Francis Biddle

Francis Biddle
Biddle in 1935
Francis Biddle
Born	Francis Beverley Biddle 9 5, 1886
Birthplace	Paris, France
Died	Template:Death date and age Wellfleet, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Lawyer, judge, government official
Known for	58th United States Attorney General; primary American judge at the Nuremberg trials
Education	Harvard University (BA, LLB)
Spouse(s)	Katherine Garrison Chapin
Children	2

Francis Beverley Biddle (May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer, judge, and government official who served as the 58th United States Attorney General during the critical years of World War II, from 1941 to 1945. Born in Paris to one of America's most distinguished families, Biddle occupied a series of increasingly important legal and governmental positions under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, including chairman of the first National Labor Relations Board, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Solicitor General of the United States, before ascending to the nation's top law enforcement post. As Attorney General, Biddle navigated the complex legal terrain of wartime governance, overseeing matters ranging from civil liberties protections to espionage prosecutions, though his tenure was also marked by his acquiescence—a matter he later expressed regret over—to the internment of Japanese Americans. Following the war, Biddle served as the primary American judge at the Nuremberg trials, where he participated in adjudicating the cases against major Nazi war criminals, helping to establish precedents in international criminal law. Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, Biddle moved between private legal practice, public service, and literary pursuits, authoring several books including an autobiography and a biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., for whom he had clerked as a young man.

Early Life

Francis Beverley Biddle was born on May 9, 1886, in Paris, France, one of four sons of Algernon Sydney Biddle, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, and Frances Robinson Biddle. The Biddle family was one of the most prominent in American history; the family's roots in the United States extended back to the colonial era, and its members had included notable figures in finance, politics, and the military. Francis Biddle was a direct descendant of Edmund Randolph, the first United States Attorney General, a connection that gave his own eventual appointment to the same office a particular historical resonance.

Though born abroad, Biddle was raised in the social milieu of the Philadelphia elite. The family's status afforded him access to the finest educational institutions of the era. He attended the Haverford School before enrolling at the Groton School in Massachusetts, where he came under the influence of the school's legendary headmaster, Endicott Peabody. At Groton, Biddle was a contemporary of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a connection that would later prove significant in his career.

Biddle's privileged upbringing in the world of the Eastern establishment shaped his worldview but did not, by most accounts, insulate him from a genuine interest in issues of justice and fairness. His later career would reflect a persistent, if sometimes imperfect, concern with civil liberties and the rights of individuals against the power of the state.

Education

Biddle pursued his higher education at Harvard University, where he earned both his Bachelor of Arts degree and his Bachelor of Laws (LLB). His time at Harvard Law School placed him among the intellectual elite of the American legal profession. Upon completing his legal education, Biddle secured a clerkship with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., then an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The clerkship, which was one of the most prestigious positions available to a young lawyer, had a profound impact on Biddle's legal thinking and intellectual development. He later wrote a biography of Holmes, reflecting the lasting influence the jurist had on him.

Career

Early Legal Career and World War I

After completing his clerkship with Justice Holmes, Biddle returned to Philadelphia to enter the practice of law. He established himself in the legal community of the city, building a career in private practice that would serve as a foundation for his later governmental roles.

When the United States entered World War I, Biddle enlisted in the United States Army as a private in the Field Artillery. His military service, while not particularly distinguished by rank—he remained a private—demonstrated a willingness to serve that was consistent with the expectations of his social class and his own sense of civic duty.

Following the war, Biddle resumed his legal practice in Philadelphia. During the 1920s and 1930s, he became increasingly involved in public affairs, reflecting a growing interest in the intersection of law, labor relations, and government policy.

National Labor Relations Board

In 1934, Biddle was appointed chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the body established to adjudicate disputes between labor and management. He succeeded Lloyd K. Garrison in this role and served until 1935, when the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) reconstituted the agency on a more permanent statutory basis. J. Warren Madden succeeded him as chairman of the new agency.

Biddle's tenure at the NLRB came during a formative period in American labor law. The board was tasked with implementing the New Deal's vision of protecting workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively, and Biddle's leadership helped establish the institutional foundations for federal labor regulation.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Biddle also served as a member and deputy chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, positions he held until April 1939. These roles reflected his standing in the financial and legal communities of the Philadelphia region and demonstrated the breadth of his engagement with public economic policy.

Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

On March 4, 1939, Biddle was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, succeeding Joseph Buffington. His tenure on the bench was brief—less than a year—but it provided him with judicial experience that informed his later roles in government and at the Nuremberg trials. He served until January 22, 1940, when he was succeeded by Herbert Funk Goodrich.

Solicitor General

On January 22, 1940, Biddle left the Third Circuit to become the 25th Solicitor General of the United States, succeeding Robert H. Jackson, who had been elevated to Attorney General. As Solicitor General, Biddle was responsible for representing the federal government before the Supreme Court of the United States. He served in this capacity until August 25, 1941, arguing cases that reflected the legal challenges of the late New Deal era and the early stages of American mobilization for World War II.

Biddle's appointment to the position reflected the trust President Roosevelt placed in him. The two men had known each other since their days as students at Groton, and Roosevelt's repeated elevation of Biddle to positions of increasing responsibility demonstrated a personal confidence in his abilities and judgment.

United States Attorney General

On August 26, 1941, Biddle succeeded Robert H. Jackson as the 58th United States Attorney General, assuming the office just months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States fully into World War II. He served under both President Roosevelt and, briefly, President Harry S. Truman, until June 26, 1945, when he was succeeded by Tom C. Clark.

Wartime Civil Liberties

As Attorney General during wartime, Biddle faced the fundamental tension between national security and civil liberties that has confronted every wartime government. In the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Biddle took steps to protect the rights of Italian and German aliens in the United States, and he initially resisted calls for the mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. He argued within the administration that such measures were unnecessary and potentially unconstitutional.

However, Biddle ultimately acquiesced to the decision to intern Japanese Americans, a decision formalized by Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Despite his private reservations, Biddle did not publicly oppose the order and oversaw its legal implementation as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. The internment of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans—the majority of whom were United States citizens—became one of the most widely condemned civil liberties violations in American history. Biddle himself later expressed deep regret over his failure to oppose the internment more forcefully, writing in his 1962 autobiography, In Brief Authority, about the episode with evident remorse.

In other areas of civil liberties, Biddle took a more protective stance. He sought to prevent the kind of widespread repression of dissent that had characterized the government's response during World War I, when the Palmer Raids and other measures had targeted suspected radicals. Biddle was conscious of this history and tried to ensure that the Justice Department's wartime actions were more restrained, though the internment of Japanese Americans represented a significant exception to this approach.

Wartime Prosecutions and Policy

As Attorney General, Biddle also oversaw a number of significant wartime legal matters, including espionage and sabotage prosecutions. He was involved in policy discussions regarding the treatment of enemy aliens and the government's approach to potential subversion on the home front.

Biddle also engaged in wartime diplomatic matters. In a memo to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Biddle discussed the work of the United States Committee for the Care of European Children (USCOM), reflecting the Attorney General's involvement in refugee and humanitarian policy during the war.

Departure from Office

Biddle served as Attorney General until June 26, 1945, departing the position shortly after the death of President Roosevelt and the accession of Harry S. Truman to the presidency. Truman replaced Biddle with Tom C. Clark, and Biddle's tenure as the nation's top legal officer came to an end after nearly four years in the post.

Nuremberg Trials

Following his departure from the Attorney General's office, Biddle was appointed as the primary American judge at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, where the major Nazi war criminals were tried for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The tribunal, which sat from November 1945 to October 1946, was an unprecedented exercise in international criminal justice, and Biddle played a central role in its deliberations.

The Nuremberg trials resulted in the conviction of major figures of the Nazi regime, including Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and others. The tribunal also established foundational principles of international law, including the formal recognition that certain acts constitute crimes against humanity regardless of whether they were permitted by the domestic law of the state in which they occurred.

Following the conclusion of the trials, Biddle prepared a report on the tribunal's work for President Truman. In responding to Biddle's report, Truman wrote: "An undisputed gain coming out of Nurnberg is the formal recognition that there are crimes against humanity. Your report is an historic document."

Biddle's experience at Nuremberg profoundly affected him and became a subject to which he returned in his later writings and reflections. The moral and legal complexities of judging the leaders of a defeated regime—while also reconciling the tribunal's principles with the actions of the victorious Allied powers—occupied Biddle's thinking for the remainder of his life.

Later Career and Writing

After the Nuremberg trials, Biddle did not return to government service in a major capacity but remained active in legal, literary, and civic affairs. He served on various commissions and organizations, including involvement with Americans for Democratic Action and other liberal causes.

Biddle was also a prolific writer. His literary output included several notable books. He published Mr. Justice Holmes in 1942, a biography of his former mentor, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. His autobiography, In Brief Authority, was published in 1962 and provided a candid account of his years in government service, including his reflections on the Japanese American internment and other wartime decisions. He also wrote The Fear of Freedom (1951), which examined issues of civil liberties and political repression in the context of the emerging Cold War.

Personal Life

Francis Biddle married Katherine Garrison Chapin, a poet and writer. The couple had two children. Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle was herself a figure of some distinction in literary circles, and the couple moved in the cultural and intellectual elite of Washington and the Eastern seaboard.

Biddle maintained residences in both Washington, D.C., and on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, reflecting his dual identity as both a legal figure and a man of letters.

Francis Biddle died on October 4, 1968, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, at the age of 82.

Recognition

Biddle's contributions to American law and international justice have been recognized in various ways. His role at the Nuremberg trials, in particular, has been the subject of sustained historical interest and scholarly analysis. President Truman's characterization of Biddle's Nuremberg report as "an historic document" reflected the significance attached to his work at the tribunal.

Biddle's career has also been the subject of dramatic treatment. The play Trying by Joanna Glass, which depicts the relationship between the aging Biddle and his young secretary in the last year of his life, premiered at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and was later produced at other venues. The play explored Biddle's reflections on his career, including his regrets over the Japanese American internment and his experiences at Nuremberg.

The United States Department of Justice maintains a biographical entry for Biddle in its records of former Solicitors General, and the Federal Judicial Center includes him in its database of former federal judges.

Biddle's involvement in the Japanese American internment has also made him a significant figure in the historiography of civil liberties in wartime. Scholars and commentators have examined his role as an example of the challenges faced by officials who hold private reservations about government policy but ultimately defer to executive authority. The Densho Encyclopedia, a resource dedicated to documenting the Japanese American experience during World War II, includes a detailed entry on Biddle and his role in the internment.

Legacy

Francis Biddle's legacy is defined by both his accomplishments and his failures, reflecting the complexity of public service during a period of extraordinary national and global crisis. His career arc—from scion of one of America's most prominent families to clerk for Oliver Wendell Holmes, from New Deal labor regulator to wartime Attorney General, from the halls of the Justice Department to the courtroom at Nuremberg—encompassed some of the most consequential legal and political events of the twentieth century.

Biddle's role at the Nuremberg trials stands as perhaps his most enduring contribution to the development of law. The tribunal's establishment of the principle that individuals—including heads of state and senior government officials—can be held personally accountable for crimes against humanity and crimes against peace represented a foundational moment in the development of international criminal law. Biddle's participation in this process, and his subsequent report to President Truman, helped to articulate and codify these principles for the American government and the broader international community.

At the same time, Biddle's acquiescence to the internment of Japanese Americans remains an indelible mark on his record. His failure to oppose Executive Order 9066 more forcefully, despite his private misgivings, has been cited by historians and legal scholars as an illustration of the fragility of civil liberties in wartime and the limitations of individual conscience within the machinery of government. Biddle's own candid acknowledgment of this failure in his autobiography lent a degree of moral seriousness to the historical record, even as it could not undo the harm inflicted on the Japanese American community.

Biddle's literary output, including his biography of Holmes and his autobiography, contributed to the literature of American law and government. His writings provided an insider's perspective on some of the most significant legal and political developments of the mid-twentieth century and remain sources for historians studying the Roosevelt administration, the Nuremberg trials, and the broader arc of American civil liberties law.

As a figure who occupied the intersection of law, politics, and letters, Francis Biddle embodied a particular tradition of American public life—one rooted in the Eastern establishment, shaped by the progressive reform movements of the early twentieth century, and tested by the crises of depression, world war, and the Cold War. His career, with its achievements and its shortcomings, offers a window into the possibilities and limitations of American legal and political institutions during a transformative era.