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STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 970 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STORY, See also:JOSEPH (1779-1845) , See also:American jurist, was See also:born at See also:Marblehead, See also:Massachusetts, on the 18th of See also:September 1779. He graduated at Harvard in 1798, was admitted to the See also:bar at See also:Salem, See also:Mass., in 1801, and soon attained See also:eminence in his profession. He was a member of the Democratic party, and served in the Massachusetts See also:House of Representatives in 1805-18o8, and in 1810-1812 for two terms as See also:speaker, and was a representative in See also:Congress from See also:December 1808 to See also:March 18o9. In See also:November 1811, at the See also:age of See also:thirty-two, he became, by See also:President See also:Madison's See also:appointment, an See also:associate See also:justice of the See also:United States Supreme See also:Court. This position he retained. until his See also:death. Here he found his true See also:sphere of See also:work. The traditions of the American See also:people, their strong See also:prejudice for the See also:local supremacy of the states and against a centralized See also:government, had yielded reluctantly to the See also:establishment of the Federal legislative and executive in 1789. The Federal judiciary had been organized at the same See also:time, but had never grasped the full measure of its See also:powers. Soon after Story's appointment the Supreme Court began to bring out into See also:plain view the powers which the constitution had given it over See also:state courts and state legislation. The leading See also:place in this work belongs to See also:Chief Justice See also:John See also:Marshall, but Story has a very large See also:share in that remarkable See also:series of decisions and opinions, from 1812 until 1832, by which the work was accomplished. In addition to this he built up the See also:department of See also:admiralty See also:law in the United States courts; he devoted much See also:attention to See also:equity See also:jurisprudence, and rendered invaluable services to the department of patent law. In 1819 he attracted much attention by his vigorous charges to See also:grand juries, denouncing the slave See also:trade, and in 182o he was a prominent member of the Massachusetts See also:Convention called to revise the state constitution.

In 1829 he became the first Dane See also:

Professor of Law at Harvard University, and continued until his death to hold this position, See also:meeting with remarkable success as a teacher and winning the See also:affection of his students, whom he imbued with much of his own See also:enthusiasm. He died at See also:Cambridge, Mass., on the loth of September 1845. His See also:industry was unremitting, and, besides attending to his duties as an associate justice and a professor of law, he wrote many reviews and See also:magazine articles, delivered various orations on public occasions, and published a large number of See also:works on legal subjects, which won high praise on both sides of the See also:Atlantic. Among his publications are: Commentaries on the Law of Bailments (1832) ; Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (3 vols., 1833), a work of profound learning which is still the See also:standard See also:treatise on the subject; Commentaries on the Conflict of See also:Laws (1834), by many regarded as his ablest work; Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence (2 vols., 1835—1836) ; Equity Pleadings (1838) ; Law of Agency (1839) ; Law of See also:Partnership (1841); Law of Bills of See also:Exchange (1843); and Law of Promissory Notes (1845). He also edited several standard legal works. His Supreme Court decisions may be found in Cranch's, See also:Wheaton's and See also:Peters's Reports, his See also:Circuit Courts decisions in See also:Mason's, See also:Sumner's and Story's Reports. His See also:Miscellaneous Writings, first published in 1835, appeared in an enlarged edition (2 vols. in 1851). See The Lifi and Letters of Joseph Story (2 vols., See also:Boston and See also:London, 1851), by his son, W. W. Story.

End of Article: STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845)

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