Person Page - 641

Graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1798, A.M., 1801; studied law in the office of Samuel Sewall, and later with Judge Putnam of Salem; was admitted to the bar in July, 1801, and established himself in practice in Salem. He declined the appointment of naval officer of the port of Salem in 1803; was a Democratic representative in the state legislature, 1805-07, and was elected a representative in the 10th congress, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Jacob Crowninshield, serving, 1808-09. He was again chosen a representative in the state legislature in 1810 and became speaker of the house. He argued before the U.S. supreme court the great Georgia claim case in 1810, and on Nov. 18, 1811, was appointed associate-justice of the U.S. supreme court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Cushing, and held the office until his death. His circuit took in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and owing to the extreme old age of his predecessor, his labors upon the circuit were multiplied by the immense accumulation of business. He denounced the slave trade, and it was owing to his charges to the grand juries in 1819 that the traffic was brought to a close. He opposed the Missouri compromise and spoke in a public meeting held in Salem against the measure. He was a member of the committee appointed to revise the constitution of Massachusetts in 1820, and opposed the motion that the legislature should have the power to diminish the salaries of the judges of the supreme court. He was Dane professor of law at Harvard, 1829-45, and removed to Cambridge, Mass. In 1831 he declined the office of chief justice of Massachusetts. After the death of John Marshall, he acted as chief justice in the U.S. supreme court until the confirmation of Roger B. Taney, and again in 1844, during the illness of Taney. He was an overseer of Harvard college, 1818-25; a fellow, 1825-45; a member of the Massachusetts Historical society; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical society. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Brown in 1815, by Harvard in 1821, and by Dartmouth in 1824. His name in "Class J, Judges and Lawyers," received sixty-four votes in the consideration of names for a place in the Hall of Fame, New York University, October, 1900, and was accorded a place with those of James Kent and John Marshall. He is the author of: The Power of Solitude, with Fugitive Poems (1804); Selection of Pleadings in Civil Actiones (1805), and numerous text books on jurisprudence, including: Commentaries on the Law of Bailments (1832); Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (3 vols., 1833); Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws (1834); Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence (2 vols., 1835-36); Equity Pleadings (1838); Law of Agency (1839): Law of Partnership (1841); Law of Bills of Exchange (1843), and Law of Promissory Notes (1845). He edited "Chitty on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes" (1809); "Abbot on Shipping" (1810), and "Laws on Assumpsit" (1811), and contributed to the North American Review, the American Jurist, and the "Encyclopædia Americana." He left unfinished a Digest of Law, which is in the Harvard Law library; and a collection of Miscellaneous Writings was published in 1835, and an enlarged edition edited by his son, William Wetmore Story, appeared after his death (2 vols., 1851.)⁴