LEGARE, HUGH SWINTON American lawyer and statesman, was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 2, 1797. Before he was five he developed a permanent deformity (by which the growth and development of his legs was arrested) due to vaccine poisoning. In 1814 he graduated at the College of South Carolina. He studied law for three years in South Carolina, and then spent two years abroad, studying French and Italian in Paris and jurisprudence at Edinburgh. In 1820-22 and in 1824 30 he was a member of the South Carolina legislature. In 1827, with Stephen Elliott (1771-183o), the naturalist, he founded the Southern Review, of which he was the sole editor after Elliott's death until 1834, when it was discontinued. In 183o-32 he was attorney-general of South Carolina, and, although a State's rights man, he strongly opposed nullification. At an appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court, his knowledge of civil law so strongly impressed Edward Livingston, the secretary of State, that he urged Legare to devote himself to the study of this subject with the hope that he might influence American law toward the phi losophy and even the forms and processes of Roman jurisprudence.
Through Livingston, Legare was appointed American charge d'affaires at Brussels, where he perfected himself in civil law and the German commentaries on civil law. In 1837-39, as a Union Democrat, he was a member of the National House of Repre sentatives, and there ably opposed Van Buren's financial policy in spite of the enthusiasm in South Carolina for the subtreasury project. He supported Harrison in the presidential campaign of 1840, and when the cabinet was reconstructed by Tyler in 1841, Legare was appointed attorney-general of the United States. On May 9,1843, he was appointed secretary of State ad interim, of ter the resignation of Daniel Webster. On June 20, 1843, he died sud denly at Boston. As attorney-general he argued the famous cases, The United States v. Miranda, Wood v. The United States, and Jewell v. Jewell.