James Moore Wayne was a native of Savannah, Ga. His father, Richard Wayne, an officer in the British army, had emigrated to South Carolina, where on September 14, 1769, he married Elizabeth Clifford, and thence moved to Savannah. James was the twelfth of thirteen children.
He received his early education under the direction of a Mr. Mackay, an Irishman who had graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and made such progress that he was ready to enter the College of New Jersey (Princeton) at an early age. Here he read promiscuously, took an active part in his literary society, and was graduated in 1808. Returning to Savannah, he took up the study of law under the tutelage of John Y. Noel. Within a few months thereafter his father died and his brother-in-law became his guardian. He was now sent to New Haven, Connecticut, to study under Judge Chauncey, who put him through a rigorous and systematic discipline in his chosen field. After twenty months, he returned to Savannah and spent five months more in the office of his guardian.
In 1810 he began practice in partnership with Samuel M. Bond. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Wayne became an officer of the Georgia Hussars. Near the end of the war, the Georgia legislature passed an act suspending the collection of debts. Wayne, upholding the view which was popular in the Savannah district, opposed this law and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, serving 1815-16. He was then elected mayor of Savannah and served two years. After having reformed the financial administration of the city, he returned to private practice in partnership with Richard R. Cuyler, a leader in the local movement for internal improvements. In this movement Wayne took an important part. Having attended an improvement convention in Knoxville, he found the Georgia route to the West slighted, and later, presiding over a convention in his own state, helped to initiate the development of such a route. In 1824 he became a judge of the superior court of Georgia, resigning in 1829 to become a member of the federal House of Representatives, where he served for three consecutive terms. During this time he supported the administration of President Jackson in practically all its major measures, including the tariff and internal-improvement legislation as well as the Force Bill and the removal of the deposits from the Bank of the United States. Yet he was not a strict-constructionist, for he held that the federal government had the right to build roads and canals and to charter a bank, although he opposed these measures on grounds of expediency. He took a keen interest in the question of Indian removals and supported Georgia's claim to jurisdiction over the tribes within her borders on the ground that she had acquired this jurisdiction from England and had not surrendered it. He served on many important committees and rose to the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Though not an orator, he was a forceful and logical speaker on numerous occasions. For all these services, President Jackson, on January 9, 1835, appointed him an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As a member of this tribunal, his opinions in admiralty cases - particularly in that of Waring vs. Clarke -and in cases involving lands acquired from foreign countries are especially valuable. When the Civil War came on, he took the side of the Union and retained his seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, holding it until his death, from typhoid fever, in Washington, on July 5, 1867. He was the last surviving associate of John Marshall on the bench of the Supreme Court. His remains were taken to Savannah for interment in Laurel Grove Cemetery.
Though not an orator, he was a forceful and logical speaker on numerous occasions.
In 1810 he married Mary Johnston Campbell, daughter to Alexander Campbell of Richmond, Va. They had three children.
