Speech of Mr. Nicholson, on the Bill Received from the Senate
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Joseph Hopper Nicholson was an American jurist and congressman. He participated in the defense of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 he then served as chief justice of the sixth judicial district of Maryland and as associate justice of the court of appeals from March 26, 1806 until the time of his death.
Background
Joseph Hopper Nicholson was born on May 15, 1770 in Chestertown, Maryland, United States. He was the second child of Joseph Nicholson, Jr. , and Elizabeth (Hopper) Nicholson, and a nephew of James and Samuel Nicholson. Colonel Joseph Nicholson, his grandfather, was high sheriff of Kent County, and for many years colonel of the county militia. Joseph Nicholson, Jr. , was a member of the council of safety, or committee of observation, which shared in the government of Maryland in 1776-77.
Education
Joseph Nicholson, Jr. , provided his son with a good education. Nicholson studied law.
Career
Nicholson moved to Centerville, now in Queen Annes County, Maryland and rapidly became one of the prominent men in his community.
From 1796 to 1798 he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. He served in Congress from 1799 to 1806, and during the session of 1801-02 gained renown by insisting, although he was dangerously ill, upon being carried into the House for seventeen successive days, to cast his ballot in favor of Jefferson in the contest between Burr and Jefferson for the presidency.
Nicholson displayed great ability in the House and soon, with Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina and John Randolph of Roanoke, became one of its three leaders. Between Randolph and Nicholson a strong friendship developed.
On May 13, 1803, Jefferson wrote to Nicholson and suggested that he take the necessary steps to arrange for the impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase; but Nicholson was a candidate for Chase's office, which, it appears to have been well understood, he was to receive if Chase was impeached. Accordingly at a hint from Macon that no candidate for the judge's office should be the leader in the proceedings, he passed the President's charge to Randolph.
When the governor and council first offered him a position as associate judge of the second judicial district of Maryland, which carried with it a salary of $1400 a year, he declined the offer, but when in March 1806 he was offered the chief judgeship of the sixth judicial district at $2200 a year, he accepted it. His letter of resignation was read to the House on April 9, 1806, by the speaker. At once Randolph wrote him: "I was not in the House when your letter to the speaker was read but I got it from Beckly and paid it the willing tribute of my tears. God bless you, Nicholson".
Nicholson served as a judge of the Maryland court of appeals from 1806 until his death in 1817. In one of the earliest cases over which he presided he stated that "he had uniformly been of opinion, that it was improper for the court in the last resort, to assign their reasons for the final judgment. In the inferior court it was proper that they should give the reasons of their decision, because it afforded counsel an opportunity, when they came before the court of appeals, to show the fallacy of the reasoning of the court below, if it was fallacious. He had therefore, on this account, always given the reasons of the court in which he presided. But here there was no necessity of that kind, because the decision of the court of appeals became the law of the land, whether that or their reasoning was or was not correct; and where the reasoning was bad, it was too often blended with the decision of the court, and considered likewise as the law". He deviated from this rule in only two or three instances and his longest opinion does not exceed a page and a half.
As a circuit judge, however, he wrote full-length opinions, which reveal the ability for which he was so highly regarded by the bar and the public.
His death was sudden; the mayor and city council of Baltimore attended his funeral in a body and the bar and judges of the court of appeals resolved to wear crepe in his honor until the end of the court's session. He was buried at "Wye House. "
Achievements
In 1805 the governor and council of Maryland unanimously chose Nicholson as fiscal agent to sell English funds held by the state and to reinvest the proceeds in American securities.
He was the first president of the important Commercial and Farmers' Bank of Baltimore, and during the War of 1812 raised at his own expense and commanded a company of artillery. He was present at the battles of Bladensburg and Fort McHenry.
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Politics
Nicholson, who acted as the right-hand man for his friend John Randolph in the affairs of the House, shared many of his burdens, such as the conduct of the impeachment proceedings against Judge John Pickering, 1737-1805.
Nicholson sponsored many important measures in the House and his position was such that even Jefferson, according to Henry Adams, "was glad to conciliate Joseph Nicholson, next to Randolph, the most formidable 'old Republican' in public life".
Connections
When Joseph was twenty-three years old he married (October 10, 1793) Rebecca Lloyd, the attractive second daughter of Colonel Edward Lloyd, 1744-1796, of "Wye House, " near Easton, Maryland, and of the Chase House, in Annapolis.
