Melville Fuller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Melville Weston Fuller | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| In office October 8, 1888 – July 4, 1910 |
|
| Nominated by | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Morrison Waite |
| Succeeded by | Edward Douglass White |
|
|
|
| Born | February 11, 1833 Augusta, Maine |
| Died | July 04, 1910 (aged 77) Washington, DC |
Melville Weston Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was the Chief Justice of the United States between 1888 and 1910.
Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine. He attended college at Harvard University for one year before graduating from Bowdoin College in 1853. Both his maternal grandfather, Nathan Weston and paternal grandfather, Henry Weld Fuller were judges. His father was a well-known lawyer. His parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he was raised by Nathan Weston.
After finishing school, he studied law under the direction of an uncle. In 1855, he went into partnership with another uncle. He also became the editor of The Age, a leading Democratic newspaper in Maine. Soon he tired of Maine and moved to Chicago. In 1860, he managed Democrat Stephen Douglas' campaign for the Presidency of the United States
At the time, Chicago was becoming the gateway to the West. Railroads had just linked it to the east. Fuller built a law practice in Chicago. Within two years, he appeared before the Supreme Court of Illinois in the case of Beach v. Derby. He became a leading attorney in the city. He first appeared before the United States Supreme Court in the case of Traders' Bank v. Campbell. He also argued the case of Tappan v. the Merchants' National Bank of Chicago, which was the first case heard by Chief Justice Morrison Waite, whom he would later replace.
He was a minor figure in Illinois politics. He spent one term in the Illinois House of Representatives and was a delegate at the national Democratic Conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1876, he made the nominating speech for Thomas Hendricks, for the Democratic electoral vote for President. After his inauguration as President, Grover Cleveland tried to make Fuller chairman of the Civil Service Commission, but he declined. President Grover Cleveland tried to persuade Fuller to be Solicitor General of the United States, but Fuller turned down the second offer for a government job.
President Grover Cleveland nominated him for the Chief Justice position when Morrison Waite died in 1888. Fuller was not the first man to be mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee; the former ambassador to Great Britain, Edward J. Phelps, was perceived as the front-runner for the nomination. Fuller´s nomination was tepidly received in the Senate. However, he was eventually confirmed by a vote of 41 to 20, with nine Republicans voting with the Democrats to confirm him.
On the bench, he oversaw a number of important opinions. He declared the income tax law unconstitutional. In Western Union Telegraph Company v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania he ruled that states could not tax interstate telegraph messages. He struck a blow against government antitrust legislation with the 1895 case United States v. E. C. Knight Co.. In Fuller's majority decision, he found that the refining of sugar by a company within the boundaries of one state could not be held to be in restraint of interstate commerce under the terms of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, regardless of the product's final market share. (E.C. Knight Company's owner, the American Sugar Refining Company, controlled more than 90% of sugar production at the time). He sided with the 8-man majority ruling in favor of "separate but equal" segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. On immigration, Fuller ruled in 1904 that immigrants from Puerto Rico had all the rights and priviledges of Americans in Gonzales v. Williams, 192 U. S. 1 (1904). In this famous immigration case, Isabel Gonzalez arrived from Puerto Rico at Ellis Island in August 1902. Immigration Commissioner William Williams held her as an "illegal" with plans to deport Gonzalez back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. She appealed her case, whereby Fuller ruled in favor of Gonzalez and allowed her to remain in the US. Fuller did not go so far as to claim that she was automatically a US citizen, however, he recognized that Puerto Rico was a territory of the US (as of the 1898 Spanish American War), and therefore Isabel had the right to remain in the US. This paved the way for future Puerto Ricans to freely immigrate to the US. Later, in 1917 the Jones Act was passed by Congress which provided for even more immigration/citizenship rights to Puerto Ricans.
In 1893, he turned down an offer from President-Elect Grover Cleveland to serve as Secretary of State; it was the third time he turned down a government job offer from Cleveland.
As Chief Justice, he inaugurated five Presidents (Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft)
He also served on the Arbitration Commission in Paris in 1899 to resolve a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and Venezuela.
He was said to closely resemble Mark Twain. Once, when the humorist was stopped on the street, a passerby demanded the Chief Justice's autograph. Twain supposedly wrote:
- It is delicious to be full, but it is heavenly to be Fuller. I am cordially yours, Melville W. Fuller.
He was married twice. He married Calista Reynolds in 1858; she died in 1864. He married Mary Coolbaugh in 1866. He had six daughters.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Melville Weston Fuller Chief Justice of the United States 1888-1910, by Willard L. King, (MacMillan, 1950) B0006ASCMC
- The Chief Justiceship of Melville W. Fuller, 1888-1910 by James W. Ely (University of South Carolin Press, 1995).
| Preceded by Morrison Waite |
Chief Justice of the United States October 8, 1888 – July 4, 1910 |
Succeeded by Edward Douglass White |
| Chief Justices of the United States of America |  |
|---|---|
| Jay • Rutledge • Ellsworth • Marshall • Taney • Chase • Waite • Fuller • White • Taft • Hughes • Stone • Vinson • Warren • Burger • Rehnquist • Roberts |
