Editing Increase Sumner

{{Short description|American judge (1746–1799)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|image=File:IncreaseSumnerBySharples.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption=Painting by [[James Sharples (portrait painter)|James Sharples]]
|name= Increase Sumner
|order=5th
|office= Governor of Massachusetts
|term_start= June 2, 1797
|term_end= June 7, 1799
|lieutenant= Moses Gill
|predecessor= [[Samuel Adams]]
|successor= [[Moses Gill]] (acting)
|birth_date= {{Birth date|1746|11|27|mf=y}}
|birth_place= [[Roxbury, Boston|Roxbury]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
|death_date= {{death date and age|1799|6|7|1746|11|27|mf=y}}
|death_place= Roxbury, [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
|spouse= {{marriage|Elizabeth Hyslop |September 30, 1779}}
|party= [[Federalist Party|Federalist]]
|relatives= [[Sumner family]]
|signature= Increase Sumner Signature.svg
|office1=Associate Justice of the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]]|termstart1=1782|termend1=1797|predecessor1=[[James Sullivan (governor)|James Sullivan]]|successor1=[[Theophilus Bradbury]]|nominator1=[[John Hancock]]|alma_mater=[[Harvard College]]}}

'''Increase Sumner''' (November 27, 1746 – June 7, 1799) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from [[Massachusetts]]. He was the fifth [[governor of Massachusetts]], serving from 1797 to 1799. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the [[Massachusetts Provincial Congress|provisional government of Massachusetts]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]], and was elected to the [[Confederation Congress]] in 1782. Appointed to the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]] the same year, he served there as an associate justice until 1797.

He was elected governor of Massachusetts three times by wide margins, but died shortly after the start of his third term. His descendants include his son [[William H. Sumner]], for whom the [[Sumner Tunnel]] in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, is named, and 20th-century diplomats [[Sumner Welles]] and [[Sumner Gerard]].

==Early life==
Increase Sumner was born on November 27, 1746, in [[Roxbury, Boston|Roxbury]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], one of eight children of Increase Sumner and Sarah Sharp.<ref name=Bridgman81>Bridgman, p. 81</ref><ref name=S4>Sumner, p. 4</ref>  The elder Increase Sumner was a successful farmer descended from early settlers of [[Dorchester, Boston|Dorchester]]; he held a number of public offices including coroner for [[Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk County]], and selectman of Roxbury.<ref name=Drake155>Drake, p. 155</ref>

In 1752 Sumner enrolled in the grammar school in Roxbury, now [[Roxbury Latin School]], where the headmaster was [[William Cushing]], future justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]].<ref name=S4/> Sumner excelled at school, and over the resistance of his father (who envisioned his son's future to be in agriculture) was enrolled at [[Harvard College]] in 1763. He graduated in 1767.<ref name=Bridgman82>Bridgman, p. 82</ref>

==Legal career==
After graduating from Harvard, Sumner took charge of the Roxbury school, where he taught for two years while he apprenticed law under Samuel Quincy, the provincial solicitor general. He sought to study under [[John Adams]], but the latter had enough students. Adams wrote that Sumner "was a promising genius, and a studious and virtuous youth."<ref name=Bridgman82/> Sumner was [[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]] in 1770 and opened a law office in Roxbury that year.<ref name=S5>Sumner, p. 5</ref>

[[Image:John Hancock 1770.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[John Hancock]] appointed Sumner to the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]]]]
Sumner was chosen a member of the [[Massachusetts Provincial Congress]] in 1776 where he represented the town of Roxbury.<ref name=Bridgman82/>  In 1777 he participated in a state convention to draft a new constitution, whose result was not adopted.<ref name=S10>Sumner, p. 10</ref><ref>Cushing, pp. 208–227</ref>  He continued to serve in the provincial congress until the [[Massachusetts Constitution|state constitution]] was adopted in 1780, when he was elected state senator for Suffolk County. This post he held for two years.<ref name=S10/>  In June 1782 he was elected to the [[Confederation Congress]] by the state legislature, replacing [[Timothy Danielson]], who resigned, but Sumner never actually took the seat. In August 1782 Governor [[John Hancock]] nominated him as an associate justice of the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]] to replace [[James Sullivan (governor)|James Sullivan]]. He accepted this position instead of the senate seat, and served from 1782 to 1797.<ref>Bridgman, p. 91</ref>  Details on his judicial record are sparse, in part because few official court records survive from the time, and decisions were usually oral (the court did not begin formal record keeping with written decisions until 1805).<ref>Massachusetts Bar Association, pp. 22–23</ref> Sumner did take detailed notes of many of the cases he heard; these notes, preserved at the [[Massachusetts Historical Society]], now form a valuable repository of early Massachusetts judicial history.<ref>Edwards, p. 180</ref><ref>Hart, p. 4:45</ref>

The period when he served in the Supreme Judicial Court included a time of great turmoil in Massachusetts. Following the [[American Revolutionary War]] the value of the paper currency then in circulation fell significantly leaving many citizens in financial difficulties. The administration of [[James Bowdoin]] in 1786 raised taxes to pay the public debt which had run up during the war, and stepped up collection of back taxes. These economic pressures led to outbreaks of civil unrest which culminated in [[Shays' Rebellion]], an uprising in central and western Massachusetts lasting from 1786 to 1787. Sumner sat on the criminal cases in which participants of the rebellion were tried.  Many participants were pardoned, but eighteen were convicted and sentenced to death. Most of these sentences were commuted; two men were hanged.<ref>Richards, pp. 38–41</ref><ref>Massachusetts SJC Historical Society, pp. 115–116</ref>

Sumner sat on the court when it heard the appeals in the [[Quock Walker]] cases in 1783, concerning a former slave who was seeking confirmation of his freedom. A ruling in one of these cases confirmed that the state constitution had effectively abolished [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]].<ref>Higginbotham, pp. 93–95</ref> In 1785 he was chosen by the legislature to sit on a committee which revised the laws of the state, to modernize them and remove references to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British authority]].<ref>Sumner, p. 13</ref><ref>Amory, pp. 124–126</ref> In 1789 he was a member of the state convention that met to ratify the [[United States Constitution]], in which he explained to the convention the meaning and importance of ''[[habeas corpus]]''.<ref>Maier, p. 189</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1791.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter S|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterS.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 28, 2014}}</ref>

==Governor of Massachusetts==
In 1795 some factions of the [[Federalist Party]] sought to promote Sumner as a candidate for governor, but he was not formally nominated, and Governor [[Samuel Adams]] was reelected.<ref>Morse, p. 149</ref>  The following year Sumner was actively promoted by the Federalists, but Adams was able to prevail by a comfortable margin.<ref>Alexander, p. 314</ref>  The campaign was not very divisive: Sumner was presented as comparatively youthful alternative to the aging Adams.<ref>Morse, p. 160</ref>  Sumner wrote afterwards that Adams "has waded through a sea of political troubles and grown old in labors for the good of his country."<ref>Hart, 3:450</ref>

Adams' popularity, however, was declining, and he decided not to run for reelection in 1797. A number of popular figures were raised as nominees, and in that year's election, Sumner won the vote with 15,000 out of a total of 25,000 votes cast against a divided opposition.<ref name=S21>Sumner, p. 21</ref><ref>Morse, p. 174</ref> On June 2 Sumner rode from his home in Roxbury accompanied by 300 citizens on horseback to the State House in Boston, where the Secretary of the Commonwealth proclaimed his governorship from the eastern balcony. Sumner was the last governor to preside in what is now called the [[Old State House (Boston)|Old State House]] as the seat of government was moved to [[Massachusetts State House|the New State House]] the following year.<ref>Sumner, pp. 21–22</ref>

Sumner was reelected in 1798 and 1799 against minimal opposition.<ref>Morse, pp. 175–176</ref> His popularity as governor was seen by his garnering a larger share of the vote for his third term, where he won 17,000 out of 21,000 votes cast,<ref name=S21/> receiving unanimous votes in 180 towns out of 393 in the state.<ref name=S28/>  During Sumner's period in office the state was principally preoccupied with the threat of attack by [[France]] as a result of the ongoing naval [[Quasi-War]].  Comparatively younger and more vigorous than his predecessors, Sumner actively built up the state militia and worked to ensure its preparedness in case of attack.<ref>Hart, p. 3:451</ref>

[[File:Grave of Increase Sumner.JPG|thumb|right|Sumner's grave in the [[Granary Burying Ground]], Boston, 2009]]
Sumner never assumed the duties of office after winning the 1799 election as he was sick on his death bed at the time.  In order to avoid constitutional issues surrounding the [[Order of succession#Republics|succession to the governor's office]], he managed to take the oath of office in early June.<ref name=S28>Sumner, p. 28</ref>  He died in office from [[angina pectoris]], aged 52 on June 7, 1799. His funeral, with full military honors, took place on June 12, and was attended by [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[John Adams]].<ref>Sumner, pp. 29, 54</ref> The funeral procession which included four regiments of militia ran from the governor's Roxbury mansion to a service at the [[Old South Meeting House]].<ref name=S29>Sumner, p. 29</ref> He is interred at the northerly corner of Boston's [[Granary Burying Ground]].<ref>Drake, p. 357</ref>  The brass epitaph indicates:

<blockquote>Here repose the remains of Increase Sumner.  He was born at Roxbury, November 27, 1746, and died at the same place, June 7, 1799 in the 53rd year of his age.  He was for sometime a practitioner at the bar; and for fifteen years an associate judge of the supreme judicial court; was thrice elected governor of Massachusetts in which office he died.  As a lawyer he was faithful and able.  As a judge, patient, impartial and decisive. As a chief magistrate, accessible, frank and decisive. In private life, he was affectionate and mild. In public life was dignified and firm. Party feuds were allayed by the correctness of his conduct. Calumny was silenced by the weight of his virtues and rancour softened by the amenity of his manners in the vigour of intellectual attainments and in the midst of usefulness.  He was called by Divine Providence to rest with his fathers and went down to the chambers of death in the full belief that the grave is the pathway to future existence.</blockquote>

The lieutenant governor, [[Moses Gill]], became acting governor and ran the state until elections were held in 1800.<ref>Morse, p. 178</ref>

==Family and legacy==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Increase Sumner.svg|175px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of Increase Sumner]]
Sumner was married on September 30, 1779, to  Elizabeth Hyslop, daughter of William Hyslop.<ref>Sumner, p. 68</ref> Upon his father-in-law's death, Sumner inherited a sizable estate which allowed him to maintain a dignified lifestyle during his public service.<ref name=Sumner33>Sumner, p. 33</ref>  The couple had three children;<ref>Sumner, pp. 58–59</ref> his son [[William H. Sumner]] is well known for his efforts to develop what is now [[East Boston]] and for whom Boston's [[Sumner Tunnel]] is named.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jphs.org/people/2005/4/14/gen-william-hyslop-sumner.html|title=William Hyslop Sumner|date=April 14, 2005 |publisher=Jamaica Plain Historical Society|access-date=March 20, 2013}}</ref>  His later descendants include [[Sumner Welles]], a 20th-century diplomat and advisor to President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Serena Welles Fiancee of Ambler H. Ross Jr.|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 16, 1972|page=70}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=News Summary and Index|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 25, 1961|page=35}}</ref> and [[Sumner Gerard]], a 20th-century diplomat, Montana politician, and [[United States Ambassador to Jamaica|U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archive.northjersey.com/community-news/vernon-s-coster-gerard-a-remembrance-part-i-1.731810?page=all|title=Vernon's Coster Gerard: A remembrance (Part I)|last=Dupont|first=Ron|work=NorthJersey.com|access-date=March 14, 2017|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315085826/http://archive.northjersey.com/community-news/vernon-s-coster-gerard-a-remembrance-part-i-1.731810?page=all|archive-date=March 15, 2017}}</ref> [[Sumner, Maine|Sumner]], [[Maine]], incorporated while he was governor in 1798, was named in his honor.<ref name=Coolidge>Coolidge, pp. 320–321</ref>

Sumner was described by his son as a talented and practical farmer and an excellent horseman. He was fond of agriculture and personally grafted an entire orchard of fruit trees on his farm.<ref name=Sumner33/>  He was a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] and president of the board of trustees of the Roxbury Latin School.<ref>Sumner, pp. 33–34</ref>

At his confirmation hearings in 2017, U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[Neil Gorsuch]] recalled being moved by reading Sumner's gravestone as a law student at Harvard. Gorsuch closed his opening statement by reading a portion of Sumner's epitaph and adding "[T]hose words stick with me. I keep them on my desk. They serve for me as a daily reminder of the law's integrity, that a useful life can be led in its service, of the hard work it takes, and an encouragement to good habits when I fail and when I falter. At the end of it all, I can ask for nothing more than to be described as he was. And if confirmed, I pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to be that man."<ref>{{cite news |last=Abramson |first=Alana |date=March 21, 2017 |title=Read Judge Neil Gorsuch's Opening Statement for His Confirmation Hearings |url=http://fortune.com/2017/03/21/neil-gorsuch-opening-statement/ |work=[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]] |access-date=April 23, 2017}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{cite book|last=Alexander|first=John|title=Samuel Adams: the Life of an American Revolutionary|location=Lanham, MD|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2011|isbn=978-0-7425-7033-7|oclc=678924183}}
*{{cite book|last=Amory|first=Thomas|title=Life of James Sullivan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nmTVaCL89MC&pg=PR9|publisher=Phillips, Sampson|location=Boston|year=1859|isbn=9780608434469 |oclc=60714175}}
*{{cite book|last=Bridgman|first=Thomas |title=The Pilgrims of Boston and Their Descendants|year= 1856|publisher= D. Appleton and Company|location=New York|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RwspAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81}}
*{{cite book|last=Coolidge|first=Austin J.|author2=Mansfield, John B |title = A History and Description of New England|year=1859|location = Boston|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcoMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320}}
*{{cite book|last=Cushing|first=Henry Alonzo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lWNh3JjkbYAC&pg=PA208|title=History of the Transition From Provincial to Commonwealth Government in Massachusetts|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1896|location=New York|oclc=12568979}}
*{{cite book|last= Drake|first= Francis Samuel |title= The Town of Roxbury|year= 1908|publisher=Municipal Printing Office |location= Roxbury, MA|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=K0AOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155}}
*{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=William|title=Americanization of the Common Law: The Impact of Legal Change on Massachusetts Society, 1760–1830|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-8203-1587-4|orig-year=1975|oclc=28293668}}
*{{cite book|editor-last=Hart|editor-first=Albert Bushnell |title=Commonwealth History of Massachusetts|url=https://archive.org/details/commonwealthhist04hart|publisher=The States History Company|location=New York|year=1927|oclc=1543273}} (five volume history of Massachusetts until the early 20th century)
*{{cite book|last=Higginbotham|first=A. Leon|title=In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process. The Colonial Period|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=1980|isbn=978-0-19-502387-9|oclc=16489432|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/inmatterofcolor00higg}}
*{{cite book|last=Maier|first=Pauline|title=Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2011|location=New York|isbn=978-0-684-86855-4}}
*{{cite book|author=Massachusetts Bar Association|title=The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1692–1942|publisher=Massachusetts Bar Association|location=Boston|year=1942|oclc=1301361}}
*{{cite journal|author=Massachusetts SJC Historical Society|title=Massachusetts Legal History : a Journal of the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, Volume 7|journal=Massachusetts Legal History|publisher=the society|location=Boston|issn=1092-5880|oclc=36313545|year=2001}}
*{{cite book|last=Morse|first=Anson|title=The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to the Year 1800|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|oclc=718724|year=1909|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCUmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA23}}
*{{cite book|last=Richards|first=Leonard L|year=2002|title=Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-1870-1|oclc=56029217}}
*{{cite book|last= Sumner|first= William Hyslop|author2=Trask, William Blake |title=Memoir of Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts: Governor of Massachusetts|year= 1854|publisher= Samuel G. Drake|location=Boston |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6EABAAAAYAAJ}} (The author was Sumner's son)

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Cushing]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Federalist Party|Federalist]] nominee for [[Governor of Massachusetts]]|years=1796, 1797, 1798, 1799}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Caleb Strong]]}}
{{s-legal}}
{{succession box |title=Associate Justice of the [[List of justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court|Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]] | before=[[James Sullivan (governor)|James Sullivan]] | after=[[Theophilus Bradbury]] | years=1782–1797}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Samuel Adams]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Governor of Massachusetts]] | years=June 2, 1797 – June 7, 1799}}
{{s-aft| after=[[Moses Gill]]|as=acting governor}}
{{s-end}}
{{Governors of Massachusetts}}
{{Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court}}
{{Portal bar|Biography}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Increase}}
[[Category:1746 births]]
[[Category:1799 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:18th-century American politicians]]
[[Category:18th-century American educators]]
[[Category:18th-century American judges]]
[[Category:18th-century Protestants]]
[[Category:American Protestants]]
[[Category:Burials at Granary Burying Ground]]
[[Category:Educators from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Farmers from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:Federalist Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:Governors of Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Federalists]]
[[Category:Massachusetts lawyers]]
[[Category:Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]]
[[Category:People from Roxbury, Boston]]
[[Category:People from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Roxbury Latin School alumni]]
[[Category:Roxbury Latin School faculty]]
[[Category:Sumner family]]
[[Category:Deaths from angina pectoris]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1796 United States elections]]