Nathan Clifford (August 18, 1803 – July 25, 1881) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and Democratic politician from Maine.
Clifford is one of the few people who have held a constitutional office in each of the three branches of the US federal government. He was US Representative from Maine (1839-1843), US Attorney General (1846-1848) and US Ambassador to Mexico (1848-1849), and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1858 -1881).
Clifford was born on August 18, 1803, in Rumney, New Hampshire, to Deacon Nathaniel Clifford and his wife Lydia (née Simpson). He was the eldest and only son of seven children. His family were of old Yankee stock. In 1672, his great-great-grandmother Ann Smith was an accuser of Goody Cole, the only woman convicted of witchcraft in New Hampshire.
He attended the public schools of that town, then the Haverhill Academy in New Hampshire, and finally the New Hampton Literary Institute (now known as the New Hampton School).
After teaching school for a time, he studied law in the offices of Josiah Quincy III and was admitted to the bar in Maine in 1827. He established his first practice in Newfield, Maine.
He served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1830 to 1834, and was Speaker of the House from 1833 to 1834. In 1834, the legislature elected him Maine Attorney General; he served from 1834 to 1838, when he entered national politics.
U.S. House of Representatives (1839–43)
In 1836, US Senator Ether Shepley resigned to become a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Clifford contended for election to the vacancy, but the legislature chose Reuel Williams in March 1837. In 1838, Clifford was elected US Representative from Maine's 1st congressional district, and was re-elected in 1840. He served
the 26th and 27th Congresses, from March 4, 1839 to March 3, 1843.
In Congress, he followed the Democratic party line on policies, and was a strong supporter of the Van Buren administration. Clifford was opposed to a high tariff, supported internal improvements, endorsed state banking, and was in favor of federal retrenchment. He also criticized abolitionism, saying that its supporters were well-intentioned, but denounced the "mean and incendiary schemes of political Abolitionists."
Due to re-redistricting and political infighting, Clifford was not a candidate for re-election in 1842.
In 1846, President James K. Polk appointed him 19th Attorney General of the United States after his predecessor, John Y. Mason, returned to being Secretary of the Navy. Clifford served in Polk's Cabinet from October 17, 1846, to March 17, 1848.
Ambassador to Mexico (1848–49)
Clifford resigned Attorney General to become US Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico, serving from March 18, 1848, to September 6, 1849. On behalf of the US, Clifford signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by which the United States acquired the Mexican Cession, which later formed the states of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.
A Whig Presidential victory meant that Clifford was recalled to the United States. Following his service in the diplomatic corps, Clifford resumed the practice of law in Portland, Maine.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1858–81)
On December 9, 1857, President James Buchanan nominated Clifford as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, to the seat vacated by Benjamin R. Curtis. Clifford's nomination came in the immediate wake of the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision and was hotly contested. The opposition labeled Cliffordm, a longtime partisan Democrat, a political hack and "doughface" (a Northern man with Southern sympathies). Anti-slavery representatives in the United States Senate fiercely opposed Clifford due to his pro-slavery record. After a 34-day-long confirmation process, the U.S. senate narrowly confirmed Clifford on January 12, 1858, by a 26–23 vote. He was sworn into office on January 21, 1858.