# Stanley Matthews (judge) *American attorney, soldier, judge and senator from Ohio who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1881 to 1889* Thomas Stanley Matthews (July 21, 1824 – March 22, 1889), who went by Stanley Matthews as an adult, was an Ohio lawyer, Union Army officer, judge and Republican United States senator. He sat on the Supreme Court of the United States as an associate justice from May 1881 until his death in 1889.[^1] On the Court he wrote the opinions in *Yick Wo v. Hopkins* and *Ex parte Crow Dog*.[^1] The Senate confirmed him in May 1881 by a vote of 24–23. That is the narrowest margin recorded for any Supreme Court nominee the Senate has confirmed.[^2] ## Early life and education Matthews was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 21, 1824. He was the eldest of the 11 children of Thomas J. Matthews and Isabella Brown Matthews, who was his father's second wife.[^3] He graduated from Kenyon College in 1840. There he came to know Rutherford B. Hayes, later president, and John Celivergos Zachos, with whom he afterwards shared lodgings in Cincinnati.[^3] He read law in Cincinnati under [[Salmon P. Chase]].[^3] From 1842 to 1844 he practiced law and edited the local newspaper in Columbia, Tennessee. He returned to Cincinnati in 1844 and was admitted to the bar in 1845.[^3] Back in Cincinnati he edited the antislavery *Cincinnati Morning Herald* and practiced law; the source dates this work from 1853 to 1858.[^3] In 1849 Matthews, Zachos, Ainsworth Rand Spofford and nine others founded the Literary Club of Cincinnati. Hayes joined a year later, and later members included future President [[William Howard Taft]].[^3] ## Early legal career In 1848 Matthews was chosen as clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives. He then served as a county judge in Hamilton County, Ohio.[^4] Voters of the 1st district elected him to the Ohio State Senate, where he sat from 1856 to 1858.[^4] From 1858 to 1861 he held appointment as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.[^4] ## Military service When the American Civil War began, Matthews gave up the U.S. Attorney's post. He took a commission as lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment of the Union Army.[^5] His superiors in that regiment included Colonel William S. Rosecrans and Major Rutherford B. Hayes. William McKinley, also a future president, served in its ranks as a private.[^5] With the 23rd Ohio he took part in the early West Virginia campaigns, including the Battle of Carnifex Ferry on September 10, 1861. He left the regiment within a year.[^5] In 1862 he was named colonel of the 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment. He led a brigade in the Army of the Ohio, later known as the Army of the Cumberland.[^5] ## State judge, lawyer and politician Matthews left the army in 1863 and returned to Ohio, where he won election as judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati.[^6] He went back to private practice two years later. During Reconstruction his clients were drawn from the railroad industry and included Jay Gould.[^6] He stood for the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1876 and lost.[^6] In early 1877 Congress created an electoral commission to settle the disputed 1876 presidential election, and Matthews appeared before it as counsel for Hayes.[^6] Later that year he won a special election to the United States Senate. The seat had become vacant when John Sherman resigned, and Matthews did not run for a further term.[^6] ## Associate justice Hayes first nominated Matthews to the Supreme Court on January 26, 1881, in the closing weeks of his presidency.[^2] Senators objected to the nomination over Matthews's ties to railroad interests and his long friendship with Hayes. The Judiciary Committee left the nomination without action for the rest of the 46th Congress.[^2] President James A. Garfield sent the name back to the Senate on March 14, 1881, ten days into his term.[^2] The Judiciary Committee recommended rejection. The full Senate nevertheless confirmed Matthews on May 12, 1881, by 24 votes to 23. According to the source, no other justice has been confirmed by a single vote.[^2] Matthews took the judicial oath on May 17, 1881, and remained on the Court until he died on March 22, 1889.[^2] The source records that he was regarded as one of the more progressive members of the Court of that period.[^2] ## Yick Wo v. Hopkins A San Francisco ordinance of 1880 barred operating a laundry in a wooden building without a permit from the Board of Supervisors. It left the Board free to grant or refuse each permit.[^7] At the time, about 95% of the city's 320 laundries operated in wooden buildings, and roughly two-thirds of those were owned by Chinese persons.[^7] Most owners of wooden-building laundries applied for permits. No Chinese owner received one, while virtually every non-Chinese applicant did.[^7] Yick Wo had run a laundry in the same wooden building for many years. He held a valid license from the Board of Fire-Wardens and kept operating.[^7] He was convicted under the ordinance and fined $10.00. When he refused to pay, he was imprisoned in default. He then sought a [[writ of habeas corpus]].[^7] Matthews wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court. It held that the ordinance had been administered in a discriminatory way, which made it unnecessary to decide whether the ordinance itself was valid.[^7] The Court held that the Chinese laundry owners, though usually not American citizens, were entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. It struck the law down.[^7] ## Personal life Matthews married Mary Ann "Minnie" Black in 1843, and they had 10 children.[^8] In 1859 a scarlet fever outbreak killed four of the children within three weeks. A fifth child, Isabella, died in 1868 at age sixteen.[^8] Minnie Matthews died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1885, aged 63.[^8] On June 23, 1886, in New York, Matthews married Mary Frances Theaker, née Kellogg, the widow of Thomas Clarke Theaker.[^8] ## Death and legacy Matthews's health failed during 1888, and he died in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 1889.[^9] His second wife and five of his children with Minnie survived him. He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.[^9] On June 4, 1889, his daughter Jane married [[Horace Gray]], who had served with her father on the Court.[^9] His daughter Eva Lee Matthews founded the Community of the Transfiguration. His son Paul Clement Matthews was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey from 1915 to 1937. His grandson Thomas Stanley Matthews edited *Time* magazine from 1949 to 1953.[^9] The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center library in Fremont, Ohio, holds his correspondence and papers, which are open for research. Other material is held by:[^9] - the Cincinnati Historical Society; - the Library of Congress; - the Ohio Historical Society; - the Pierpont Morgan Library; - the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; - the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History. ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead section — establishes his dates, offices, party, and authorship of *Yick Wo v. Hopkins* and *Ex parte Crow Dog*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Associate justice" section — establishes the nominations of January 26 and March 14, 1881, the Judiciary Committee's actions, the 24–23 vote of May 12, 1881, and his oath and tenure dates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Early life and education" section — establishes his birth, family, education, legal training, early newspaper work and the Literary Club of Cincinnati. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Early legal career" section — establishes his House clerkship, county judgeship, Ohio Senate service and U.S. Attorney appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Military service" section — establishes his commissions in the 23rd and 51st Ohio Infantry and his service at Carnifex Ferry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "State judge, lawyer and politician" section — establishes the 1863 judgeship, his railroad clients, the 1876 House race, the electoral commission and his Senate seat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Yick Wo v. Hopkins" section — establishes the 1880 ordinance, the permit figures, Yick Wo's conviction and the Court's unanimous holding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Personal life" section — establishes his marriages, his children and the 1859 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge) [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stanley Matthews (judge)* (rev. 1374089194, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Death and legacy" section — establishes his death, burial and descendants, and where his papers are held. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Matthews_(judge)