WAITE, MORRISON R. 



831 



nomination the Rev. John M. Dawson, col- 

 ored. 



The Readjuster candidate was John 8. "Wise. 

 The Readjusters pronounced in favor of sup- 

 porting the Administration of President Ar- 

 thur. The candidates for district Congressmen 

 were as follow : 



In the Second District J. F. Dezendorf ran 

 as a straightout Republican ; and in the Ninth, 

 Abram Fulkerson as an Independent Read- 

 juster. Mr. Newberry ran as a Democrat, but 

 without a regular nomination. 



ELECTION RETURNS. The election resulted 

 in the choice of six Readjuster and four Demo- 

 cratic Congressmen, Readjustersbeing returned 

 at large, and from the First, Second, Fourth, 



Seventh and Ninth Districts ; and Democrats 

 from the Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Dis- 

 tricts. The vote was as follows, excluding 

 scattering : 



In the First District, Gloucester County, and 

 a precinct of Northampton County, which 

 gave Garrison VI majority, were thrown out 

 for irregularities. Chesterfield County, in the 

 Third District, giving 38 Readjuster majority, 

 was also thrown out, but this did not affect 

 the result. The vote on the constitutional 

 amendment, abolishing the poll-tax as a pre- 

 requisite to voting, was 107,303 for, and 66,- 

 131 against ; majority for the abolition, 41,- 

 172. 



WAITE, MORRISON REMIOK, lawyer, and the 

 present Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of 

 the United States, was born in Lyme, Conn., 

 November 29, 1816. His ancestors came from 

 England in early colonial times, and settled in 

 Massachusetts, but removed to Lyme about the 

 year 1677. One of the earliest, whose name 

 has been preserved, was Thomas Waite, whose 

 son Marvin was on the first electoral ticket of 

 Connecticut, after the Revolution, and served 

 nineteen terms in the General Assembly, and 

 as Judge of the County Court for several years. 

 Remick "Waite, who married Susannah Mat- 

 son, was a half-brother of Judge Marvin Waite. 

 The eldest son of Remick, Henry Matson, was 

 born in Lyme, February 9, 1787; graduated at 

 Yale College in 1809. A lawyer of learning 

 and ability, he was successively elected to both 

 the lower and higher branches of the State 

 Legislature. In 1834 he was chosen an Asso- 

 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of Connect- 

 icut, and in 1854 was appointed Chief Justice 

 of that court, which office he held till he 

 reached the age of seventy years, the limit pre- 

 scribed by the State Constitution. In 1816 he 

 married a daughter of Colonel Richard Selden, 

 of Lyme, and grand-daughter of Colonel Sam- 

 uel Selden, an officer of the Revolutionary 

 Army. 



Morrison R. Waite is the oldest of the eight 

 children of Chief-Justice Henry Matson and 

 Maria Selden Waite. He entered Yale College 

 at the age of seventeen years, and graduated, 

 with honor, in the class of 1837, with William 

 M. Evarts, Edwards Pierrepont, and Professor 



Benjamin Silliman, Jr. After graduating he 

 began the study of law in his father's office, in 

 Lyme. In October, 1838, he went to Ohio, 

 and continued his studies in the office of Sam- 

 uel M. Young, then a prominent attorney of 

 Maumee City. On his admission to the bar in 

 1839 he formed a partnership with Mr. Young. 

 In 1849 he was elected to represent the Mau- 

 mee District in the Ohio Legislature. After 

 the expiration of his term, in 1850, his firm 

 opened an office in Toledo, of which Mr. Waite 

 took charge, and was soon acknowledged as a 

 leading counselor and advocate in Northwest- 

 ern Ohio. One, who often met him as oppos- 

 ing counsel, said that " his assertion on any 

 question of law was always accepted as indis- 

 putable." In 1852 Mr. Young removed to 

 Toledo, and the firm of Young & Waite con- 

 tinued until Mr. Waite's youngest brother, 

 Richard, came to the bar, when the brothers 

 entered into a partnership, which lasted till 

 the senior partner's elevation to the chief- 

 justiceship. 



Politically a Whig, until the disbandment of 

 that party, since that time he has been a Re- 

 publican. An active and influential member 

 of his party, he never became recognized as a 

 party leader, the conservative tendency of his 

 mind leading him in opposition to radical po- 

 litical measures. This was shown during the 

 war, in his support of the policy of President 

 Lincoln, rather than the more summary meas- 

 ures advocated by some of the anti- slavery 

 leaders. But to all the war measures of the 

 Government he gave earnest and effective sup- 



