Ephraim Brevard Ewing (1819 –June 21,1873) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1859 to 1861 and from January 1873 until his death that summer.
Born in Todd County,Kentucky,in 1819,Ewing was the son of Rev. Finis Ewing,a distinguished divine. [1] [2] Ewing was educated at Cumberland College,and was admitted to the bar in 1842. [1] [2] Ewing served as Missouri Secretary of State from 1849 to 1853, [1] [2] having been elected as a Democrat from Ray County,Missouri. In 1857,he became Missouri Attorney General. [1] [2]
In 1859,Ewing he was elected to the Missouri Supreme Court. [1] [2] He was removed from the bench in 1861,along with William Barclay Napton and William Scott,for refusing to sign a loyalty oath swearing allegiance to the Union in the American Civil War. [3] [4] Two months earlier a strongly pro-Union provisional government seized control of the state after Federal forces occupied Jefferson City,exiling Claiborne Jackson and pro-Confederate members of the state legislature. The provisional government then set about securing the loyalty oaths of those remaining. [5] The removed judges were replaced by the appointments of Barton Bates William Van Ness Bay,and John D. S. Dryden;all three appointees were elected to their seats in 1863. [6]
Ewing returned to the bench in 1870,when he was elected as a judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, [1] [2] and in the election of 1872,Ewing received 155,911 votes to win election as a Liberal candidate to one of two new seats established on the court. [7] Ewing assumed office in January 1973,but died suddenly in June of that year. [1] [2] In the term prior to his death,he delivered a number of noted opinions,including Newmeyer v. Missouri,etc.,R. R. Co.,52 Mo. 81;Pier v. Heinrichoffen,52 Mo. 333;Ketchum v. American Express Co.,52 Mo. 390;Pacific Railroad Co. v. Cass County,53 Mo. 17;and Straub v. Soderer,53 Mo. 38. [1]
Described as "tall and exceedingly spare",Ewing had "a large family,a number of whom [became] well known in public life". [1] In July 1873,shortly after Ewing's death,his eldest daughter,Anna,married Francis Cockrell,who would go on to become a United States Senator. [8]
Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States from 1864 to his death in 1873. Chase served as the 23rd governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1860,represented Ohio in the United States Senate from 1849 to 1855 and again in 1861,and served as the 25th United States secretary of the treasury from 1861 to 1864 during the administration of Abraham Lincoln. Chase is therefore one of the few American politicians who have held constitutional office in all three branches of the federal government,in addition to serving in the highest state-level office. Prior to his Supreme Court appointment,Chase was widely seen as a potential president.
William Lewis Sharkey was an American judge and politician from Mississippi. A staunch Unionist during the American Civil War,he opposed the 1861 declared secession of Mississippi from the United States. After the end of the war,President Andrew Johnson appointed Sharkey as provisional governor of Mississippi in 1865.
Silas Woodson was the 21st Governor of Missouri between January 3,1873,and January 12,1875. He was notable for being the first Democrat elected to that position since the Civil War. No Republican would reach the office for over 30 years after Woodson's election.
Francis Marion Cockrell was a Confederate military commander and American politician from the state of Missouri. He served as a United States senator from Missouri for five terms. He was a prominent member of the famed South–Cockrell–Hargis family of Southern politicians.
John Brown Baldwin was a Virginia lawyer and Democratic politician,who served one term in Virginia House of Delegates before the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861,during which he was a Unionist. During the American Civil War,Baldwin believed his primary loyalty was to his state,and served as one of Virginia's representatives to the First and Second Confederate Congresses. He became one of the leading critics of President Jefferson Davis,who was seen by many as usurping the Confederacy's states' rights principles. During Congressional Reconstruction,Baldwin became Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
James Jackson was a United States Representative from Georgia,a judge advocate in the American Civil War,and a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Jackson was also a trustee of the University of Georgia. He was the son of William Henry Jackson,the grandson of Georgia governor James Jackson,the nephew of Congressman Jabez Young Jackson and first cousin of Howell Cobb.
William Henry West was a Republican Party politician in the U.S. state of Ohio who served as Ohio Attorney General from 1866 to 1868,and a member of the Ohio Supreme Court from February 1872 to 1873. His failing eyesight and powerful oration led to the title Blind Man Eloquent.
Napton,originally known as Jonesboro,is an unincorporated community in southeastern Saline County,Missouri,United States. Napton is located on Missouri Supplemental Route E,8 miles (13 km) southeast of Marshall.
James Willis Nesmith was an American politician and lawyer from Oregon. Born in New Brunswick to American parents,he grew up in New Hampshire and Maine. A Democrat,he moved to Oregon Country in 1843 where he entered politics as a judge,a legislator in the Provisional Government of Oregon,a United States Marshal,and after statehood a United States senator and Representative.
Armstead Milton Alexander was an American attorney and politician from Missouri who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1883 to 1885.
Richard Almgill Harrison was an American politician and jurist from Ohio. He was elected to succeed Thomas Corwin in the United States House of Representatives,serving from 1861 to 1863. He was several times considered for a seat on the Supreme Court of Ohio,but declined the honor.
William Van Ness Bay was an American attorney and judge from Missouri. He was most notable for serving as U.S. Representative from Missouri from 1849 to 1851,and a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1862 to 1865.
Samuel Nelson was an American attorney and appointed as judge of New York State courts. He was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,serving from 1845 to 1872. He concurred on the 1857 Dred Scott decision,although for reasons different from Chief Justice Taney's.
William Barclay Napton (1808–1883) was an American politician and jurist from the state of Missouri. A Democrat,Napton served as the state's 4th Attorney General,and multiple terms on the Missouri Supreme Court.
Samuel Austin Kingman was a justice of the Kansas Supreme Court from February 9,1861 to January 9,1865,and chief justice from January 14,1867 to December 30,1876.
Joshua Barton Bates was a justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1862 to 1865.
Henry M. Vories was a justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1873 to 1876.
James Harvey Birch was a Missouri politician and a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1849 to 1851.
J. Shepard Barclay was a Missouri lawyer and judge who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1889 to 1898.
William Scott was an American lawyer and judge who served on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1841 to 1849 and from 1851 to 1862. He also served on the Jefferson City Circuit Court. Justice Scott was the author of the majority opinion in Scott v. Emerson,15 Missouri 572 (1852),which was part of the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Scott's opinion,which overturned well-established precedent in Missouri,set the stage for Dred Scott's case in the Supreme Court. He wrote:
Times are not now as they were when the former decisions on this subject were made. Since then not only individuals but States have been possessed with a dark and fell spirit in relation to slavery,whose gratification is sought in the pursuit of measures,whose inevitable consequences must be the overthrow and destruction of our government. Under such circumstances it does not behoove the State of Missouri to show the least countenance to any measure which might gratify this spirit. She is willing to assume her full responsibility for the existence of slavery within her limits,nor does she seek to share or divide it with others.