WAITE, wit, Morrison Remick, American jurist, seventh chief justice of the United States: b. Lyme Conn., 29 Nov. 1816; d. Washington, D. 23 March 188& He was graduated from Yale in 1837; studied law, and in 1838 moved to Ohio, where he was admitted to the bar in 1839. He began the practice of his profession in Maumee C.ity, later moving to Toledo. In politics he was at first an active and influential member of the Whig party, and was elected to the Ohio State legislature in 1849; later he took part. in the organization of the Republican party; was an ardent sup porter of Lincoln; and was nominated for Con gress in 1862, but failed of election. His na tional reputation dates from the time of his appointment by President Grant as one of the counsel to represent the United States before the tribunal for the consideration of the Ala bama claims at Geneva; associated with him were Caleb Cushing and William M. Erarts, the latter a cdllege classtnate. His reply to Sir Roundel! Palmer, establishing Great Britain's liability for permitting the Confed erate cruisers to coal in British ports during the Civil War, was considered a model of legal argument in its clear, direct and logical pres entation of the law and facts. In 1873 he was chosen by both political parties as a delegate from his county to the convention for revising the State constitution of Ohio, and was made president of that convention. In the same year
he was appointed chief justice of the national Supreme Court, the appointment being ap proved by a unanimous vote of the Senate. Many of the most important subjects of adjudi cation came before the court during his term of office. Among thern were the following: The constitutionality of the enforcement act; interpretation of the latest constitutional amend ments; rights and powers of the State to con trol and regulate the charges of railroads; the polygamy cases; federal control over elec tions; power of the President to remove from office; power of States to prohibit the liquor traffic; repudiation of State debts and the true meaning of the llth amendment; questions arising out of the violence of the Chicago an archists, and the exclusion of the Chinese. His work was marked by the strictest attention to detail, and by a rigid enforcement of the rules and precedents of practice of the court; it was his custom to keep watch of the dockq and ac quaint himself in advance with the character of the cases about to be reached. In all questions his decisions were entirely uninfluenced by political considerations; and all parties and sections united in comunending his absolute fairness. A prominent lawyer of the South said of him: °He could hold in his steady and equal hand the balance of justice undisturbed?