Retirement, Death and Legacy
Swayne is not regarded as a particularly distinguished justice. He wrote few opinions, usually signing on to opinions written by others, and remained on the court well past his physical prime, being quite infirm at his retirement. Under pressure from President Rutherford B. Hayes, he finally agreed to retire on the condition that his friend and fellow Ohio attorney Stanley Matthews replace him.
His son, Wager Swayne, served in the American Civil War, rose to the rank of Major General, served as the military governor of Alabama after the Civil War, and subsequently founded law firms in Toledo, Ohio and New York City. Wager's son, named Noah Hayes Swayne after his grandfather, was president of Burns Brothers, the largest coal distributor in the U.S. when he retired in September 1932. Another of Wager's sons, Alfred Harris Swayne, was vice president of General Motors Corporation.
Another of Justice Swayne's sons, Noah Swayne, was a lawyer in Toledo and donated the land for Swayne Field, the former field for the Toledo Mud Hens baseball team.
Justice Swayne's remains were buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The Georgetown graveyard overlooks Rock Creek, and is shared with: Chief Justice Edward Douglass White; and "almost-Justice" Edwin M. Stanton (President Ulysses S. Grant's nomination of him was confirmed by the Senate, but Stanton died before he could be sworn in). Also, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase was buried there, but his body was transferred after 14 years to Cincinnati, Ohio's Spring Grove Cemetery.
The bulk of his legal papers are located at the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. Other papers are at: Detroit Public Library, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit, Michigan; Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois; Library of Congress, Manuscript and Prints & Photographs Divisions, Washington, D.C.; State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, Louisville, Kentucky; and University of Toledo, Canaday Center, Manuscripts: Politics & Government, Toledo, Ohio.
Read more about this topic: Noah Haynes Swayne
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