Bushrod Washington

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Bushrod Washington
BushrodWashington.jpg
Washington in 1828. Currently in the National Portrait Gallery
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
December 20, 1798 – November 26, 1829
Nominated byJohn Adams
Preceded byJames Wilson
Succeeded byHenry Baldwin
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Westmoreland County
In office
October 15, 1787 – June 23, 1788
Serving with Richard Lee
Preceded byDaniel McCarty
Succeeded byWilliam A. Washington
Personal details
Born(1762-06-05)June 5, 1762
Mount Holly, Virginia, British America
DiedNovember 26, 1829(1829-11-26) (aged 67)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyFederalist
Spouse(s)Julia Anne (Anna) Blackburn
ParentsJohn Augustine Washington
Hannah Bushrod
RelativesWashington family
EducationCollege of William and Mary (BA)
Bushrod Washington memorial at Mount Vernon (2014)

Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Washington was a co-founder and president of the American Colonization Society, which promoted the emigration of freed slaves to Africa. The nephew of American founding father and President George Washington, he inherited his uncle's papers and Mount Vernon, taking possession in 1802 after the death of Martha Washington, his uncle's widow, and with Marshall's help, published a biography of the first president.

Early life[]

Bushrod Washington was born on June 5, 1762, at Bushfield Manor, a plantation located at Mount Holly in Westmoreland County, Virginia.[1][2] He was a son of John Augustine Washington (1736–1787), the brother of George Washington, and John's wife, Hannah Bushrod (1735–1801).[2][3] He had a younger brother and two older sisters, all of whom married into the First Families of Virginia. Corbin Washington (1765-1799) would marry Hannah Lee and have three sons to carry on the family name, including Bushrod C. Washington who would serve in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Jefferson County three decades later, as well as two daughters who survived childhood. His eldest daughter Jane ("Jenny") Washington (1755-1791) became the first of three wives of then-Capt. William Augustine Washington (1757-1810) in 1777 and bore four sons (one named after this uncle, 1785-1831) who reached adulthood and two daughters. Her sister Mildred Corbin Washington Lee (1760-1796) married Col. Thomas Jesse Lee and moved to his plantation near Nokesville in Prince William County.

Education[]

Bushrod Washington received his initial classical schooling from a private tutor who also taught the children of Richard Henry Lee, who lived nearby in Westmoreland County.[4] He then traveled to Williamsburg for further studies and despite some school closures related to the American Revolutionary War and British raids nearby, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1778, although only 16 years old. He returned in 1780 to study law under George Wythe and during that time as an alumnus became the 41st member of Phi Beta Kappa.[5]

Washington returned to Williamsburg to take a three month law course with George Wythe in the summer of 1780 and became acquainted with young veteran John Marshall, who was taking a six week course from Wythe, Washington soon would enlist in the war's final campaign, as discussed below.[6] Although his friend Marshall was already practicing law in Virginia, after that military service, Bushrod's traveled to Philadelphia for further legal studies (financed by his uncle the President) under James Wilson, then a prominent lawyer and soon to be Supreme Court justice and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.[7][8]

Military service[]

The College of William and Mary had been occupied by soldiers several times during the American Revolutionary War. Washington joined a cavalry unit of the Continental Army during 1781, serving under Col. John Francis Mercer. Though he remained a private until the war ended the following year and the troop disbanded, he saw action at the Battle of Green Spring.[9][10][11][12]

Early legal career[]

After concluding his studies with Wilson in April 1784, the young Washington returned to Westmoreland County, and opened a law office.[13] He continued his private legal practice from 1784 to 1798.[10] In 1789, he and his new bride moved into a newly constructed house at 521 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, which may have been built as a wedding present, and which he kept as one of his residences for decades.[14]

Marriage[]

Bushrod Washington married Julia Anne (Anna) Blackburn, the daughter of Col. Thomas Blackburn of Prince William County, Virginia and a former aide de camp to General Washington, but they had no children.

Other memberships[]

In 1805 Washington was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.[15] He was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society in 1813, a year after the Society's founding in 1812.[16]

Political, legal and judicial careers[]

Westmoreland County voters elected Washington as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1787, where he served along with veteran Richard Henry Lee.[17][1] The following year, he won another election and attended the Virginia Ratifying Convention (this time alongside Henry Lee),[18] where he voted for ratification of the US Constitution.[19] In 1789 he published a two-volume Reports of the Virginia Court of Appeals, 1790-96, and a three decades later, with R. Peters, published decisions of the United States Court for the Third Circuit, 1803-27 in four volumes.[20]

On September 29, 1798, President John Adams gave Washington a recess appointment to the seat on the US Supreme Court vacated by his mentor, the late James Wilson (future Chief Justice John Marshall had declined the appointment in order to seek an elective office).[10][11] Formally nominated on December 18, 1798, Washington was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 20, 1798, and received his commission the same day.[10]

Washington was sworn in as an associate justice on February 4, 1799, at the age of 36.[1] After Marshall became Chief Justice two years later, Washington voted with Marshall on all but three occasions (one being Ogden v. Saunders).[21] Washington served on the Supreme Court until his death in 1829.[10]

While serving on the Marshall Court, Washington authored the opinion of Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Fed. Cas. 546 (C.C.E.D. Penn. 1823), while riding circuit as an Associate Justice.[22] In Corfield, Washington listed several rights that he deemed were fundamental "privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."[23]

Planter and American Colonization Society president[]

By 1787, the year of his father's death and a Virginia tax census, Washington owned land, 9 adult and 25 child slaves in Westmoreland County (all supervised by an overseer), as well as 9 horses (including stud horses), 59 cattle and 6 carriage wheels.[24] He also owned 9 adult and 4 child slaves in Berkeley County (that became West Virginia after the American Civil War) and his brother Corbin (the other main beneficiary of J.A. Washington's will) owned 27 adult and 26 child slaves there, as well as 17 horses including a stud horse and 40 cattle.[25]

Around 1795, Washington purchased Belvidere, the former Richmond estate of William Byrd III. While the reporter for Virginia's appellate court, Washington primarily lived in Richmond, but relinquished Belvidere upon being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1798.[26]

Upon his aunt Martha Washington's death in 1802, Bushrod Washington inherited all of George Washington's papers as well the largest part of his estate, including the Mount Vernon plantation, according to the terms of his late uncle's will.[27] By George Washington's will, George's slaves were to be freed after his wife Martha died, as she had the use of them during her lifetime.[28] However, Martha signed a deed of manumission in 1800 and freed the slaves before her death.[28]

Thus, when Bushrod Washington and his wife moved to Mount Vernon in 1802, he brought his own slaves there.[1][29] He also brought a free mulatto named West Ford, born in Westmoreland County in 1784, and who would become the overseer of house slaves at Mount Vernon, as well as protect George Washington's house and tomb from the British in the War of 1812 (and from many visitors before and after the conflict). Although Ford's mother was clearly Venus, a slave owned by Bushrod's mother, who died in 1801 and freed him in her will, the precise identify of his white father is unknown,[30] only that his grandson, George W. Ford, born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1847 would become a Buffalo soldier and the first African American national cemetery superintendent.[31]

The Mount Vernon estate had not included much cash, and Washington found that he was unable to support elderly freed slaves as required by his late uncle's will, as well as to maintain the plantation's mansion on the proceeds from the property and his Supreme Court salary.[32] Over time, Washington sold many slaves, claiming that he could thereby support the main house, property, and elderly freed slaves.[32] As Justice Story noted, the mansion appeared deteriorated when he visited his colleague.[33][34] However, other visitors to the American South also noticed many examples of property deterioration there, especially compared to the Northern States, including Philip Fithian (who tutored the children of Councilor Robert Carter in Westmoreland County in 1773-1774, but whose letters were not published until the 20th Century), Alexis de Tocqueville (who toured the county in 1831 and wrote about the subject in 1835 and again in 1855) and Frederick Law Olmstead (who toured the South from 1852 until 1857, publishing dispatches in the New York Daily Times which were collected and republished in 1856, 1857 and 1860).

Bushrod Washington helped found the American Colonization Society at the in Washington, D.C. on December 21, 1816, became its national president, and remained so until his death in 1829 (with Chief Justice John Marshall joining the organization as a life member shortly after its founding and becoming president of its Richmond branch).[35][33] In the 1810 census, the Mt. Vernon plantation included 71 slaves,[36] and one of his two nephews of the same name also owned slaves in Fairfax County. A decade later, Bushrod Washington owned 83 slaves at Mt. Vernon.[37] His practice of selling slaves to support Mount Vernon's upkeep or his own lifestyle angered abolitionists, who questioned why the ACS president could not set an example by freeing his slaves, as had his uncle George Washington.[32][33] Some believed that he should have sent his freed slaves to Liberia.[32]

In particular, Hezekiah Niles in his nationally distributed Weekly Register questioned Washington's sale of 54 slaves from Mount Vernon in 1821, and reprinted a letter Judge Washington had sent to the editor of a Baltimore federalist paper on the subject, as well as an August article in a Leesburg, Virginia paper which noted a "drove of 100 negroes" were walked westward through the town the previous Saturday. Washington responded in print several times, advising that he had sold 54 slaves the previous March for $10,000 for use on plantations in Louisiana's Red River area, and the contract promised families would not be broken up. Niles questioned the justice of the action, insisted that he was not disrespecting the judge, and did not discuss the economics of shipping from the port of Alexandria compared to the lengthy foot journey the coffle was undertaking. Washington insisted the sale economically justified by the economics of plantation management, insubordination of the slaves and likelihood that more would escape northward.[38]

Death and legacy[]

Washington family tomb at Mount Vernon in 2014. Bushrod Washington's remains are interred in a vault at the rear of the tomb. His memorial is the obelisk at the right side of the photograph.

Washington died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1829, while riding circuit.[1][10] His wife died two days later while transporting his body for burial.[39][1][40] Both are interred in a vault within the Washington family tomb at Mount Vernon.[40] An obelisk erected in front of the tomb memorializes Bushrod and his wife.[40][41]

In 1858, Horace Binney privately printed a short encomium.[42][43]

Coat of arms of the Washington family.

Because of his role in the ACS and his assistance in founding the Republic of Liberia, Bushrod Island near the national capital of Monrovia was named for him.[44]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Bushrod Washington". Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia. Jerry Goldman. Archived from the original on January 13, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2020..
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Wayland, John Walter (1944). The Washingtons and Their Homes. Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield. p. 125. ISBN 0806347759. OCLC 39055916 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ (1) "Hannah Bushrod". Ancestry. 2016. Archived from the original on January 23, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2016..
    (2) "George Washington's Family Chart". Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2016..
  4. ^ Claire Cushman, "Bushrod Washington, 1799-1829" The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies 1789-1993 (Congressional Quarterly for the Supreme Court Historical Society 1993 ISBN=0871877236) p. 51
  5. ^ (1) Vorhees, Oscar M., ed. (1919). "The Phi Beta Kappa Key: The Official Publication of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa". 4 (1). Somerville, New Jersey: Unionist-Gazette: 112–113 – via Google Books. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
    (2) Smith, Jean Edward (1996). John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 554. ISBN 9781466862319. OCLC 874903389 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Lawrence B. Custer, Bushrod Washington and John Marshall, 4 Am.J. Legal Hist 34, 36-38 (1960) A Marshall biographer indicates Marshall recruited soldiers around this time, as well as was admitted to the bar in August and began a legal practice in Fauquier County.
  7. ^ Custer pp. 37-38
  8. ^ Cushman p. 52
  9. ^ Cushman p.52
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Washington, Bushrod". History of the Federal Judiciary: Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020..
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Hall, Timothy L. (2001). Bushrod Washington. Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Facts on File, Inc. pp. 39–42. ISBN 9781438108179. OCLC 234179292 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1915). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing. pp. Vol. II, p 83.
  13. ^ Fister, Jude M. (2014). America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7864-7921-4. OCLC 859384941 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Alexandria Times July 15, 2021 and 1988 article in clippings file not brought to this library.
  15. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  16. ^ "Members". Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society. 2020. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020..
  17. ^ Cynthia Leonard Miller, Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library) p. 166
  18. ^ Leonard p. 174
  19. ^ Grigsby, Hugh Blair (1890). Brock, R.A. (ed.). The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788 With Some Account of the Eminent Virginians of that Era who were Members of the Body. Collections of the Virginia Historical Society. New Series. Volume IX. 1. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. pp. 344–346. OCLC 41680515 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Tyler p. 83
  21. ^ Cushman, Clare: Supreme Court Historical Society, ed. (2013). Bushrod Washington. The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–2012 (3rd ed.). CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications. p. 47. ISBN 9781608718320. OCLC 832697340 – via Google Books.
  22. ^ Thayer, James Bradley (1894). Cases on constitutional law: With notes, Part 2. C.W. Sever. pp. 453–56 – via Google Books.
  23. ^ "All Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the Several States". Justia: US Law. 2015. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015..
  24. ^ Schreiner-Yantis p. 1125
  25. ^ Schreiner-Yantis p. 1439
  26. ^ Dabney, Virginius (1990). Richmond: The Story of a City: Revised and Expanded Edition. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. p. 19. ISBN 0813912741. OCLC 20263021 – via Google Books.
  27. ^ (1) Fister, Jude M. (2014). America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7864-7921-4. OCLC 859384941 – via Google Books.
    (2) Lossing, Benson J. (1870). "The Home of Washington; Or, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial". Hartford, Connecticut: A.S. Hale & Company. p. 350. OCLC 1593086 – via Google Books.
    (3) Washington, George. "George Washington's Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799". Founders Online. National Archives. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020. To my nephew Bushrod Washington, I give and bequeath all the Papers in my possession which relate to my Civil and Military Administration of the affairs of this Country; I leave to him also such of my private papers as are worth preserving; and at the decease of my wife, and before; if she is not inclined to retain them, I give and bequeath my Library of books, and pamphlets of every kind. ..... To my nephew Bushrod Washington and his heirs (partly in consideration of an intimation to his deceased father, while we were Bachelors, & he had kindly undertaken to superintend my Estate during my Military Services in the former War between Great Britain and France, that if I should fall therein, Mount Vernon (then less extensive in domain than at present) should become his property) I give and bequeath all that part thereof which is comprehended within the following limits, ..... [Original source: Abbot, W. W., ed. (1999). The Papers of George Washington. Retirement Series. 4: 20 April 1799 — 13 December 1799. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. pp. 479–511. ISBN 0813918553. LCCN 97006770. OCLC 985598820.]
    (4) "George Washington's Last Will and Testament". The Papers of George Washington. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia: washingtonpapers.org. July 9, 1799. pp. 14, 19, 20, 21. Archived from the original (Manuscript) on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020..
    (5) Smith, M. Earl. "Bushrod Washington". Digital Encyclopedia. Mount Vernon, Virginia: George Washington's Mount Vernon. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016..
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b (1) "George Washington and Slavery". George Washington's Mount Vernon: Digital Encyclopedia. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. 2015. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015..
    (2) Washington, George (July 9, 1799). "The Last Will & Testament of George Washington" (PDF). Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: National Humanities Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 26, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2020. Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will & desire that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom.. [Source: Abbot, W. W., ed. (1999). The Papers of George Washington. Retirement Series. 4: 20 April 1799 — 13 December 1799. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. pp. 479–511. ISBN 0813918553. LCCN 97006770. OCLC 985598820.]
  29. ^ Lossing, Benson J. (1870). "The Home of Washington; Or, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial". Hartford, Connecticut: A.S. Hale & Company. p. 351. OCLC 1593086 – via Google Books.
  30. ^ Henry S. Robinson, Who was West Ford?, 66 Journal of Negro History No.2, p. 167 (Summer 1981), available on JSTOR
  31. ^ http:\\blogs.va.gov/VAntage/45829/buffalo-soldier-makes-history-serving-as-superintendent-of-va-cemeteries/
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Fister, Jude M. (2014). America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-7864-7921-4. OCLC 859384941 – via Google Books.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b c Dunne, Gerald. "Bushrod Washington and The Mount Vernon Slaves". 1980 Yearbook. Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on October 9, 2002. Retrieved November 30, 2015..
  34. ^ "The Formation of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and the Dramatic Rescue of George Washington's Estate". Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Archived from the original on December 29, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  35. ^ Paul C., Finkelman (2018). Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the nation's highest court. Harvard University Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-674-05121-8.
  36. ^ 1810 U.S. Federal Census for Fairfax County, Virginia p. 88 of 91
  37. ^ Fifteen boys under 14 years old and 16 girls, 10 males and 7 females between 14 and 25, 7 males and 5 females between 26 and 44, and 7 males and 11 females older than 45 in 1820 U.S. Federal Census for Truro Parish, Fairfax County Virginia p. 15 of 15
  38. ^ Dunne article archived from 1980 Supreme Court Historical Society
  39. ^ Binney p. 24
  40. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Burials at Mount Vernon". Digital Encyclopedia. Mount Vernon, Virginia: George Washington's Mount Vernon. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2015..
  41. ^ (1) "Tomb". Digital Encyclopedia. Mount Vernon, Virginia: George Washington's Mount Vernon. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2020. The marble shafts in front of the Tomb were erected to the memory of Bushrod Washington and his nephew, John Augustine Washington, the next proprietor of Mount Vernon. Both are buried in the inner vault..
    (2) "Washington Family Tomb at Mount Vernon". Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books. Merrifield, Virginia: Fairfax Genealogical Society. 2016. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016. Two large marble obelisks which stand in front of the new vault were erected as memorials to the private owners of Mount Vernon after George Washington's death. Both shafts were carved by "A. Gaddis Fecit. Balto": Within the vault Lie buried the mortal remains of Bushrod Washington, An associate Justice, of the Supreme Court of the U. S. He died in Philadelphia, Nov'r 26th 1829; Aged 68 By his side is interred his devoted Wife Anna Blackburn, Who survived her beloved Husband but two days. Aged 60. Judge Washington. Was the Son of John Augustine Washington and the Nephew of Genl George Washington, Who appointed him one of his Executors. And bequeathed him Mount Vernon. As a Judge he was Wise and Just. "A man of Truth, hating covetousness." Firm in every honourable purpose and pursuit, Yet gentle humane and condescending. A sincere Christian, Doing in all things the will of his Master, And resting his hope of eternal happiness, []ove on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This humble Monument to the memory of the venerated Judge and his beloved Wife Is placed here by her Niece the Widow of his nephew. John A. Washington. .....
  42. ^ Tyler p. 83
  43. ^ Binney, Horace (1858). Bushrod Washington. Philadelphia: Printed by C. Sherman & Son. OCLC 183226515 – via Internet Archive.
  44. ^ Starr, Frederick (1913). Liberia: description, history, problems. Chicago: Frederick Starr. p. 9. ISBN 9780598450234. OCLC 6791808 – via Google Books.

Further reading[]

External links[]

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Preceded by
James Wilson 		Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1798–1829 		Succeeded by
Henry Baldwin
 
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