Jeremiah S. Black

Jeremiah Black
Portrait by Mathew Brady, c. 1870-1880
6th United States Supreme Court Reporter
In office 1861–1862
Preceded by	Benjamin Howard
Succeeded by	John Wallace
23rd United States Secretary of State
In office December 17, 1860 – March 5, 1861
President	James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	Lewis Cass
Succeeded by	William Seward
24th United States Attorney General
In office March 6, 1857 – December 16, 1860
President	James Buchanan
Preceded by	Caleb Cushing
Succeeded by	Edwin Stanton
Personal details
Born	Jeremiah Sullivan Black (1810-01-10)January 10, 1810 Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S. (new Glades)
Died	August 19, 1883(1883-08-19) (aged 73) York, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mary Forward (1836–1883)
Children	4, including Chauncey
Signature

Jeremiah Sullivan Black (January 10, 1810 – August 19, 1883) was an American statesman and lawyer. He served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1851–1857) and as the Court's Chief Justice (1851–1854). He also served in the Cabinet of President James Buchanan, first as Attorney General (1857–1860), and then Secretary of State (1860–1861).

Early life

Jeremiah S. Black was born on January 10, 1810, in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, near Dauphin, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Representative Henry Black and Mary (Sullivan) Black. Jeremiah Black was largely self-educated before beginning to study law with Chauncey Forward. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar before he was 21. He gradually became one of the leading American lawyers, and was a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1851–57), serving as Chief Justice (1851–54).

James Buchanan's Cabinet (1857–1861)

The Buchanan Cabinet, c. 1859: (From left to right) Jacob Thompson, Lewis Cass, John B. Floyd, James Buchanan, Howell Cobb, Isaac Toucey, Joseph Holt, and Jeremiah Black

President Buchanan's 1861 letter nominating Jeremiah Black to the U.S. Supreme Court

In 1857, he joined the administration of James Buchanan as the Attorney General. In this capacity, he successfully contested the validity of the California land claims to about 19,000 square miles (49,000 km²) of land, fraudulently alleged to have been granted to land-grabbers and others by the Mexican government prior to the close of the Mexican–American War.

When Secretary of State Lewis Cass resigned in December 1860, Black was appointed to replace him, serving from December 17, 1860, to the end of Buchanan's term on March 4, 1861. Black successfully urged the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as his successor as Attorney General.

Black was perhaps the most influential of President Buchanan's official advisers too, during the secession crisis. He denied the constitutionality of secession, and urged that Fort Sumter be properly reinforced and defended. However, he also argued that a state could not be legally coerced by the Federal government.

On February 5, 1861, President Buchanan nominated him for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States; but a February 21 motion to proceed to consider the nomination was defeated 25–26, and it lapsed at the end of the 36th Congress. Subsequently, Black was named Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position he held for two years. After publishing the reports for 1861 and 1862 (U.S. 66–67), he resigned and devoted himself almost exclusively to his private law practice.

Later life

After the Civil War, he vigorously opposed the Congressional plan for Reconstruction and drafted President Andrew Johnson's message vetoing the Reconstruction Act passed on March 2, 1867; the veto was overridden. Black was also briefly part of the president's defense team at the outset of his 1868 impeachment trial before the United States Senate.

From 1866 to 1868, Black sought U.S. recognition of his clients' Guano Islands Act claim on Alto Velo Island, which was disputed by the Dominican Republic.

Later, from 1869 to 1876, Black served with Montgomery Blair and Matthew H. Carpenter as Counsel for U.S. Secretary of War William W. Belknap, who in 1876 was impeached on a charge of corruption. Black also represented Samuel J. Tilden during the contest for the presidency between Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. He died on August 19, 1883, at the age of 73, and was buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in York, Pennsylvania.

Family

On March 23, 1836, Black married the former Mary Forward (March 24, 1819 – February 24, 1897). They had four children, Rebekah Black, Chauncey Black, Henry Black, Jr., and Mary Sullivan Black.

References

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Black, Jeremiah Sullivan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 18.

Further reading

• Brigance, William Norwood. Jeremiah Sullivan Black: a defender of the Constitution and the Ten commandments (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017) online.
• Buchanan, John G. "JEREMIAH S. BLACK—THE ADVOCATE." Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 14.1 (1947): 35-40. online
• Thorpe, Francis Newton. "Jeremiah S. Black." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 50.2 (1926): 117-133. online

Primary sources

• Black, C. F., Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black, with a Biographical Sketch, New York: 1885. online
• Clayton, Mary Black. Reminiscences of Jeremiah Sullivan Black (1887) online.

External links

• Works by or about Jeremiah S. Black at the Internet Archive