STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845)

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 970 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845) , American jurist, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the 18th of September 1779. He graduated at Harvard in 1798, was admitted to the bar at Salem, Mass., in 1801, and soon attained eminence in his profession. He was a member of the Democratic party, and served in the Massachusetts

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Representatives in 1805-18o8, and in 1810-1812 for two terms as speaker, and was a representative in Congress from December 1808 to March 18o9. In November 1811, at the age of thirty-two, he became, by President Madison's appointment, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. This position he retained. until his death. Here he found his true sphere of

work

WORK

. The traditions of the American people, their strong prejudice for the local supremacy of the states and against a centralized government, had yielded reluctantly to the

establishment

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement,
late
- LATE
Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

of the Federal legislative and executive in 1789. The Federal judiciary had been organized at the same time, but had never grasped the full measure of its powers. Soon after Story's appointment the Supreme Court began to bring out into plain view the powers which the constitution had given it over state courts and state legislation. The leading place in this

work

WORK

belongs to

Chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

Justice John Marshall, but Story has a very large share in that remarkable

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of decisions and opinions, from 1812 until 1832, by which the work was accomplished. In addition to this he built up the department of admiralty law in the United States courts; he devoted much attention to equity jurisprudence, and rendered invaluable services to the department of patent law. In 1819 he attracted much attention by his vigorous charges to grand juries, denouncing the slave trade, and in 182o he was a prominent member of the Massachusetts Convention called to revise the state constitution. In 1829 he became the first Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University, and continued until his death to hold this position, meeting with remarkable success as a teacher and winning the affection of his students, whom he imbued with much of his own enthusiasm. He died at

Cambridge

, Mass., on the loth of September 1845. His industry was unremitting, and, besides attending to his duties as an associate justice and a professor of law, he wrote many reviews and magazine articles, delivered various orations on public occasions, and published a large number of works on legal subjects, which won high praise on both sides of the 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 standard treatise on the subject; Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws (1834), by many regarded as his ablest work; Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence (2 vols., 18351836) ; Equity Pleadings (1838) ; Law of Agency (1839) ; Law of Partnership (1841); Law of Bills of 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,

Wheaton

WHEATON, HENRY (1785–1848)

's and Peters's Reports, his Circuit Courts decisions in Mason's, Sumner's and Story's Reports. His 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., Boston and London, 1851), by his son, W. W. Story.

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