William Henry Moody

William Henry Moody (December 23, 1853 – July 2, 1917) was an American politician and jurist who held positions in all three branches of the Government of the United States. He represented parts of Essex County, Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from 1895 until 1902. He then served in the cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy and Attorney General before Roosevelt appointed him to the United States Supreme Court in 1906. He retired from the Court for health reasons after a brief tenure of just less than four years. A progressive like Roosevelt, he opposed racial segregation and spoke out in favor of African-American civil rights.

Early life and education Moody was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Henry Lord Moody and Melissa Augusta (Emerson) Moody. His father owned and managed several farms, and Moody attended the local schools of Newbury, Salem, and Danvers. All of his immigrant ancestors came to Massachusetts from England, and they all came as part of the Puritan migration from England. All of them arrived between 1620 and 1640. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1872 and Harvard University, Phi Beta Kappa in 1876. After four months attending Harvard Law School, he began to study law in the office of Richard Henry Dana Jr., and attained admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1878.

Start of career Early in his legal career, Moody first was elected city solicitor of Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1888. After appointment as the District Attorney for Eastern Massachusetts in 1890, he gained widespread notoriety in 1893 as the junior prosecutor in the Lizzie Borden murder case. While his efforts were unsuccessful he was generally acknowledged as the most competent and effective of the attorneys on either side.

U.S. Congress He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, and served from 1895 to 1902. He served on the powerful Appropriations Committee, and also held seats on Insular Affairs, Expenditures in the Department of Justice, and the Joint Commission on the Transportation of the Mails. He was a candidate to succeed Thomas B. Reed as Speaker in 1899, but the post was won by David B. Henderson.

Secretary of the Navy During President Theodore Roosevelt's administration, Moody served as the Secretary of Navy from 1902 to 1904. He oversaw the start of the Roosevelt-era expansion of the Navy, including an increase in the number of ships, as well as an effort to increase manpower by improving efforts to recruit sailors from non-coastal states. Moody also negotiated with the government of Cuba for the original lease that permitted construction and occupation of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

U.S. Attorney General Moody served as Attorney General from 1904 to 1906. In this post, Moody actively followed Roosevelt's trust-busting policies, negotiating with 'good' trusts such as U.S. Steel but successfully prosecuting 'bad' ones such as Standard Oil and the Beef Trust. After the Lynching of Paul Reed and Will Cato, Moody refused to grant permission for an indictment, believing no federal right had been violated.

U.S. Supreme Court Roosevelt nominated Moody as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court on December 3, 1906, to a seat vacated by Henry B. Brown. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 12, 1906, and was sworn into office on December 17, 1906. Moody retired from the Court on November 20, 1910.

USS Moody (DD-277) was named for him.

In 2018, television and film actor Jay Huguley portrayed Moody in Lizzie, a biographical thriller film about Lizzie Borden.