Oliver Wendell Holmes

by Stephen Budiansky

equity, courts’ jurisdiction over, 184

  Erskine, Ralph, 497n59

  Espionage Act of 1917, 368, 377, 384, 385, 390, 393

  Ethics (Spinoza), 333

  Etruria, S.S., 237

  eugenics, 14–15, 428–31

  Everett, Willy, 124

  evidence, rules of, 434

  evolution, 170–72

  Experience and Nature (Dewey), 424

  Experiences of an Irish R.M. (Somerville and Ross), 377

  external standard

  in criminal law, 232–33, 383

  and liability, 21, 170, 175–76, 180, 229–30

  Fair Oaks, Battle of, 92, 129

  Falmouth (Va.), 102, 103, 105, 107

  “Farley” (plantation house), 112, 113

  Faneuil Hall Market, 28

  FBI, see Bureau of Investigations

  federalism, see common law: federal; Fourteenth Amendment; habeas corpus

  Federalist papers, 7

  Felton, Cornelius, 58, 74, 75

  Field, Justice Walbridge Abner, 199–200, 230–31, 253

  Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 82, 96

  Fifth Amendment, 302

  Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 111

  Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 109, 111, 247

  financial markets, 199–200, 272–73, 295

  First Amendment

  applicability to the states, 290, 379, 380

  and commercial speech, 440–41

  and common law of seditious libel, 368, 379–80, 392, 393

  and direct-incitement test, 369

  lack of academic attention to, 385

  and pacifists, 440–42, 460

  and prior restraints, 380, 382, 392, 393, 440

  and right to petition government, 380–82

  and use of mails, 368–69, 440–41, 460

  see also free speech

  First Congregational Parish (Cambridge, Mass.), 31–32, 34

  First South Carolina Volunteers, 58

  Fish, Erland F., 320

  “Fiske, Herbert,” 213–14

  Fitz, Mrs. Walter Scott, 398

  Fitzpatrick, Bishop John B., 133

  Flannery, John S., 452, 453

  Flaubert, Gustave, 332

  Fleming, Bunyan, 427–28, 427

  flu pandemic of 1918, 377

  Fort Independence (Boston), 71, 73, 74

  Fort Stevens (Washington, D.C.), 2, 3, 125, 316, 479–80n70

  Fort Sumter (S.C.), 70, 74

  Fort Wagner (S.C.), 111, 145

  Fortress Monroe (Va.), 91

  Fourteenth Amendment

  and incorporation of Bill of Rights, 289–91

  limited to state actors, 290

  and right to fair trial, 350, 459

  used to block economic and social legislation, 268, 270, 272, 288–97, 302, 342, 348, 405, 409–12, 445

  and voting rights, 433

  see also Due Process Clause; Equal Protection Clause; Privileges or Immunities Clause; segregation

  Fourth Amendment, 434, 520n33

  France, OWH’s visits to, 141, 142, 159, 304

  Frank, Leo, 348–51, 352–53

  Frankfurter, Felix

  background and personality, 326–28

  Brandeis’s reports on OWH to, 185, 410–11, 439, 440, 442, 444, 448

  cases argued before Court, 327, 329

  denounces Palmer Raids, 387

  and FDR’s birthday visit to OWH, 449–50

  final visit to OWH, 452

  and “Four Horsemen,” 412

  on Gray’s horror of constitutional law, 287

  Harvard pressured to fire, 388–89, 393, 426

  influence on OWH’s free speech decisions, 387–90, 393, 441

  introduced to OWH, 326, 327–28

  investigated as radical, 387

  joins Democratic Party, 399

  and Laski, 371, 372

  life at “House of Truth,” 328–29, 328, 353

  and McReynolds, 361–62, 426

  on old Court chambers, 264

  OWH’s affection for, 327–28, 371

  and OWH’s authorized biography, 455, 456–57

  OWH’s remarks to: dangers of academic life, 16, 63, 181; harm done by father, 44; duty in war, 123; “running universe on paper,” 131; once thought of medical school, 134; reason he wants unmarried secretaries, 317; Pitney’s intellectual honesty, 337; “two tiny testicles” removed from draft opinion, 338–39; Leo Frank’s innocence, 353; offers to subsidize Wu at Harvard, 398; “bad form” to criticize majority in a dissent, 404; thinks of “all the beautiful women he had known” when fellow justices talk of “liberty of contract,” 411; profile in New Republic “made me blush,” 422; sex in modern novels, 443; reads aloud “The Old Sergeant,” 452; asks to burn letters, 455

  and OWH’s secretaries, 204, 317, 318, 441, 442

  papers, 466

  promotes OWH’s reputation, 15–16, 400, 421, 422, 457–58

  and Sacco-Vanzetti case, 425–26, 427

  story of OWH and Lincoln, 480n70

  Frankfurter, Marion, 327, 452

  fraternal orders, 189

  Fredericksburg (Va.), 102, 103, 104, 107, 116

  Fredericksburg, First Battle of, 103–5, 110

  Fredericksburg, Second Battle of, 107–8

  free speech

  “bad tendency” test, 368

  change in OWH’s thinking on, 378–85, 381, 388–94, 440–42

  “clear and present danger” test, 384, 385, 391

  commercial speech, 440–41

  common law rule, 368, 379–80, 392, 393

  conservative attacks on, 393

  direct-incitement test, 368–70

  “fire in theater” analogy, 384, 385

  “freedom for the thought we hate,” 441, 461

  and law of attempt, 383–84, 393

  as marketplace of ideas, 391–92, 460

  OWH’s lasting influence on, 370–71, 460–61, 524n25

  and pacifists, 440, 441–42, 460

  and prior restraints, 380, 382, 440

  of public employees, 12, 378

  and U.S. mails, 368–69, 440

  in World War I, 368–69, 377–78, 380–85, 390–93

  French and Indian War, 307

  Freud, Sigmund, 7

  Freund, Ernst, 384

  fuel yards, municipal, 224–25

  Fugitive Slave Acts, 66–68

  Fuller, Justice Melville W.

  administrative abilities, 262–63, 271

  appearance, character, and views, 267–68, 269, 297

  appointment to Court, 267–68

  death, 321

  OWH importunes for case assignments, 7, 267

  relations with OWH, 217, 259, 271, 321

  resists pressure to retire, 420

  sentence handed down by in lynching case, 417

  futures contracts, 198–200

  gambling, 199, 222

  Gandhi, Mohandas, 374

  Garden Street (Cambridge, Mass.), 54, 55

  Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 58

  Garrison, William Lloyd, 58

  Gény, François, 513n26

  Georgia Supreme Court, 336, 349

  German-Americans

  in Civil War, 69, 76, 78, 89–90, 104

  indicated under Espionage Act, 377, 378, 380–82

  Germanna Ford (Va.), 114, 115

  Germany, 145, 217, 364, 378

  Gettysburg, Battle of, 72, 73, 109–11

  Gierke, Otto von, 364

  Gilmore, Grant, 16

  Gladstone, William, 139–40

  Glendale, Battle of, 92

  Godkin, Edwin, 219

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 357

  Gogh, Annie, 453

  grain elevators, regulation of, 288–89, 410

  grandfather clause, 413

  Granston Manor, 235, 283, 325

  Grant, Ulysses S.

  dislike of New England elite, 132

  in O
verland Campaign, 114, 115, 117, 118, 121, 123, 125

  OWH meets at Spotsylvania, 2

  Gray, Anna (“Nina”) Lyman

  abiding friendship with OWH, 18, 208, 211, 442

  appearance and background, 208–9, 209

  assessment of OWH, 18

  letters from OWH to, 18, 211, 219–21

  OWH’s observations and confidences to: folly of self-importance, 9; ambition as legal thinker, 10; fears of dilettantism, 55; not disgraceful to succeed, 167–68; verbosity of lawyers, 194; difficulties of teenage girls, 206; called “communist” in newspapers, 224; “when in doubt buy it,” 228; “born pagan,” 231; London will rub rust off, 234; carriage trip to nephew’s wedding, 248–49; democratic spirit of bicycle riding, 249; Fanny urges he visit London, 250; resentment at pursuits of pleasure, 252–53; speed and brevity of his opinions pleases the chief, 265–66; Justice White “a fertile mind and charming man,” 270; “snobs” and “gracious ladies” in Washington, 274; “possibility of having enemies” in Washington, 278–79; moved by grave of Clover Adams, 281; “shudders from time to time” over importance of cases, 282; hates disturbance of garden party at Doneraile, 283; “tragical aspect” of seeing places for last time, 284; longing for house of his own, 286; London the enemy of the banal, 287; unable to take TR’s friendship seriously, 301; talked to everyone from princesses to haberdashers in England, 304; automobile “a vain thing,” 305; really has a home of his own at last, 306; asks if John Gray can get him a secretary, 314; disavows ambition to be chief justice, 323; death of Canon Sheehan, 325–26; wrangles with fellow justices, 337; judges who read social or economic prejudices into Constitution, 342; has to make allowances for Southerners, 344; not “under the influence” of Jews, 359; Brandeis’s dull reading recommendations, 389; young woman helped him on with overcoat, 406; recovery from prostate surgery, 408; “guardians of public taste” edit his opinion, 408; public fame like getting rich, 422; declines Washington invitations, 424; terrors of patent cases, 444; writing comes harder, 448; enjoying idleness more than expected, 449; asks her to burn his letters, 455

  Gray, Asa, 38

  Gray, Justice Horace B., 177, 179, 253–54, 313

  Gray, John Chipman

  death, 351–52

  friendship with OWH, 18, 162, 177

  horrified at teaching constitutional law, 287

  introduces Frankfurter to OWH, 326, 327

  legal practice, 110, 209

  and Minny Temple, 146

  OWH tells of low mood after nomination, 257

  selects secretaries for brother and OWH, 313, 314

  Green, Alice Stopford

  and Ethel and Leslie Scott, 320–21

  OWH’s comments to: Canon Sheehan’s “lovely soul,” 285–86; constitutional law the “prejudices of nine old pedagogues,” 294; caricatured in papers as toreador in Beef Trust case, 300; Hughes and Harlan disappointed not to be chief justice, 323; death of Canon Sheehan, 326; tedium of fellow justices in conference, 337; few shared interests with White, 343

  Grenfell, Ethel (“Ettie”; later Lady

  Desborough), 218, 283

  Griswold, Erwin, 511n73

  Griswold, Harriet Ford, 511n73

  Guntner, George, 241

  habeas corpus, 66, 350–51, 416–19, 427, 459

  Hagerstown (Md.), 97, 157

  Haldane, Richard Burdon, Lord, 400

  Hale, Edward Everett, 31

  Hale, Lucy, 208

  Hale, Richard W., 216, 274

  Hale, Shelton, 364

  Hall, Edwin H., 388

  Hallowell, Edward Needles (“Ned”), 111

  Hallowell, Norwood Penrose (“Pen”)

  appearance and character, 69, 71

  at Ball’s Bluff, 84, 85, 86, 90

  death, 343

  enlists with OWH, 69–70, 72–73, 74–75

  and freedmen, 130

  and fugitive slave incident, 89

  as officer of Colored regiment, 109, 111

  orders not to fire on fleeing rebels, 92

  OWH convalesces with family, 87, 107

  OWH’s regard for, 71, 343

  wounded with OWH at Antietam, 96

  Hallowell, Richard P., 69–70

  Hamlet (Shakespeare), 377

  Hand, Learned

  background and personality, 366–68, 367

  correspondence with OWH on free speech, 369–71, 375, 376, 382, 383, 384, 393

  direct-incitement test, 368–70, 385

  on OWH: childlessness, 206; “do justice” anecdote, 415; innocence and susceptibility to flattery, 400; writing style, 11

  papers, 466

  praises OWH in anonymous articles, 366, 421

  and Taft, 366, 405

  visits OWH in retirement, 449

  Hanover Court House (Va.), 116, 121

  Harding, Warren, 399, 401, 412

  Hardwick, Thomas W., 386

  Harlan, John Marshall

  background, appearance, and temperament, 268–70, 269

  as dissenter, 269, 273, 290, 293

  heartbroken not named chief justice, 323

  and lynching case, 416

  opposition to segregation, 269, 290

  OWH’s assessment of, 9, 268, 270, 273

  Taft complains “does no work,” 335

  Harper’s Weekly, 96

  Harrison, George L., 320, 353

  Harte, Bret, 24

  Harvard College

  and anti-Semitism, 394, 394

  in Civil War, 73–76

  compulsory religious instruction, 61–65

  deficiencies of prewar education, 56–58

  disciplinary system, 56, 65

  effects of Civil War on, 137

  founding, 26

  OWH as student, 56–65

  Unitarian influence, 29, 33, 64–65

  Harvard Lampoon, 394, 394

  Harvard Law Review

  articles celebrating OWH, 15, 433

  Chafee’s article on free speech, 385

  Laski serves as editor, 375

  OWH’s articles in, 230, 245, 376

  Harvard Law School

  archive of OWH’s papers, 17, 457, 465

  attacks on free speech and academic freedom at, 387–89, 393

  and case study method, 169–70

  controversy over OWH’s departure, 167, 181–82

  democratic and ethical spirit, 326

  and justices’ law clerks, 313, 314, 320

  OWH as lecturer and professor, 137, 163, 167, 179–82

  OWH as student, 134–36

  OWH’s bequest to, 453

  OWH’s portrait at, 16, 320

  program of study, 135

  Harvard Law School Alumni Association, 388

  Harvard Magazine, 57–58

  “Harvard Regiment,” see Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 38

  Hay, John, 141, 276, 479–80n70

  Hayward, Dr. Nathan, 80, 85, 108, 122, 128

  Hazel River (Va.), 113, 116

  Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 184

  Hemingway, Ernest, 7

  Henrico County Jail (Va.), 100

  Henry, Patrick, 121

  Henry II, 169

  Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 67

  Hill, Arthur D., 247, 278, 426, 428

  Hill, James J., 297

  Hiss, Alger, 443

  burning of OWH’s draft opinions, 456

  impressions and anecdotes of OWH, 5, 204, 312–13, 444

  as OWH’s secretary, 3, 319, 442–43, 444, 448

  violates OWH’s rule against marriage, 317

  Hiss, Donald, 46, 316, 448, 449–50

  History of Freedom, The (Acton), 376

  Hoar, Sen. George Frisbie, 254, 255, 278

  Hobbes, Thomas, 76

  Hofstadter, Richard, 28

  Hofstedt, Matthew, 499n14

  Holland, OWH’s visit to, 217

  Holmes, Abiel (grandfather of OWH), 31–33, 33

 
; Holmes, Amelia Jackson (Mrs. Turner Sargent; sister of OWH), 39, 48, 143–44, 217, 309

  Holmes, Amelia Lee Jackson (mother of OWH)

  background and personality, 39, 44, 50–51

  book of OWH’s visitors when wounded, 88

  encourages and approves OWH’s marriage, 143–44, 157

  OWH’s Civil War letters to, 73, 80, 85, 86, 119, 122, 123–24, 129

  Holmes, David (great-grandfather of OWH), 307

  Holmes, Edward Jackson (“Ned,” brother of OWH), 39, 39, 40, 48, 225, 398

  Holmes, Edward Jackson, Jr. (nephew of OWH), 152, 205, 248, 449, 453, 454

  Holmes, Fanny Dixwell (wife of OWH)

  admirers, 143–44

  appearance and dress, 143, 144, 216, 234

  background and family, 53–55, 54

  Cambridge childhood home, 54, 55

  chaffing of OWH, 5, 128, 203–4, 216, 318, 424

  courage and strength of character, 203, 217, 278

  courtship by OWH, 88, 143–44, 157

  devotion to OWH and self-sacrifice, 217, 250, 277, 303–4, 353–54

  dislike of OWH’s Jewish friends, 19, 359, 390, 511n70

  distance from family, 203

  embroidery work, 161

  European travels, 157–159, 158, 217

  eye for small beauties of life, 205

  feelings about OWH’s flirtations, 159, 203, 207, 215–16, 279

  health problems, 157, 234, 324, 506n55

  and Holmes Sr., 157, 217, 225

  influence on OWH’s Court opinions, 277, 390

  insists on guard during Sacco-Vanzetti case, 427

  last illness and death, 439–40, 442

  mordant wit, 203–4, 216, 277, 278, 501n58

  organizes and manages household, 202, 286–87, 306, 309, 310–11, 490–91n1

  OWH’s bequest to family, 454

  and OWH’s secretaries, 203, 317, 318, 423

  pets, 310

  privacy and reclusiveness, 202–3, 276, 422–23, 424, 439

  refusal to be photographed, 216

  religious views, 29

  and TR, 277, 278, 501n58

  and travel arrangements, 248

  wanting children, 205–7

  in Washington society, 276–79, 299, 307, 309, 310–11, 501n61

  and William James, 143, 144, 146, 162, 423

  Holmes, John (uncle of OWH), 39–41, 40, 54, 309

  Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. PRINCIPAL BIOGRAPHICAL EVENTS:

  birth, 48; childhood and family life, 38–39, 49–50; relations with father, 43–47, 87–88, 97–98, 106–7; boyhood summers, 52–53; early education, 53–56; attends Harvard, 56–65; youthful abolitionism, 69–70, 130; volunteers as private in Massachusetts militia, 70, 71–75; graduates Harvard, 74–75; commissioned as officer in Union army, 4, 75–76, 77, 79, 108; wounded at Ball’s Bluff, 2, 79, 84–88, 96; in Peninsula Campaign, 91–93; contracts dysentery and lice, 91–92; wounded at Antietam, 2, 93–99, 98, 128, 451; returns to regiment and again contracts dysentery, 102–3; wounded third time, 107–9, 478n25; turns down post in Colored regiment, 109, 111; appointed to Sixth Corps staff and learns to ride, 111–13; in Overland Campaign, 114–25; gallops through Confederate cavalry patrol, 121–22; hating war, decides to leave Army, 120, 122–26; enters law school, 134–36; 1866 tour of Europe, 138–43; climbs Alps, 141–42; courtship of Fanny Dixwell and marriage, 143–44, 157; befriends William and Henry James, 2–3, 144–50; begins law practice, 154–57; 1874 trip to Europe with Fanny, 157–59, 158; buys summer place at Mattapoisett, 156, 161, 162, 225; Boston residences of, 159–61, 160, 202, 217, 227, 490–91n1; part-time lecturer at Harvard Law School, 137, 163, 179;