Background
Joseph Hemphill was born on January 7, 1770 Thornbury Township, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Joseph and Ann (Wills) Hemphill. His father, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer.
(Title: Speech of Mr. Hemphill on the Missouri question : ...)
Title: Speech of Mr. Hemphill on the Missouri question : in the House of Representatives of the U. States. Author: Joseph Hemphill Publisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more. Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more. Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ SourceLibrary: Huntington Library DocumentID: SABCP04805200 CollectionID: CTRG04-B486 PublicationDate: 18200101 SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to America Notes: Ttitle from caption. Delivered Feb. 5, 1820. Cf. Annals of the Congress of the United States, 16th Congress--1st session, cols. 1114-1136. Collation: 27 p. ; 20 cm
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Joseph Hemphill was born on January 7, 1770 Thornbury Township, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Joseph and Ann (Wills) Hemphill. His father, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer.
Hemphill attended grammar school at West Chester and received the bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. He then studied law.
In 1793 Hemphill was admitted to the bar. From 1797 to 1800 he was a member of the state Assembly, where he was active in securing the final adjustment of the Wyoming controversy.
In 1800 he was elected to Congress as a Federalist. His first speech, in opposition to the repeal of the judiciary act (February 16, 1802), earned for him the title, "Single-Speech Hemphill. " Charging that the Republicans aimed at destroying the Constitution, he predicted that if the act were repealed, "it will become as much a matter of course to remove the judges as the heads of departments, and in bad times the judges would be no better than a sword in the hands of a party, to put out of the way great and obnoxious characters for pretended treasons".
In 1804 he moved to Philadelphia to continue his growing law practice. Although he was a Federalist, many of his best friends and clients were Republicans. In the Constitutionalist victory (1805) he was sent to the state legislature, where he assisted in revising the judiciary. In 1811 Governor Snyder, arch-Jacobin, appointed him first president-judge of the district court for Philadelphia City and County, an unusual tribute for those partisan times. He was recommissioned in 1817 but resigned in 1819 owing to his delicate health and weak eyes. From 1819 to 1831, except for two years, 1827-1829, Hemphill was again in Congress.
His political career ended with a term in the state Assembly, 1831-1832. Having become interested in porcelain manufacturing, after visiting European factories in 1827 he engaged in that business in Philadelphia. The enterprise failed and was soon abandoned.
He died in Philadelphia in 1842.
(Title: Speech of Mr. Hemphill on the Missouri question : ...)
Hemphill was elected as a Federalist to the Seventh Congress.
As chairman of the committee on the slave trade he attacked as unconstitutional (December 11, 1820) Missouri's discrimination against free Negroes and mulattoes, contending that the provision in the federal Constitution regarding privileges and immunities was a condition precedent and, until complied with, no state was or could be created. A report on the enormities of the slave trade, which he and Charles Fenton Mercer prepared, evoked favorable comment in England.
Hemphill married Margaret, the daughter of Robert Coleman of Lancaster, on September 11, 1806.