Levi Woodbury

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Levi Woodbury
Levi Woodbury

In office
May 23, 1831 – June 30, 1834
Preceded by John Branch
Succeeded by Mahlon Dickerson

In office
July 1, 1834 – March 3, 1841
Preceded by Roger B. Taney
Succeeded by Thomas Ewing, Sr.

In office
September 23, 1845 – September 4, 1851
Preceded by Joseph Story
Succeeded by Benjamin Robbins Curtis

Born December 1, 1789
Francestown, New Hampshire, USA
Died September 04, 1851 (aged 61)
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA
Political party Democratic
Profession Politician, Lawyer, Judge

Levi Woodbury (December 22, 1789September 4, 1851) was the first justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to have attended law school.

Woodbury was born in Francestown, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1809, briefly attended law school in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812.

Woodbury was Justice of New Hampshire state supreme court, 1816-23; Governor of New Hampshire, 1823-24; Speaker of the New Hampshire State House of Representatives, 1825; US Senator from New Hampshire, 1825-31; US Secretary of the Navy under Andrew Jackson, 1831-34; US Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson and Martin Van Buren, 1834-41; served again as Senator from New Hampshire, 1841-45; and Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1845-51. He is one of the few individuals to serve in all three branches of U.S. government and one of two people to have served in all 3 branches and also served as a U.S. Governor (the other being Salmon P. Chase).

As a US Senator, Woodbury was a dependable Jackson Democrat, and President Jackson appointed him Secretary of the Navy (1831 - 1834) and then Secretary of the Treasury (1834 - 1841). Woodbury successfully worked to end the Second Bank of the United States; like Jackson he favored an "independent" treasury system and "hard money" over paper money. In retrospect, the financial Panic of 1837 and the collapse of speculative land prices were legacies of Woodbury's tenure. After the Panic, Woodbury realised that the US Treasury needed a more secure administration of its own funds than commercial banks supplied, and he backed the act for an "Independent Treasury System" passed by Congress in 1840. It was largely repealed under the new administration the following year, but the foundation was laid for an independent US Treasury, finally established in 1846, under President James K. Polk.

In the 1844 presidential election, Woodbury and the Jackson Democrats supported the Democrats' nomination of Polk. When Polk was elected he promptly named Woodbury an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.

Woodbury County, Iowa, the City of Woodbury, Minnesota, Woodbury Avenue in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Woodbury School in Salem, New Hampshire, and the ship USS Woodbury were named in honor of him.

Woodbury was a great-great-grandfather of actor Montgomery Clift.

  • Political, Judicial, and Literary Writings (edited by N. Capen, Boston, 1852)

  • Dictionary of American Biography;
  • Capowski, Vincent. The Making of a Jacksonian Democrat: Levi Woodbury, 1789-1851 Ph.D. dissertation, Fordham University, 1966
  • Woodbury, Levi. Writings of Levi Woodbury. 3 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1852.
  • Biography
  • Treasury Dept. biography
  • Woodbury as a liberal


Preceded by
Samuel Bell
Governor of New Hampshire
18231824
Succeeded by
David L. Morril
Preceded by
John F. Parrott
United States Senator (Class 3) from New Hampshire
1825–1831
Served alongside: Samuel Bell
Succeeded by
Isaac Hill
Preceded by
John Branch
United States Secretary of the Navy
18311834
Succeeded by
Mahlon Dickerson
Preceded by
Roger B. Taney
United States Secretary of the Treasury
18341841
Succeeded by
Thomas Ewing, Sr.
Preceded by
Henry Hubbard
United States Senator (Class 2) from New Hampshire
1841–1845
Served alongside: Franklin Pierce, Leonard Wilcox, Charles G. Atherton
Succeeded by
Benning W. Jenness
Preceded by
Joseph Story
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
September 23, 1845September 4, 1851
Succeeded by
Benjamin Robbins Curtis



The Taney Court Seal of the U.S. Supreme Court
1845–1846: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | J. McKinley | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | L. Woodbury
1846–1851: J. McLean | J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | J. McKinley | P.V. Daniel | S. Nelson | L. Woodbury | R.C. Grier
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