Mayors of Savannah: James Moore Wayne

James Moore Wayne was one of our most distinguished mayors. He would be a graduate of Princeton University and graduating in 1808 and returning to Savannah to study law. He started his law practice in 1811. His practice was interrupted by the War of 1812 when he served in a volunteer cavalry during the war.
It was upon his return from the war that he would be elected in 1815 to two terms as a Georgia State Legislature. He also became the judge to the newly formed Court of Common Pleas. After or because of his tenure as judge on the Common Pleas Court he was appointed to the Georgia Superior Court. He served as the mayor of Savannah from 1817 to 1819. Wayne also would serve as the President of the Georgia Historical Society for nine years.
In 1821 he had a house designed for his family by noted architect William Jay. He would sell the home to his sister and her husband William Washington Gordon Sr. in 1831. This would become the childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low the founder of the girl scouts. Today it is visited by thousands of Girl Scouts every year.
Wayne would be elected to US House of Representatives in 1828 as a Andrew Jackson follower. He offered loyal support to Jackson with voting for the denial of sovereignty to the Cherokees which led to the Trail of Tears, veto of the National banks re-charter bill, and supported the Force Bill in 1833 designed to end South Carolina’s first attempt to secede from the Union.
Because of Wayne’s loyalty to Jackson he was nominated to the US Supreme Court in 1835 making him the first Georgian to serve in this position. He would serve as a Justice until 1867. These years would include service through the Civil War despite the other Southerners on the Court resigning to assist the South in their rebellion. Wayne was as Jackson had been a Federalist in his thinking thus he did not agree when the Southern States seceded from the Union. Even though he owned slaves and his son would fight on the side of the Confederacy he stayed on the court and assisted President Lincoln with different rulings to assist in the Union’s war effort. His thirty-two year tenure on the Supreme Court is among the longest in Court history. One colleague called him "one of the most high-toned federalists on the bench,"
He would die in Washington DC during his the Supreme Court session in 1867. He is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery. He is yet another of the distinguished mayors of Savannah.

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