Justice Holmeswas a brilliant legal theorist, marvelous judicial prose stylist, wonderfully picturesque Boston Brahmin who also happened to be a Civil War hero. He was virtually deified near the end and after his 50-year judicial career in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His profoundly impactful legacy is constantly being re-evaluated as society evolves and particular latent “twisted” traits in his life and work become clearer.
The Holmes legend of the War hero, Boston Brahmin and progressive jurist has been defined in literature, a popular play and movies while at the same time his legal analysis, case determinations and personal opinions have come under harsh scrutiny. With such a wide body of conflicting literature, writings, case opinions and popular culture by and about Holmes, perhaps the best one can hope for is to catch glimpses which demonstrate the certain parts of the essential nature of the man and his judicial legacy. As we begin that process, let us look at this fascinating individual before he was appointed to the Supreme Court.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born into a prominent Boston Brahmin family on March 8, 1841. His father was a distinguished doctor, author, poet, raconteur and Harvard professor. Among other accomplishments, his father developed an influential theory regarding the contagiousness of puerperal fever. His father came up with the term “Brahmin” to represent the upper tier of New England sophisticates who were as proud of their insularity as of their intellectual achievements. He also founded and was a major contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and wrote a popular book, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. His father’s values, renown and success drove the son to his own achievements.
His mother came from the prominent Boston family of Jackson who were well connected with financial business and legal interests. Her father was the successful attorney, Charles Jackson, whose legal mentor (Theophilus Parsons) forecast that he (Jackson) would, “prove himself the American Blackstone.” “But he never fulfilled Parsons’ prophecy. That awaited his grandson.”[1] His mother would help edit her husband’s works but still longed for more fulfillment than that of a supportive wife and homemaker. Justice Holmes detected a streak of melancholy in his mother, which he felt he inherited “that seemed to afflict him when his career was not advancing on schedule or his work was not properly appreciated.”[2] His mother was influential in shaping who he was to become. From her he developed a skeptical temperament, rigid sense of duty and a drive to accomplish.[3]
Due to his family and his father’s influence, his early life was imbued by contact with and influence of New England intellectuals such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was Emerson that was to have a profound impact on Holmes. This impact was manifest, thorough and lifelong. In his teens, he sought out Emerson for his autograph, his parents gave him two volumes of Emerson’s essays, and once upon meeting Emerson on the street told him, “If I ever do anything, I shall owe a great deal to you.”
[1] Baker, Liva, The Justice from Beacon Hill, Harper Collings 1991 p. 39-40.
[2] Id. at p. 42.
[3] See, Novik, Sheldon M., Justice Holmes’s Philosophy, V. 70, Washington University Law Review, p. 70