HOWARD, BENJAMIN CHEW

Benjamin Chew Howard was a lawyer who served as the Supreme Court reporter of decisions from 1843 to 1861.

Howard, born November 5, 1791, in Baltimore, was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary War officer and the grandson of the president of the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals before the Revolution. Howard earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University). In 1812, he began the study of law, which was interrupted by military service during the war of 1812. Howard was a captain in the war and played a prominent role in the defense of Baltimore during the Battle of North Point, fought in September 1814.

Following the war, Howard resumed his legal studies. He was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1816. Active in the Maryland democratic party, in 1820, he was elected to the Baltimore City Council, and in 1824, he won a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates. In 1829, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served four terms. During his time in Congress, he was chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee for several years. In 1840, he left Congress to return to Maryland state politics, serving as a senator in the Maryland General Assembly. In January 1843, he resigned before the expiration of his term, to become reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court, a position created by Congress in 1816.

As reporter, Howard was primarily responsible for editing, publishing, and distributing the Court's opinions. He replaced Richard Peters, who was fired after he disagreed with several of the justices about whether their opinions should be published in the reports. Howard, though highly praised for publishing thorough and well-edited reports, did create a controversy of his own when he refused to include the complete arguments raised by both sides in a fugitive slave case decided by the Court, thus calling his impartiality into question.

In Howard's day, the reporter was paid a modest yearly salary and usually earned additional income selling copies of the bound volume in which an important case appeared or printing the opinion separately in a pamphlet for sale to the public. When the Dred Scott decision outlawing slavery was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, the U.S. Senate sought to publicize it as broadly as possible and printed 20,000 copies for free distribution to the public (dred scott v. sandford, 60 U.S. [19 How.]

393, 15 L. Ed. 691 [1856]). Howard protested strongly that his income from the sale of the opinion would suffer from the competition. As a result, the Senate voted to pay him $1,500 in compensation and agreed not to distribute its version until Howard's bound volume and pamphlet version were made available.

Howard, who edited 24 volumes of reports, remained active in politics while Supreme Court reporter. He resigned from the Court in 1861 to run as the Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland. Following his defeat, Howard retired from public life. He died March 6, 1872, in Baltimore.

Howard, Benjamin Chew (b. Baltimore County, Md., 5 Nov. 1791; d. Baltimore, Md., 6 Mar. 1872), Supreme Court reporter of decisions, 1843–1861. One of the nominative reporters, Howard served the Court during the years preceding the Civil War. He published volumes 1 through 24 of Howard's Reports (42–65 of U.S. Reports). Howard's father, John Eager Howard, had been a Revolutionary officer. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Chew, was president of the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals before the Revolution. Howard earned his A.B. in 1809 and his A.M. in 1812, both from Princeton. His subsequent law studies were interrupted by the War of 1812, during which he organized troops and fought in battle against the British. He was admitted to the Maryland bar about 1816. A Democrat, Howard served at various times on the Baltimore City Council and in both chambers of the Maryland legislature. Elected to four terms in Congress, he chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee from 1835 to 1839.

Howard's long association with Chief Justice Roger Taney apparently gained him the reporter's position in 1843, although nothing suggests that he sought the job or intrigued before the summary discharge of his precedessor, Richard Peters. Howard's reports were praised as clear, thorough, and well written, although Justice Peter V. Daniel accurately complained on one occasion that his name had been omitted before a dissenting opinion.

After serving as a delegate to the Wartime Peace Conference in February 1861, Howard resigned between terms of the Court in 1861 to run, unsuccessfully, as Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland. In 1869, Princeton awarded him an LL.D.

See also Reporters, Supreme Court.

Francis Helminski

Tilghman, Benjamin Chew ˈtilmən (1821–1901) U.S. army officer, inventor, and manufacturer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tilghman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839 and went into manufacturing with his brother. When the Civil War began, Tilghman joined the Twenty-sixth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers and commanded a company. He participated in all the key eastern battles of the Army of the Potomac, rising in rank to regimental commander before he was wounded at Chancellorsville in May 1863. While recuperating, Tilghman was offered command of the Third Regiment of Colored Troops, recruited in Philadelphia. He took his new unit to Fort Sumter and Jacksonville, Florida, eventually earning promotion by brevet to brigadier general of volunteers. After the war he invented a new sandblasting process upon which he based a thriving business.

Benjamin Chew 1722–1810, American public official and judge, b. Anne Arundel co., Md. He read law in Philadelphia under Andrew Hamilton and was admitted (1746) to the bar. After practicing law at New Castle and Dover, Del., Chew returned to Philadelphia, where he held several public offices and was attorney general (1755–69). He was chief justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court from 1774 until the outbreak of the American Revolution, when he was suspected of Loyalist sympathies. He was arrested but was discharged soon afterward. He later served (1791–1808) as president of the high court of errors and appeals of Pennsylvania.

Bibliography: See biography by B. A. Konkle (1932).