election and would take office in six weeks. Although Harrison wanted to appoint a fellow Republican to fill the vacancy, he recognized that the Democrat-controlled Senate would likely refuse to act on the nomination since it could simply wait for Cleveland to make a more favorable appointment. Not long after Lamar's death, Justice Brown, whom Jackson had recommended to Harrison a few years prior, paid a visit to the White House. Wishing to return the favor, the Republican Brown suggested that the Democratic Jackson would be an ideal candidate for Harrison to select. Jackson indeed checked all the boxes for Harrison: he was a conservative and well-regarded jurist and came from the South, as Lamar had. The two had also served in the Senate together and were close friends. Harrison agreed to nominate Jackson, doing so on February 2. The decision surprised both Republicans and Democrats, who expected Harrison to choose someone from his own party. Jackson's nomination was held up initially in committee, but senators unanimously confirmed their ex-colleague on February 18. Most had expected some objections on the floor, and a contemporaneous New York Times report noted that many were left "wondering...what became of the opposition". Professor Richard D. Friedman concludes their acquiescence was understandable: Democrats "could not very well vote against one of their own", while "Republicans, after initial disgruntlement, understood the logic of Harrison's move." Chief Justice Melville Fuller swore in Jackson on the morning of March 4, just hours before administering the presidential oath to Harrison's successor. Supreme Court service Jackson's brief tenure on the Supreme Court lasted from March 4, 1893 until his death on August 8, 1895. He wrote only forty-six opinions. Because of his poor health and his lack of seniority, many of them were rendered in insignificant cases, especially patent disputes. Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. Scholar Irving Schiffman maintains that Jackson's name would have been "buried in [the] coffin of historical neglect" were it not for his participation in a single case: Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. Pollock involved a challenge to a provision of the 1894 Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act, that had imposed a two percent personal income tax on all revenue over four thousand dollars. According to the plaintiff, the law imposed a direct tax without apportioning it among the states, in violation of a provision of the Constitution. In practice, it would be impossible