Levi Woodbury Levi Woodbury ( December 22 , 1789September 4 , 1851 ) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , a U . S . Senator , Governor of New Hampshire and cabinet member in three administrations . He was the first Justice to have attended law school . Life and career . Woodbury was born in Francestown , New Hampshire . He graduated from Dartmouth College , Phi Beta Kappa , in 1809 , briefly attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield , Connecticut , and read law to be admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812 . He was in private practice in Francestown from 1812 to 1816 . He also joined the Freemasons . Woodbury was a clerk of the New Hampshire State Senate from 1816 to 1817 , and a Justice of New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature from 1817 to 1823 . He was Governor of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1824 and was Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives , 1825 . Federal government service . Senate and Cabinet service . Woodbury served as a United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1825 to 1831 . Elected to serve in New Hampshire State Senate in 1831 , Woodbury did not take office due to his appointment as United States Secretary of the Navy under President Andrew Jackson , from 1831 to 1834 . At the beginning of this term , he was instrumental in the appointment of fellow New Hampshireman Edmund Roberts as special agent and envoy to the Far East . Woodbury served as Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson and Martin Van Buren from 1834 to 1841 , and served again as Senator from New Hampshire from 1841 to 1845 . He was a Justice of the U . S . Supreme Court , 1845 to 1851 . As a U . S . Senator , Woodbury was a dependable Jackson Democrat , and President Jackson appointed him Secretary of the Navy ( 1831 – 1834 ) and then Secretary of the Treasury ( 1834 – 1841 ) . Woodbury successfully worked to end the Second Bank of the United States ; like Jackson he favored an " independent " treasury system and " hard money " over paper money . In retrospect , the financial Panic of 1837 and the collapse of speculative land prices were legacies of Woodbury ' s tenure . After the Panic , Woodbury realised that the U . S . Treasury needed a more secure administration of its own funds than commercial banks supplied , and he backed the act for an " Independent Treasury System " passed by Congress in 1840 . It was largely repealed under the new administration the following year , but the foundation was laid for an independent U . S . Treasury , finally established in 1846 , under President James K . Polk . Woodbury also served as chairman of the U . S . Senate Committee on Finance during a Special Session of the 29th Congress . His ten day chairmanship is the shortest on record . Supreme Court service . In the 1844 presidential election , Woodbury and the Jackson Democrats supported the Democrats ' nomination of Polk . On September 20 , 1845 , Polk gave Woodbury a recess appointment to a seat as an Associate Justice of 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 . Woodbury was promoted as a candidate for President in the 1848 Democratic National Convention where 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 . Legacy . Woodbury is one of the few individuals to serve in all three branches of U . S . government and one of three people to have served in all three branches and also served as a U . S . Governor ( the others being Salmon P . Chase and James F . Byrnes ) . Woodbury County , Iowa , the City of Woodbury , Minnesota , Woodbury Avenue in Portsmouth , New Hampshire , Woodbury School in Salem , New Hampshire , and the ship USS " Woodbury " were named in honor of him .