STORY, josErn ( 1779-1845) . An eminent American jurist and judge, born at Marblehead, Mass. He graduated from Harvard College in 1798, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1801. For a time he gave con siderable attention to general literature and poetry. In 1804 he published The Power of Soli tude, and other poems, whieh were not favorably received. He was discouraged by this failure, which he always felt keenly, and thereafter de voted himself to law and politics. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1805 and became a leader of the Republican, or, as it was after wards called, the Democratic Party, and defended the measures of Jefferson. In 1S05 he was elected to Congress, and although he was not in sympathy with the administration, President Madison, in 1811, appointed him associate jus tice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ile was then only thirty-two years of age. In 1820. as a member of the Massachusetts Con stitutional Convention, he advocated a property basis for the Senate. In 1829 lie was appointed professor of law at Harvard, and taught law very successfully for sixteen years, at the same time serving on the Supreme Court bench. He was opposed to slavery, and was accordingly very unpopular in certain sections of the country. He presided as acting Chief Justice of the Su preme Court for some time after the death of Marshall, and probably only his attitude toward the administration prevented his selection as the permanent Chief Justice. During his long
service on the bench he decided many admiralty and patent law cases which are authority at the present time, and he shared with Chancellor Kent the distinction of molding American equity jurisprudence. He wrote the opinion in the celebrated Dartmouth College case, which has been the subject of much criticism, although recognized as an able effort. He received the degree of LL.D. from Brown in 1815, from Harvard in 1821, and from Dartmouth in 1824. He continued his labors on the bench and in the law school until his death at Cambridge in 1845. His legal writings and decisions are still frequent ly quoted in the highest courts of the United States and England. He published the follow ing legal works: Commentaries on the Lau^ of Bailments (Boston, 1832) ; Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States Con flict of Laws (1834) : Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence (1835-36) ; and works on Bills and Notes, Partnership„tgeney, and Equity Pleadings, at later dates. All of his works have gone through many editions, and are still used. See Lifc and Letters of Joseph Story, by W. W. Story (Boston, 1851).