On September 10, 1817, Blackford was appointed
Chief Justice of the
Indiana Supreme Court by
Governor Jonathan Jennings to replace Chief Justice John Johnson. Johnson had died after less than a year on the bench, and before the court had issued any decisions. Jennings informed Blackford of his decision as the two walked arm-in-arm from Johnson's grave following his funeral service. Blackford at first refused, saying he was too young and inexperienced. However, there were less than seventy lawyers in the entire state at that time, the majority of which belonged to other factions of the party, or had not lived in the state long enough to qualify for the job. Blackford was Jenning's most viable choice. Jennings and Blackford were also the only two members of the government who came from New Jersey, increasing Jennings' sentimental desire to see Blackford appointed. Despite Blackford's refusal, Jennings appointed him to the court and he was easily confirmed by the state senate to his first seven-year term. Blackford quickly earned a reputation for being fair and impartial and is regarded as one of the most influential and pivotal members in the court's history. According to Chief Justice
Randall Shepherd, he was the most important justice to have ever served on the state courts and was responsible for laying the legal foundation of the state. During his time on the three member court he wrote the majority opinion on 845 of the nearly 2300 cases he presided over. That was more than twice the number of decisions authored by any other justice in the court's history and remains a record. Seven other men served with him on the court, including James Scott,
Jesse Holman, Stephen Stevens, John McKinney,
Jeremiah Sullivan, Charles Dewey, Samuel Perkins, and Thomas Smith. As Chief Justice, he was responsible for overseeing many of the day-to-day functions of the court, and oversaw the court during its move of the capitol from Corydon to Indianapolis in 1825. In 1831, due to crowding in the statehouse, the General Assembly granted the court permission to hold sessions anywhere within Indianapolis that they should choose. Blackford petitioned to have a chamber made available in the Indiana Governor's Mansion which was at that time being used for office space. He oversaw a fourth move to the new
Indiana Statehouse in 1839. The court remained there for the remainder of his time on the bench. Describing Blackford's style as a jurist,
Oliver H. Smith wrote, "The principal characteristic of his mind is caution. He never guesses, He is emphatically a book judge. Declamation with him is nothing; precedent and good authority is everything." His reliance on English common law and especially precedents set by
Westminster Hall, was unique compared to other frontier states.
Chancellor Kent commented that "It is an interesting fact to find not only the
lex mercatoria of English common law, but the refinements of the English equity system, adopted and enforced in the State of Indiana as early as 1820, when we consider how recently that country had then risen from a wilderness into a cultivated and civilized community."
Prominent cases Among the many cases Blackford presided over was the 1820 case of
Polly v. Lasselle, in which he retroactively applied the state constitution's ban on slavery which freed all slaves in Indiana. Among his most important and impacting decisions was the case of
State v. Tipton which severely limited the ability to appeal decisions to higher courts, but significantly decreased the Supreme Court's caseload. Under the original state constitution, Indiana had no appeals court, and all appeals from the circuit courts came directly to the Supreme Court. In the decision, Blackford wrote, "Courts of record have exclusive control over charges for contempt, and their conviction or acquittal is final and conclusive. This great power is intrusted to these tribunals of justice for the support and preservation of their respectability and independence; it has existed from the earliest period to which the annals of jurisdiction extend, and, except in a few cases of party violence, it has been sanctioned and established by the experience of ages." The decision was recognized as precedent in Indiana for 49 years. It was valid until Judge Buskirk investigated the precedent Blackford cited and discovered the underlying decision (Lord Mayor of London, 3 Wils. 188) was "not at all in point, while the whole current of modern decisions was in favor of appeal and review." In
Deming v. Bullit Blackford ruled that parties could cancel contracts of sale even after payment was made, provided they refunded the fees. Blackford eventually overruled his own precedent in the case of
Cunningham v. Flinn. In
Shanklin v. Cooper he ruled that contracts made in Indiana regarding assets outside of the state were still under Indiana's judicial jurisdiction, although he ruled to overturn his own precedent in the case of
Hunt v. Standart. Because Indiana as a new state had a very limited
civil and criminal code during the nineteenth century, Blackford relied heavily on English common law treatises to base his own decisions on, including ''
Coke's Reports and Blackstone's Commentaries''. During his lifetime, he amassed a personal library with nearly 2,000 volumes of legal works.
Personal tragedies George MacDonald, under whom Blackford had studied law, left his law practice in the east and moved to the Indiana in 1818. Blackford began courting his daughter Caroline, who was fourteen years younger than himself. They were married on December 23, 1819, in Vincennes by Reverend Samuel T. Scott. Caroline wished to entertain and enjoyed the high society that Blackford's position brought, while Blackford preferred to live reclusively. Their brief marriage was strained because of the age difference. They had one son, George, born on May 3, 1821. Caroline died in childbirth, a shock from which Blackford never fully recovered and which led him to become very protective and invested in his son. Blackford wrote to his mother of his unhappiness in marriage, and, after his wife's death, he vowed to never marry again. where Blackford lived for over twenty years. Blackford's son became ill, probably with
malaria, the date and details of the sickness are unknown. Blackford took him to
Lexington, Kentucky for medical treatment, but he died only a short time later. George died sometime before 1827, and would have been under six years old. The year of George Blackford's death is uncertain because Blackford was so distraught by the event that he refused to speak about the incident with anyone for the rest of his life. The death was an emotional blow to Blackford. Burying his son in Kentucky, he returned to Vincennes where he arrived in the night and entered the home of his friend John Coburn. He lay on the floor and wept till morning. He then locked himself away for two weeks in a room in Coburn's home, never speaking and only coming out to receive a meal. Blackford continued to keep his residence in Vincennes until 1830. Afterwards, he sold his Vincennes estate and invested the money in land, and moved to Indianapolis. The General Assembly had granted boarding rooms in the Indiana Governor's Mansion for the Supreme Court Justices to use while in Indianapolis. Blackford left Vincennes and moved into his room in the mansion. He hired a servant, William Franklin, who was the child of emancipated slaves, to bring him meals and clean his room. Due in large part to his emotional distress, Blackford began a hermit's lifestyle that he continued for twenty years. Franklin became Blackford's closest friend and remained with him throughout his life. In 1827, Blackford's mother died on August 18. Blackford shut himself away for six months and even stopped attending court sessions. He obtained a lock of her hair and carried it with him for the remainder of his life. Shortly thereafter while returning to Indianapolis after attending business in Vincennes, he attempted to ford the swollen White River on his horse as he neared
Martinsville. The river proved to be too swift and he and his horse were swept away. He was able to catch himself on an island, but was unable to escape it. He remained there for two days without food before he was discovered by a farmer and was rescued. He was taken to his apartment where he was nursed by Franklin until his health recovered.
Blackford's Reports Blackford's salary began at $600 annually, and the
constitution prevented it from decreasing during his term. At the time the salary was enough to sustain only a meager lifestyle. He invested some of his savings in land speculation around the state and made a large profit from his initial investment. He used the earnings to buy three city blocks in
Indianapolis shortly after the city was platted in 1824. On one block he had a four-story brick building constructed during the late 1820s and he rented office space for income. By the 1830s his rental income was enough to sustain his lifestyle, and he no longer needed his judicial salary, which he chose to leave in the state treasury to draw interest at 6%
per annum. By the time he left office, he was earning $1,500 annually from the state, and in total earned an estimated $50,000, including interest, during his time in office. ($ in 2020
chained dollars) He was reportedly very frugal with his money and amassed a small fortune during his lifetime, leaving an estate of $250,000 ($ in 2020
chained dollars) when he died. In the early days, court decisions were few. In 1816, the court made no decisions, in 1817 two cases, and in 1818 only three. But as case volume began to increase in 1822, Blackford became aware of the problems presented by having no reporter of the decisions. He began maintaining a personal collection of the Supreme Court decisions in hopes the Indiana General Assembly would eventually authorize funds to create an official report. After his personal tragedies while he remained locked in his room, Blackford began working on a book to report the important decisions of the Supreme Court and provide a legal source to state lawyers and judges. He was meticulous and precise in his writing. Biographer William Thornton attributed his ability to write concisely to the fact that he never practiced law extensively, and never developed the habit of writing lengthy arguments, but instead kept his thoughts clear and precise. Each volume he authored covered a decade of court decisions and was published four years after the decade was complete. So careful was Blackford in ensuring the quality and accuracy of the work that he regularly held up printing to make corrections found after a few volumes were printed, and after they were printed, if an error was reported, he would destroy the existing copies and have new ones made. He used his own savings to have the books published with the intention of selling them to lawyers in Indiana. The sale of the books brought Blackford a substantial income, and he earned between $1,500 and $2,000 annually on royalties. ''Blackford's Reports'' were thorough and detailed thanks to Blackford's effort to keep them accurate. His reputation for accuracy became well known. On one occasion a lawyer arguing before the court seeking to delay a decision questioned Blackford on the spelling of the word "jenny", a female
donkey, a word he knew would be in the report. Blackford responded with the spelling and lawyer again questioned him if he was certain that word was not spelled "jennie". Not wanting to be hasty and enter an incorrectly spelled word onto the record, Blackford delayed the decision for two days while experts were consulted as to the proper spelling. By the time the answer had come the court session had ended and decision was delayed for several months. Blackford published the first of his eight volumes of ''Blackford's Reports'' in 1830, covering court cases between 1816 and 1826. It was immediately in demand among the state's judicial establishment as there were at that time no other readily available sources for Supreme Court decisions. The Indiana General Assembly later approved and funded the publishing of the two-volume
Indiana Reports, which was authored by the court reporter and reported the entirety of the decisions of the Supreme Court. ''Blackford's Reports'' still remained more popular because of their superior style and quality. His reports were noted by readers for their concision, accuracy, and diction. They soon became popular in other US states where common law was used. Within a decade his reports had spread internationally; his reports were published in Britain and Canada where they were used as a legal resource. Evidencing the popularity of his reports,
Washington Irving, while serving as a United States diplomat to the
United Kingdom at the
Court of St. James's, wrote to his superiors in Washington D.C. requesting information on Blackford. He reported that ''Blackford's Reports'' were well known in
Westminster and regularly used by the judiciary, and Irving compared him to
William Blackstone. The attribution stuck with Blackford, and earned him the nickname "Indiana Blackstone". His reports by then had become a staple in law schools and a necessity in most law firms in the United States. Between the time the books were published, and until 1930, his reports were cited in court decisions over 4,000 times by Indiana courts, over 3,000 times in other US state courts, over 1,400 times by federal courts and the
United States Supreme Court, more than 350 times in Canadian courts, and more than 75 in British courts. Additionally, his decisions were cited over 400 times from
Indiana Reports. The use of his reports in law schools became less common beginning in the early 1900s as many states' civil codes began to become more developed and reliance on common law was less frequent. His reports, however, remain a regularly used tool in cases where common law is still applied. Blackford was a trustee for
Indiana College (now
Indiana University Bloomington) from 1838 to 1841. During that time the college published his reports on their printing press.
Appointments & electoral failures In 1825 Blackford was nominated, without his knowledge, as the
Whig candidate for governor of Indiana. Because of his position on the courts, he refused to campaign on his own behalf against his opponent. In the election he was defeated by
James B. Ray with 13,140 votes to his 10,418. The following year, he was nominated for a
United States Senate seat, again without his knowledge. He lost in the Indiana General Assembly by one vote and was defeated by former governor
William Hendricks. Blackford never sought political office while he was on the court, but his political opinions were not concealed. In 1824 he was an
elector on the ticket for
John Adams, and in 1832 he voted for and publicly supported
Henry Clay. In 1836 he backed
Martin Van Buren, primarily because he opposed
Andrew Jackson. He was also opposed to the election of
William Henry Harrison as president, who had been governor of the Indiana territory when he had first moved; his opposition stemmed from his experience with his style of governing and support of slavery. Although he made political positions known, he did not take part in campaigning, stumping, or party leadership. Governor Ray reappointed Blackford as chief justice in 1826 in an attempt to win electoral support from the Whigs on a number of laws he was advocating for passage. Blackford was reappointed again in 1833 by Governor
Noah Noble and in 1840 by
Samuel Bigger who were both of same party as Blackford. Democratic Governor Whitcomb at first refused to reappoint Blackford because of his age in 1847. He nominated four different replacements for Blackford but the
Indiana Senate refused to confirm them, forcing Whitcomb to give in and reappoint Blackford. Whitcomb likewise had refused to reappoint the other two members of the court, leaving Blackford as the only justice on the court for nearly a year while the governor wrangled with the General Assembly over the issue. In both 1826 and 1847, Blackford was the only member of the court to be reappointed, based largely on his popularity and the fame of his reports. His fellow court members had been ejected because of their age, or their slow pace in making decision. In his later years on the court, the docket began to increase dramatically and the court was unable to keep pace with the caseload. The Blackford court's inability to keep up took a toll on his reputation, as some state leaders blamed his age as the cause of the backlog. The growing state was in need of an
appeals court, and it would be created by the new
Constitution of 1851. Another significant change was the passage of the state's Practice Act which broke down many common law precedents and significantly changed the methods of pleading that Blackford was accustomed to. Blackford continued serving on the Supreme Court until the new state Constitution of 1851 made the position of justice an elected office. He sought the nomination at the Whig convention to run to keep his seat, but his lack of political experience led to his defeat. In total he had been on the Supreme Court for over thirty-five years, seven and a half years longer than any other justice in state history. As late as 1930, he remained the longest serving jurist in any position in the United States, with 12,899 days of service on the court. ==Later years==