Nathan Clifford


Clifford, Nathan

(1803–81) Supreme Court justice; born in Rumney, N.H. He served the U.S. House of Representatives (Dem., Maine; 1839–43). President James Polk named him attorney general (1846) and sent him to negotiate an end to the Mexican War (1848). President James Buchanan named him to the U.S. Supreme Court (1858–81).