Isaac Toucey Biography

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World of Criminal Justice on Isaac Toucey

Isaac Toucey served as U.S. attorney general from 1848 to 1849 under President James K. Polk. Toucey held a succession of state and federal government posts but his service as attorney general was brief and unremarkable.

Toucey was born on November 5, 1796 in Newton, Massachusetts. As a young man he decided to become a lawyer. At this time attorneys received their education through an apprenticeship rather than through a law school. Toucey worked for a local law firm, performing clerical duties, reading cases and receiving instruction from a senior attorney. After several years of "reading the law," Toucey passed the Connecticut bar exam and was admitted to practice in 1818. He entered a private law practice that year but soon had his sights set on politics and public office. In 1822 he became a local prosecutor, a position he held until 1835.

During these years as a prosecutor, Toucey also became active in the Democratic Party. In 1835 Toucey was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives but he did not like the experience. He returned to Connecticut after two terms, practiced law, and concentrated on state politics. Although he regained his old prosecutor's position, he campaigned and won the race for governor in 1846.

Fellow Democrat, James J. Polk, advanced Toucey's national political ambitions. Elected to the presidency in 1844, Polk took office in March 1845. Almost immediately, the United States became involved in a war with Mexico. The Mexican War of 1845-1846 was fueled, in part, by the desire of the United States to annex Texas. By 1848, Polk had negotiated an agreement with Mexico, which gave the United States not only Texas, but a large part of the Southwest, including California.

The Polk administration was greatly affected by the war, and the position of attorney general provides a good example. Polk's first two attorneys general were reassigned to prosecute the war and negotiate the peace treaty with Mexico. When Nathan Clifford left in 1848 to handle the treaty negotiations, Polk appointed Toucey attorney general. Toucey had less than a year to serve in the post, which at this time remained a part-time position. Moreover, the attorney general had little authority over U.S. law. Toucey had to content himself with issuing advisory opinions to the president and the executive branch. Not surprisingly, Toucey's term was unmemorable.

Toucey did benefit politically from his service. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1852. During these years the debate over slavery grew in intensity. Toucey, a loyal Democrat, remained loyal to his party's pro-slavery stance. His loyalty resulted in yet another presidential appointment.

In March 1857, Toucey resigned from the Senate to become secretary of the Navy under President James Buchanan. Buchanan's term proved even more controversial than that of Polk's. Buchanan upheld the pro-slavery position in the White House, while the Supreme Court issued its infamous opinion in the Dred Scott case that African Americans were not and could never be U.S. citizens. Toucey remained as secretary for the entire presidential term, which ended in March 1861. Within days the Civil War erupted.

Toucey returned to Connecticut and resumed the practice of law, but retired from politics and government service during these war years. He died on July 30, 1869 in Hartford.