Nathan Clifford served as U.S. attorney general from 1846 to 1848 in the administration of President James Polk. Clifford, who had previously served in Congress, became an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1858. In this position, Clifford consistently opposed the growth of federal power.

Clifford was born on August 18, 1803, in Rumney, New Hampshire. Raised on a farm, Clifford attended public school but could not afford a college education. Instead, he persuaded a local attorney to take him on as an apprentice and it was in this law office that Clifford "read the law." He passed the bar exam in 1827 and immediately moved to Maine, where he set up a law firm.

In 1830, Clifford shifted his sights to politics. A life-long Democrat, Clifford served in the Maine legislature before becoming state attorney general and then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected to the Maine legislature...