McLean, John

Description

Autograph ID: 2657
Condition: Very good, folds, few corrections in McLean’s hand
Description: “(1785-1861) American jurist, Ohio US Rep. 1813-16, Ohio Supreme Court Justice 1816-22, US General Land Office Commissioner 1822-23. As Postmaster General 1823-29, presided over a massive expansion of the Post Office into the new western states and territories and elevation of the Postmaster Generalship to a cabinet office. US Supreme Court justice 1829-61, associated with every party on the political spectrum, from Jackson Democrat to Anti-Jackson Democrat, Anti-Masonic Party, Whig, Free Soiler, and finally a Republican. Because of his fierce anti-slavery positions, he was considered by the new Republican party as its 1856 presidential candidate but the nomination went to Frémont. In 1860, he won 12 votes on the first ballot at the Chicago Republican Convention which ultimately nominated Lincoln. In Dred Scott v. Sanford, his fierce dissenting views are believed to have forced Chief Justice Taney into a harsher and more polarizing opinion than he originally planned. He wrote the Court’s opinion denying there was a common-law copyright in US law in Wheaton v. Peters. He was the last surviving member of the Monroe & Adams Cabinets.

10 x 8 ALS while Associate Justice, Cincinnati, August 8 1849, to Lewis Broadwell. Justice McLean has received Broadwell’s letter of July 14, directed to Columbus. Since McLean’s return to Cincinnati, he has remitted between $400 – $500 in rents due to the tenants near the Gap Works and shall refund to the 6th Ward every cent paid by it to the tenants and their families who hold leases under him.

Lewis Broadwell (?) Cincinnati politician, Ohio state senator 1849-51. Cincinnati’s 6th Ward is in the SW part of the city.”
Type: Letter