Humphrey H. Leavitt

Humphrey Howe Leavitt (June 18, 1796 – March 15, 1873) was a United States representative from Ohio and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Ohio and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Education and career

Born on June 18, 1796, in Suffield, Connecticut, Leavitt moved with his family to the Northwest Territory in 1800, and settled in what would become Trumbull County, Ohio. He completed preparatory studies, attended an academy in western Pennsylvania, taught school and clerked in a store. by when he was the last remaining federal judge on the bench appointed by President Jackson.

Notable case Among the major cases in which Leavitt was involved was that of Ohio politician Clement Vallandigham, in which Leavitt wrote an opinion on Vallandigham's well-known habeas corpus case, which Leavitt decided. The town of Leavittsburg in Trumbull County was named for the family. Leavitt was married to Marie Antoinette (McDowell) Leavitt, daughter of Dr. John McDowell, a physician and provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

Memoir

In a short memoir Leavitt wrote for his children, he described his feelings about a Congressman's job, which he described as "positively irksome and repulsive." Leavitt added: "In times of party division, it is impossible for anyone in Congress to preserve a conscience void of offense toward God and at the same time to bear true allegiance to the party by which he has been elected. The member must vote with his party irrespective of the public good or expect to be visited with the fiercest denunciation."