Matthews was born July 21, 1824, in Cincinnati, Ohio.[a] He was the oldest of 11 children born to Thomas J. Matthews and Isabella Brown Matthews (his second wife).[2]
He graduated from Kenyon College in 1840. While there he met future president of the United StatesRutherford B. Hayes and close friend John Celivergos Zachos. Matthews moved to his hometown Cincinnati with Zachos. Zachos and Matthews were roommates. In Cincinnati Matthews studied law under Salmon P. Chase but he moved to Columbia, Tennessee, where he practiced law and edited the local newspaper from 1842 and 1844. Matthews returned to Cincinnati in 1844, and was admitted to the bar the following year.[2] In Cincinnati Matthews edited the antislavery newspaper Cincinnati Morning Herald and practiced law from 1853 to 1858.[4][5]
Matthews served with the 23rd Ohio Infantry during the early campaigns in West Virginia and fought at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861.[8][9][10] But Matthews did not enjoy the respect of his troops, and within a year he resigned from the 23rd Ohio Infantry.[8]
In 1863, Matthews resigned from the Union Army and returned to Ohio, where he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati.[7] Two years later, he returned to private practice. During the post-war reconstruction era, Matthews represented the railroad industry. His clients included Jay Gould.[12]
On March 14, 1881, 10 days after taking office, President James A. Garfield re-nominated Matthews to the Court.[13] Though a new nomination from a new president, earlier concerns about Matthews's suitability for the Court persisted, and Garfield was widely criticized for re-submitting Matthews's name.[14] In spite of the opposition, and, although the Judiciary Committee made a recommendation to the Senate that it reject the nomination,[16] on May 12, the Senate voted 24–23 to confirm Matthews. The vote was the closest for any successful Supreme Court nominee in U.S. Senate history;[b] no other justice has been confirmed by a single vote.[13][15][18]
Matthews's tenure as a member of the Supreme Court began on May 17, 1881, when he took the judicial oath, and ended March 22, 1889, upon his death.[1][12] He was regarded as one of the more progressive justices on the Court at the time.[18]
In 1880, the city of San Francisco, California passed an ordinance that persons could not operate a laundry in a wooden building without a permit from the Board of Supervisors. The ordinance conferred upon the Board of Supervisors the discretion to grant or withhold the permits. At the time, about 95% of the city's 320 laundries were operated in wooden buildings. Approximately two-thirds of those laundries were owned by Chinese persons. Although most of the city's wooden building laundry owners applied for a permit, none were granted to any Chinese owner, while virtually all non-Chinese applicants were granted a permit. Yick Wo (益和, Pinyin: Yì Hé, Americanization: Lee Yick), who had lived in California and had operated a laundry in the same wooden building for many years and held a valid license to operate his laundry issued by the Board of Fire-Wardens, continued to operate his laundry and was convicted and fined $10.00 for violating the ordinance. He sued for a writ of habeas corpus after he was imprisoned in default for having refused to pay the fine.
The Court, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Matthews, found that the administration of the statute in question was discriminatory and that there was therefore no need to even consider whether the ordinance itself was lawful. Even though the Chinese laundry owners were usually not American citizens, the court ruled they were still entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Matthews also noted that the court had previously ruled that it was acceptable to hold administrators of the law liable when they abused their authority. He denounced the law as a blatant attempt to exclude Chinese from the laundry trade in San Francisco, and the court struck down the law, ordering dismissal of all charges against other laundry owners who had been jailed.
Personal life
In 1843, Matthews married Mary Ann "Minnie" Black. They had 10 children, four of whom died during an outbreak of scarlet fever in 1859.[2] Over a three-week period, the outbreak claimed the lives of their three eldest sons (nine-year-old Morrison, six-year-old Stanley, and four-year-old Thomas) as well as younger daughter Mary (age two-and-a-half). Oldest daughter Isabella (seven at the time) and baby William Mortimer survived the devastating outbreak, although Isabella would die in 1868 at the age of sixteen. Their four younger children (Grace, Eva, Jane, and another son named Stanley, later called Paul) were born after the scarlet fever outbreak.[19]
"Minnie" died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1885, at age 63.[20] Matthews married Mary K. Theaker, widow of Thomas Clarke Theaker, on June 23, 1886, in New York.[21]
Death and legacy
Matthews's health declined precipitously during 1888; he died in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 1889.[22][23] He was survived by second wife Mary, as well as five of his children with Minnie: Mortimer, Grace, Eva, Jane, and Paul.[24] He is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.[25][26]
Daughter Jane Matthews married her late father's colleague on the Court, Associate Justice Horace Gray, on June 4, 1889.[27] Daughter Eva Lee Matthews became a schoolteacher and monastic, founding the Community of the Transfiguration, which engaged in charity work in Ohio, Hawaii and in China, leading to her liturgical commemoration in the Episcopal Church.[28] Son Paul Clement was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey from 1915 to 1937. His son, Justice Matthews's grandson, Thomas Stanley, was editor of Time magazine from 1949 to 1953.[29][30]
^The Supreme Court of Ohio & Ohio Judicial System website lists his birthplace as Lexington, Kentucky.[3]
^In percentage terms, the 50–48 vote in 2018 confirming Brett Kavanaugh was slightly closer than Matthews's. Matthews received 51.06% of the vote to Kavanaugh's 51.02%.[17]
^"Topping, Eva Catafygiotu"Archived August 31, 2021, at the Wayback MachineJohn Zachos Cincinnatian from Constantinople The Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin Volumes 33-34 Cincinnati Historical Society 1975: p. 51
^ abc"Stanley Matthews, 1881-1889". supremecourthistory.org. Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on June 28, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
^ abGilbert, Sheldon (October 6, 2018). "A look at the closest Court confirmation ever". Constitution Daily. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Constitution Center. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
^"OBITUARY. Mrs Mary A Matthews". The Indianapolis News. January 22, 1885. Archived from the original on November 9, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2020 – via Hoosier State Chronicles.
^Christensen, George A., "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited", Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17–41 (February 2008), University of Alabama.
Furer, Howard B., ed. (1986). The Fuller Court, 1888-1910. (The Supreme Court in American Life Series.). New York: Associated Faculty Press, Inc. ISBN978-0-86733-060-1.
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