James C. Carter

James Coolidge Carter (October 14, 1827 – February 14, 1905) was a New York City lawyer, a partner in the firm that eventually became Carter Ledyard & Milburn, which he helped found in 1854.

Early life Carter was born on October 14, 1827, in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of eight children born to Maj. Solomon Carter. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Institute of 1777 the Hasty Pudding Club, Alpha Delta Phi, and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1895 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1896.

Political Mugwump Carter was an influential legal theorist among fellow Mugwumps. He deeply distrusted politicians and most elected officials. Instead he put his trust in disinterested experts, especially judges. He equated common law with custom, and his condemnation of legislation inconsistent with custom, reflected his Mugwumpism. He tried to synthesize traditional thinking with modernity. For example, Carter clung to support for active government intervention he learned from the antebellum Whigs, but he more and more embrace antigovernment positions typical of antebellum Jacksonians. He tried to synthesize traditional faith in timeless, objective moral principles with a more modern vision of evolving customary norms. Given growing problems of industrial urban society he saw the need for positive government but wanted judges to rule not politicians.

Resistance to codification Carter was the leader of the resistance to the codification movement led by David Dudley Field II. It is because of Carter's vigorous opposition to Field that the state of New York repeatedly refused to enact Field's civil code. he died at 7 East 88th Street (a Beaux-Arts townhouse built in 1903 by architects James R. Turner and William G. Killian), his residence in New York City on February 14, 1905. In New York, his funeral was held at All Souls' Church on Fourth Avenue and 22nd Street. Another funeral was conducted by the Rev. Prof. Francis Greenwood Peabody of Harvard and was held at the Mount Auburn Chapel at Cambridge where he was buried.

Legacy In 1897, he donated $5,000 towards the construction of the Randolph Tucker Memorial Hall at Washington and Lee University, estimated at that time to cost $50,000.

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