Stanley Matthews (judge)

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Stanley Matthews

| image = Thomas Stanley Matthews - Brady-Handy.jpg

| caption = Stanley Matthews, by Mathew Brady, {{circa|1870-80}}

| office = Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

| term_start = May 17, 1881{{Cite web| title=Justices 1789 to Present| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| website=supremecourt.gov| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=April 15, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415034624/https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| url-status=live}}

| term_end = March 22, 1889

| predecessor = Noah Haynes Swayne

| successor = David J. Brewer

| jr/sr1 = United States Senator

| state1 = Ohio

| term_start1 = March 21, 1877

| term_end1 = March 3, 1879

| predecessor1 = John Sherman

| successor1 = George H. Pendleton

| birth_name = Thomas Stanley Matthews

| birth_date = {{birth date|1824|7|21}}

| birth_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1889|3|22|1824|7|21}}

| death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

| party = Republican

| spouse = {{Plainlist|

{{marriage|Mary Ann Black|February 15, 1843|January 22, 1885|end=d.}}
{{marriage|Mary K. Theaker
|June 23, 1886}} }}

| children = 10, including Paul

| relatives = T. S. Matthews (grandson)

| education = Kenyon College (BA)

| signature = Signature of Thomas Stanley Matthews (1824–1889).png

| allegiance = 23px The Union

| branch = 23px Union Army

| serviceyears = 1861–1863

| rank = 23px Colonel

| commands = 23px 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel, July 1861–October 26, 1861)
23px 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment (Colonel, October 26, 1861–1862)
23px Army of the Ohio/Army of the Cumberland (Colonel, 1862–1863)

| battles = American Civil War

Battle of Carnifex Ferry (September 10, 1861)

}}

Thomas Stanley Matthews (July 21, 1824 – March 22, 1889), known as Stanley Matthews in adulthood,{{cite book| title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–2012| editor-last=Cushman| editor-first=Clare| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKN2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA203| pages=203–206| edition=Third| publisher=CQ Press| location=Thousand Oaks, California| year=2013| isbn=978-1-60871-832-0| access-date=June 29, 2019}} was an American attorney, soldier, judge and Republican senator from Ohio who became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from May 1881 to his death in 1889. A progressive justice,{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} he was the author of the landmark rulings Yick Wo v. Hopkins and Ex parte Crow Dog.

Early life and education

Matthews was born July 21, 1824, in Cincinnati, Ohio.{{efn|The Supreme Court of Ohio & Ohio Judicial System website lists his birthplace as Lexington, Kentucky.{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/MJC/places/sMatthews.asp| title=Stanley Matthews (July 21, 1824 - March 22, 1889)| website=supremecourt.ohio.gov| publisher=Supreme Court of Ohio| location=Columbus, Ohio| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=May 28, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528074845/https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/MJC/places/sMatthews.asp| url-status=live}}}} He was the oldest of 11 children born to Thomas J. Matthews and Isabella Brown Matthews (his second wife).

He graduated from Kenyon College in 1840. While there he met future president of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes and close friend John Celivergos Zachos. Matthews moved to his hometown Cincinnati with Zachos. Zachos and Matthews were roommates. In Cincinnati Matthews studied law under Salmon P. Chase but he moved to Columbia, 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. In Cincinnati Matthews edited the antislavery newspaper Cincinnati Morning Herald and practiced law from 1853 to 1858.[https://ahepahistory.org/History-of-the-Order-of-AHEPA-1922-1972-George-Leber/docs/John-Zachos-Cincinnati-Historical-Bulletin-1976-by-Eva-Catafygiotu-Topping.pdf "Topping, Eva Catafygiotu"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831025136/https://ahepahistory.org/History-of-the-Order-of-AHEPA-1922-1972-George-Leber/docs/John-Zachos-Cincinnati-Historical-Bulletin-1976-by-Eva-Catafygiotu-Topping.pdf |date=August 31, 2021 }} John Zachos Cincinnatian from Constantinople The Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin Volumes 33-34 Cincinnati Historical Society 1975: p. 51{{Cite web |title=Stanley Matthews |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/matthews-stanley |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Federal Judicial Center}}

In 1849, Stanley Matthews, John Celivergos Zachos, Ainsworth Rand Spofford and 9 others founded the Literary Club of Cincinnati. One year later Rutherford B. Hayes became a member. Other prominent members included future President William Howard Taft and notable club guests Ralph Waldo Emerson, Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Robert Frost.Topping, 1975, p. 54

Early legal career

{{unreferenced section|date= October 2021}} Matthews was selected to serve as the clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1848, and afterward served as a county judge in Hamilton County, Ohio. He was then elected to the Ohio State Senate for the 1st district, where he served from 1856 to 1858. He was then appointed as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, serving from 1858 to 1861.

Military service

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Matthews resigned as U.S. Attorney and accepted a commission as lieutenant colonel with the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment of the Union Army.{{Cite web |date=November 30, 2024 |title=Thomas Stanley Matthews: Hall of Fame Class of 1994 |url=https://dvs.ohio.gov/hall-of-fame/honorees/hof-honorees/Thomas+Stanley+Matthews |access-date=November 30, 2024 |website=Ohio Department of Veteran Services}} His superior officers included Colonel William S. Rosecrans and Major Rutherford B. Hayes, who would later become President of the United States.{{Cite web |title=Presidents and Politicians: The 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/presidents-and-politicians-the-23rd-ohio-volunteer-infantry.htm |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Twenty-Third Ohio Infantry |url=https://usgenwebsites.org/OHLake/military/civil/23ohinf.html |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=usgenwebsites.org}} The regiment also included future President William McKinley, who served as a private and later rose to the rank of major.

Matthews served with the 23rd Ohio Infantry during the early campaigns in West Virginia and fought at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861.{{Cite web |title=23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment |url=https://civilwarintheeast.com/us-regiments-batteries/ohio/23rd-ohio-infantry/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=The Civil War in the East |language=en-US}} But Matthews did not enjoy the respect of his troops, and within a year he resigned from the 23rd Ohio Infantry.

After leaving the 23rd Ohio Infantry, Matthews was appointed colonel of the 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment in 1862.{{Cite web |title=The Battle of Carnifex Ferry |url=http://archive.wvculture.org/history/civilwar/carnifex01.html |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=archive.wvculture.org}} He commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, which later became known as the Army of the Cumberland.

State judge, lawyer and politician

In 1863, Matthews resigned from the Union Army and returned to Ohio, where he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati. Two years later, he returned to private practice. During the post-war reconstruction era, Matthews represented the railroad industry. His clients included Jay Gould.{{cite web| title=Stanley Matthews, 1881-1889| url=http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_matthews.html| website=supremecourthistory.org| publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=June 28, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628045409/http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_matthews.html| url-status=live}}

He ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1876, but was defeated. Then, in early 1877, he represented Rutherford B. Hayes before the electoral commission that Congress created to resolve the disputed 1876 presidential election. That same year Matthews won a special election to the Senate to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of John Sherman. He did not seek reelection.

Associate justice

Matthews was initially nominated an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court on January 26, 1881, by President Hayes{{Cite web| url=https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/nominations/Nominations.htm| title=U.S. Senate: Supreme Court Nominations: 1789–Present| website=senate.gov| publisher=U.S. Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=December 9, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209085119/https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/nominations/Nominations.htm| url-status=live}} in the last weeks of Hayes's presidency. The nomination ran into opposition in the U.S. Senate because of Matthews's close ties to railroad interests and due to his close long-term friendship with Hayes. Consequently, the Judiciary Committee took no action on the nomination during the remainder of the 46th Congress.{{cite web| last=Gilbert| first=Sheldon| title=A look at the closest Court confirmation ever| date=October 6, 2018| work=Constitution Daily| url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a-look-at-the-closest-court-confirmation-ever| publisher=National Constitution Center| location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=May 28, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528074843/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a-look-at-the-closest-court-confirmation-ever| url-status=live}}{{cite web| last=Hogue| first=Henry H.| title=Supreme Court Nominations Not Confirmed, 1789-August 2010| url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31171.pdf| work=CRS Report for Congress (RL31171)| date=August 20, 2010| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=February 6, 2006| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206235643/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31171.pdf| url-status=live}}

On March 14, 1881, 10 days after taking office, President James A. Garfield re-nominated Matthews to the Court. 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. In spite of the opposition, and, although the Judiciary Committee made a recommendation to the Senate that it reject the nomination,{{cite web| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| last1=McMillion| first1=Barry J.| last2=Rutkus| first2=Denis Steven| url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| date=July 6, 2018| work=CRS Report for Congress (RL33225)| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=August 9, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809152918/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| url-status=live}} 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;{{efn|In percentage terms, the 50–48 vote in 2018 confirming Brett Kavanaugh was slightly closer than Matthews's. Matthews received 51.06% of the vote to Kavanaugh's 51.02%.{{cite news| title=Senate vote on Kavanaugh was historically close| last=Keller| first=Chris| date=October 6, 2018| url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-pol-scotus-confirmation-votes-over-the-years-20181005-htmlstory.html| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| access-date=April 1, 2022}}}} no other justice has been confirmed by a single vote.{{cite news| last=Phillips| first=Kristine| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/10/08/moral-dry-rot-only-supreme-court-justice-who-divided-senate-more-than-kavanaugh/?| title='Moral dry-rot': The only Supreme Court justice who divided the Senate more than Kavanaugh| date=October 8, 2018| newspaper=The Washington Post| access-date=June 29, 2019| archive-date=May 28, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528074844/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/10/08/moral-dry-rot-only-supreme-court-justice-who-divided-senate-more-than-kavanaugh/| url-status=live}}

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. He was regarded as one of the more progressive justices on the Court at the time.

''Yick Wo v. Hopkins''

In 1880, the city of San Francisco, California passed an ordinance that persons could not operate a laundry in a wooden building without a permit from the Board 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 the Fourteenth 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.

Personal life

In 1843, Matthews married Mary Ann "Minnie" Black. They had 10 children, four of whom died during an outbreak of scarlet fever in 1859. 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 called Paul) were born after the scarlet fever outbreak.{{Cite journal|last=Przybyszewski|first=Linda|date=2017|title=Scarlet Fever, Stanley Matthews, and the Cincinnati Bible War|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsch.12153|journal=Journal of Supreme Court History|language=en|volume=42|issue=3|pages=256–274|doi=10.1111/jsch.12153|s2cid=149056812 |issn=1540-5818|url-access=subscription}}

"Minnie" died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1885, at age 63.{{cite news|author=|date=January 22, 1885|title=OBITUARY. Mrs Mary A Matthews|newspaper=The Indianapolis News|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INN18850122-01.1.1|access-date=August 25, 2020|via=Hoosier State Chronicles|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109000727/https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INN18850122-01.1.1|url-status=live}} Matthews married Mary K. Theaker, widow of Thomas Clarke Theaker, on June 23, 1886, in New York.{{cite news|author=|date=June 24, 1886|title=United by Marriage. Justice Stanley Matthews Taking a Wife|newspaper=The New York Times|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77640600/united-by-marriage/|access-date=2021-05-13|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=May 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513203132/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77640600/united-by-marriage/|url-status=live}}

Death and legacy

Matthews's health declined precipitously during 1888; he died in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 1889.{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77641373/the-dead-justice/| author=| title=The Dead Justice.; Funeral Services Of Stanley Matthews In Washington| date=March 26, 1889| newspaper=The New York Times| page=1| access-date=2021-05-13| via=Newspapers.com| archive-date=May 13, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513203132/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77641373/the-dead-justice/| url-status=live}}{{cite news| url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18890323.2.44&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1| author=| title=Stanley Matthews. A Member of the Supreme Court Bench Dead. An Able Jurist And Judge.| date=March 23, 1889| newspaper=Los Angeles Herald| access-date=June 29, 2019| via=California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside| archive-date=January 29, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129084705/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18890323.2.44&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1| url-status=live}} He was survived by second wife Mary, as well as five of his children with Minnie: Mortimer, Grace, Eva, Jane, and Paul.{{Cite news|date=March 23, 1889|title=Justice Matthews Dead|page=2|newspaper=Washington Post}} He is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.{{cite web |url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |title=Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook |access-date=November 24, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |archive-date=September 3, 2005 }} Supreme Court Historical Society.Christensen, George A., "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited", Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17–41 (February 2008), University of Alabama.

Daughter Jane Matthews married her late father's colleague on the Court, Associate Justice Horace Gray, on June 4, 1889.{{Cite book|last1=Massachusetts.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100325182|title=Proceedings of the bar and of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in memory of Horace Gray, January 17, 1903.|last2=Bar Association of the City of Boston.|date=1903|publisher=[s.n.]|location=Boston|pages=10|access-date=October 11, 2020|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109000705/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100325182|url-status=live}} 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/eva_lee_matthews.html|title=Eva Lee Matthews|access-date=March 10, 2020|archive-date=July 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706190214/http://satucket.com/lectionary/eva_lee_matthews.html|url-status=live}} Son Paul Clement was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey from 1915 to 1937. His son, Justice Matthews's grandson, Thomas Stanley, was editor of Time magazine from 1949 to 1953.{{cite web|title=T. S. Matthews Papers 1910-1991|url=http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/C1131|access-date=September 15, 2013|publisher=Princeton University|archive-date=December 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208222218/http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/C1131|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=Foderaro|first=Lisa W.|date=January 6, 1991|title=T. S. Matthews, 89, Ex-Editor of Time and Author|newspaper=The New York Times|page=22|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/06/obituaries/ts-matthews-89-ex-editor-of-time-and-author.html|access-date=2021-05-13|archive-date=October 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008214059/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/06/obituaries/ts-matthews-89-ex-editor-of-time-and-author.html|url-status=live}}

A collection of Justice Matthews's correspondence and other papers is located at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center library in Fremont, 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; and Mississippi State Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi.[http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/matthews/sm-lop.html Location of papers, Sixth Circuit] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090119025929/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/matthews/sm-lop.html |date=2009-01-19 }} United States Court of Appeals.

Notes

References

External links

[https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/matthews-stanley Stanley Matthews] at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
[https://www.oyez.org/justices/stanley_matthews Stanley Matthews] at Oyez, a project of the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
{{Find a Grave|5694|access-date=February 14, 2008}}