 Lucius
Quintus Cincinnatus (L.Q.C.) Lamar was born in Georgia on September 17,
1825. Lamar was a lawyer and professor before the Civil War. In late
1860, after the election victory of Abraham Lincoln, Lamar wrote
Mississippi's ordinance of secession from the Union. He later served as
a Senator from Mississippi, and as Secretary of the Interior in the
administration of Grover Cleveland. In 1887, Lamar was nominated by
Cleveland to replace
William
Woods. He took his seat on the Court in early 1888, but not until
after a nasty fight in the Senate, where Lamar was confirmed by a vote
of 42-38. He was the first Democrat to take a seat on the Court since
the early 1860s, and the first Southerner to be on the Court since 1853,
when
John Campbell, Lamar's cousin, was appointed to the Court. Lamar's
tenure on the Court was largely inconsequential. He did dissent in
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Ry. Co. v. Minnesota (1890), an
early substantive due process case, and dissented in In re Neagle (also
1890). Neagle was a US marshal who had shot and killed David Terry, who
had attacked Justice
Stephen
Field. Terry had once been on the California Supreme Court with
Field, and at that time was married to a woman who had claimed she was
the widow of a deceased Nevada Senator. Field, riding circuit, had
dismissed the "widow's" claim to the Senator's estate, concluding that
at most the widow had been the Senator's mistress. This enraged Terry.
Neagle was indicted for murder in California, and the Supreme Court held
that Neagle was acting under the "law" of the United States. Lamar
dissented on the ground that "law" meant "statutes," and no statute
covered Neagle's case.
He died on January 23, 1893. |
