Howell Edmunds Jackson


Howell Edmunds Jackson was an American attorney, politician, and jurist. He served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as a United States Senator from Tennessee and as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit. Jackson was the first to bring a law school graduate with him to serve as his secretary-clerk on the Supreme Court; that secretary-clerk was James Clark McReynolds, who would later also became a Supreme Court Justice.

Education and career

Born on April 8, 1832, in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, Jackson moved with his parents to Jackson, Tennessee in 1840. He attended the University of Virginia, received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in classical studies in 1849 from West Tennessee College and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1856 from Cumberland School of Law. He was admitted to the bar and entered private practice in Jackson from 1856 to 1858. He continued private practice in Memphis, Tennessee from 1855 to 1861. He was a Receiver of Alien Property in West Tennessee for the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1864. He resumed private practice in Memphis from 1865 to 1874 and in Jackson from 1874 to 1880. He was a Special Judge for the Court of Arbitration for Western Tennessee from 1875 to 1877. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1880 to 1881.

Congressional service

Jackson was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1881, until April 14, 1886, when he resigned to accept a federal judicial post.

Court of Appeals and Circuit Courts service

Jackson was nominated by President Grover Cleveland on April 12, 1886, to a seat on the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge John Baxter. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 12, 1886, and received his commission the same day. Jackson was assigned by operation of law to additional and concurrent service on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on June 16, 1891, to a new seat authorized by 26 Stat. 826. His service terminated on March 4, 1893, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court service

Jackson was nominated by President Benjamin Harrison on February 2, 1893, to an Associate Justice seat on the Supreme Court of the United States vacated by Associate Justice Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II. Having lost the 1892 presidential election to Grover Cleveland, Harrison chose to nominate Jackson, a Southern Democrat, in the hope of filling Lamar's vacancy before leaving office. Harrison chose Jackson partly due to the advice of Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown, who had befriended Jackson while serving as a district judge in Jackson's circuit.
Jackson was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 18, 1893, and received his commission the same day. He served as Circuit Justice for the Fifth Circuit from March 13, 1893, until April 1, 1894, and as Circuit Justice for the Sixth Circuit from April 2, 1894, until August 8, 1895. His service terminated on August 8, 1895, due to his death at his mansion West Meade, located in Nashville, Tennessee. He was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.

Notable clerk

While in the United States Senate and later at the United States Supreme Court, Jackson employed James Clark McReynolds as his secretary. McReynolds continued in law and later gained appointment as a United States Supreme Court justice.

Honor

During World War II the Liberty ship was built in Brunswick, Georgia, and named in his honor.