Nathan Clifford | Biography

Nathan Clifford served as U.S. attorney general from 1846 to 1848 in the administration of President James Polk. Clifford, who had previously served in Congress, became an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1858. In this position, Clifford consistently opposed the growth of federal power.

Clifford was born on August 18, 1803, in Rumney, New Hampshire. Raised on a farm, Clifford attended public school but could not afford a college education. Instead, he persuaded a local attorney to take him on as an apprentice and it was in this law office that Clifford "read the law." He passed the bar exam in 1827 and immediately moved to Maine, where he set up a law firm.

In 1830, Clifford shifted his sights to politics. A life-long Democrat, Clifford served in the Maine legislature before becoming state attorney general and then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected to the Maine legislature as a Democrat, he became Speaker of the House. Although he lost his congressional seat in 1842, he remained close to the Democratic leadership. This lead to his appointment in 1846 as attorney general, a position he was hesitant to accept. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, Clifford became a trusted presidential advisor. As the war concluded in 1848, Clifford left his cabinet position at the request of Polk to help negotiate the peace treaty.

With the end of the Polk administration in 1849, Clifford moved to Portland, Maine, and returned to his private law practice. However, he did not forsake his political ambitions, running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1850 and 1853. In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Clifford to the U.S. Supreme Court. After winning a fierce confirmation battle, Clifford joined a block of conservative justices who were sympathetic to Southern interests. Though Clifford voted to uphold the federal fugitive slave law, he remained loyal to the Union when the Civil War began in 1861.

Clifford remained a conservative jurist and was troubled by the expansion of federal power through the Fourteenth Amendment and congressional acts put forth by the Radical Republicans. The Republicans sought to protect the newly freed African Americans from the terrorism of local white vigilante groups. In addition, Congress tried to mandate integration by requiring that all means of public transportation and public accommodations must be open to African Americans. Clifford consistently voted with the majority to overturn this type of federal legislation, which he believed encroached on the powers of the states. This viewpoint paved the way for later Supreme Court decisions that upheld the rights of states to mandate segregation in all aspects of public life.

Clifford was at the center of one of the most controversial presidential elections in U.S. history. The 1876 contest between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden was deadlocked and there were allegations of election fraud in several states. To resolve this political problem, Congress created an electoral commission, which Clifford headed. The commission ended up certifying Hayes, a decision Clifford thought improper.

Clifford died on July 25, 1881, in Cornish, Maine, while still a member of the Court.