View source for Benjamin Chew Howard

{{Short description|American politician}}
{{redirect|How.|other uses|How (disambiguation){{!}}How}}
{{Other people|Benjamin Howard}}
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'''Benjamin Chew Howard''' (November 5, 1791 – March 6, 1872)<ref name=congress>{{cite web |title=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000835 |access-date=25 January 2019}}</ref> was an American politician and lawyer. After serving on the city council of Baltimore in 1820 and in both houses of the Maryland legislature, he was a Representative in the United States Congress from 1829 to 1833, and from 1835 to 1839. He was thereafter the fifth [[Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions|reporter of decisions]] of the [[United States Supreme Court]], serving from 1843 to 1860.

==Early life and education==
Howard was born at Belvidere in [[Baltimore County, Maryland]], the son of [[John Eager Howard]] and [[Peggy Chew Howard|Margaret ("Peggy") Chew]], daughter of [[Benjamin Chew]].  He received an [[Bachelor of Arts|A.B.]] from [[Princeton University]] in 1809.<ref name=Scharf>{{cite web |title=Scharf, John Thomas. The Chronicles of Baltimore: Being a Complete History of "Baltimore Town" and Baltimore City. Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1874 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkcVAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Benjamin+Chew+Howard%22+inauthor%3AScharf&pg=PA688 |access-date=25 January 2019|last1 = Scharf|first1 = John Thomas|year = 1874}}</ref> In 1812 he attended and graduated from Litchfield Law School in Connecticut.<ref>{{cite web |title=Litchfield Historical Society. Database of Students of the Litchfield Law School |url=https://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/1262 |access-date=25 January 2019}}</ref> 

=== War of 1812 ===
During 1814, the last year of the [[War of 1812]] he served as a Captain in the First Mechanical Volunteers, a company of the 5th Maryland Regiment at the [[Battle of North Point]]. The battle would become the turning point of the War.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |title=The Battle of North Point Part 1 - Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/fomc/learn/historyculture/north-point-pt-1.htm |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> He remained in the service and later he reached the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland militia.<ref name="Scharf" />

==Marriage and family==
[[File:Mrs. Benjamin Chew Howard (Jane Grant Gilmor).jpg|thumb|Jane Gilmor Howard, author of ''Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen'']]
Among his siblings were [[George Howard (Governor of Maryland)|George Howard]], Governor of Maryland; [[William Howard (engineer)|Dr. William Howard]], a civil engineer and architect; and Charles who with his son [[Francis Key Howard]], were imprisoned in [[Fort McHenry]] at the start of the [[American Civil War]]. In 1818 he married Jane Gilmor who would write a charity cookbook and after the Civil War lead a successful fundraising fair.  They had twelve children.<ref>{{cite web |title="Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen"...and Belvidere |url=http://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2014/06/fifty-years-in-maryland-kitchenand.html |website=Researching Food History |date=9 June 2014 |access-date=25 January 2019}}</ref>

==Political life==
A [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]], he served on the city council of [[Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore]] in 1820 and in both houses of the [[Maryland]] legislature. He was elected to the [[Twenty-first United States Congress|Twenty-first]] and [[Twenty-second United States Congress]], serving from March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1833.  In 1835, President [[Andrew Jackson]] named [[Richard Rush]] and Howard to arbitrate the [[Ohio]]-[[Michigan]] [[Toledo War|boundary dispute]].<ref name=congress/>

He returned to Congress in the [[Twenty-fourth United States Congress|Twenty-fourth Congress]] and was re-elected to the [[Twenty-fifth United States Congress|Twenty-fifth]], serving from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1839.  During this service, he chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee for four years.

In 1861, he was one of the emissaries sent by outgoing President [[James Buchanan]] to try to secure a peace with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. That year he [[1861 Maryland gubernatorial election|unsuccessfully ran]] for [[Governor of Maryland]].  He died in Baltimore at his home on March 6, 1872 and is buried in [[Greenmount Cemetery]].<ref name=congress/>

=== ''United States Reports'' ===
Starting with the 42nd volume of ''[[United States Reports]]'', Howard was the [[Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States]], serving  from 1843 to 1860. His term covered volumes 42 through 65 of ''US Reports'', corresponding to volumes 1 through 24 of his [[Nominate reports|nominative]] ''Howard's Reports''. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, the Supreme Court decision in ''Williams v. United States'' is 42 U.S. (1 How.) 290 (1843).

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[Court reporter]]
* [[Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=35219| name=Benjamin Chew Howard}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin Chew Howard |sopt=t}}
*{{Find a Grave|7527644}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[Governor of Maryland]]|years=[[1861 Maryland gubernatorial election|1861]]}}
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  state=Maryland|
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{{Succession box|title=[[Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions|United States Supreme Court Reporter of Decisions]]|before=[[Richard Peters (supreme court)|Richard Peters]]|after=[[Jeremiah S. Black]]|years=1843&ndash;1860}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Benjamin Chew}}
[[Category:1791 births]]
[[Category:1872 deaths]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of the War of 1812]]
[[Category:Baltimore City Council members]]
[[Category:Democratic Party Maryland state senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Reporters of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:American militia generals]]
[[Category:Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland]]
[[Category:Howard family (Maryland)|Benjamin Chew]]
[[Category:Chew family|Benjamin Howard]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly]]