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MORRISON R.
WAITE was born in Lyme, Connecticut on November 29, 1816.
He was graduated from Yale College in 1837 and moved to
Ohio to read law with an attorney in Maumee City. Waite
was admitted to the bar in 1839 and practiced in Maumee
City until 1850. He then moved to Toledo, where he practiced
until 1874. Waite was elected to the Ohio General Assembly
in 1850 and served on term. He ran unsuccessfully for
the United States House of Representatives in 1846 and
1862. Waite declined an appointment to the Ohio Supreme
Court in 1863. In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed
Waite to a Commission established to settle United States
claims against Great Britain, arising out of the latter’s
assistance to the Confederacy during the Civil War. The
proceedings resulted in an award of $15.5 million in compensation
to the United States. Upon his return from Europe, Waite
was elected to the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873
and was unanimously selected to serve as its president.
During the Convention, on January 19, 1874. President
Grant nominated Waite Chief Justice of the United States.
The Senate confirmed the appointment two days later. Waite
served as Chief Justice for fourteen years and died on
March 23, 1888, at the age of seventy-one. |
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