The Also-Rans: Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes amassed a very impressive resume over the course of his life. He was Governor of New York, Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was almost elected President of the United States in 1916, but it may have been a snub of the Republican Governor of California that cost him that office.
Hughes was born in Glens Falls, New York, the son of Rev. David C. Hughes and Mary C. (Connelly) Hughes. He attended Columbia Law School in 1882, where he graduated in 1884 with highest honors. In 1885, he met Antoinette Carter, the daughter of a senior partner of the law firm where he worked, and they were married in 1888. They had one son and three daughters. One of his daughters was Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, one of the first people to be injected with insulin.
In 1891, Hughes left the practice of law to become a professor at the Cornell University Law School, but in 1893, he returned to New York City to continue practicing law. He was also a special lecturer for New York University Law School, where he was on the faulty with Woodrow Wilson, who would later defeat him for the Presidency. In 1905, he was appointed as counsel to the New York state legislative "Stevens Gas Commission", a committee investigating utility rates. His discovery of corruption led to lower gas rates in New York City. In 1906, he ran for Governor of New York, defeating William Randolph Hearst and served in that office from 1907 to 1910. As a supporter of progressive policies, Hughes was able to piggy-back on the popularity of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908, he was offered the vice-presidential nomination by William Howard Taft, but he declined it to run again for Governor.
As the Governor, Hughes fought political corruption by passing legislation that limited political contributions by corporations and forced candidates to account for their receipts and expenses. Legislation he passed was copied in fifteen other states. He got the Moreland Act passed, which enabled the governor to oversee city and county officials, which allowed him to fire many corrupt officials. He supported the Page-Prentice Act of 1907, which set an eight-hour day and forty-eight-hour week for factory workers under the age of sixteen. He also won legislative approval for a Dangerous Trades Act that barred young workers from thirty dangerous occupations. To enforce these laws he reorganized the Department of Labor. He also signed the Worker's Compensation Act of 1910, which required a compulsory, employer-paid plan of compensation for workers injured in hazardous industries.
On April 25, 1910, Hughes was appointed by President William Howard Taft to a seat as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Hughes was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 2, 1910, and received his commission the same day. He resigned from the Supreme Court on June 10, 1916, to be the Republican candidate for President in 1916. His selection mended fences between the conservative wing of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party, thanks to the support given to him from Theodore Roosevelt. Former President William Howard Taft also endorsed Hughes and felt the accomplishments he made as Governor of New York would establish him as formidable opponent for Wilson.
Hughes was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in a close election (separated by 23 electoral votes and 594,188 popular votes). The election hinged on California, where Wilson managed to win by 3,800 votes and its 13 electoral votes. Hughes lost the endorsement of the California governor Hiram Johnson when he failed to show up for an appointment with him. Despite coming close to winning the presidency, Hughes did not seek the Republican nomination again in 1920.
In 1921 President Warren Harding selected Hughes as Secretary of State. On November 11, 1921, he hosted the Washington Naval Conference for the limitation of naval armament among the Great Powers began. The major naval powers of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States were in attendance as well as other nations with concerns about territories in the Pacific — Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and China. The American delegation was headed by Hughes and included Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Oscar Underwood, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. The conference continued until February 1922 and let to a number of significant treaties. Hughes continued in office after Harding died, but resigned after Coolidge was elected to a full term.
After leaving the State Department, he again rejoined his old law firm, which included his son and future United States Solicitor General Charles E. Hughes, Jr. From 1925 to 1930, for example, Hughes argued over 50 times before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was one of the co-founders in 1927 of the National Conference on Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), which opposed the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism in the 1920s and 1930s.
Herbert Hoover, who had appointed Hughes's son as Solicitor General in 1929, appointed Hughes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on February 3, 1930. Hughes was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 13, 1930, and received commission the same day, serving in this capacity until 1941. Hughes replaced former President William Howard Taft. As Chief Justice, Hughes swore in President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, 1937 and 1941.
In 1937, when Roosevelt attempted to pack the Court with six additional justices, Hughes worked behind the scenes to defeat the effort, which failed in the Senate, by rushing important New Deal legislation through the court and ensuring that the court's majority would uphold their constitutionality. Roosevelt announced his court reform bill on February 5, 1937, and made his justifications for the bill to the public on March 9, 1937 during his 9th Fireside Chat. Hughes subsequently wrote opinions for the Court which approved some New Deal measures, fending off the drastic changes proposed by Roosevelt.
Hughes wrote twice as many constitutional opinions as any of his court's other members. Legal scholars have praised him for the clarity and conciseness of his opinions. One writer for the Oyez project said of Hughes: "His remarkable intellectual and social gifts made him a superb leader and administrator. Yet he was generous, kind, and forebearing in an institution where egos generally come in only one size: extra large!"
Hughes left the court on June 30, 1941 at the age of 79. On August 27, 1948, Hughes died in what is now the Tiffany Cottage of the Wianno Club in Osterville, Massachusetts. His remains are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
Hughes was born in Glens Falls, New York, the son of Rev. David C. Hughes and Mary C. (Connelly) Hughes. He attended Columbia Law School in 1882, where he graduated in 1884 with highest honors. In 1885, he met Antoinette Carter, the daughter of a senior partner of the law firm where he worked, and they were married in 1888. They had one son and three daughters. One of his daughters was Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, one of the first people to be injected with insulin.
In 1891, Hughes left the practice of law to become a professor at the Cornell University Law School, but in 1893, he returned to New York City to continue practicing law. He was also a special lecturer for New York University Law School, where he was on the faulty with Woodrow Wilson, who would later defeat him for the Presidency. In 1905, he was appointed as counsel to the New York state legislative "Stevens Gas Commission", a committee investigating utility rates. His discovery of corruption led to lower gas rates in New York City. In 1906, he ran for Governor of New York, defeating William Randolph Hearst and served in that office from 1907 to 1910. As a supporter of progressive policies, Hughes was able to piggy-back on the popularity of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908, he was offered the vice-presidential nomination by William Howard Taft, but he declined it to run again for Governor.
As the Governor, Hughes fought political corruption by passing legislation that limited political contributions by corporations and forced candidates to account for their receipts and expenses. Legislation he passed was copied in fifteen other states. He got the Moreland Act passed, which enabled the governor to oversee city and county officials, which allowed him to fire many corrupt officials. He supported the Page-Prentice Act of 1907, which set an eight-hour day and forty-eight-hour week for factory workers under the age of sixteen. He also won legislative approval for a Dangerous Trades Act that barred young workers from thirty dangerous occupations. To enforce these laws he reorganized the Department of Labor. He also signed the Worker's Compensation Act of 1910, which required a compulsory, employer-paid plan of compensation for workers injured in hazardous industries.
On April 25, 1910, Hughes was appointed by President William Howard Taft to a seat as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Hughes was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 2, 1910, and received his commission the same day. He resigned from the Supreme Court on June 10, 1916, to be the Republican candidate for President in 1916. His selection mended fences between the conservative wing of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party, thanks to the support given to him from Theodore Roosevelt. Former President William Howard Taft also endorsed Hughes and felt the accomplishments he made as Governor of New York would establish him as formidable opponent for Wilson.
Hughes was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in a close election (separated by 23 electoral votes and 594,188 popular votes). The election hinged on California, where Wilson managed to win by 3,800 votes and its 13 electoral votes. Hughes lost the endorsement of the California governor Hiram Johnson when he failed to show up for an appointment with him. Despite coming close to winning the presidency, Hughes did not seek the Republican nomination again in 1920.
In 1921 President Warren Harding selected Hughes as Secretary of State. On November 11, 1921, he hosted the Washington Naval Conference for the limitation of naval armament among the Great Powers began. The major naval powers of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States were in attendance as well as other nations with concerns about territories in the Pacific — Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and China. The American delegation was headed by Hughes and included Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Oscar Underwood, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. The conference continued until February 1922 and let to a number of significant treaties. Hughes continued in office after Harding died, but resigned after Coolidge was elected to a full term.
After leaving the State Department, he again rejoined his old law firm, which included his son and future United States Solicitor General Charles E. Hughes, Jr. From 1925 to 1930, for example, Hughes argued over 50 times before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was one of the co-founders in 1927 of the National Conference on Christians and Jews, now known as the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), which opposed the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism in the 1920s and 1930s.
Herbert Hoover, who had appointed Hughes's son as Solicitor General in 1929, appointed Hughes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on February 3, 1930. Hughes was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 13, 1930, and received commission the same day, serving in this capacity until 1941. Hughes replaced former President William Howard Taft. As Chief Justice, Hughes swore in President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, 1937 and 1941.
In 1937, when Roosevelt attempted to pack the Court with six additional justices, Hughes worked behind the scenes to defeat the effort, which failed in the Senate, by rushing important New Deal legislation through the court and ensuring that the court's majority would uphold their constitutionality. Roosevelt announced his court reform bill on February 5, 1937, and made his justifications for the bill to the public on March 9, 1937 during his 9th Fireside Chat. Hughes subsequently wrote opinions for the Court which approved some New Deal measures, fending off the drastic changes proposed by Roosevelt.
Hughes wrote twice as many constitutional opinions as any of his court's other members. Legal scholars have praised him for the clarity and conciseness of his opinions. One writer for the Oyez project said of Hughes: "His remarkable intellectual and social gifts made him a superb leader and administrator. Yet he was generous, kind, and forebearing in an institution where egos generally come in only one size: extra large!"
Hughes left the court on June 30, 1941 at the age of 79. On August 27, 1948, Hughes died in what is now the Tiffany Cottage of the Wianno Club in Osterville, Massachusetts. His remains are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.