Charles Evans Hughes

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Charles Evans Hughes : biography

April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948

He wrote for the court in Bailey v. Alabama ,- Retrieved 2011-12-18 which held that involuntary servitude encompassed more than just slavery, and Interstate Commerce Comm. v. Atchison T & SF R Co. ,- Retrieved 2011-12-17 holding that the Interstate Commerce Commission could regulate intrastate rates if they were significantly intertwined with interstate commerce.

On April 15, 1915, in the case of Frank v. Mangum,- Retrieved 2011-12-18 the Supreme Court decided (7-2) to deny an appeal made by Leo Frank’s attorneys, and instead upheld the decision of lower courts to sustain the guilty verdict against Frank. Justice Hughes and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. were the two dissenting votes.

Later life

Hughes resigned from the Supreme Court on June 10, 1916,[ Supreme Court of the United States] Accessed December 13, 2007. to be the Republican candidate for President in 1916. He was also endorsed by the Progressive Party,Eisler, a Justice for All, page 39, ISBN 0-671-76787-9 thanks to the support given to him from former President Theodore Roosevelt. Other Republican figures such as former President William Howard Taft endorsed Hughes and felt the accomplishments he made as Governor of New York would establish him as formidable progressive alternative to Wilson. Many former leaders of the Progressive Party, however, endorsed Wilson because Hughes opposed the Adamson Act, the Sixteenth Amendment and diverted his focus away from progressive issues during the course of the campaign. Hughes was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in a close election (separated by 23 electoral votes and 594,188 popular votes). The election hinged on California, where Wilson managed to win by 3,800 votes and its 13 electoral votes and thus Wilson was returned for a second term; Hughes had lost the endorsement of the California governor and Roosevelt’s 1912 Progressive running mate Hiram Johnson when he failed to show up for an appointment with him.

Despite coming close to winning the presidency, Hughes did not seek the Republican nomination again in 1920. Hughes also advocated ways to prevent the return of President Wilson’s expanded government control over important industries such as the nation’s railroads, which he felt would lead to the eventual destruction of individualism and political self-rule. After Robert LaFollette’s Progressive Party advocated the return of such regulations during the 1924 US Presidential election, Hughes shifted rightwards believing that the federal bureaucracy should now have limited powers over individual liberties and property rights and that common law should be strictly enforced.

Early life

Charles Evans Hughes was born in Glens Falls, New York, the son of Rev. David C. Hughes and Mary C. (Connelly) Hughes, a sister of State Senator Henry C. Connelly (1832–1912). He was active in the Northern Baptist church, a Mainline Protestant denomination.

Education

Hughes was educated in a private school. At the age of 14, he enrolled at Madison University (now Colgate University), where he became a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. He then transferred to Brown University, continuing as a member of Delta Upsilon. He graduated third in his class at the age of 19, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He read law and entered Columbia Law School in 1882, where he graduated in 1884 with highest honors. While studying law, he taught at Delaware Academy.

Marriage and family

In 1885, Hughes met Antoinette Carter, the daughter of a senior partner of the law firm where he worked, and they were married in 1888. They had one son, Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. and three daughters, one of whom was Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, one of the first humans injected with insulin, and who later served as president of the Supreme Court Historical Society. Hughes was the grandfather of Charles Evans Hughes III and H. Stuart Hughes.

Various appointments

In 1907, Gov. Charles Evans Hughes became the first president of newly formed Northern Baptist Convention. He also served as President of the New York State Bar Association.