his resignation on 12 March 1894, when he was nominated by President Grover Cleveland (D) to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1896 he sided with the seven justices whose majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson segregated race relations into separate and unequal for nearly 60 years.
[edit] The White Court, 1910-1921
In 1910, he was elevated by President William Howard Taft to the position of Chief Justice of the United States upon the death of Melville Fuller. At the time, it was a controversial appointment for two reasons. First, White was a Democrat while Taft was a Republican. The media of the day widely expected Taft to name Republican Justice Hughes to the post. Second, White was the first Associate Justice to be appointed Chief Justice since John Rutledge in 1795. Some historians believe that President Taft appointed White, who was 65 years old at the time and overweight, in the hope that White would not serve all that long and that Taft himself might someday be appointed—which, in fact, is just what happened eleven years later.
White was generally seen as one of the more conservative members of the court. Besides being the originator of the “Rule of Reason," White also wrote the decision upholding the constitutionality of the Adamson Act, which had mandated a maximum eight-hour work day for railroad employees, in 1916.
He married Leita Montgomery Kent, the widow of Linden Kent, on 6 November 1894, in New York City. White died in office and was buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
[edit] Trivia
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White's statue is one of the two honoring Louisiana natives in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Another statue is in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court building in New Orleans. This second statue is something of a local landmark on the New Orleans scene. "Big Green Ed", as his likeness is often referred to, is a favorite of locals and tourists alike. Often, visitors may be found sitting at the base of his effigy, discussing issues of the day and seeking counsel on life's complex issues.
E. D. White Catholic High School in Thibodaux, LA is named after White. The full name of the school is Edward Douglas White Catholic High School, dropping the extra "s" at the end of Douglass.
As Chief Justice, White swore in Presidents Woodrow Wilson (twice) and Warren G. Harding.
In his honor, the Edward Douglass White Lectures take place annually at the Louisiana State University Law Center. They have featured such distinguished speakers as Chief Justices Warren E. Burger and William H. Rehnquist.
The play "Father Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White and the Constitution" by LSU Law Center professor Paul Baier was based on White's life.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
^ Paths to Distinction p. 157
[edit] References
- "Chief Justice White Is Dead at Age 75 After an Operation." New York Times. May 19, 1921.
- "White, not Hughes, for Chief Justice." New York Times. December 12, 1910.
- Pratt, Walter F. The Supreme Court Under Edward Douglass White, 1910–1921. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1999. ISBN 1570033099
| United States Senate | ||
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| Preceded by James B. Eustis |
United States Senator (Class 3) from Louisiana 1891-1894 Served alongside: Randall L. Gibson, Donelson Caffery |
Succeeded by Newton C. Blanchard |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Samuel Blatchford |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1894-1910 |
Succeeded by Willis Van Devanter |
| Preceded by Melville Fuller |
Chief Justice of the United States 1910-1921 |
Succeeded by William Howard Taft |
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