Howell E. Jackson
Howell Edmunds Jackson was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1893 until his death in 1895. His brief tenure on the Supreme Court is most remembered for his opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., in which Jackson argued in dissent that a federal income tax was constitutional. Republican President Benjamin Harrison appointed Jackson, a Democrat, to the Court. His rulings demonstrated support for broad federal power, a skepticism of states' rights and an inclination toward judicial restraint. Jackson's unexpected death after only two years of service prevented him from having a substantial impact on American jurisprudence.
Born in Paris, Tennessee, in 1832, Jackson earned a law degree from Cumberland Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1856. He briefly practiced law in Jackson before moving to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1857. Although he had initially opposed secession, he took a position as a receiver of sequestered property in the Confederate civil service after the Civil War broke out and later made several unsuccessful attempts to secure a judicial commission in the Confederate Army. He returned to the practice of law after the war, but he also took an interest in politics. After an unsuccessful run for the Tennessee Supreme Court, he was elected to a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1880. When the legislature deadlocked over the selection of a U.S. Senator, Jackson was selected as a consensus candidate, garnering bipartisan support. Despite being a loyal Democrat, he was held in high regard by fellow officeholders of both political parties, including Democrat Grover Cleveland and Republican Benjamin Harrison. When Cleveland became president, he appointed Jackson to a seat on the federal circuit court for the Sixth Circuit. While on the circuit court, he sided with businesses in a major antitrust dispute and supported an expansive view of constitutional freedoms in a civil rights case.
Shortly after President Harrison – Jackson's former Senate colleague – lost reelection, Supreme Court Justice Lucius Q. C. Lamar died. Harrison wanted to select a Republican replacement for Lamar, but he realized Democratic senators would likely stall the nomination until he left office. He chose Jackson, whom he viewed both as a close friend and a well-regarded jurist. The Senate unanimously confirmed Jackson just before Harrison left office in 1893. Not long after assuming office, Jackson developed tuberculosis, preventing him from playing a major role in Supreme Court affairs. He authored only forty-six opinions, many of which were in patent disputes or other insignificant cases. He left Washington hoping that a better climate would aid his health but returned to the capital after the remaining eight justices split 4–4 in Pollock. Yet Jackson ended up dissenting in the landmark income tax case, likely because of a change in another justice's vote. While Jackson's opinion in Pollock kept him from total obscurity in the annals of history, the journey to Washington also worsened his health considerably: he died on August 8, 1895, only eleven weeks after the ruling was handed down.
Early life and career
Jackson was born in Paris, Tennessee, on April 8, 1832. His parents, natives of Virginia, moved to Tennessee in 1827. Jackson's father, Alexander, was a university-trained physician in a time when professional medical training was rare. A Whig, Alexander later served in the Tennessee legislature and as mayor of Jackson, Tennessee. The Jackson family moved to Madison County, Tennessee, in 1840. Howell Jackson enrolled at Western Tennessee College, where he studied Greek and Latin. After graduating in 1850, he pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Virginia for two years. Jackson then read law with A. W. O. Totten, a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, and with attorney and former U.S. Congressman Milton Brown. He next entered Cumberland Law School, graduating in 1856 after one year's study. Jackson was admitted to the bar that same year and began practicing law in the town of Jackson. His work there appears to have been largely unsuccessful, and he moved to the larger city of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1857. There he established a joint legal practice with David M. Currin, who later served as a Confederate congressman. The firm was successful, and it provided Jackson with experience in corporate litigation.Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861. Although Jackson had opposed secession, he supported the Southern side in the war that followed. Judge West H. Humphreys appointed Jackson to enforce Confederate sequestration law in western Tennessee, placing him in charge of confiscating and selling the property of Union loyalists. Extant newspaper accounts show Jackson auctioned off a wide variety of property, including almonds, pickles, chairs, alcohol, tobacco and dried peaches. Just before the Union recaptured Memphis in 1862, Jackson fled with his family to LaGrange, Georgia. He attempted unsuccessfully to secure a position in the Confederate military judiciary. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Jackson returned to Memphis. Since he had served in the Confederate government, he had to secure a presidential pardon before he could continue the practice of law. Arguing that his role in the Confederate civil service was small, Jackson claimed in his petition that no formal sequestration orders had ever been issued under his tenure. Scholar Terry Calvani has contended these statements in Jackson's application "simply were not true", characterizing them as perjury. President Andrew Johnson initially rejected Jackson's petition, but he granted a second request in 1866.
Since Currin had died during the war, Jackson started a new legal practice with a former colleague. Their clients consisted mainly of banks and other business enterprises. The firm was successful, arguing numerous cases before the Memphis courts. Jackson's political sympathies had by this time moved toward the Democratic Party. A Redeemer, he was against Reconstruction-era policies and efforts toward racial equality. After his first wife died in 1873, he returned to the town of Jackson, where he started a law practice with General Alexander W. Campbell. Their firm litigated many cases involving property and criminal law. Jackson was well regarded as a lawyer: he sat as a judge on the local courts and served as a law professor at Southwestern Baptist University.
Service in state government
Jackson practiced law in Jackson until 1880. In 1875, however, he was appointed a judge of the temporary Court of Arbitration for Western Tennessee, which heard cases stemming from the large backlog created by the Civil War. When that court was dissolved, Jackson sought the Democratic nomination for a seat on the Tennessee Supreme Court, running against incumbent Thomas J. Freeman. At the convention, Jackson lost by a single vote; he refused the entreaties of his supporters to challenge the result. Jackson then became involved in what was then Tennessee's key political dispute: whether to pay back the state debt. Republicans generally supported its repayment, while Democrats were split between a state-credit faction, which was supportive of fulfilling the state's financial obligations and a low-tax faction, which favored repudiating the debt. Jackson, who viewed repudiation to be immoral, was firmly on the state-credit side of this debate. After giving a speech on the debt, he was urged to run for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Jackson reluctantly agreed, and he was elected in 1880 to represent Madison County following a contentious campaign. After the legislature's session began in January 1881, he was appointed by Speaker Henry B. Ramsey to the finance, ways and means; judiciary; penitentiary; public grounds and buildings; incorporations; and privileges and elections committees. He was given the chairmanship of the committee on public grounds and buildings, but his prompt elevation to the U.S. Senate prevented him from making any substantial impact in that position.The most urgent task before the legislature during Jackson's tenure was the election of a U.S. Senator. Incumbent Senator James E. Bailey's state-credit policies alienated the low-tax faction of the Democratic caucus, but Republican candidate Horace Maynard also failed to garner majority support. Jackson, who was considered capable of obtaining bipartisan support, refused to enter the race because he favored Bailey. A week of balloting failed to break the gridlock. Bailey then withdrew from consideration and urged Jackson to enter the race in his stead. On the thirtieth ballot, Republican R. R. Butler announced his support for Jackson, saying he had given up any hope that a Republican would be chosen. The Speaker of the House, a Maynard loyalist, followed suit, arguing that Jackson was the best choice among the Democrats. A number of Democratic legislators, many of whom were afraid that a Republican could be elected if they did not unite behind a candidate, backed Jackson as well. Convinced by Butler, other Republicans did the same, and Jackson was elected, receiving sixty-eight votes of the ninety-eight cast. He telegraphed his resignation from the state house, effective immediately, to Governor Alvin Hawkins on February 9, 1881. After a special election, he was succeeded later in the month by Hugh C. Anderson, who represented the district composed of Haywood, Hardeman, and Madison counties in the previous legislative session.