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LEGARE, HUGH SWINTON (1797–1843)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 374 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEGARE, See also:HUGH See also:SWINTON (1797–1843) , See also:American lawyer and statesman, was See also:born in See also:Charleston, See also:South Carolina, on the 2nd of See also:January 1797, of Huguenot and Scotch stock. Partly on See also:account of his inability to See also:share in the amusements of his See also:fellows by See also:reason of a deformity due to vaccine poisoning before he was five (the See also:poison permanently arresting the growth and development of his legs), he was an eager student, and in 1814 he graduated at the See also:College of South Carolina with the highest See also:rank in his class and with a reputation throughout the See also:state for scholarship and eloquence. He studied See also:law for three years in South Carolina, and then spent two years abroad, studying See also:French and See also:Italian in See also:Paris and See also:jurisprudence at See also:Edinburgh. In 1820–1822 and in 1824–1830 he was a member of the South Carolina legislature. In 1827, with See also:Stephen See also:Elliott (1771–1830), the naturalist, he founded the See also:Southern See also:Review, of which he was the See also:sole editor after Elliott's See also:death until 1834, when it was discontinued, and to which he contributed articles on law, travel, and See also:modern and classical literature. In 1830–1832 he was See also:attorney-See also:general of South Carolina, and, although a State's Rights See also:man, he strongly opposed See also:nullification. During his See also:term of See also:office he appeared in a See also:case before the See also:United States Supreme See also:Court, where his knowledge of See also:civil law so strongly impressed See also:Edward See also:Livingston, the secretary of state, who was himself an admirer of See also:Roman Law, that he urged Legare to devote himself to the study of this subject with the See also:hope that he might See also:influence American law toward the spirit and See also:philosophy and even the forms and processes of Roman jurisprudence. ' The See also:Finance See also:Bill 1909–1910 re-imposed this See also:duty, and extended it to husbands and wives as well as descendants and ancestors. refer it may refer to realty; the proper word, however, for gifts of realty is devise. Legacies may be either specific, general or See also:demonstrative. A specific See also:legacy is " something which a testator, identifying it by a sufficient description and manifesting an intention that it should be enjoyed in the state and See also:condition indicated by that description, separates in favour of a particular legatee from the general See also:mass of his See also:personal See also:estate," e.g. a See also:gift of " my portrait by X," naming the artist. A general legacy is a gift not so distinguished from the general mass of the personal estate, e.g. a gift of £See also:ioo or of a See also:gold See also:ring.

A demonstrative legacy partakes of the nature of both the preceding kinds of legacies, e.g. a gift of £ioo payable out of a named fund is a specific legacy so far as the fund named is available to pay the legacy; after the fund is exhausted the See also:

balance of the legacy is a general legacy and recourse must be had to the general estate to satisfy such balance. Sometimes a testator bequeaths two or more legacies to the same See also:person; in such a case it is a question whether the later legacies are in substitution for, or in addition to, the earlier ones. In the latter case they are known as cumulative. In each case the intention of the testator is the See also:rule of construction; this can often be gathered from the terms of the will or See also:codicil, but in the See also:absence of such See also:evidence the following rules are followed by the courts. Where the same specific thing is bequeathed twice to the same legatee or where two legacies of equal amount are bequeathed by the same See also:instrument the second See also:bequest is See also:mere repetition; but where legacies of equal amounts are bequeathed by different See also:instruments or of unequal amounts by the same instruments they are considered to be cumulative. If the estate of the testator is insufficient to satisfy all the legacies these must abate, i.e. be reduced rateably; as to this it should he noticed that specific and demonstrative legacies have a See also:prior claim to be paid in full out of the specific fund before general legacies, and that general legacies abate rateably inter se in the absence of any See also:provision to the contrary by the testator. Specific legacies are liable to See also:ademption where the specific thing perishes or ceases to belong to the testator, e.g. in the instance given above if the testator sells the portrait the legatee will get nothing by virtue of the legacy. As a general rule, legacies given to persons who predecease the testator do not take effect; they are said to See also:lapse. This is so even if the gift be to A and his executors, administrators and assigns, but this is not so if the testator has shown a contrary intention, thus, a gift to A or his personal representative will be effective even though A predecease the testator; further, by the See also:Wills See also:Act 1837, devises of estates tail and gifts to a See also:child or other issue of the testator will not lapse if any issue of the legatee survive the testator. Lapsed legacies fall into and See also:form See also:part of the residuary estate. In the absence of any indication to the contrary a legacy becomes due on the See also:day of the death of the testator, though for the convenience of the executor it is not payable till a See also:year after that date; this delay does not prevent the legacy vesting on the testator's death. It frequently happens, however, that a legacy is given payable at a future date; in such a case, if the legatee See also:dies after the testator but prior to the date when the legacy is payable it is necessary to discover whether the legacy was vested or contingent, as in the former case it becomes payable to the legatee's representative; in the latter, it lapses.

In this, as in other cases, the test is the intention of the testator as expressed in the will; generally it may be said that a gift " payable " or " to be paid " at a certain fixed See also:

time confers a vested See also:interest on the legatee, while a gift to A " at " a fixed time, e.g. twenty-one years of See also:age, only confers on A an interest contingent on his attaining the age of twenty-one. Legacy Duty is a duty charged by the state upon personal See also:property devolving upon the legatees or next of See also:kin of a dead person, either by virtue of his will or upon his See also:intestacy. The duty was first imposed in See also:England in 178o, but the See also:principal act dealing with the subject is the Legacy Duty Act 1796. The principal points as to the duty are these. The duty is charged on personalty only. It is payable only where the person on whose death the property Through Livingston, Legare was appointed American See also:charge d'affaires at See also:Brussels, where from 1833 to 1836 he perfected himself in civil law and in the See also:German commentaries on civil law. In 1837-1839, as a See also:Union Democrat, he was a member of the See also:national See also:House of Representatives, and there ably opposed See also:Van Buren's See also:financial policy in spite of the See also:enthusiasm in South Carolina for the sub-See also:treasury project. He supported See also:Harrison in the presidential See also:campaign of 1840, and when the See also:cabinet was reconstructed by See also:Tyler in 1841, Legare was appointed attorney-general of the United States. On the 9th of May 1843 he was appointed secretary of state ad See also:interim, after the resignation of See also:Daniel See also:Webster. On the loth of See also:June 1843 he died suddenly at See also:Boston. His See also:great See also:work, the forcing into See also:common law of the principles of civil law, was unaccomplished; but See also:Story says " he seemed about to accomplish [it]; for his arguments before the Supreme Court were crowded with the principles of the Roman Law, wrought into the texture of the Common Law with great success." As attorney-general he argued the famous cases, the United States v. See also:Miranda, See also:Wood v. the United States, and Jewell v.

Jewell. See The Writings of Hugh Swinton Legare (2 vols., Charleston, S.C., 1846), edited by his See also:

sister, Mrs See also:Mary Bullen, who contributed a See also:biographical See also:sketch; and two articles by B. J. Ramage in The Sewanee Review, vol. x. (New See also:York, 1902).

End of Article: LEGARE, HUGH SWINTON (1797–1843)

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