Campbell, John Archibald (b. Washington, Ga., 24 June 1811; d. Baltimore, Md., 12 March 1889; interred Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore), associate justice, 1853–1861. John Campbell was the son of a well‐to‐do and politically active Georgia landowner and lawyer of Scotch‐Irish descent. Reflecting his family's intellectual ability, Campbell enrolled at the University of Georgia at the age of eleven and graduated three years later with top honors. He began studying law in 1828 and was admitted to the Georgia bar the same year. Moving to Alabama in 1830, Campbell became involved in politics, serving in the state legislature from Montgomery in 1836 and from Mobile in 1842. His law practice also prospered, and he was acclaimed for his arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The death of fellow Democrat and native Alabaman justice John McKinley on 19 July 1852 provided Campbell the opportunity to join the Supreme Court himself. Lame‐duck Whig president Millard Fillmore could not satisfy the Democrat‐controlled Senate, despite sending three nominations. Consequently, the vacancy remained unfilled by the inauguration of Franklin Pierce, 4 March 1853. In an unprecedented display of judicial clout (and presidential impotence), the Court requested the president to nominate Campbell. On 25 March 1853, the forty‐one‐year‐old Campbell received the Senate's unanimous confirmation.
A states' rights Jacksonian Democrat, Campbell was nonetheless a moderate on the
slavery issue. He commanded wide respect not only of the Court and Senate, but also of the public, possessing a hard‐earned reputation based on dedication, talent, and unswerving integrity.
While on the Court, Campbell often delivered powerful and eloquent dissents. In
Dodge v. Woolsey (1856), for example, he opposed the Court's enlargement of federal jurisdiction over state‐chartered corporations. The state legislatures, he said, should regulate matters within the states, for they are the truer voice of the states' citizens. Accordingly, the Court should exercise judicial restraint by strictly construing the Constitution.
As the nation became polarized during the late 1850s, Campbell's position became increasingly untenable. His moderate stance on slavery alienated Southerners, while his proslavery opinion in the
Dred Scott case outraged many Northerners. By 1860, Campbell found himself in the unenviable position of a moderate seeking accommodation between irreconcilable factions. He believed free labor would gradually and peacefully displace the less efficient “peculiar institution.” Secession, though possible, was therefore unwise and unnecessary.
Nevertheless, when war came and Alabama seceded, Campbell resigned from the Court on 26 April 1861, ever loyal to his home state. He served the Confederacy as assistant secretary of war, hoping somehow to bring about peace. But following Appomattox he was thrown into prison at Fort Pulaski for four months.
Upon his release at the order of President Andrew Johnson, Campbell went to New Orleans, where he established a prosperous law practice. His skill brought him before the Supreme Court time and again. In the
Slaughter‐house Cases (1873), Campbell ably contended that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevented state governmental encroachment upon economic liberty. Although his argument failed in a 5‐to‐4 decision, the Court reversed itself some twenty years later.
Tony Freyer
