Jacob Merritt Howard (July 10, 1805 – April 2, 1871) was an American attorney and politician. He was most notable for his service as a
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
and
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
from the state of
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, and his political career spanned the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
Howard was a native of
Shaftsbury, Vermont
Shaftsbury is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,598 at the 2020 census.
History
The town was chartered on August 20, 1761. It was named after the Earl of Shaftesbury.
In June 1843, escaped slaves hid at ...
, and attended schools in southern Vermont before attending
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
, from which he graduated in 1830. He studied law, moved to
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
in 1832, and attained admission to the bar in 1833. Howard practiced in Detroit and became active in politics, first as a Whig, and later as a Republican. Among the offices he held were city attorney (1834) and member of the
Michigan House of Representatives
The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...
(1838). In 1840 he was elected to the U.S. House, and he served one term, 1841 to 1843. In 1854 he was one of the founders of the Republican Party, and he served as
Michigan Attorney General
The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, m ...
from 1855 to 1861.
After Senator
Kinsley S. Bingham
Kinsley Scott Bingham (December 16, 1808October 5, 1861) was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator, and the 11th governor of Michigan.
Early life in New York
Bingham (whose first name is sometimes spelled ''Kingsley'') was born to the farmer f ...
died in 1861, Howard was elected to fill the vacancy, taking office in January 1862. He was elected to a full term in 1865, and served until March 1871. From 1863 to 1871, Howard was chairman of the Senate's Committee on Pacific Railroads.
Howard died April 2, 1871, a month after the expiration of his final Senate term. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Early life
Howard was born in
Shaftsbury, Vermont
Shaftsbury is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,598 at the 2020 census.
History
The town was chartered on August 20, 1761. It was named after the Earl of Shaftesbury.
In June 1843, escaped slaves hid at ...
, on July 10, 1805, the son of farmer Otis Howard and Mary "Polly" Millington.
He attended the district schools and the academies of Bennington and
Brattleboro
Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about no ...
.
Howard graduated from
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
in 1830 and was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
. He then
studied law with attorney Homer Bartlett of
Ware, Massachusetts.
He moved to
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, in 1832, completed his legal studies with
Charles Larned General Charles Larned (ca. 1787–August 13, 1834, Detroit) was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician. He fought in the War of 1812 and was Attorney General of Michigan Territory.
Biography
Early life
Charles Larned was ...
, was
admitted to the bar
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
in 1833 and commenced practice in Detroit.
Start of career
He was city attorney of Detroit in 1834 and joined the unofficial militia Governor
Stevens T. Mason formed for the
Toledo War
The Toledo War (1835–36), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War or the Ohio–Michigan War, was an almost bloodless boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan over what is now known as the Toledo S ...
in 1835–1836.
Howard was a member of the
Michigan House of Representatives
The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...
in 1838.
Howard was elected as a
Whig to the
US House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
for the
27th Congress, serving from March 4, 1841, to March 3, 1843.
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1842, and resumed practicing law in Detroit.
Howard became identified with the anti-slavery wing of the Whig Party, and campaigned for presidential nominees
Henry Clay
Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
(1844),
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
(1848), and
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...
(1852).
Convinced after the 1852 election that the Whig Party was no longer a viable organization for abolitionists, he helped draw up the platform of the first
Republican Party convention, held in
Jackson, Michigan
Jackson is the only city and county seat of Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 33,534, down from 36,316 at the 2000 census. Located along Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127, it is approxi ...
, in 1854.
According to several sources, it was Howard who chose the name "Republican" for the new party.
Howard was the first Republican nominee for
Michigan Attorney General
The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, m ...
.
He was elected and served from 1855 to 1861.
Howard was widely read in the classics, history, law, and literature, and published the memoirs of the
Empress Joséphine
Joséphine Bonaparte (, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was Empress of the French as the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 January 1810. ...
after translating them from the original French.
U.S. Senator
Howard was elected as a Republican to the
US Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
in 1861 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Kinsley S. Bingham
Kinsley Scott Bingham (December 16, 1808October 5, 1861) was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator, and the 11th governor of Michigan.
Early life in New York
Bingham (whose first name is sometimes spelled ''Kingsley'') was born to the farmer f ...
.
In November 1861,
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
nominated him to serve as
Minister to Honduras, but he declined so he could continue to serve in the Senate. He was re-elected in 1865 and served from January 1862 to March 1871.
He was chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads in the
38th through
41st congresses.
In addition, he was an active member of the
Judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
,
Military Affairs
''The Journal of Military History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the military history of all times and places. It is the official journal of the Society for Military History. The journal was established in 1937 and the ed ...
and Private Land Claims Committees.
As a Senator, he was the chief sponsor of the
False Claims Act
The False Claims Act (FCA), also called the "Lincoln Law", is an American federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies (typically federal contractors) who defraud governmental programs. It is the federal government's primary litigat ...
, the "Lincoln Law", which permitted
whistleblowers
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
to file
qui tam
In common law, a writ of ''qui tam'' is a writ through which private individuals who assist a prosecution can receive for themselves all or part of the damages or financial penalties recovered by the government as a result of the prosecution. Its ...
lawsuits against government contractors for fraud, with the incentive of receiving a monetary reward based on the recovery made by the federal government. Howard justified giving rewards to whistleblowers, many of whom had engaged in unethical activities themselves:
I have based the ui tam provisionupon the old-fashioned idea of holding out a temptation, and 'setting a rogue to catch a rogue,' which is the safest and most expeditious way I have ever discovered of bringing rogues to justice.
Howard is credited with working closely with
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
in drafting and passing the
Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.
In the Senate, he also served on the
Joint Committee on Reconstruction
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction, also known as the Joint Committee of Fifteen, was a joint committee of the 39th United States Congress that played a major role in Reconstruction in the wake of the American Civil War. It was created to "inqu ...
, which drafted the
Fourteenth Amendment.
In the Senate, Howard opposed presidential Reconstruction, arguing that Congress should play the lead role.
He authored the final report on President
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...
's removal of
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...
as
Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
, which led to
Johnson's impeachment.
Speech on the proposed 14th Amendment
During the debate over the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Howard argued for including the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof:"
... ery person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the government of the United States, but will include every other class of person.
Howard clarified his statement during the original congressional debate over the amendment describing the clause as having the same content, despite different wording, as the earlier
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (, enacted April 9, 1866, reenacted 1870) was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the Amer ...
, which reads: “all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States”. He said of the exclusion of Native Americans who maintain their tribal ties:
I am not yet prepared to pass a sweeping act of naturalization by which all the Indian savages, wild or tame, belonging to a tribal relation, are to become my fellow-citizens and go to the polls and vote with me.
According to historian Glenn W. LaFantasie of Western Kentucky University, "A good number of his fellow senators supported his view of the citizenship clause."
Congressional Globe
'' 1st Session, 39th Congress, pt. 4, p. 2893. Senator
Reverdy Johnson
Reverdy Johnson (May 21, 1796February 10, 1876) was a statesman and jurist from Maryland. He gained fame as a defense attorney, defending notables such as Sandford of the Dred Scott case, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter at his court-martial, and Mary ...
said in the debate:
Now, all this amendment provides is, that all persons born in the United States and not subject to some foreign Power—for that, no doubt, is the meaning of the committee who have brought the matter before us—shall be considered as citizens of the United States ... If there are to be citizens of the United States entitled everywhere to the character of citizens of the United States, there should be some certain definition of what citizenship is, what has created the character of citizen as between himself and the United States, and the amendment says citizenship may depend upon birth, and I know of no better way to give rise to citizenship than the fact of birth within the territory of the United States, born of parents who at the time were subject to the authority of the United States.
Later interpretation
During the
Trump Administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
's debates over immigration policy, Trump supporters including
Michael Anton
Michael Anton (born 1969) is an American conservative essayist, speechwriter and former private-equity executive who was a senior national security official in the Trump administration. Under a pseudonym he wrote "The Flight 93 Election", an ...
, who advocate for restrictions on immigration, used the quote to claim that Howard did not intend for the amendment to apply to children born in the U.S. of foreign parents.
In response, Ho and Wydra argued that a close reading of Howard's statement reveals that he meant one class of persons, the children of ambassadors at posts in the United States at the time their children were born because ambassadors to the U.S. would be foreigners, and since they were not permanent residents, they were aliens.
In their view, Howard was describing one class, not three—the children born of ambassadors ''and'' foreigners ''and'' aliens.
Death and burial
Howard died in Detroit on April 2, 1871, soon after his final Senate term expired.
According to published accounts, he overexerted himself while helping take down a tree on the property line between his house and his neighbor's, and burst a blood vessel in his brain, which caused his death two days later.
He was buried at
Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Family
In 1835, Howard married Catherine Amelia Shaw (1810–1866) of
Ware, Massachusetts.
They were the parents of seven children: Edward Wellington, who died at age 3; Catherine Amelia, died at age 5; Mary Elizabeth, the wife of Dr. Joseph S. Hildreth; Colonel Jacob Merritt Jr., a
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
veteran and businessman in
Litchfield, Minnesota
Litchfield is a city in and the county seat of Meeker County, Minnesota, Meeker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,624 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Immigration to the county was slow until the St. Pa ...
; Hamilton Gay, a lawyer in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
; Charles Millington, a mining engineer in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
; and Jennie, the wife of Samuel Brady, a grandson of
Hugh Brady.
Honors
In 1866, Howard received the
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
of
LL.D.
Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...
from Williams College. In 1954, a historic marker commemorating Howard's career was placed on the lawn of the Baptist church in Shaftsbury, which later became the home of the Shaftsbury Historical Society.
References
External links
Jacob M. Howardat The Political Graveyard
*
Speech introducing the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Senate
Howard's handwritten draftof speech to the Senate introducing the Fourteenth Amendment, via TIFIS.org.
*''Congressional Globe'', 39th Congress, 1st Session, Senate
2764‐68(May 23, 1866).
Reconstruction: The Debate in the Senate, ''
Boston Daily Advertiser
The ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' (est. 1813) was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston.
History
The ''Advertiser'' was established in 1813, and in March 1814 it was purchased by journalist Nathan ...
'' (May 24, 1866) via TIFIS.org.
Senator Howard’s Speech, ''
Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' (May 24, 1866), via TIFIS.org.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Jacob M.
1805 births
1871 deaths
People from Shaftsbury, Vermont
Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives
Michigan Attorneys General
Michigan lawyers
Williams College alumni
Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Detroit)
People of Michigan in the American Civil War
Union (American Civil War) political leaders
Slavery in the United States
Republican Party United States senators from Michigan
People from Brattleboro, Vermont
Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan
19th-century American politicians
19th-century American lawyers