JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN
JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in a country district of Boyle county, Kentucky, June 1, 1833. He entered Centre college, Kentucky, and graduated in 1850. Following the bent of the illustrious jurist for whom he was named, he early manifested a taste for the law, and took a course in the law department of Transylvania university, graduating in 1853. He commenced practice at the capital of his state, where his parents then lived, continuing there until 1858. In 1856 he was married to Malvina F., daughter of John Shankhn, of Evansville, Indiana. In 1858 he was elected county judge. As Whig candidate for congress (in 1859), in the Ashland district, he failed of election by only sixty-seven votes.
In 1860, he was elector on the Bell and Everett ticket, and when the war broke out, in 1861, then a resident of Louisville, he left his office and by dint of zeal and energy soon raised a regiment for the Union army (the 10th Kentucky Infantry regiment), became its colonel and served with gallantry until the death of his father in the spring of 1863, when, although his name was before the senate for confirmation as a brigadier-general, he was constrained to resign, that he might meet the demands of the bereaved family.
In his letter of resignation dated March 2, 1863, addressed to Brigadier-General Garfield, chief of staff, the justice said:
“The recent sudden death of my father has devolved upon me duties of a private nature which I cannot with propriety neglect, and which the exigencies of the public service do not require that I shall neglect. Those duties relate to his unsettled business, which demands my immediate personal attention.
“I deeply regret that I am compelled at this time to return to civil life. It was my fixed purpose to remain in the Federal army until it had effectually suppressed the existing armed rebellion and restored the authority of the National Government over every part of the nation. No ordinary consideration would have induced me to depart from this purpose. Even the private interests to which
