biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1742–98)
|
| biography:
| Judge and political thinker, born in Carskerdy, Fife, E Scotland, UK. He emigrated to the USA in 1765, and after reading law under John Dickinson he set up a practice (1768). In 1773 he began the first of his lifelong speculations in land purchases. In 1774 he distributed to members of the First Continental Congress his pamphlet, Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament, in which he rejected any authority of the British Parliament over the colonies. He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a central figure at the Constitutional Convention (1787), where he argued strongly for popular election of both houses of Congress and the President. In 1789 he became one of the first six justices of the Supreme Court. His most important decision was in Chisholm v. Georgia in which he was able to reaffirm his long-standing belief that sovereignty lay with the people of the USA, not with the state. He had continued his land speculations even as a justice, and was being threatened both by creditors and with impeachment when he died. |
|
|
