Morrison Waite | |
---|---|
7th Chief Justice of the United States | |
In office March 4, 1874 – March 23, 1888 |
|
Nominated by | Ulysses S. Grant |
Preceded by | Salmon Chase |
Succeeded by | Melville Fuller |
Personal details | |
Born |
Morrison Remick Waite November 29, 1816 Lyme, Connecticut, U.S. |
Died | March 23, 1888 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
(aged 71)
Political party |
Whig (Before 1854) Republican (1854–1888) |
Spouse(s) | Amelia Champlin Warner |
Children | Henry Seldon Christopher Champlin Edward Tinker Mary Frances |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Religion | Episcopalian |
Signature |
Morrison Remick "Mott" Waite (November 29, 1816 – March 23, 1888) was an attorney and politician in Ohio. He served as the seventh Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to his death in 1888. During his tenure, the Supreme Court took a narrow interpretation of federal authority related to laws and amendments that were passed during the Reconstruction Era to expand the rights of freedmen and protect them from attacks by vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Morrison Remick Waite was born in 1816 at Lyme, Connecticut, 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 1854–1857. Morrison had a brother Richard, with whom he later practiced law.
Waite attended Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut, where one of his classmates was Lyman Trumbull. He graduated from Yale University in 1837 in a class with Samuel J. Tilden, who later was the 1876 Democratic presidential nominee. As a student at Yale, Waite became a member of the Skull and Bones and Brothers in Unity societies and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837.
Soon afterward Waite moved to Maumee, Ohio, where he studied law as an apprentice in the office of Samuel L. Young. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, and went into practice with his mentor. He was elected to one term as mayor of Maumee.
He married Amelia Champlin Warner on September 21, 1840 in Hartford, Connecticut. They had three sons together: Henry Seldon, Christopher Champlin, and Edward Tinker; and a daughter Mary Frances Waite.