Benjamin Robbins Curtis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Benjamin Robbins Curtis
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office October 10, 1851 – September 30, 1857
Nominated by	Millard Fillmore
Preceded by	Levi Woodbury
Succeeded by	Nathan Clifford
Personal details
Born	(1809-11-04)November 4, 1809 Watertown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	September 15, 1874(1874-09-15) (aged 64) Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political party	Whig (before 1854) Republican (1854–1862) Democratic (1863–1874)
Spouses	Eliza Woodward ​ ​ (m. 1833; died 1844)​ Anna Scolley ​ ​ (m. 1846; died 1860)​ Maria Allen ​ (m. 1861)​
Children	12
Education	Harvard University (BA, LLB)

Benjamin Robbins Curtis (born November 4, 1809 – died September 15, 1874) was an important American lawyer and judge. He served as an Associate Justice on the highest court in the United States from 1851 to 1857.

Curtis was the only Supreme Court justice ever to be a member of the Whig Party. He was also the first justice on the Supreme Court to have a formal law degree. He is best known for being one of two judges who disagreed with the majority decision in the famous Dred Scott v. Sandford case in 1857.

After leaving the Supreme Court in 1857, Curtis went back to being a private lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, in 1868, he was the main lawyer defending President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial.

Early Life and Education

Benjamin Curtis was born on November 4, 1809, in Watertown, Massachusetts. His father, Benjamin Curtis, was a captain of a merchant vessel, which is a ship that carries goods for trade.

Young Benjamin went to school in Newton. In 1825, he started attending Harvard College. He was a very good student and won an essay writing contest during his third year. He graduated from Harvard in 1829. He then went on to study law at Harvard Law School and graduated in 1832.

Starting His Law Career

After finishing law school, Curtis became a lawyer in Massachusetts in 1832. In 1834, he moved to Boston. There, he joined a law firm and became very good at two types of law:

• Admiralty law: This deals with legal issues on the sea, like shipping and navigation.
• Patent law: This protects new inventions and ideas.

The Commonwealth v. Aves Case

In 1836, Curtis was part of a very important court case called Commonwealth v. Aves. This case was about a young enslaved girl named Med. Med's owner, Mary Slater, brought her from New Orleans to Boston to visit her father, Thomas Aves.

While in Boston, Mary Slater became ill. She asked her father, Thomas Aves, to take care of Med. However, a group called the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society argued that Med should be free. They said that because Med was brought voluntarily into Massachusetts, a free state, she should no longer be enslaved.

The highest court in Massachusetts, led by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, agreed. They ruled that Med was free. This decision was very important because it said that any enslaved person brought voluntarily into a free state became free the moment they arrived. This was a new idea at the time and caused a lot of debate, especially in states where slavery was legal.

Even though Curtis defended the Aves family in this case, his role as a lawyer did not mean he agreed with slavery. Years later, he would strongly oppose slavery in the famous Dred Scott case.

Becoming a Public Figure

Curtis became a member of the Harvard Corporation in 1846. This is one of the main groups that govern Harvard University. In 1849, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, which is part of the state government.

He led a committee that worked to improve how courts worked in Massachusetts. They created a new law called the Massachusetts Practice Act of 1851. This law was seen as a great example of how to make courts better and was passed without any changes.

At this time, many people thought Curtis was one of the best lawyers in New England. He was known for making strong and clear legal arguments. Because he was a Whig and his party was in power, he was seen as a rising star.

Serving on the Supreme Court

Portrait of Benjamin R. Curtis

On September 22, 1851, President Millard Fillmore chose Benjamin Curtis to become a justice on the United States Supreme Court. This happened because Justice Levi Woodbury had passed away. A powerful senator from Massachusetts, Daniel Webster, helped convince President Fillmore to pick Curtis.

The United States Senate officially approved Curtis on December 20, 1851. He received his official appointment the same day. In 1854, he was also chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Curtis was special because he was the first Supreme Court Justice to have earned a law degree from a law school. Before him, justices either learned law by working with other lawyers (like an apprenticeship) or attended law school without getting a degree.

Important Legal Decisions

One of Curtis's important opinions was in the case of Cooley v. Board of Wardens in 1852. This case was about whether states could make their own laws about certain types of trade, or if only the U.S. Congress could. Curtis decided that states could make laws about trade as long as Congress had not already made a law on that specific topic. This decision is still important today for understanding how power is shared between the federal government and the states.

The Dred Scott Case

Curtis is most famous for his role in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case in 1857. This was one of the most important and controversial cases in American history.

Dred Scott was an enslaved man who sued for his freedom. The Supreme Court's majority decided that:

• Black people, whether enslaved or free, could not be U.S. citizens.
• Therefore, Dred Scott could not sue in federal court.
• Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories.

Benjamin Curtis strongly disagreed with almost everything the majority said. He argued that:

• At the time the U.S. Constitution was written, there were black citizens in both Southern and Northern states. This meant that black people were indeed part of the "people of the United States" mentioned in the Constitution.
• Since the majority had decided that Scott did not have the right to sue (they said he "lacked standing"), the Court should not have gone on to rule on the other parts of Scott's case, like whether Congress could ban slavery.

Why Curtis Resigned

Curtis resigned from the Supreme Court on September 30, 1857, not long after the Dred Scott decision. There were several reasons for his departure:

• He was very frustrated with the tense and difficult atmosphere on the court, especially after the bitter arguments over the Dred Scott case.
• He did not like having to travel a lot for his job, which was required of Supreme Court justices at the time.
• He was not a "team player" and found it hard to work closely with the other justices, especially after the disagreements.
• He also felt that his salary of $6,500 per year was not enough, especially since he could earn much more as a private lawyer.

Back to Private Law Practice

After leaving the Supreme Court, Curtis returned to his law practice in Boston. He quickly became one of the most respected lawyers in the country. Over the next 15 years, he argued many cases before the Supreme Court itself.

Even though he supported President Abraham Lincoln at first, by 1863, Curtis started to criticize Lincoln. He publicly argued that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which declared many enslaved people free, was against the Constitution. Because of this, Lincoln did not consider Curtis for the Chief Justice position when it became open in 1864. In the 1864 presidential election, Curtis supported Lincoln's opponent, George B. McClellan.

Illustration of Senate chamber as Curtis, acting as counsel to President Andrew Johnson, talks on March 23, 1868, during the impeachment trial of Johnson

Defending President Andrew Johnson

In 1868, Benjamin Curtis took on another very famous case: he was the main defense lawyer for President Andrew Johnson during Johnson's impeachment trial. Impeachment is when a government official is accused of wrongdoing and put on trial by the legislature.

Curtis played a key role in the trial. He read the President's official response to the accusations, which he had largely written himself. His opening speech to the United States Senate lasted two days. He argued successfully that an impeachment trial should be treated like a regular court case, requiring full evidence and legal arguments, not just a political decision. This idea influenced every impeachment trial that followed.

After the trial, President Johnson offered Curtis the job of U.S. Attorney General, the chief lawyer for the U.S. government. But Curtis turned down the offer.

In 1873, when the Chief Justice position became open again, many people thought Curtis would be a great choice. However, President Ulysses S. Grant chose someone else. In 1874, Curtis ran for U.S. senator from Massachusetts as a Democrat, but he did not win. From the time he left the Supreme Court until his death, he earned a lot of money from his law practice, about $650,000.

Personal Life

Benjamin Curtis was married three times and had 12 children.

Death and Legacy

Curtis's gravesite

Benjamin Robbins Curtis died in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 15, 1874. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

His daughter, Annie Wroe Scollay Curtis, later married Seth Low in 1880. Seth Low became the President of Columbia University and also the Mayor of New York City.

See also