John H. Clifford
John Henry Clifford | |
---|---|
Nathaniel Prentice Banks | |
Preceded by | Rufus Choate |
Succeeded by | Stephen Henry Phillips |
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1835–1839 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Providence, Rhode Island | January 16, 1809
Died | January 2, 1876 (aged 66) New Bedford, Massachusetts |
Political party | Whig Republican |
Spouse | Sarah Parker Allen |
Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Signature | |
John Henry Clifford (January 16, 1809 – January 2, 1876) was an American lawyer and politician from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He served as the state's attorney general for much of the 1850s, retaining the office during administrations dominated by three different political parties. A Whig, he was elected the state's 21st governor, serving a single term from 1853 to 1854. He was the first governor of Massachusetts not born in the state.
As attorney general Clifford gained fame by leading the prosecution in one of the most sensational trials of the 19th century, the Parkman–Webster murder case. The case, where both victim and assailant were from the upper crust of Boston society, featured the first use of forensic dentistry to secure a conviction. During the American Civil War Clifford supported the Union cause, and was involved in unsuccessful maneuvers to prosecute Confederate President Jefferson Davis after the war. In his later years he served as president of the Boston and Providence Railroad.
Early years
John Clifford was born to Benjamin and Achsah (Wade) Clifford in Providence, Rhode Island, on January 16, 1809. He was the sixth of thirteen children.[1] He graduated from Brown University in 1827, read law with Timothy Coffin in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Theron Metcalf in Dedham, Massachusetts, and then opened a law practice in New Bedford. He maintained that practice, sometimes with partners, for the rest of his life.[2] Clifford married Sarah Parker Allen on January 16, 1832.[1] The couple had five children.[3]
In 1835, Clifford was elected to the
Attorney general and governor
The first major case that Clifford prosecuted was for the murder of Boston Brahmin George Parkman, and it was one of the most sensational of the 19th century.[5][7] Parkman had disappeared in November 1849 and Harvard professor John White Webster had been arrested for his murder.[8] The gruesome method of the body's disposal (which was not complete), the fact that it was a capital crime, and the high status of both victim and accused ensured a great deal of public interest in the case, and the courtroom was packed. Clifford's case was complicated by the fact that there was no actual body.[9][10] Assisted by George Bemis, who had been retained by the Parkman family,[11] he resorted instead to dental forensics and strong circumstantial evidence to build the case against Webster.[9] The jury returned a guilty verdict after two and one half hours of deliberation.[12] There was much controversy afterward concerning the jury instructions given by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, but Webster was eventually hanged after confessing the crime. The case has continued to interest legal scholars, in part over allegations that the defense (which included one lawyer lacking significant criminal trial experience) failed to aggressively dispute the evidence presented, and also did not introduce potentially exculpatory evidence.[9][13]
In 1852 the state Whig Party parlayed his popularity in the Parkman case into a nomination for the governorship, which Clifford reluctantly accepted.[5] The race was a difficult one, dominated by the presidential contest and candidate stands on the state's temperance "Maine law". In addition to Whig support, Clifford was nominated by a party opposed to the Maine law, while one of his opponents, Horace Mann, was running with both Free Soil and pro-Maine law nominations. The Whigs had been divided by their reactions to the Compromise of 1850, and the national election (held one week before the state election) saw many Whigs voting for Democrat Franklin Pierce.[14] In a three way race involving Clifford, Mann, and Democrat Henry W. Bishop, Clifford received 45% of the vote. A majority requirement still in effect for popular election, he was elected by the state senate 29–4 over Bishop,[15] although fractious Whigs demanded the replacement of Senator John Davis in exchange for their support for him.[14]
After his single term as governor, Clifford refused to stand for reelection, preferring to work as a lawyer. His successor, Governor
Later political and legal work
The state hired Clifford in 1859 to assist Phillips in prosecuting what turned out to be the final stages of a long-running (200 year) series of issues concerning the state's boundary with Rhode Island.
Clifford was, like other conservative Whigs, politically opposed to the abolitionist movement; he was described by former slave
In 1865 Clifford was chosen to act as one of the special counsels prosecuting former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was to be prosecuted for treason, but for a variety of reasons the charges were eventually dropped after four years of political and legal wrangling. Clifford contributed to a debate in 1866 over the difficulty of prosecuting Davis in Virginia, noting that without essentially packing the jury, a failed prosecution would result in the awkward outcome of a Virginia jury in some sense overturning the outcome of the war.[25] He resigned from these duties in July 1866.[26]
Later years
In 1867 Clifford retired from the legal profession and became president of the
In 1875 Clifford was appointed to a diplomatic commission established pursuant to the 1871
Clifford and Melville
Clifford had a friendly and collegial relationship with Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, who was the father-in-law of writer Herman Melville.[34] Clifford and Melville crossed paths on a number of occasions, most notably on Nantucket in the summer of 1852. On this occasion Clifford recounted to Melville a story about one of his early cases.[35] Melville later wrote him, asking for further details, and Clifford sent Melville journal entries on the case.[36] Melville ended up using the material for Isle of the Cross, a story that was never published.[37]
See also
- 83rd Massachusetts General Court (1862)
Notes
- ^ a b Hurd, p. 12
- ^ Reno, p. 118
- ^ a b c Hurd, p. 14
- ^ a b c d Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ a b c Reno, p. 119
- ^ Boutwell, p. 124
- ^ Johnson, p. 58
- ^ Rogers, pp. 95–96
- ^ a b c Rogers, p. 96
- ^ Johnson, p. 60
- ^ Thomas, p. 203
- ^ Rogers, p. 97
- ^ Johnson, p. 61
- ^ a b Holt, p. 762
- ^ The Massachusetts Register. Vol. 1854. 1852. p. 43.
- ^ Frothingham, p. 54
- ^ Davis (2008), p. 286
- ^ Davis (1895), p. 290
- ^ Cowles, p. 30
- ^ Cowles, pp. 31–33
- ^ Grover, p. 175
- ^ Smith, pp. 62–63
- ^ Smith, p. 121
- ^ a b Hurd, p. 13
- ^ Nichols, pp. 266–268
- ^ Nichols, p. 272
- ^ Winthrop, p. 13
- ^ Sammarco, p. 116
- ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ^ Reno, p. 120
- ^ Moore, pp. 725–727
- ^ Roe, p. 651
- ^ "MACRIS Inventory Record for Gov. John H. Clifford House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
- ^ Parker, p. 2:113
- ^ Parker, p. 2:114
- ^ Parker, pp. 2:115, 120
- ^ Parker, pp. 2:159–161, 202
References
- Boutwell, George S (1902). Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Volume 1. New York: McLure, Phillips. OCLC 497975.
- Cowles, Luther (1902). History of the 5th Massachusetts Battery. Boston: self-published. OCLC 4372514.
- Davis, William (2008) [1900]. History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts. Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange. OCLC 180907884.
- Davis, William (1895). Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Volume 1. Boston, MA: The Boston History Company. OCLC 15711603.
- Frothingham, Louis (1916). A Brief History of the Constitution and Government of Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 54. OCLC 173673108.
- Grover, Kathryn (2009). The Fugitive's Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. OCLC 712133319.
- Holt, Michael (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party : Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 231788473.
- Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1883). History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 1. Philadelphia, PA: J. Lewis & CO. p. 12.
- Johnson, Scott (2011). Trials of the Century. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. OCLC 608297761.
- The Massachusetts Register, Issue 88. Boston: George Adams. 1854. OCLC 5714261.
- Moore, John (1898). History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States has been a Party, Volume 1. Washington, DC: United States Government. OCLC 1543383.
- Nichols, Roy (January 1926). "United States vs. Jefferson Davis, 1865–1869". The American Historical Review. 31 (2): 266–284. JSTOR 1838262.
- Parker, Hershel (2005) [1996]. Herman Melville: A Biography. Baltimore: JHU Press. OCLC 36402083. Two-volume biography of Melville.
- Reno, Conrad (1901). Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar, Volume 2. Boston: Century Memorial Publishing. OCLC 426554681.
- Roe, Arthur (February 1901). "The Governors of Massachusetts". The Bay State Monthly. 25 (6).
- Rogers, Alan (2008). Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. OCLC 137325169.
- Sammarco, Anthony (2004). Boston's Back Bay in the Victorian Era. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing. OCLC 53920526.
- Smith, Adam (2006). No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 781291317.
- Thomas, Brook (1987). Cross-examinations of Law and Literature : Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, and Melville. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 14167683.
- Winthrop, Robert Charles (1877). Memoir of the Hon. John H. Clifford, LL. D. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society. p. 3. OCLC 13638281.