Political
Oliver Wendell Holmes and J.G. Whittier Cabinet Card
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR., Supreme Court Justice & JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, American Poet and Abolitionist, Dual-Sided Cabinet Card, Choice Near Mint.
A most unusual Photograph Cabinet Card that measures 6.5" x 4.25" with a Portrait of Holmes on one side and Whittier on the other. Minimal wear and excellent overall condition. The gilt edges have very slight scalloping along most of their length. The publisher is unknown. Cabinet Cards usually feature only one individual. Because of the exceptional quality of this piece, we believe it to be a salesman's copy, used to promote the business and its photographic capabilities.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 - March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.
He is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices and most influential American common law judges in history, noted for his long service, concise, and pithy opinions -- particularly for opinions on civil liberties and American constitutional democracy -- and deference to the decisions of elected legislatures.
Holmes retired from the court at the age of 90, an unbeaten record for oldest justice on the United States Supreme Court. He previously served as a Brevet Colonel in the American Civil War, an Associate Justice and as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was Weld Professor of Law at his alma mater, Harvard Law School. His positions, distinctive personality, and writing style made him a popular figure, especially with American progressives.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, to which he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, he supported the constitutionality of state economic regulation and advocated broad freedom of speech under the First Amendment, although he upheld criminal sanctions against draft protestors with the memorable maxim that "free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic" and formulated the groundbreaking "clear and present danger" test for a unanimous court.
In a famous dissent in Abrams v. United States (1919), he wrote that he regarded the United States Constitution's theory "that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market" as "an experiment, as all life is an experiment" and believed that as a consequence "we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death".
John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 " September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings, as well as his 1866 book Snow-Bound.