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George Edmund Badger 1795-1866: a North Carolinian's Life in Politics and the Law

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George Edmund Badger 1795-1866: a North Carolinian's Life in Politics and the Law GEORGE EDMUND BADGER 1795-1866: A NORTH CAROLINIAN'S LIFE IN POLITICS AND THE LAW Thomas Rogers Hunter Charlottesville, Virginia B.A., University of Virginia, 1986 A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia May 1990 ii In 1866, former North Carolina Governor and U.S. Senator William A. Graham stated that for forty years "in North Carolina, at least, [George Edmund Badger's] name was on every tongue. He was ••. an eminent man••.• [N]o man enjoyed more of the general confidence and favor of the people, as none had possessed in a higher degree their adrniration."1 A fellow member of the North Carolina Secession Convention of 1861 said of Badger, "He may have had his equals, but I do not believe that his superior as a lawyer, an orator, a scholar and a conversationalist lived in this generation. He was the greatest man I ever knew."2 The Raleigh News and Observer echoed this sentiment when, in 1891, it declared that, "Taking him all in all, we think the consensus of opinion is that he was the greatest man North Carolina has produced."3 After examining Badger's career, one sees that these statements contain a great deal of truth. On the national plane, Badger was Secretary of the Navy during the Harrison­ Tyler Administration, and served almost a decade in the United States Senate. Albert J. Beveridge has written that during the Kan�as-Nebraska debates in 1854, Badger was "the ablest Whig then in public life.11 4 Also, for over ten years Badger was a top advocate before the United States Supreme Court, with President Millard Fillmore nominating him in 1853 for a seat upon that august body. Because of politics, though, the nomination failed by one vote; to this day iii Badger is still the only sitting U.S. Senator ever to have been rejected by his own body for a seat upon the high court. Badger's career on the state level is equally impressive. He served his native state as a legislator, Superior Court judge, and member of her Secession Convention. More important, though, were his roles as lawyer and politician. By arguing over 700 cases before the North Carolina Supreme Court, in addition to his work in the Federal and lower state courts, he came to be regarded as the "greatest lawyer in the State's history."5 Politically, he was one of the major leaders of the Whig party when it was dominant in North Carolina. Badger also possessed amazing conversational powers, and because of his knowledge of history, government, religion and literature, he was considered the state's great intellect. Despite his talents and accomplishments, today George E. Badger is a forgotten man. No county or town is named for him, and there are no monuments erected in his honor. While the names of Clay, Calhoun and Webster are still learned by school children, their fellow Senator during the Compromise of 1850 does not even garner a footnote in most texts. Not even in William S. Powell's excellent new North Carolina Through Four Centuries does Badger receive mention.6 There has never been a published biography of Badger, and only one graduate student, Lawrence Foushee iv London, has found his career interesting enough to merit study.7 In 1966, Zebulon Vance biographer Glenn Tucker wrote an article for the North Carolina Historical Review, "For the Want of a Scribe," in which he decried the lack of attention historians have given four antebellum North Carolina politicians: Badger, William A. Graham, Willie P. Mangum and Thomas L. Clingman.8 Yet of these four, only Badger has been entirely forgotten. Clingman published a collection of his own letters, speeches and essays, and recently there has been a flurry of activity regarding him.9 During the past forty years, the North Carolina Department of Archives and History has published the papers of Graham and Mangum, in seven and five volumes respectively.10 Unfortunately, Badger's papers have either been destroyed or lost, and his most elegant and stirring speeches were delivered not in legislative halls, but in obscure county courthouses. Because of the paucity of information written about George E. Badger, this thesis will attempt to briefly describe his entire life. What will receive extensive coverage are areas of Badger's life which have heretofore received little study, for example his legal career within North Carolina. By contrast, Badger's national political career has been admirably documented in London's dissertation, and thus will not be covered in as much depth. Two events occurring during Badger's U.S. Senate career will V be closely examined, though: his reelection in 1848 and its role within North Carolina politics, and Badger's 1853 nomination to the United States Supreme Court. A life of George E. Badger should interest several types of historians. For Nineteenth Century legal historians, a study of Badger necessarily involves an in­ depth look at the North Carolina judicial system of the mid- 1800s. Although Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin of the North Carolina Supreme Court is usually credited with being one of the great state court judges in American judicial history, his court is usually given little attention except on slavery matters. Despite being at least equal in judicial talent, the North Carolina court of Ruffin, William Gaston and J.J. Daniel loses the spotlight to Kent and his New York court, Shaw and his Massachusetts court, and Gibson and his Pennsylvania court.11 Also, Badger's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and his subsequent rejection is an interesting chapter in that institution's history. During the Nineteenth Century, fully one-third of all nominees for the Court were rejected. Although all nominations to the high court have been catalogued and briefly described by Henry J. Abraham, no one has yet to conduct a full-scale study of any one Nineteenth Century rejection.12 Badger's rejection is especially interesting because it involved at least three different vi factors: the President's politics, the nominee's politics and geography. Antebellum political historians should also be interested in Badger's career. For fifteen years he was a leader of the national Whig party, and thus came in close contact with statesmen such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John J. Crittenden. In politics, Badger was a moderate who denounced states' rights and desired a strong national government -- in many ways he is the antithesis to the common conception of a Southern politician before the War. Badger's active political career spanned the life of America's Second Party System, a period which is still the only time North Carolina has witnessed close two-party competition on all levels. Although the dynamics of the Old North State's parties and politics during this time have been impressively chronicled by Marc Kruman, many of her leading politicians have been virtually ignored by historians.13 Finally, this thesis should also appeal to anyone interested in North Carolina history. For over forty-five years, Badger was intimately involved in the state's highest political, judicial and social circles. To fully describe Badger's life, one must necessarily mention and discuss such state leaders as Thomas Ruffin, William Gaston, John Stanly, J.J. Daniel, Willie P. Mangum, Archibald Debow Murphey, William A. Graham, Edward Stanly, William Woods Holden, vii Thomas L. Clingman and Bishop Levi Silliman Ives. One must also show how Badger and these men helped North Carolina develop as she did, and the lasting impact their contributions have had upon her. Although there are many reasons for studying George Edmund Badger, the most compelling may be the man himself; he was a complex and fascinating individual. Besides being his state's foremost lawyer and leader of her dominant political party, he was also a man of great learning, not only on law and government, but also history, literature and, especially, religion. In addition, he could charm listeners for hours with his conversation, and his wit was considered immense. Yet he also had great eccentricities; despite being a politician, he cared not for public approbation, and looked down on the arts of the demagogue. His sharp satire stung friend and foe alike, and he could inspire great hatred. Overall, though, many of his contemporaries considered him among the greatest North Carolinians of all time. After intensively studying Badger for two years, this compliment seems merited. viii Contents Introduction ii I. 1795-1813: Ancestry, Early Life and Education 1 II. 1813-1825: Soldier, Legislator, Barrister and Judge 13 III. 1825-1846: Badger, The Lawyer 32 A. North Carolina Supreme Court 34 B. North Carolina Superior Courts 65 C. United States Circuit Court for the District of North Carolina 76 D. Skills and Reputation as a Lawyer 95 IV. 1825-1839: Other Endeavors 101 v. Badger, The Man 115 VI. 1840-1846: Birth of a Politician 148 A. Election of 1840 149 B. Secretary of the Navy 170 C. Whig Leader 203 VII. 1846-1849: First Term, United States Senate 224 VIII. Badger's 1848 Reelection, And Its Role Within North Carolina Politics 251 IX. 1849-1855: Second Term, United States Senate 288 X. The Politics of Rejection: Badger's 1853 Nomination to the United States Supreme Court 314 XI. 1855-1866: U.S. Supreme Court Practice And Last Years 347 Appendix: Tables and Maps 360 Notes 371 1 I. 1795-1813: Ancestry, Early Life and Education George Edmund Badger was born in New Bern, North Carolina, on April 17, 1795.
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