United States Federal Judges Appointed by Millard Fillmore - Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Nathan K. Hall, Ogden Hoffman, JR., James McHall Jones (Paperback)

Chapters: Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Nathan K. Hall, Ogden Hoffman, Jr., James Mchall Jones, John Glenn. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 22. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 September 15, 1874) was an American attorney and United States Supreme Court Justice. He was the first justice of the Supreme Court to have a formal legal degree and the only justice to have resigned from the court over a matter of principle. He successfully acted as chief counsel for President Andrew Johnson during the first presidential impeachment trial. Benjamin Curtis was born November 4, 1809 in Watertown, Massachusetts, the son of Lois Ribbins and Benjamin Curtis, the captain of a merchant vessel. Young Curtis attended common school in Newton and beginning in 1825 Harvard College, where he won an essay writing contest in his junior year. He graduated in 1829, a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He subsequently graduated from Harvard Law School in 1831 and was admitted to the bar the following year. In 1834, he moved to Boston where he joined the law firm of Charles P Curtis Esquire. He became a Harvard Fellow in February of 1846. In 1849, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Appointed chairman of a committee to reform state judicial procedures, they presented the Massachusetts Practice Act of 1851. "It was considered a model of judicial reform and was approved by the legislature without amendment." At the time, he was viewed as a rival to Rufus Choate, and was thought to be the preeminent leader of the New England bar. He came from a politically-connected family, and had studied under Joseph Story and John Hooker Ashmun at Harvard Law School. His legal arguments were thought to be well-reasoned and persuasive. He was a Whig and in tune with their ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=675544