An Essay On The Slavery And Commerce Of The Human Species, Particularly The African: Translated From A Latin Dissertation Which Was Honoured With The ... Cambridge, For The Year 1785, With Additions
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Theodore Sedgwick was an American legislator, politician and jurist. He served as the fourth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and for many years served at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Background
Theodore was born on May 9, 1746 in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. His father, Benjamin Sedgwick, who kept a small store, was a great-grandson of General Robert Sedgwick. His mother, Ann (Thompson) Sedgwick, came from Wallingford, Connecticut In 1748 Benjamin Sedgwick moved to the new township of Cornwall where, when Theodore was ten, he died, leaving little property.
Education
Through the sacrifices of his older brother, Theodore entered Yale in 1761, intending to prepare for the ministry. He left before graduating because of infractions of college discipline, but in 1772 received his degree as of 1765. From divinity he soon turned to law, studying under his second cousin, Colonel Mark Hopkins, in Great Barrington, Massachussets.
Career
In Massachussets Theodore Sedgwick began practice after his admission to the Berkshire County bar in April 1766. Shortly afterward he moved to Sheffield, the next town south-ward.
He was clerk of the county convention called in 1774 to consider resistance to British taxation. Early in 1776 he became military secretary to General John Thomas, whom he accompanied on his invasion of Canada. After Thomas' death on May 30, Sedgwick gave up soldiering, but he performed valuable service in 1776-77 in getting supplies on moderate terms for the northern department of the Continental Army.
He served in the legislature as representative in 1780, 1782, 1783, 1787, 1788, and as senator in 1784 and 1785. He was speaker of the House in 1788. Meanwhile he continued practising law. In his most famous case (1783) he defended a Negro slave, Elizabeth Freeman (Mumbet), against the master from whom she had fled. Sedgwick successfully argued that slavery had been abolished in Massachusetts by the Bill of Rights of 1780, which declared all men to be "born free and equal. " The liberated negress became nurse of Sedgwick's children and died in his house.
He was a member of the Continental Congress, 1785-88. His strenuous activity in suppressing Shays's Rebellion led the insurgents to threaten his life and an unsuccessful attempt was made to attack his house. Soon afterward, he was elected to the First Congress by a majority of only seven votes. He continued as representative in the Second, Third, and Fourth congresses.
He led the opposition to Livingston's motion requiring the papers leading up to the Jay treaty, and thus helped establish the inability of the House to participate in treaty-making. On Hamilton's resignation, Sedgwick declined an offer of the secretaryship of the Treasury. On the resignation of Senator Caleb Strong in June 1796, Sedgwick was elected to the Senate, of which he was president pro tempore for a few weeks in 1798. When his term expired in 1799, he returned to the House and was speaker during the Sixth Congress, retiring in March 1801.
In 1802 he was appointed for life to the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, which at once began to show the effect of his personality and ability. His hopes of succeeding Chief Justice Dana in 1806 were disappointed by the selection of Theophilus Parsons.
He died while visiting Boston in 1813. He was a trustee of Williams College from its foundation until his death.
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Religion
While on his death bed, Sedgwick converted to Unitarianism.
Politics
Sedgwick soon became active in the struggle against Great Britain, although as late as May 1776, he was opposed to independence.
After the recognition of independence Sedgwick became a Federalist. In the Massachusetts convention of 1788 he was a prominent advocate of ratification of the Federal Constitution.
Membership
Sedgwick was a corporate member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Personality
Theodore Sedgwick was a vigorous debater. Aristocratic despite his humble origin, he was rather overbearing to common people and habitually spoke of them as Jacobins and sans-culottes, but he kept open house in Stockbridge for rich and poor alike and his relations with his children were delightful.
Accorging to Dexter, Sedgwick was of large size, "with a prepossessing face and a dignified, almost showy manner".
Connections
In 1768 Sedgwick married Eliza, daughter of Jeremiah Mason of Franklin, Connecticut, and aunt of Senator Jeremiah Mason. She died childless in 1771, of smallpox thought to have been caught from her husband when combing out his hair after he had been discharged from quarantine for the disease.
On April 17, 1774, he married Pamela, daughter of General Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington by his second wife, Abigail Williams, who was half-sister of Col. Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams College, and had been previously married to John Sergeant, missionary to the Indians. To Sedgwick's second marriage ten children were born, eight of whom attained maturity. Among these were Theodore, 1780-1839, and Catharine Maria, while later generations of Judge Sedgwick's descendants included many other persons of distinction in law and literature.
In 1807 Mrs. Sedgwick died after several attacks of insanity, attributed to her cares and trials during her husband's absence on public duty. In November 1808, much to his children's distaste, he married his third wife, Penelope, daughter of Charles Russell of Boston and Elizabeth (Vassall) Russell. She survived Sedgwick, having had no children.