Benjamin R. Curtis
| Benjamin Robbins Curtis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
|
In office September 22, 1851 – September 30, 1857 |
|
| Nominated by | Millard Fillmore |
| Preceded by | Levi Woodbury |
| Succeeded by | Nathan Clifford |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 4, 1809 Watertown, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died |
September 15, 1874 (aged 64) Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Political party |
Whig (Before 1854) Republican (1854–1874) |
| Education | Harvard University (BA, LLB) |
Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 – September 15, 1874) was an American attorney and United States Supreme Court Justice.
Curtis was the first and only Whig justice of the Supreme Court. He was also the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal legal degree and is 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 and is notable as one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott decision.
Benjamin Curtis was born November 4, 1809 in Watertown, Massachusetts, the son of Lois Robbins 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. At Harvard, he became a member of the Porcellian Club. 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. Practicing in that maritime city allowed Curtis to develop expertise in admiralty law, and he also became known for his familiarity with patent law.
In 1836, Curtis participated in the Massachusetts "freedom suit" of Commonwealth v. Aves on behalf of the defendant. When New Orleans resident Mary Slater went to Boston to visit her father, Thomas Aves, she brought with her a young slave girl about six years of age, named Med. While in Boston, Slater fell ill and asked her father to take care of Med until she (Slater) recovered. The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and others sought a writ of habeas corpus against Aves, contending that Med became free by virtue of her mistress' having brought her voluntarily into Massachusetts. Aves responded to the writ, answering that Med was his daughter's slave, and that he was holding Med as his daughter's agent. Curtis was one of the attorneys who argued the case on behalf of Aves.
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