In the 1844 presidential election , Woodbury and the Jackson Democrats supported the Democrats ' nomination of Polk . In that year , Woodbury also delivered a Phi Beta Kappa Address at his alma mater , Dartmouth College , titled " Progress . " The address discussed Thomas Cole 's series of five landscape paintings , '' The Course of Empire '' . Woodbury believed that , unlike Cole 's depiction of a cycle of rise and decline , in the United States there would only be a rise . On September 20 , 1845 , Polk gave Woodbury a recess appointment to the seat on the U.S. Supreme Court vacated by Joseph Story . Formally nominated on December 23 , 1845 , Woodbury was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 3 , 1846 , and received his commission the same day . He was promoted as a candidate for president at the 1848 Democratic National Convention , his support was largely centered in New England . He remained on the Court until his death at age 61 in 1851 , in Portsmouth , New Hampshire
1848 Democratic National Convention
1848 Democratic National Convention
Levi Woodbury