Campbell White Pinkney
(1828-1903)
MSA SC 3520-14406
Judge, Baltimore City Supreme Bench, 1867-1882
Biography:
Elected to the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City in 1867 as part of a state-wide Democratic wave of electoral victory, Campbell White Pinkney was part of a family prominent in Maryland politics and public life. He served until 1882, when he lost a reelection bid, and spent most of his life in private practice across the country.
Born in 1828 as Campbell Pinkney White, he changed his name as the result of a family business dispute with an uncle; his father and brother modified their names to “Whyte” for the same reason. Pinkney attended Harvard Law School, and in 1850 was admitted to the Maryland Bar, and entered private practice. During the Civil War, Pinkney enlisted in the Confederate army, and saw service at a number of battles, including Gettysburg. Later, he served in Richmond in an administrative position.
When the Maryland Constitution was rewritten in 1867, it restored the franchise to those who had been sympathetic of the Confederacy. As a consequence the Democratic party swept into power, dominating the state’s elected offices. Pinkney was voted onto the Bench in the same election that saw his brother, William Pinkney Whyte, elected to the United States Senate.
By 1882, when Pinkney was up for reelection, popular sentiment had turned against the judges of the Supreme Bench, and amid allegation of judicial corruption, the “New Judge” movement unseated four out of five justices (the fifth, who took office in 1873, was not up for election until 1888). Even the efforts of “The Ring,” Baltimore’s political machine captained by his brother Whyte, now the city’s mayor, could not save Pinkney. Indeed, such ties likely played a part in his loss.
After the election, Pinkney returned to private practice, moving through a number of cities in the Midwest and New York. For a time he also served as legal counsel for the Department of the Interior. It was there that he married Sophie Mechlen, who had been his legal clerk, 1896. Upon her death in 1899, Pinkney returned to Baltimore, serving on the state’s Liquor License Board until his death on June 7, 1903.
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