# James M. Wayne *American jurist and politician who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1835 to 1867* James Moore Wayne (1790 – July 5, 1867) was a lawyer, judge and officeholder from Georgia. He sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1835 until his death in 1867.[^1] Before joining the Court he was the sixteenth mayor of Savannah, Georgia, from 1817 to 1819. From 1829 to 1835 he represented Georgia's at-large congressional district in the [[United States House of Representatives]].[^1] He belonged to the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].[^1] President Andrew Jackson nominated Wayne on January 7, 1835, to the seat left vacant by [[William Johnson (judge)|William Johnson]].[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed the nomination on January 14, 1835, and Wayne received his [[Commission|commission]] that day.[^1] He gave up his House seat to accept the appointment.[^1] ## Early life Wayne was born in Savannah in 1790. His father, Richard Wayne, had arrived in America in 1760 and married Elizabeth Clifford on September 14, 1769.[^1] Elizabeth Wayne died in 1804, when her son was fourteen.[^1] Wayne's sister Mary was the great-grandmother of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, and the great-great-grandmother of [[governor]] Endicott Peabody. Another sister, Eliza, married the Savannah merchant George Anderson.[^1] After preparatory studies Wayne enrolled at The College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, and graduated in 1808.[^1] He then read law, gained admission to the bar in 1810, and opened a practice in Savannah.[^1] ## Career During the War of 1812, from 1812 to 1815, Wayne held a captain's rank in the United States Army with the Chatham Light Dragoons, a unit now called the Georgia Hussars.[^1] He was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1815–1816 and mayor of Savannah from 1817 to 1819.[^1] The source places him back in private practice in Savannah until 1824.[^1] The same source dates his judicial service on the Court of Common Pleas in Savannah from 1819 to 1824. It dates his service on the Superior Court of Georgia from 1824 to 1829.[^1] Elected to the House as a Jacksonian, he held the seat from March 4, 1829, to January 13, 1835.[^1] On policy, Wayne supported free trade. He opposed federal spending on internal improvements, with rivers and harbors as the exception, and he opposed renewing the charter of the United States Bank.[^1] ### U.S. Supreme Court According to the Wikipedia account, Wayne's cases on the Court included matters of slavery, taxation and reform.[^1] That account says he shared Jackson's support for deepening rivers and harbors but parted from him on building highways and canals.[^1] It also says he supported Jackson on the Indian Removal Act and held that lands formerly belonging to Native peoples would pass to the state.[^1] The account states that Georgians found him appealing because he refused to recognize the Indian nations as independent and because of their forced removal westward. It describes him as a Southern Unionist.[^1] ## Personal life Wayne married Mary Johnson Campbell (1794–1889) on March 4, 1813.[^1] Two of their children survived. Henry Constantine Wayne (1815–1883) married Mary Louisa Nicoll in 1842. Mary Campbell Wayne (1818–1885) married Dr. Brig.-Gen. John Meck Cuyler on October 15, 1840.[^1] From 1818 to 1820 Wayne built a Regency-style house at 10 East Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah.[^1] In 1831 he sold the house to his niece, Sarah Anderson Gordon, and her husband, William Washington Gordon. Gordon had studied law under Wayne and later became mayor of Savannah.[^1] The Gordons were Juliette Gordon Low's grandparents, and the house is now known as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace.[^1] Wayne died in Washington, D.C., on July 5, 1867. He was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah.[^1] ### Legacy and honors A Liberty ship built in Brunswick, Georgia, during World War II was named SS *James M. Wayne* in his honor.[^1] The Georgia Historical Society keeps a research collection of his correspondence and miscellaneous papers dated 1848 to 1863.[^1] Wayne led that society as president from 1841 to 1854 and again from 1856 to 1862.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *James M. Wayne* (revision 1378706213, retrieved 2026-10-26) — biographical account of Wayne's family, education, military and political offices, judicial service, Supreme Court nomination and confirmation, views, marriage, death and legacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Wayne