Kentucky’s Civil War leaders…
Union Col. J.M. Harlan better known
as outstanding Supreme Court justice

(EDITOR’S NOTE:  This is the 18th in a series about Kentucky’s officers and battle leaders during the Civil War.)

Although he was a highly regarded Union infantry officer during the Civil War, John Marshall Harlan made his mark as one of the foremost justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harlan, a native of Boyle County, was an 1850 honor graduate of Centre College and was graduated from Transylvania Law School in 1852. He was admitted to the bar the following year and, in 1858, was elected county judge of Franklin County. He resigned as county judge and moved to Louisville in 1861 where he practiced law.

From May-August 1861 he virtually abandoned his law practice to makes speeches with President Abraham Lincoln’s attorney general, James Speed, encouraging Kentuckians to stand firm for the Union. That fall, he raised a Union regiment – the 10th Kentucky infantry – and, as a colonel, served well at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862 and later in the advance on Corinth, Miss. But it was Harlan’s victory over Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan in a December 1862 battle that earned him great respect as a Civil War commander.

Before he could be promoted to brigadier general, Harlan resigned his commission following the sudden death of his father. After his return to Kentucky, he was elected attorney general succeeding his father, holding that office until 1867 when he resumed his law practice in Louisville.

Harlan became active in Republican politics and was instrumental in earning the presidential nomination for Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. President Hayes named Harlan to the Supreme Court and, at age 44, the Kentuckian became an associate justice Dec. 10, 1877.

During his tenure on the court (1877-1911), Harlan authored 745 majority, 100 concurring and 316 dissenting opinions for a record 1,161 opinions. He was known as the Great Dissenter, especially in the field of civil rights.

His support of civil rights and his belief that the Bill of Rights, through its incorporation in the 14th Amendment, protected citizens from the arbitrary power of the state earned him the reputation as a leading liberal on a conservative court. In 1972, 65 law school deans and professors of law, history and political science rated Harlan as one of the 12 greatest justices of the Supreme Court.

Harlan and his wife, Malvina French Shanklin, had six children. Their son, John Maynard, was the father of the John Marshall Harlan who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1955.

Justice Harlan died at his home in Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 1911 at age 78 and is buried in that area’s Rock Creek Cemetery.