Washington, Bushrod (b. Virginia, 5 June 1762; d. Philadelphia, 26 Nov. 1829; interred family vault, Mount Vernon, Va.), associate justice, 1798–1829. Bushrod Washington was born into one of Virginia's leading families. He was George
Washington's favorite nephew, eventually inheriting Mount Vernon and becoming executor of his uncle's estate, including his public and private papers, which he loaned out to Chief Justice John
Marshall for his celebratory
Life of George Washington. Bushrod graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1778 and studied law under George Wythe. He joined the Continental Army in 1781. After the end of the Revolutionary War, he returned to Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1784. As a practicing attorney, he developed a reputation for being hard working and learned in the law. He then entered politics and was elected a delegate to the Virginia ratifying convention, where he favored the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. During the 1790s he supported the Federalist party, and in 1798 John Adams appointed him to the United States Supreme Court.
Although he served on the Supreme Court for thirty‐one years, Washington is not really known for handing down any important decisions. Rather, he tended to go along with the opinions of John Marshall and Justice Joseph
Story, which increased the powers of the federal government, protected private
property rights, and encouraged economic development. In fact, so closely allied was he with Marshall that another member of the Court observed that they “are commonly estimated as a single judge.”
Washington's great strength was the patience, tact, and fairness he demonstrated while riding
circuit, especially in politically charged jury trials. For example, he managed to enforce the
Sedition Act of 1798 without arousing the strong partisan feelings that made Samuel
Chase and William
Paterson so controversial. Washington also presided over the important treason case
United States v. Bright (1809). The case involved Michael Bright, a brigadier general of the Pennsylvania State Militia who had been officially ordered to prevent the enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's decision in United States v.
Peters (1809). When President James
Madison threatened to use force, the state backed down, and Bright and a number of other officers were arrested, convicted, and fined. The trial took place amid a great deal of political tension, but Washington maintained order throughout it while upholding the power of the national government. Upon sentencing Bright, Washington warned that a state simply did not have the right “to employ force to resist the execution of a decree of a federal court.” Satisfied that the authority of the federal government had been vindicated, Madison proceeded to pardon the officers on humanitarian grounds.
Washington handed down another important circuit court decision in
Golden v. Prince (1814), when he ruled that the power to pass bankruptcy laws belonged exclusively to the federal government. He abandoned this position in
Ogden v. Saunders (1827), which also was one of the few times he broke with Marshall. Two other Supreme Court decisions of note are a concurring opinion in
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), where he tried to limit the more sweeping implications of the majority opinion, and
Green v. Biddle (1823), where he delivered what eventually proved an unenforceable decision declaring various Kentucky laws, passed to protect actual settlers from absentee landlords, unconstitutional.
Bibliography
Albert P. Blaustein and and Roy M. Mersky , Bushrod Washington, in The Justices of the United States Supreme Court 1789–1969, edited by Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, vol. 1 (1969), pp. 243–257.
Richard E. Ellis
