James McReynolds

James Clark McReynolds (b 1862) was the last Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Confederate States of America.

McReynolds was born on February 3, 1862, in Elkton, Kentucky. As such, he was among the last generation of Kentuckians to be born citizens of the United States of America for fifty years. Shortly after he was born, Kentucky was invaded by Braxton Bragg during the War of Secession, and joined to the newly-born Confederate States of America. McReynolds grew up as a proud Confederate citizen and a staunch member of the Whig Party, the dominant party in CS politics.

McReynolds entered Vanderbilt University in 1880, but left his studies to serve in the CS army during the Second Mexican War of 1881-2, when the US sought to prevent the CS from purchasing the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. After the war, he returned to Vanderbilt and graduated as valedictorian in 1884. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1886. After brief attempts to enter Confederate politics, McReynolds entered private practice in Richmond, the CS capital.

It was during his years of private practice that he came to the attention of newly-elected CS President Woodrow Wilson. Shortly after taking office in 1910, Wilson appointed McReynolds Attorney General of the CS. In 1911, Wilson appointed McReynolds Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

McReynolds diligently performed his duties as chief justice, applying his own strongly conservative Whig views of limited federal government to CS jurisprudence. However, with the CS defeat during the Great War, and the subsequent economic distress caused the country first by war reparations and then the stock market crash, McReynolds’ brand of Whigism grew increasingly out of favor with the Confederate people, who, in desperation, turned to the Freedom Party and its leader, Jake Featherston.

Featherston, espousing disdain for the aristocracy that made up the Whig Party, hatred of blacks, and revenged against the US, was elected CS president in 1933. Almost immediately, Featherston forced a showdown with the Court, passing legislation in 1934 for internal dam building projects that did not aid navigation, as required by the CS Constitution. When the Court unanimously found the legislation unconstitutional, Featherston and his attorney general, Ferdinand Koenig, using the fact that, despite the constitutional requirement that the CS have a supreme court, one had not been established until nearly four years after the CS won the War of Secession.

Outraged, McReynolds personally visited the Gray House and confronted both Featherston and Koenig. After being threatened with death by Featherston, McReynolds grudgingly agreed that the abolition of the Supreme Court was technically valid. Thus, the Supreme Court of the Confederate States of America ceased to exist in 1935. McReynolds himself retired, and dedicated the remainder of his life to helping children, and keeping out of the Freedom Party’s way.

Some historians have argued that, under different circumstances, McReynolds may have been drawn to Featherston has they shared fairly similar attitudes on race. That is doubtful, as, while McReynolds did have prejudices against blacks common to CS whites, he was virulently anti-Semitic, a trait Featherston did not share.