BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN

BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN

Jeremiah Sullivan Black was a prominent lawyer, judge, and U.S. attorney general, and also an unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Black was born January 10, 1810, in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and was largely self-educated through his own reading and study of Shakespeare, the Bible, and other works of literature.

He originally planned a career in medicine, but his father arranged for him to study law with Chauncey Forward, a prominent local attorney and politician. After three years with Forward, Black was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, in late 1830. Forward then left his practice to take a seat in the U.S. Congress and turned over his clients to Black, enabling Black to develop a lucrative law practice of his own. Black married Forward’s daughter in 1836, and they had two children.

Black soon became active in Democratic
politics and was appointed deputy attorney general
for his county. In 1842 he was appointed
judge of the district court, and nine years later,
he was elected to the state supreme court. He
won reelection to the state high court in 1854,
and served as chief justice for three years.While
an appellate judge, Black was best known for his
opinions defining and construing the meaning
of corporate charters.

A longtime supporter of President JAMES
BUCHANAN, Black was appointed U.S. attorney
general by Buchanan in 1857. While attorney
general, Black gained recognition for launching
a vigorous prosecution of fraudulent land
schemes in California. The investigation, headed
by EDWIN M. STANTON, Black’s eventual successor,
resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversing
many district court cases involving land
FRAUD. Black also enforced federal laws concerning
the slave trade and the return of fugitive
slaves. In addition, Black helped establish the
Buchanan administration’s position on secession,
urging the president to maintain a strong
Unionist stance.
In a shuffle of cabinet offices in December
1860, Black served for a short time as SECRETARY
OF STATE. During his brief tenure, South Carolina
became the first state to secede from the
Union, and Black was a key adviser to Buchanan
in handling the crisis.
In January 1861,with only a few weeks left in
his own term as president, Buchanan named
Black to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court that
had been vacant for eight months. Republican
senators, anxious to give the incoming president,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, his first appointment to
the Court, opposed Black. Furthermore,
although Black was a strong supporter of the
Union, he was not an abolitionist. As a result, his
nomination was harshly criticized by the Northern
antislavery press and by Democrat STEPHEN
A.DOUGLAS, who had just lost the election to Lincoln.
Also, Southern senators who might have
supported Black were resigning from the Senate
to join the Confederacy. Had Buchanan acted
earlier to fill the seat, Black could have been easily
confirmed. Instead, he was rejected 26–25.
Deeply disappointed at his narrow defeat,
Black returned to his home in York, Pennsylvania.
He then suffered a number of personal setbacks,
including the loss of his life savings,
which he had entrusted to a relative for investment,
and a rapid decline in health. In late 1861,
Black’s health gradually started to improve and
he resumed practicing law. In December of that year, he was appointed reporter of decisions for
the U.S. Supreme Court, a position created by
Congress in 1816. As reporter, Black was primarily
responsible for editing, publishing, and distributing
the Court’s opinions. The reporter was
paid a modest yearly salary and usually earned
additional income selling copies of the bound
volume in which an important case appeared or
printing and selling a significant opinion separately
in a pamphlet. In those days, the volumes
produced by a particular reporter usually bore
the reporter’s name on the spine. Black served as
reporter for three years and produced Black’s
Reports, two volumes of opinions that earned
him high praise.
In 1864, Black left the Court and returned to
private practice in Pennsylvania. He handled
several important cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court, including EX PARTE MILLIGAN, 71 U.S. (4
Wall.) 2, 18 L. Ed. 281 (1866). In Milligan, the
Court held that the president lacked the power
to authorize military tribunals to try civilians
when they could be tried in civil courts. Black
also remained involved in the continuing litigation
over California land titles, and earned high
fees for his services.
Black was a close friend of President
ANDREW JOHNSON, who assumed the presidency
after Lincoln was assassinated. Black was
initially engaged to represent Johnson in his
IMPEACHMENT trial but withdrew after disagreements
with Johnson’s other lawyers arose.
He also served as counsel to SAMUEL J. TILDEN,
an unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate,
in an investigation of the disputed results
of the 1876 presidential election.
Black continued to practice law and remain
active in civic affairs until 1883, when he died at
the age of seventy-three.
FURTHER READINGS
Congressional Quarterly. 1989. Guide to the U.S. Supreme
Court. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.
Elliott, Stephen P., ed. 1986. A Reference Guide to the United
States Supreme Court. New York: Facts on File.