Charles Evans Hughes

For other persons of the same name see Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. (1889-1951) and Charles Evans Hughes, III (1915-1985)

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr.
11th Chief Justice of the United States
In office February 13, 1930[1] – June 30, 1941
Nominated by	Herbert Hoover
Preceded by	William Howard Taft
Succeeded by	Harlan Fiske Stone
44th United States Secretary of State
In office March 5, 1921 – March 4, 1925
President	Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge
Preceded by	Bainbridge Colby
Succeeded by	Frank B. Kellogg
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office October 10, 1910 – June 10, 1916
Nominated by	William Howard Taft
Preceded by	David Josiah Brewer
Succeeded by	John Hessin Clarke
36th Governor of New York
In office January 1, 1907 – October 6, 1910
Lieutenant	Lewis Chanler (1907–1909) Horace White (1909–1910)
Preceded by	Frank W. Higgins
Succeeded by	Horace White
Personal details
Born	April 11, 1862(1862-04-11) Glens Falls, New York, U.S.
Died	August 27, 1948(1948-08-27) (aged 86) Osterville, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Antoinette Carter Hughes
Alma mater	Madison University, Brown University, Columbia University
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Professor, Judge.
Religion	Baptist

Charles Evans Hughes, age 16

Hughes as he appears in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York (1907–1910), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1910–1916), United States Secretary of State (1921–1925), a judge on the Court of International Justice (1928–1930), and the 11th Chief Justice of the United States (1930–1941). He was the Republican candidate in the 1916 U.S. Presidential election, losing narrowly to Woodrow Wilson.

Hughes was a professor in the 1890s, an important leader of the progressive movement of the 1900s, a leading diplomat and New York lawyer in the days of Harding and Coolidge, and a leader of opposition to the New Deal in the 1930s. Historian Clinton Rossiter has hailed him as a leading American conservative.^[2]

Early life

Charles Evans Hughes was born in Glens Falls, New York, the son of an immigrant father. In 1859, his family moved to New York City, where his mother enrolled him in a private school. He was active in the Northern Baptist church, a Mainline Protestant denomination.

Hughes went to Madison University (now Colgate University) at the age of 14, where he became a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity, then transferred to Brown University, where he continued as a member of Delta Upsilon and graduated in 1881 at age 19, youngest in his class, receiving second-highest honors. He entered Columbia Law School in 1882, and he graduated in 1884 with highest honors. While studying law, he taught at Delaware Academy.

In 1885, he met Antoinette Carter, the daughter of a senior partner of the law firm where he worked, and they were married in 1888. They had one son, Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. and three daughters, one of whom was Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, one of the first humans injected with insulin, and who later served as president of the Supreme Court Historical Society.^[3] Hughes was quickly made a partner at the firm now known as Hughes, Hubbard & Reed.

In 1891, Hughes left the practice of law to become a professor at the Cornell University Law School, but in 1893, he returned to his old law firm in New York City. At that time, in addition to practicing law, he taught at New York Law School with Woodrow Wilson. In 1905, he was appointed as counsel to a New York state legislative committee investigating utility rates. His uncovering of corruption led to lower gas rates in New York City. As a result, he was appointed to investigate the insurance industry in New York.

Governor of New York

Governor Charles Evans Hughes

Hughes served as the Governor of New York from 1907 to 1910. He defeated William Randolph Hearst in the 1906 election to gain the position, and he was the only Republican statewide candidate to win office. In 1908, he was offered the vice-presidential nomination by William Howard Taft, but he declined it to run again for Governor. Theodore Roosevelt became an important supporter of Hughes.^[4]

As the Governor, he pushed the passage of the Lessland Act, which gave him the power as governor to oversee civic officials as well as officials in state bureaucracies. This allowed him to fire many corrupt officials. He also managed to have the powers of the state's Public Service Commissions increased, and he attempted unsuccessfully to have their decisions exempted from judicial review. When two bills were passed to reduce railroad fares, Hughes vetoed them on that grounds that the rates should be set by expert commissioners rather than by elected ones. In his final year as the Governor, he had the state comptroller draw up an executive budget. This began a rationalization of state government and eventually it led to an enhancement of executive authority.

In 1908, Governor Hughes reviewed the clemency petition of Chester Gillette concerning the murder of Grace Brown. The governor denied the petition as well as an application for reprieve, and Gillette was electrocuted in March of that year.

When Hughes left office, a prominent journal remarked "One can distinctly see the coming of a New Statism ... [of which] Gov. Hughes has been a leading prophet and exponent".^[5] In 1926, Hughes was appointed by New York Governor Alfred E. Smith to be the chairman of a State Reorganization Commission through which Smith's plan to place the Governor as the head of a rationalized state government, was accomplished, bringing to realization what Hughes himself had envisioned.

In 1909, he led an effort to incorporate Delta Upsilon fraternity. This was the first fraternity to incorporate, and he served as its first international president.

Supreme Court

In October 1910, Hughes was appointed as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He wrote for the court in Bailey v. Alabama 219 U.S. 219 (1911), which held that involuntary servitude encompassed more than just slavery, and Interstate Commerce Comm. v. Atchison T & SF R Co. 234 U.S. 294 (1914), holding that the Interstate Commerce Commission could regulate intrastate rates if they were significantly intertwined with interstate commerce.

On April 15, 1915, in the case of Frank v. Mangum, the Supreme Court decided (7-2) to deny an appeal made by Leo Frank's attorneys, and instead upheld the decision of lower courts to sustain the guilty verdict against Frank. Justice Hughes and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were the two dissenting votes.

Presidential candidate

Hughes during the 1916 presidential campaign

Main article: U.S. presidential election, 1916

See also: American entry into World War I

He resigned from the Supreme Court on June 10, 1916,^[6] to be the Republican candidate for President in 1916. He was also endorsed by the Progressive Party.^[7] Hughes was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in a close election (separated by 23 electoral votes and 594,188 popular votes). The election hinged on California, where Wilson managed to win by 3,800 votes and its 13 electoral votes and thus Wilson was returned for a second term; Hughes had lost the endorsement of the California governor when he failed to show up for an appointment with him.

Hughes returned to public law practice, again at his old firm, Hughes, Rounds, Schurman & Dwight, today known as Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.

Secretary of State

Hughes' residence in 1921

Hughes returned to government office in 1921 as Secretary of State under President Harding. As Secretary of State, in 1921 he convened the Washington Naval Conference for the limitation of naval armament among the Great Powers. He continued in office after Harding died and was succeeded by Coolidge, but resigned after Coolidge was elected to a full term. In 1922, June 30, he signed the Hughes–Peynado agreement, that ended the occupation of Dominican Republic by the United States (since 1916).^[8]

Various appointments

In 1907, Gov. Charles Evans Hughes became the first president of newly formed Northern Baptist Convention. He also served as President of the New York State Bar Association.

After leaving the State Department, he again rejoined his old partners at the Hughes firm, which included his son and future United States Solicitor General Charles E. Hughes, Jr., and was one of the nation's most sought-after advocates. From 1925 to 1930, for example, Hughes argued over 50 times before the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1926 to 1930, Hughes also served as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and as a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague, Netherlands from 1928 to 1930. He was additionally a delegate to the Pan American Conference on Arbitration and Conciliation from 1928 to 1930. He was one of the co-founders in 1927 of the National Conference on Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), along with S. Parkes Cadman and others, to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism in the 1920s and 1930s.^[9]

In 1928 conservative business interests tried to interest Hughes in the GOP presidential nomination of 1928 instead of Herbert Hoover. Hughes, citing his age, turned down the offer.

Chief Justice

Portrait of Hughes as Chief Justice.

Herbert Hoover, who had appointed Hughes' son as Solicitor General in 1929, appointed Hughes Chief Justice of the United States in 1930, in which capacity he served until 1941. Hughes replaced former President William Howard Taft, a fellow Republican who had also lost a presidential election to Woodrow Wilson (in 1912) and who, in 1910, had appointed Hughes to his first tenure on the Supreme Court.

His appointment was opposed by progressive elements in both parties who felt that he was too friendly to big business. Idaho Republican William E. Borah said on the United States Senate floor that confirming Hughes would constitute "placing upon the Court as Chief Justice one whose views are known upon these vital and important questions and whose views, in my opinion, however sincerely entertained, are not which ought to be incorporated in and made a permanent part of our legal and economic system."^[10] Nonetheless Hughes was confirmed as Chief Justice with a vote of 52 to 26.

In 1937 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to pack the Court with five additional justices, Hughes worked behind the scenes to defeat the effort, which failed in the Senate.^[11] He wrote the opinion for the Court in Near v. Minnesota 283 U.S. 697 (1931), which held that prior restraints against the press are unconstitutional. At first resisting President Roosevelt's New Deal and building a consensus of centrist members of the court, he used his influence to limit the liberal scope Roosevelt's changes. He was often aligned with Justices Louis Brandeis, Harlan Fiske Stone and Benjamin Cardozo in finding some New Deal measures to be Constitutional. Although he wrote the opinion invalidating the National Recovery Administration in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States 295 U.S. 495 (1935), he wrote the opinions for the Court in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. 301 U.S. 1 (1937), NLRB v. Friedman-Harry Marks Clothing Co., 301 U.S. 58 (1937), and West Coast Hotel v. Parrish 300 U.S. 379 (1937) which looked favorably on New Deal measures.^[12]

During Hughes' service as Chief Justice, the Supreme Court moved from its former quarters at the U.S. Capitol to the newly constructed Supreme Court building; the construction of the Supreme Court building had been authorized by Congress during President Taft's service as Chief Justice.

Hughes wrote twice as many constitutional opinions as any of his court's other members. "His opinions, in the view of one commentator, were concise and admirable, placing Hughes in the pantheon of great justices."^[13]

His "remarkable intellectual and social gifts . . . made him a superb leader and administrator. He had a photographic memory that few, if any, of his colleagues could match. Yet he was generous, kind, and forebearing in an institution where egos generally come in only one size: extra large!"^[13]

Later life

The grave of Charles Evans Hughes in Woodlawn Cemetery.

For many years, he was a member of the Union League Club of New York and served as its president from 1917 to 1919.

On August 27, 1948, Hughes died in Osterville, Massachusetts. His remains are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.^[14]

Tributes

Charles Evans Hughes House, a National Historic Landmark

• Hughes Hall, located at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is a residence dorm.
• The Charles Evans Hughes House, now the Burmese ambassador's residence, in Washington, D.C. was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972. Hughes lived in the home from 1930 until his death in 1948.
• Most his papers are in the collection of the manuscript division of the Library of Congress.^[15] However other items that could be involved in research are at various institutions around the country.^[16]
• Charles Evans Hughes Junior High School (of Woodland Hills, California, now closed) was named in his honor, as was the Hughes Range in Antarctica.
• Charles Evans Hughes High School (of New York City) was named in his honor. It was later renamed High School for the Humanities.
• Hughes Hall is a dormitory at the Cornell Law School, where he once taught.
• Charles Evans Hughes Middle School in Long Beach, California, was named in his honor.
• A bust length portrait of Hughes by the Swiss-born American portrait painter Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) is in the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing, Michigan. It was accessioned by them in 1939-1940, but probably acquired earlier.
• The New York City Bar Association has a room named after Charles Evans Hughes. Two portraits of Mr. Hughes are hung in this room as well as one of his son, Charles Evans Hughes Jr.
• The Union League Club of New York, of which Hughes was once president, dedicated the Hughes Room in his honor featuring a portrait of Hughes.
• Hughes Court, an area of the Wriston Quadrangle at Brown University is named for him.

See also

Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office

List of United States Chief Justices by time in office United States Supreme Court cases during the Hughes Court United States Supreme Court cases during the White Court United States Constitution, Separation of powers

References

1. ^ "Federal Judicial Center: Charles Evans Hughes". 2009-12-12. http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=1113. Retrieved 2009-12-12. 
2. ^ Clinton Rossiter, Conservatism in America (1962) p. 174
3. ^ Elizabeth Hughes: Fifty-eight years on animal-insulin
4. ^ Schizer, David M. "Welcoming the J.D. Class of 2014", address at Columbia Law School, August 2011, p. 4
5. ^ Nation quoted in Samuel Hendel, Charles Evans Hughes and the Supreme Court (New York: King's Crown Press, 1951), 15, quoted at The History Cooperative
6. ^ Supreme Court of the United States Accessed December 13, 2007.
7. ^ Eisler, a Justice for All, page 39, ISBN 0-671-76787-9
8. ^ Calder, Bruce J. (1984). The impact of intervention: the Dominican Republic during the U.S. occupation of 1916-1924. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 223. ISBN 9781558763869. http://books.google.com/books?id=YFdkfzVaEa8C&pg=PA223. Retrieved 22 September 2011. 
9. ^ "National Conference for Community and Justice". http://www.faithstreams.com/topics/members-and-partners/national-conference-for-community-and-justice.html. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 
10. ^ Wittes, Benjamin. Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times (Rowman & Littlefield 2006), p. 50
11. ^ Jeff Shesol, Supreme power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court (2010) pp. 394–7
12. ^ Felix Frankfurter was not fooled. He wrote to Harlan Fiske Stone of Hughes, "When I see how a synthetic halo is being fitted upon the head of one of the most politically calculating of men, it makes me in the sanctified language of the old gentleman 'puke.'" Schizer, David M. "Welcoming the J.D. Class of 2014", address at Columbia Law School, August 2011, p. 5
13. ^ ^{a b} Charles Evans Hughes, Official Supreme Court media at Oyez project
14. ^ Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook Supreme Court Historical Society at Internet Archive.
15. ^ Library of Congress, Charles Evans Hughes collection.
16. ^ Federal Judicial Center, Hughes Reference materials.

Further reading

• The Recall of Justice Hughes (May, 1916) The World's Work.
• Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed. (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
• Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,1789-1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 1568021267; ISBN 9781568021263.
• Frank, John P., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers, 1995) ISBN 0791013774, ISBN 978-0791013779.
• Glad, Betty, Charles Evans Hughes and the illusions of innocence: A study in American diplomacy (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1966).
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0195058356; ISBN 9780195058352.
• Martin, Fenton S. and Goehlert, Robert U., The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography, (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990). ISBN 0871875543.
• Perkins, Dexter, Charles Evans Hughes and American democratic statesmanship (Boston: Little, Brown, 1956).
• Pusey, Merlo J., Charles Evans Hughes, 2 vol. (New York: Macmillan, 1951).. the standard scholarly biography
• Ross, William G., The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930-1941 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2007) ISBN 1570036799, ISBN 978-1570036799.
• Shesol, Jeff. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court (W.W. Norton, 2010)
• Urofsky, Melvin I., The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp. ISBN 0815311761; ISBN 978-0815311768.
• Wesser, Robert F., Charles Evans Hughes: Politics and reform in New York, 1905-1910 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967).

External links

New York portal

• Grave of Charles Evans Hughes at Find a Grave
• "Mr. Hughes Goes to War" (An alternate history where Hughes is elected President of the United States in 1916)
• The Hughes Court at Supreme Court Historical Society.

Archives

• Judge Manuscript Information: Charles Evans Hughes. List of archives with documents via Judges of the United States Courts. Retrieved April 15, 2005.
• Archives at the Supreme Court Historical Society

Legal opinions as Chief Justice

• Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697 (1931).
• Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935).
• NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937).
• West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937)

Books

• Addresses of Charles Evans Hughes, 1906–1916; with an introduction

Political offices
Preceded by Frank W. Higgins	Governor of New York 1907–1910	Succeeded by Horace White
Preceded by Bainbridge Colby	United States Secretary of State Served under: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge March 4, 1921 – March 4, 1925	Succeeded by Frank B. Kellogg
Legal offices
Preceded by David Josiah Brewer	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States October 10, 1910 – June 10, 1916	Succeeded by John Hessin Clarke
Preceded by William Howard Taft	Chief Justice of the United States February 13, 1930 – June 30, 1941	Succeeded by Harlan Fiske Stone
Party political offices
Preceded by William Howard Taft	Republican Party presidential candidate 1916	Succeeded by Warren G. Harding
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by Lawson Purdy	President of the National Municipal League 1919–1921	Succeeded by Henry M. Waite
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Alfonso XIII of Spain	Cover of Time Magazine 29 December 1924	Succeeded by Juan Belmonte

Persondata
Name	Hughes, Charles Evans
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 11, 1862
Place of birth	Glens Falls, New York, U.S.
Date of death	August 27, 1948
Place of death	Osterville, Massachusetts, U.S.